Chapter Seventeen

 

Genevieve

When Genevieve awoke the sun was shining in her face and Julian was nowhere to be seen. She sat up stock straight, immediately alert, only for the man himself to enter through the door carrying a tray of food.

“Morning,” Julian said, smiling slightly when he saw that Evie was no longer sleeping. She blushed and pulled up the bedsheets to cover her chest when she realised she was completely exposed. Julian merely laughed. “I saw a lot more of you last night. There’s no need to be embarrassed.”

Evie took the cup of water he handed her with a nod of thanks. “Everything is different in the light of day,” she said, glancing out of the window to the morning bustle of Willow down below.

Julian stiffened. “Are you saying you regret what happened?”

“No!” she exclaimed, quick to correct him. “No. Absolutely not. But, you know, in daylight people look different, and alcohol changes things, and –”

Evie’s ramblings were cut off when Julian collapsed beside her on the bed and pressed his lips to hers. His blue eyes glittered in the sunlight. “Are you worried that I might have regretted what happened?”

She look away, blushing furiously. “Maybe.”

“I don’t do anything that I’ll regret later. I might make mistakes, or have to do things I don’t want to, but I never regret them. What’s the point?”

“Oh, so what happened last night could still be considered a mistake?”

Julian gave her a level stare. “I don’t think that. You don’t think that either. I think your nerves are getting the better of you, you ridiculous woman.”

“I’m not ridiculous.”

“Any person whose hair is eight feet long is ridiculous. It’s a known fact.”

Evie snickered at the comment despite herself. When Julian proffered her a bread roll she took it, though she had no appetite. She was nervous, after all. Today was the day: the day she was to be reunited with her family, took her place as princess and finally found out what had happened that resulted in her being sent to live in isolation for twelve years.

She gulped. “Julian, I –”

“Don’t talk,” he said, before gently placing his fingertips to Evie’s scalp and turning her head slightly away from him. “Just eat, and I’ll fix your gigantic bird’s nest of hair.”

“It’s not my fault it’s such a mess,” she muttered.

“I’d say we’re jointly to blame. Now sit still.”

And so Evie forced herself to eat whilst Julian reignited the enchantment on her hair he’d so eagerly unravelled the night before. She almost didn’t want him to; it felt like he was eliminating the most obvious sign that, even if it was for but a few hours, Evie had been his.

She sighed, then frowned when she noticed there were no clothes lying on the floor. Julian was wearing his, looking just as heart-stoppingly handsome in the daylight as he had done in the darkness. “Where’s my dress?” Evie asked, glancing behind her at Julian when he let go of her head.

“I folded it away,” he explained. “I packed all of your belongings up for you an hour or so ago, since you’re so inept at it.”

“I don’t have magic to make all my clothes neat and tidy!”

“Do you honestly believe I use my powers for something so frivolous?”

Evie hesitated. “…yes?”

“On this one and only occasion you would be correct,” he chuckled. “That blue dress was too large to fit in your bag, so I worked a spell into it so it could carry more. Now go back to your room and get dressed.”

“I…do we really have to rush so quickly to the palace?” Evie asked, eyes downcast. She wasn’t ready for this, even though it was all she’d ever wanted from the moment she was locked in the tower. But after experiencing what it was like to be an adult – to be free and happy and together with people instead of alone – Evie had to wonder if what she wanted had changed.

Julian kissed the top of her head. “I thought we might take a walk through the park first, then find somewhere to have lunch. Unless you’d rather not?”

“No, I’d love that!”

Pleased by the way Evie lit up at the idea, Julian held her hands and helped her from the bed. His eyes roved down her naked body, and he frowned slightly before looking away.

“I’ll go get your dress for you,” he mumbled. Evie thought she could see Julian’s cheeks beginning to flush as he stalked out of the room, and her heart leapt.

If I ever doubted he was attracted to me before, I don’t now.

When Julian returned he was holding the elaborate cream gown embroidered with golden flowers that Evie had bought for today. The sleeves hung long and loose and translucent from her shoulders, and the skirt whispered along the floor. The tailor had wanted Evie to buy a hoop skirt but the sheer size of them, as well as the difficulty in wearing one, meant she had declined.

“You look like a princess,” Julian said after he finished helping Evie button up the back of the dress. His tone was almost reverent; something about it unsettled her. But Evie waved away her concerns when he held out an arm, and she gladly took it. “Shall we pretend we’re pompous aristocrats for the morning?”

Evie’s lips quirked. “Isn’t that technically what we both are?”

“Our families are. We’re simply their no-good children benefiting from the wealth they amassed.”

“Well if that’s the case,” she laughed, “then lead on, Julian.”

*

Two hours later and Evie’s stomach was rumbling loudly. Julian rolled his eyes as they wound their way through the park, though he stopped walking when they reached the midway point of a thick, ancient wooden bridge crossing the narrow point of a lake. Above them a massive, sweeping willow tree provided partial shade from the heat of the summer sun. Its leaves brushed across the top of Evie’s hair, tickling her scalp.

“Are you wanting to eat?” Julian asked, sliding an arm around Evie’s waist when a pair of well-dressed woman spied him from afar. It sent a small shiver of pleasure running down her spine to know that he was telling them he was hers, even if that would only remain true for another few hours.

