Page 55 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
Francois’s arm had to be aching as much as his own. Felipe’s grip was slippery with sweat and he was breathing as though he’d been running for miles, but he drew on the well of endurance that had brought Claudine to his island.Herlife and the life of their baby depended on this.
He continued to push Francois with inexorable purpose, until his brother turned his ankle and fell onto his back.
Francois thrust his sword up to defend himself, slashing pain across Felipe’s hip, but Felipe parried and lunged forward, standing on his brother’s arm until the sword clattered to the cobblestones.
He held Francois on his back with the point of his blade against Francois’s throat.
“Felipe!” his mother screamed.
“Renounce your claim to the throne,” Felipe demanded.
Francois slid his gaze past Felipe.
In his periphery, Felipe saw his mother’s blue-gray skirt and his father’s pin-striped trousers.
“Enzo,please,” their mother begged.
“You are not fit to wear the crown.” Felipe didn’t step off his brother. He gave him another pinprick under his jaw. “Admit it. Renounce your claim. Say it loudly enough for everyone in this courtyard to hear it. Swear it to our king and queen.”
“Padre,” Francois beseeched, begging for mercy.
“I have no reason to spare his life,” Felipe said heavily to their father. “He will only keep challenging me for the throne, we all know that. It ends here. You decide how.”
“Don’t kill him.” Enzo touched his arm and sighed heavily. “I will abdicate the throne to you.”
“As King, I will see that he faces the charges leveled against him,” Felipe said clearly.
“As King, you may do as you see fit.” Their father sounded infinitely weary, but relieved. “You may acknowledge Francois after this,” he said to the Queen, “but I never will. Francois is no longer welcome in the palace,” he called out to the palace guards. “He is no longer my son. Remove him and never grant him entry again.”
It was a pronouncement as brutally harsh as their father had always been. Felipe’s only pity was for the children who had once looked to that man as a guiding light only to find he was ruled by power and duty and not one iota of heart.
“Take his sword,” Felipe said to Vinicio, not trusting Francois for even one second.
Vinicio quickly picked it up from the cobblestones.
Felipe remained armed even while Francois was escorted to his car.
The Queen followed her favorite son, crying, “I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry.”
Felipe watched his mother ignore that he was equally exhausted and covered in cuts that bled freely, staining his clothes. She didn’t once look back at him.
He sheathed his sword, keeping it as he went to his helicopter.
He flew back to Sentinella alone.
“You should have watched with me,” Ann-Marie said.
“Watched what?” Claudine looked up from sweeping flower petals off the path down to the helicopter pad where they had landed shortly after Freja’s husband, Giovanni, had arranged to take her to a secure location.
This remote villa in the Italian Alps was secure all right. Claudine supposed someone could hike in, if they knew it was here, but it would take days. All the supplies were flown in and it ran on solar, but it was not the least bit rustic. It was incredibly luxurious and built to accommodate a wheelchair, suggesting it was Giovanni’s secret lair. It even had caretakers who kept urging her to relax and enjoy the nearby walking trails, but Claudine preferred to keep busy.
“The coronation ceremony,” her mother said with a lilt of exasperation.
“Oh. That.”
“That? Your husband is a king, Claudine. Enzo was there. He looks quite ill.”
“He is,” she murmured and went back to what she was doing.
