Page 85 of The Stallion & The Tigress
Tears spilled from eyes squeezed tight as shehugged him back, and when she opened them again, they focused onAleksi, who stood dumbfounded.Anya broke the embrace first,stepping back and gazing at Aleksi with a tremulous smile.
“My son,” his father said, his voicequavering for the first time in Aleksi’s memory.“Meet yourmother.”
Sahar left the dining hall not long afterAleksi and Maksimillian had gone to the kitchens.She’d fledstraight to her bed where she had tossed and turned most of thenight and paced her chambers the rest of it, finally falling asleepclose to dawn and not waking until noon when she groggily stumbledout from her bed chambers into her common room.
“Have you heard, mistress?”Safa said asSahar lay down on a sofa, her head pounding and her tongue thick inher dry mouth.“Princess Anastasia and her prince have packed upand left, the Ox has taken back his threat of a war, and KingMaksimillian and Anya, the head cook, are to be married, here,before they leave for their homeland in three days’ time.Ursulawill be married once they return.”
“Married?”Sahar was not sure she had heardSafa right.The woman could speak as fast as a bird twittered.“Anya and Maksimillian?”
Safa grinned and offered Sahar a wet clothfor her forehead.“It turns out that Anya and Maksimillian werelovers when she was a kitchen maid in his palace.She’s Aleksandr’smother.”
Sahar dropped the wet cloth and her jaw.“Aleksandr’s mother?”
Safa picked up the cloth and rinsed it andhanded it back to her.“Arman is Aleksandr’s half-brother and willbe returning with them as well.”
Sahar laid the cloth over her face, as muchto hide her warring emotions as to cool her aching head.She washappy for Aleksi.Truly.He’d gained a father, a mother, a brother,and a wife in the last three days, as well as a string of primebroodmares for his personal stables, which would not only rival aking’s, but be a king’s.He had gotten everything he had wanted,and more.
So had she.She had proved herself equal toor better than any man on a horse.She had discovered her ownstrength and courage.She had proved she had no need for a husbandor a man.
But she wanted one.
She wanted Aleksi.She wanted him so badlythat she actually ached.She ached so deep inside that she thoughtsurely it must be her soul grieving.She’d lost her chance.Hewould marry Ursula upon his triumphant return to his home.
“They leave in three days’ time?”shewhimpered from under her cloth.
“King Maksimillian’s wedding is to be dayafter tomorrow,” Safa’s disembodied voice came at Sahar.“They willall leave the day after.”
Sahar strangled a wail that was startingsomewhere in her belly trying to claw its way up and out of herthroat.“Will you bring some bread and cheese to my chambers,Safa?”Sahar asked when she could speak again, intending to avoidthe kitchens and Ursula for the next three days.If Sahar came faceto face with Aleksi’s betrothed, there was no telling what shewould do: scratch the lucky woman’s eyes out, or crumple into apitiable, mewling heap at her feet.“Wrapped, please, so that I canpack it in my saddle bag.”
“You’re going riding, mistress?The sky hasbeen threatening rain all morning.”
Sahar tossed the cloth and slowly rose to herfeet.“I need air.”A little rain, or even a sleeting downpourcouldn’t dampen her spirits any more than they already were.
Throwing her otter cloak over her shouldersand trying not to think of how many nights it covered her andAleksi on their bedrolls, she snuck out of the palace and to thestables.She stopped outside of Zolotoy’s stall when she heardAleksi’s voice coming from the antechamber attached to thestall.
“So, my little Kiska,” she heard him say,“you’ll be moving to the stable master’s quarters today.Mynewfound brother, Arman, will be returning to my homeland with us.”He laughed softly.“Who would’ve thought that by traveling to thiscity, I’ve reconciled with my father, found my mother and brother,become a prince and heir to a throne, and found and lost mytigress.”
Sahar stood rooted to the spot.
“Ratter will be coming for you sometime thisafternoon,” he told the kitten.“I’ll be busy with my parents’wedding tomorrow, and packing everything and everybody up for ourjourney home the day after.This is likely our goodbye, my littleKiska.May you have a long, happy life catching mice and keepingRatter’s feet warm.”
Sahar stepped back from the gate as Aleksicame out of the antechamber and laid a blanket over Z’s back.“Restup, Z,” he told the stallion.“We have a long trek ahead of us.Come spring, you and my new broodmares will get busy makingbabies.”He patted the stallion’s rump.“I would’ve liked to see afoal out of you and Lasair.It would’ve been a beauty with yourstrength and her speed.I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
He shut the stall’s gate behind him and Saharstepped forward.Without a word, she strode straight into his arms,wrapped her hands around his neck and kissed him as if she hadnever kissed him before, and never would again.
She ended the kiss as abruptly as she’dstarted it.
“Goodbye, Aleksi.”
CHAPTER 19
Everything
Sahar stood on the palace steps alongside herbrother as her father and mother said their goodbyes to KingMaksimillian and his bride, Anya.
“I am glad for you, my friend,” her fathersaid, clasping Maksimillian’s arm, “even if you have taken my bestcook and stable hand.”
“Thank you, Asad, for watching over my son,and my love.If it were not for you, I fear they would’ve been lostto me forever.”
