“Where will they take him now?” I asked Etienne.
“He’ll be buried here. I guess they’ll take the casket to a waiting room and do that when it’s family only. His heart will be buried elsewhere.”
I blinked and looked at Etienne. “What?”
“His heart. His organs were . . . ” He paused, frowning at me. “You didn’t learn this in school?”
“I went to boarding school in Connecticut. I learned about the Revolutionary War and Rosa Parks.”
“I know about the Revolutionary War and Rosa Parks.” He rolled his eyes. “Leave it to America to only teach about American history.”
“Will you just tell me about this heart thing?”
“All the kings have their organs taken out. Their hearts are buried wherever their wills state, but it’s always in a place important to them. It’s a way for them to make their political mark in the land.”
“With their hearts?” I felt my brows pull. “Why couldn’t they just have a sculpture made or something?”
“They do, but this is different.”
“So all of them have done that?”
“Not all, but I know he chose to.”
“How do you know?” I met Etienne’s eyes again. He smiled and brought up his hand, waving something in it.
“Because it’s in the pamphlet as well as everything else I recited.” He cocked his head. “Do you really think I paid that much attention in history class?”
“Probably just enough to annoy people with tidbits of knowledge.” I took the pamphlet from his hand.
Afterward, we went to the palace. I didn’t want to go, but Etienne insisted, and I knew Joslyn would be there so that gave me the push I needed. I hadn’t expected to see Emily, the Princess of Austria there, but there she was in all her pretty glory. She said hello to Etienne, and since I was beside him, to me as well. It was the first time we’d really spoken at all directly to each other. As she shook hands with Etienne, I stared at the ring on her finger and focused on not reacting.
“Everything has happened so fast, I don’t think we got a chance to formally meet,” she said to me. “I’m Emily.”
“Adeline.” I shook hands with her.
“I heard you’ll be planning the wedding.” She smiled. She said the wedding, not our wedding.
“Do you plan to be involved?” I asked.
“I’m not sure I can or should be. The queen knows what she’s doing. I’m sure everything will be handled.”
“But it’s your wedding,” Etienne said. “Surely you can’t be the only woman on the planet who doesn’t care much about a wedding.”
“Well, I guess I am. I’ve never given it much thought.” She shrugged, still smiling. “I figure it’ll be grand and beautiful regardless of my input. I’ll see you two around.”
“Admit it, you think she’s nice,” Etienne said.
“She is nice, but I still don’t like her. That’s allowed, right?”
“Hey,” Joss said as she came up to us.
“Where have you been?” I asked, giving her a tight sideways hug before she moved on to Etienne.
“Around. With Pilar. She’s sad, poor thing.”
“They all seem pretty put together,” I said. “I haven’t seen the queen.”
“She’s as stoic as the rest of them right now, but they’re all sad.”
“Maybe they should show it a little,” I whispered. “Wouldn’t that be good? For the people?”
“That’s not like them, you know that. They show as much as they absolutely need to and that’s not much at all.” She shrugged, then brought a hand up to twirl one of the ends of my hair that had lost its curl already. “How are you doing? Things have been so crazy I haven’t even run into you at home.”
“You’ve been here most of the time,” I reminded her.
“I was in our flat on Wednesday and you weren’t there at all.”
“I was running errands with my mother. Wednesday is only one day of the week you know.”
“I’ve been sorting things with Pilar’s current secretary.”
“Right.” My jaw clenched tightly. I didn’t want to discuss the fact that I would be losing her to the Crown as well. Not now.
“Have you spoken to him?” Joss asked after a moment.
I looked up quickly, and the moment I did, my gaze landed on Elias and I found that he was looking right at me. I felt my cheeks warm as I forced myself to look away.
“I haven’t. Not today. I should pay my respects though. To all of them,” I said, raising an eyebrow so they knew I didn’t just mean him.
Etienne grabbed my hand and started leading me in that direction. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to call my bluff or just walking over to pay his own respects, but I wanted to slap him for forcing me into this. I needed another hour or five years to get into the headspace of seeing Elias in public. Everything was fine when it was just him and me, but having people around us hadn’t been our thing. For many reasons, starting with the fact that there was a photographer in our face as I reached him and Aramis. I shook Aramis’s hand first and as I expressed my condolences, the only thing I heard was the snap, snap, snap of the camera. When I reached Elias, I did the same thing, shook his hand, but my insides became jelly and warmth spread through my entire body. I knew it would show on my face. Snap, snap, snap again. I ignored it though and kept my gaze on Elias as he leaned in. He brought his mouth to my ear.