Page 24 of The Autumn Prince

Incendis cleared his throat. “The journey should take us two days.”

“Oh, okay. Can I get a bag so I can pack?”

“They’ll come in and pack once we’re finished.”

I gave him a look. “Incendis, are there people waiting in the hallway?”

I watched realization dawn on him before he got up and went to the door. “Please come in and do what you need to now,” he said and held the door open while a woman and two men carrying a trunk entered.

Incendis came back to the table and sat down again without looking at me, but I could tell he knew I’d smiled and wiggled in my seat, happy that he wasn’t being such a prick.

It wasn’t like they interrupted anything. While the woman bustled about gathering my things together, she and the waiting men seemed to ignore us completely. Part of me wanted to just handle it myself, but I knew that was these peoples’ jobs and to stop them might be insulting. So I finished my breakfast as Incendis told me about traveling.

“We’ll have tents for sleeping, simpler meals, and may need to stop if storms make it too dangerous to remain on the road. The drivers will know more about that.”

The current storm had moved on while I’d been in the bath. “So a bunch of people will go with us?”

“Yes. Oh, would you prefer we go alone?”

“Would you?”

“I…hadn’t thought of that.”

I watched him think about it now, sipping his tea and staring out the window behind me. Maybe this was just how princes traveled—which it seemed to be—but the castle ruins and visiting what amounted to a grave could be something to keep more private.

Eventually, Incendis shook his head. “We could take my unicorn and be there in under an hour, but I think I’d rather take our time getting there and back.”

The look he gave me—little smile, blush, a twinkle to his eyes—made me think he just might want to take our time so we could have nothing more to do than hang out together. I grinned at him and nodded, perfectly okay with getting to know him better on a camping trip.

Which reminded me of how I’d been on such a trip with my friends when all of us fell through the fairy ring.

“Incendis, do you think it’s possible that my friends have landed in different courts? Knowing what we know about the curse and all that?”

He paused in taking another sip of tea and set his cup down. “If all of them went through as you did, then I think it’s very possible that’s what’s happened.”

I was glad for that. If we— When we broke the curse, we would all be able to reunite. And then, instead of trying to convince them of what had happened to me and them thinking I was nuts, they’d know everything was real and true. Now I wondered which of my friends had gotten which prince and how they were handling them.

He chuckled a little. “I’m quite hopeful that your friends are as determined and strong-willed as you are so that they can handle my brothers.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” I said with a wicked laugh. “They’re kind and considerate, but absolutely stubborn and bull-headed, too. The princes won’t stand a chance.”

With breakfast done, Incendis made me put on a jacket that matched my pants before we followed the men carrying my trunk down to the waiting carriage. I understood what entourage meant when I realized that three other carriages and maybe twenty knights on horseback were lined up and waiting to go with us. If this was normal, no wonder Incendis had never considered going anywhere alone.

I climbed into the carriage for us and found Love in the Loaves waiting on the bench seat. I picked up the book and showed it to Incendis as he sat down and someone closed the carriage door. “Did you do this?” I asked him with a smile.

He shook his head, and then we stared at each other. I knew he was thinking the same thing as me—had Lars left it? If he had, that was about the sweetest thing he’d done yet.

“Will you read it to me?” Incendis all but whispered.

As the carriage gave a little lurch forward, I settled in and used the book’s ribbon to open to where we’d left off on Incendis’s forced relaxation day.

“Today,” I read, “Liandra was going to try sticky buns. That man couldn’t possibly miss what it meant when a woman licked frosting from her own finger, let alone his…”

Chapter 10

Igot out of the carriage that evening with swollen lips, but I was pretty sure no one noticed since Incendis followed after me and stumbled down the single step to the ground. I made his knees weak. And it turned out that traveling by carriage wasn’t so bad as long as I had things to do. Like a recently unvirginized prince.

“As soon as they get the tent up,” he whispered in my ear, “you’re mine.”