Prince of Cats - Tasha Black Page 0,31

fist locked around a lock of her hair.

By the time Ruthyr appeared with her breakfast, Piper was feeling more like herself again.

“You’re up and about early,” Ruthyr said approvingly. “Little one need you?”

“I woke up before Kieran,” Piper said, shaking her head in wonder.

“He must be resting up for the public presentation this afternoon,” Ruthyr said fondly. “Aren’t you, Your Majesty? Well your subjects have come from all over the kingdom just to have a look at you, and I don’t think they’ll be a bit disappointed with what they see.”

Kieran decided to sit up at the cheery tone in her voice.

Ruthyr smiled like she had just won a prize, and Kieran grinned back at her, milk-drunk and silly.

“So, my dear,” Ruthyr asked Piper, her eyes twinkling. “Have you tried on your gown yet?”

“No,” Piper said. “Not yet.”

“Well, it’s beautiful. And you enjoy it, love,” Ruthyr said. “It’s the only garment you’ll be wearing for some time that is in no danger of his littlest majesty soiling it.”

“What do you mean?” Piper asked.

“You get to attend as a guest,” Ruthyr said. “The queen will have charge of the wee one.”

“I see,” Piper murmured, hoping her revulsion at that notion didn’t show too clearly on her face.

“Eat your breakfast, dear, before it gets cold,” Ruthyr said hopefully, holding her hands out for the baby. “I’ll tend to His Majesty for a few minutes.”

“Thank you,” Piper said, letting Kieran go to her.

“Oh, it’s a pleasure,” Ruthyr said.

Piper picked at her breakfast as Ruthyr sang to Kieran and sailed around the room with him, pointing out every nook and cranny in the place and showing him the woods out the window.

The sun was high in the sky when there came a knock at the door.

Ruthyr dashed over with a giggling Kieran.

“We’re here to take His Majesty for a bath and dressing,” a woman’s voice said sternly. “The princess wants him to look perfect for the presentation.”

“His nurse will accompany him,” Ruthyr said, beckoning Piper.

“No,” the woman replied. “I’m under strict orders to bring him to his mother. He will return to the nursery this afternoon.”

Piper winced at the reference to Princess Wynter being Kieran’s mother. She was grateful that Ruthyr was facing the doorway.

Piper gritted her teeth and turned away, so as not to see her son being passed off to yet another woman.

“Well, dearie,” Ruthyr said happily, “you’ve just gotten yourself an hour off. Let’s get you into your gown.”

There was nothing to do but allow the other woman to help her out of an already elaborate dress, and into the gown.

Ruthyr was right, it was a beautiful thing, made of flame-colored satin that glimmered in sunlight.

But she had already decided the court wouldn’t see it.

With all that had happened, she was sure of only two things.

I will never abandon my son.

I will never lose myself to the games of the court.

She might never know whether Killian had only been pretending his feelings for her. It had all been so real to her, but he was a fae prince, bound to the court.

And even if it had been real to him, it hadn’t been real enough to change anything. He’d made that very clear in his visit last night.

So while the others went to drink wine in their finery, and celebrate the induction of her innocent son into the bonds of the court, Piper would wait in solitude, not leaving her room.

“Enchanting,” Ruthyr declared as she fastened the last button and stepped away, placing her hands on her round hips in satisfaction.

Piper gazed into the glass and hardly recognized herself.

The woman looking back at her appeared confident and determined in spite of her circumstances. Her eyes flashed with more passion than her fire-colored dress.

The sight of it cheered her slightly and she decided that rather than hiding in her room, she might go for a walk. She wasn’t sure where she would go exactly, but it was a big castle. She’d find someplace nice.

“Do you need help with your gown, Ruthyr?” Piper asked politely.

“Oh, no, dearie,” Ruthyr said. “But it’s kind of you to ask. I’d better dash along and dress. See you at the ceremony.”

Piper waited long enough to be sure she would not bump into the older woman in the corridor.

A few minutes later she emerged from her room and jogged down the hallway to the door that led to the gardens, which were the nicest place she’d visited so far.

As soon as she was out of the stuffy castle