The King’s Innocent Bride

“Thank you. I feel great.”

I take my girl’s hand in mine, wanting contact with her.

“That’s great! We can start making plans for the wedding.” My mom beams at Kate. A huff comes from Nicolette, making us all turn to look at her. The excitement leaves my mom’s face and she gives Nicolette a hard look. “I’m so sorry, Kate, that you had to meet this woman. I’m certain after today you’ll never see her again.” Nicolette’s face pales for a moment before it’s wiped away and anger returns quickly. The spoiled brat within is plain to see.

“Jesus,” John sighs, probably because he’s been dealing with this for a while and all he wants is to get home to his wife.

“Nicolette, you owe your future queen an apology.”

Her mouth falls open.

I give her a challenging look. “Make it a good one.”

“I’m sorry,” she bites out.

“And?” I add, wanting more from the brat.

“I’m sorry I lied.” No, she’s sorry it didn’t work, but I don’t say that. I just want to make it clear to Kate that this woman lied to her. And I want to show her that I have nothing to hide.

“John.” I nod at Nicolette. He comes over and grabs her by the arm. “Make sure she’s banned from here and have an order put out that she isn’t allowed within five hundred yards of my queen and me.”

“Yes, sir.” He pulls her to her feet, dragging her as she pleads for me to take it back. She swears she’ll never do it again, but I don’t care. I watch guilt wash over my sweet girl’s face.

“Don’t feel bad for her,” I tell Kate. “She got what was coming to her.” I don’t tell her I want to do worse to the woman, but I know my girl’s heart wouldn’t like that. So I did the only thing I knew would work for both of us.

“This is all my fault,” my mom tells Kate. “I should have never let her think she had a chance with my son, but I didn’t want to be cruel.”

“It’s okay,” Kate tries to reassure my mom. I know these two are going to get along. Both are so tender hearted. My dad and I will have to keep an eye on them to make sure no one tries to ever cause them harm. It’s something I’ll be honored to do. I’ve watched my dad do it over the years and know I can do the same. I want to keep her sweetness just the way it is. Even with all the cruelty she got from her uncle, it’s still all there, and I will make sure it always is.

My mom’s face softens and she kisses Kate on the cheek. “You two go have your fun. I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart.” My mom kisses me on the cheek next.

“Not too early, Mom,” I remind her, only getting an eye roll in return before she leaves. I’m lucky she hasn’t already taken off with my girl to start planning the wedding.

“Your mom’s so sweet.” I hear a note of yearning in her voice.

“She’s going to be your mom, too,” I tell her, and her face brightens at that. “You’re about to have a whole family.”

“I like the sound of that.”

I pull her into me. “And we’re going to work on making it a bigger one.” I watch her cheeks pinken. “Come, I want to show you something.” I lead her back up the stairs and out a side door, reminding myself to show her a few of the secret passageways around the castle later. I think she’ll get a kick out of that.

“Where are we going?” she asks as we walk outside and stroll down a long path that leads through the rose garden.

“It’s a surprise.” I wink at her. “It’s not all done, but I wanted you to see it.” I stop to pick one of the roses and thread it into her hair. Her smile grows even bigger, making my heart ache. When we get to the end of the path, I hear her breath catch.

She turns looking at me. “Goats?!” She is almost jumping up and down. “How?” she asks.

“I found out as much about you as I could.” I pull out a picture I have in my pocket. It came from some of the belongings my men had gotten from her uncle’s place. They found a box that was filled with pictures of Kate as a young girl. I hand her the picture.

It’s of her and her grandmother on their farm. A goat farm. From what I could gather from the pictures Kate loved the place. There were hundreds of pictures of her playing with the goats. It was adorable. I pictured our little girls doing the same.

“I wanted to give you something from your past that you loved.”