She looked up at Julian, enthralled by the way the willow tree cast alternating strips of shadow and light rippling across his face. It was almost magical. “I can wait,” Evie smiled, “if it means we get to spend a little longer here.”

When Julian returned her smile it made her heart ache. Did she really have to say goodbye to him today? What was the protocol for princesses marrying wizards? Could she choose who she married?

Stop getting ahead of yourself, Evie, she scolded. Who was she to be thinking of marriage – least of all with Julian – when she didn’t even know what kind of welcome awaited her at the palace?

“Evie, I have a confession to make,” Julian said, starkly bringing her out of her thoughts. There was something about the expression on his face that both excited and scared her.

Evie brushed her fingers against his arm. “What kind of confession?”

“I –”

“Do not take her to the palace!”

Evie didn’t immediately turn to see who had interrupted her conversation with Julian. Rather, she watched in growing concern as Julian’s irises began to glow, and his hands clenched into fists by his sides.

“I told you to leave us alone, old man,” he muttered.

“You think I can allow my daughter to walk right into a trap?!”

It was this comment that made Evie turn, and when she did her heart stopped for an achingly long moment.

“Uncle…?” she whispered, barely able to comprehend the sight of the man standing before her. He was greying at the temples where his hair had once been golden, and his face was far more lined that Evie remembered it being, but it was her uncle Francis nonetheless.

He called me his –

“Julian, what’s going on?” she asked, alternating between glancing at him and her uncle. “You know my uncle? What’s –”

“Genevieve, please,” Francis pleaded. “There isn’t time. You must get away from Willow as fast as you can.”

“Why did you call me your daughter? What’s going on? Why must I leave?”

Francis glared at Julian. “If you had taken her away when I asked you to there would be all the time in the world to explain everything to her!”

Evie frowned. “Julian, what is he saying? What do you know that I don’t?”

The wizard was agitated and angry. He took hold of Evie’s hand, insistently pulling her closer to him. “I’m not taking her to the palace but nor am I letting you or the rest of your family near her.”

“Wait, what?!” Evie tried to yank her hand away from Julian’s and failed; he was too strong. She turned to her uncle. “What’s going on here? Someone explain it to me now.”

Francis took a step towards her. “Genevieve, the king is not your father. Your mother and I – we – we loved each other for a long time. We hadn’t meant for things to end up like this. We –”

“No,” Evie mouthed. She didn’t want to believe what she was hearing. If the king was not her father, and the king had found out, then…

I was sent to the tower because I’m not his daughter. I thought he loved me, like I loved him.

“It’s true,” her uncle said, shaking his head miserably. “I wish you weren’t finding out like this. But my brother is looking for you; he’s been looking for you since you disappeared from the tower. If you go to him now nothing good will come of it.”

Evie’s eyes darted towards Julian, whose face bore an agonised expression. “And you…knew? You knew this whole time yet you didn’t tell me? Even though it was about me? And now you’re saying you were never going to take me to the palace anyway? So why are we here? Why –”

“Evie, let me explain –”

“No!” she cried, and this time she managed to wrench herself away from Julian. “No. I don’t want to hear it.” She looked at her uncle. “Both of you could have told me the truth whenever you wanted. You could have kept me involved so I didn’t feel so in the dark about my own life.” Evie laughed bitterly. “Here I was longing for answers and you had them. You just didn’t want to give them to me.”

“Evie –”

“Genevieve –”

She ran from both Julian and her uncle. Blinded by tears, barely comprehending where she was going, and not caring if they were following, she ran. Concerned bystanders held out their hands as if to help but Evie ran past them all, too. It was too much. She couldn’t trust anyone.

Julian had lied to her for god knows how long, and yet she had trusted him anyway because she had nobody else to trust.

I was a fool. A hopeless, naïve fool.

When Evie crashed into the broad chest of a stranger she stumbled back and stuttered her apologies. She didn’t expect him to grab her arm in a crushing grip. “Please, sir, I didn’t mean to hit you,” she babbled wildly. When Evie looked up she realised the man was a soldier.

“I’m here to escort you to the palace, Princess Genevieve,” he said, face flat and impassive in a way only a soldier’s could be.

“I – I don’t want to –”

His grip tightened. “That wasn’t a request.”

Upon looking around Evie realised there were at least five additional soldiers of a lower rank than the one holding her, as well as a man in fine clothing who was looking around for something – or someone.

“Thorne is close by,” he said. “I can feel his magic.”

Evie felt her insides turn to ice. Thorne? Wasn’t that the name people called the wizard who worked for my father – the king? Just how involved is Julian in what happened to me?

“Leave him for now,” the man whose hand was crushing Evie’s forearm ordered. “We have the princess; we don’t need him.”

Evie numbly allowed the soldiers to escort her to the palace, though it was now the last place on earth that she wanted to go to. All she could think about was what Julian had told her that night in the tent, when Evie realised she’d fallen for him.

She’d known him well enough, he’d said. Well enough.

For Julian, ‘well enough’ meant Evie had known him precisely not at all.