Page 16 of The Autumn Prince

That didn’t seem right. Sure, I was relying on all those super helpful rumors, but even Lars had said the curse came from someone who’d been impulsive. Incendis was so not that. Not even a little. No one who micromanaged people like this guy was spontaneous. Our failed outing was proof of that.

“I helped him.”

Okay, I was right, but also… “You helped who?”

“My father.”

“The king.”

He nodded.

“Well, everyone knows everything then because even Lars said the king did it.”

Incendis seemed to snap out of his despair as he said, “Who is this Lars person?”

“I told you. He’s one of your butlers or something like that.”

He popped up out of his chair and stomped over to the door. I heard a gasp from outside before Incendis said, “Fetch everyone named Lars who works in the castle. Put them in one of the parlors, and then come get me.” He shut the door before I could hear that poor woman’s response.

“Would it kill you to say please? And why does someone have to stand out there when you have that cord thing you used last night?” I pointed at it over by the table he’d toppled. “You know they’ll run up here for you.”

The way he stared and blinked told me he’d never considered any of that.

“It’s more efficient to have someone wait⁠—”

“Oh, bullshit. You’ve got someone ignoring every other aspect of their job—which means someone else has to pick up the slack—to stand out there with their legs going numb and their back aching on the off chance you have a need.”

Yeah, he never thought of any of that.

“See,” he said, holding a hand out to me, “this is why you’re here. I need someone to tell⁠—”

“Dude, I am not going to be your Jiminy Cricket. I swear to god that if you⁠—”

“My cricket?” He squinted at me.

“Your conscience. The right and wrong bits in your brain. If you can’t manage that by yourself already, we’re never getting together.” I crossed my arms. “I’m not interested in training you to be a decent person.”

Now I was glad I hadn’t slept with him. Too often the sex was great, and then the guy’s personality ruined any possibility of dating him. And here was a prince who cursed everyone in his entire world with his dad, and I had a feeling some of that was because neither of them had given a single thought to the little guy.

“I’m a decent person!” he said with full affront. “I admit that I didn’t see having an attendant waiting out there was an issue, but I see it now and I can change. When she returns, I’ll let her know she doesn’t have to stay there.”

Begrudgingly, I gave him that. “Okay, good. For the change, I mean, not that someone else had to point it out to you.”

“I am a decent person,” he said again but with less heat. “I’ve been working very hard these past several years to make sure my people are⁠—”

“After you cursed them.”

Whatever he’d been about to say fizzled out and he just sighed.

The door was still open, but the woman returned and knocked anyway. “Sirs,” she said when we looked at her, “Mister Danbury will assemble everyone named Lars in the back parlor as soon as two of them return from errands. That could be a couple of hours from now.”

“That’s fine,” Incendis said. “Thank you.”

“Who’s Mister Danbury?” I had to ask.

“My butler.”

“Do you only have one of those?”