One about to be fed to a dragon…
“You are beautiful,” Maris said as he fussed with the back of her hair, fluffing out the fat curls he’d made.
“I’ve never felt beautiful.” And she definitely wasn’t the kind of woman who turned men’s heads when she entered a room. Their stomachs, she’d been told, was another matter.
Other than Darling, she could count her number of boyfriends on two fingers. And neither of them had stayed around for very long. One had left as soon as she refused to pay his rent. The other after he realized she had a much prettier younger sister. Sorche had sent him packing immediately, but the damage to Zarya’s ego had already been done.
Maris smiled at her in the mirror. “Don’t listen to the haters. Trust me. I’m not the kind of guy who notices women, but I can see why Darling loves you. Aside from being a sweetheart, you have hair to die for. Your eyes are unusual, but stunning, and your skin… perfection. I envy you so much.”
The last part surprised her. “Why?”
“You’ve done things with Darling that I’ve only dreamed about. I would give absolutely anything to have one night in his arms.”
The painful regret in his voice touched her. “You really do love him, don’t you?”
His dark gaze was so sad as he closed the lid on her blush and set it back on the table. “Yes, I do. You’ve no idea how many times I’ve wished that I’d been born a woman… or that he really was gay.”
“He never experimented?” From what she’d heard about the men of the ruling class, they were indiscriminate about their lovers’ genders.
A shadow of inner turmoil darkened his eyes.
Even though she hadn’t known Maris long, she’d learned to fear that expression and what it usually signified. “What?”
Maris moved away from her.
Zarya got up and went to him. She knew from his reaction that it had to be bad. Still, if it was about Darling, she needed to know before she went in there to face him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Tears glistened in his eyes. His lips quivered.
A knot formed in her stomach. How awful could it be, given what her people had done to Darling?
Maris touched a trembling hand to his lips. “I promised Darling I would never tell anyone. Sorry.”
“Did you and he…”
“No!” he said emphatically, slinging his hand downward. “Never.”
“Then please tell me, Maris. I swear I’ll never speak a word of it to another living soul. I’ll take it to my grave.”
A muscle worked in his jaw as he debated with himself. After a few heartbeats, he pinned her with a warning glower. “If you do, I swear I will kill you. I mean it. And don’t think that I can’t. I assure you, for Darling’s sake, I can and will be brutal.”
She nodded. “You have my word, and in spite of what you might think of me, I don’t break it.”
Even so, it took him several more minutes before he spoke again. “Darling was fifteen when he confessed to being gay.”
Which was all she’d ever heard about the eldest prince and his gender preferences. To her knowledge, he’d always been very open about it. “So he’s bisexual?”
Maris let out a bitter laugh. “No. Not even a little.”
“Then why would he say he was homosexual?”
By the expression on his face, she could tell he was having to force himself to continue. That rare loyalty caused her to respect him even more than she already did. Most people didn’t hesitate to betray a secret.
The majority of people she’d known in her life ran fast to be the first to reveal it. It was as if they took perverse pleasure in betraying someone’s confidence.
Maris was a rare man, and one of the best friends anyone could have. “He did it to protect his mother. You have to remember, Natale was only a baby when Darling was born. Widowed in her mid-twenties, she was extremely lonely. Because of her beauty, she was used to men paying a lot of attention to her, and she loved it. Lived on it, point of fact.”
Zarya sucked her breath in sharply as she saw where this was going. “She took lovers.”
Talk about a no-no in their society.
What had his mother been thinking? It was an automatic death sentence for the governor’s widow. But then that was something Zarya complained about all the time with most women her age. Way too many of them lacked good sense, especially where men were concerned.
Maris nodded. “Foolishly, she got caught… or rather her lover was found on his way out of the palace. To save her life and to keep Natale from being arrested, Darling said her boyfriend was his, and that her lover had been leaving his room.”
“But he wasn’t.”