His Secret Slave to Scandalous Queen

She shook her head, but the smile remained. "I love you, Your Majesty."

Henry closed his eyes briefly. "Yes," he murmured. "Satisfying."

Then a thought returned to her.

"Will the duke be at the ball?"

"I should think so," Henry said. "If you grow uncomfortable around him," He added, "inform Lionel."

Livia turned her head slightly. "Lord Ashcroft will be coming?"

"Right." Henry sighed, as though remembering he had meant to mention the small matter of assigning one of his most trusted men to her future household. "I did not tell you. Lionel has asked to be assigned to your service permanently once you become queen."

Livia blinked. "He asked? For me?"

"For you. So," Henry continued, "I assume he has somehow pledged his life to you. Lionel does nothing lightly. If he asks to leave my immediate side and stand at yours, then some dreadful oath has been born in his chest. You must teach me what you did to him."

Livia smiled faintly. It was not right, not entirely. Lionel’s loyalty to her had come from guilt. From the knowledge of what his mistake had cost Bella.

But Henry was not the person she needed to convince tonight. So she looked ahead and allowed the river to hold her silence.

Henry’s arms tightened gently around her. "Are you worried about seeing Richard?"

"Are you?" she asked.

"I believe I asked first."

"Yes," she said quietly. "I am worried."

Henry’s face sobered. "Why?"

She took a breath. "Because I hurt him."

"You did nothing."

"That is not true."

He said nothing then, and Livia was grateful for it. She needed him to hear her, not rescue her from the discomfort of her own conscience.

She turned fully in his arms, looking up at him. "Richard has done a great deal for me. He saved me when the girls threw me from Beaumont’s rooftop. I would have died if he had not found me. He hid me. Kept me safe. Gave me an identity when my own name was too dangerous to carry. Gave me work. Gave me a life."

"I am grateful to him."

The words did not wound Henry in the way she feared they might. Or perhaps they did and he had simply learned to mask it. His eyes remained on hers.

"It is not fair that he has to suffer."

"Maybe," Henry said at last. He touched her chin and lifted her face gently. "I should bear more of that blame than you, though I refuse to carry it. Did you truly think I was going to give you up?"

There had been moments when she thought Richard’s steadiness would outlast Henry’s fire. Moments when she thought she belonged nowhere and to no one, least of all to herself.

Henry leaned closer. "I knew. That you and I had something special. We have always been beautiful together. I knew you loved me first...I knew," he insisted. "Even when you fought me. There was something between us from the first moment. What we did not have was time. That is my fault,"

Livia studied him.

"If I had brought you to the palace as soon as I caught you in that alley," he continued, "—then perhaps you would not have had to live in uncertainty for so long."

"That, my dear future husband, would have been abduction."

"My point is," Henry said, "I could not give you up because I knew we were meant to be. Livia and Henry...I knew it before I had any right to know it. I had to try...And in the process, I sold my soul to my mother. She used it against you."

Somewhere between desire and fear, Henry had given his mother room to move, and Theodora had done what Theodora always did, destroy.

Livia reached for his hand. He looked down as her fingers curled around his. She tilted her head. "Why did you not simply order me to the palace? You are king," she added. "Surely you could have done that. Not that I am advising you should have done it."

He smiled, then sighed. "You chose a duke of all people to marry. Taking a duke’s intended is not simple. Richard is not merely any duke. He is Lord Langford’s son. A man with his own influence, and claim upon honour. If I had ordered you to the palace while you were under his protection, it would have looked like tyranny."

Livia gave him a pointed look. "So that’s why Theodora had me end it myself."

"Yes, my dearest."

Livia looked away again, turning towards the river. "So are you?" she asked.

Henry’s brows drew together. "Am I what?"

"Worried about me seeing Richard?"

"No," Henry said at last. "I stopped worrying the moment you agreed to marry me. But I am worried about Richard seeing you. He is still wounded...And you, unfortunately for him, are not easy to forget."

"I do not know how to be around him."

"I believe you can handle it."

Livia breathed out. "Thank you."

"Be gentle with him, though," Henry said. "He is still fragile. The man got his heart broken by a book thief." Henry shook his head gravely. "Oh, the humiliation."

Livia laughed. It burst from her before she could stop it, shaking her body enough that Henry immediately reached to steady her.

Henry looked down at her face. He realised he had a constant smile on since the moment she walked in.

The moonlight touched her cheeks, the breeze moved through her hair.

"You’re truly beautiful," he said.

"Are you only just noticing that?" Livia asked.

"Yes, actually. Your wit steals light from my eyes every time," he said. "It is terribly distracting. It makes it difficult to notice anything else."

She laughed softly. "Look at you with the flattery."

"It is not flattery if it is true."

"Save it for the wedding night."

"Oh," he said, his voice lowering, "I am saving a great many things for the wedding night."

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