Page 84 of Fit for a King

The room began to tilt, and I grabbed on to the edge of the counter to steady myself as she rushed over.

“I told him you needed to be more careful.”

“What?” Horror flooded my veins as I met her gaze. “You told the king?”

“People are talking. He had a right to know.”

Fuck. It was too much. I closed my eyes as another wave of dizziness sent my world off-kilter.

People were talking. They knew about the king and me. How? What did they know? Why hadn’t I heard anything?

Or…hadn’t I? All the whispers that stopped when I walked by, the looks I thought I was imagining… Nicholas hadn’t been as subtle as I would’ve liked on the tour, but…how much did they know?

“What…what did he say?” I asked, my voice coming out thick. I was surprised I could even speak.

“That he didn’t want you hurt.”

The words settled like a stone in my chest, and I wondered what it meant for us now.

I couldn’t think about it. I didn’t want to know.

Fear and nervousness and a deep ache I couldn’t put words to were all I could feel as I nodded absently at Violet.

Swallowing hard, I turned for the door. “Thank you for returning my glove.”

“Noah, I won’t say anything.”

I paused with my hand on the knob but didn’t turn back to face her. I couldn’t look her in the eyes. “Thank you, Violet.”

Everything was a blur as I tried to focus on doing my job and not being completely aware of every person I passed and wondering what they thought of me, what they knew, what they were talking about when I wasn’t around.

I tried not to think about what was going through Nicholas’s mind. Whether he was upset. Mad. Terrified. Freaking out the way I obviously was.

By the time I’d carried the breakfast tray upstairs, I thought I had some semblance of what I could possibly say to him when I saw him, if we happened to be alone—but when the door opened, Reynolds stood there in full livery and with a blank expression.

For a second, I just stared at him, surprised to see him.

“Mr. Bennett,” he said.

I looked past him into the sitting room, where the curtains had already been drawn back and the breakfast table arranged, with the morning papers waiting beside the king’s chair.

But…that was my job.

“Mr. Reynolds,” I said, trying to sound as unaffected as possible. “I brought the tray.”

I started to walk past him, but he moved in front of me and took the tray off my hands. “Thank you. His Majesty asked that I attend to him this morning.”

Shock registered, and I was sure he could see it before I schooled my face.

“Oh. Of course.”

Reynolds nodded, then stepped back and closed the door.

Right in my face.

I stood there for a long moment, wondering if I’d just imagined that. It wasn’t until the guard positioned nearby cleared his throat that I startled and headed back downstairs.

That was how the rest of the day went. One closed door after another.