Page 26 of Back to Claim His Crown
‘Fair enough,’ he said and drew in a deep breath. ‘So now what?’
Frankly, her plan was pretty nebulous and definitely required some assistance. Something she was instinctively still wary of asking him for.
‘I’m slowly working that out...’
His hard expression eased. ‘I suppose I can handle your presence a little while longer.’
‘I’m sorry. I’ve been pretty useless ’til now.’
‘I disagree, I’ve seen those boxes of books you’ve sorted already. I think you’re clever and curious. I definitely think you’re courageous. And I think you care about a lot of things. You’ll get there.’
The decisions she’d made so far hadn’t exactly been brilliant but his confidence in her was kind. Except she didn’t really want hiskindnessnow either.
‘Well.’ She looked at the table, embarrassed by her own docility for all these years. ‘The best decision I’ve made today was asking for the caramel apple tart again, right?’
The next night Lucian frowned when he got to the dining room. The dinner dishes were in place but Zara was nowhere to be seen. He listened but couldn’t hear her footsteps or chatter. Two minutes later he paused in the open doorway of the library and checked it over. Boxes of books were now neatly stacked, labelled and sorted. Yeah, not useless at all, Zara had cleared the large table and was now sitting at it in her long-sleeved black turtleneck and that long black skirt, with her long blonde hair tumbling down her back. Her face was still pale but vitality sparkled in her blue eyes as she concentrated on whatever she was writing. He couldn’t resist walking in, closing the door behind him.
‘You are late and I am hungry. You know you don’t have to spend every waking moment sorting this, it doesn’t matter if you don’t ever finish it before—’ He broke off. He didn’t like to think of her leaving.
‘I’ve actually thought of something else I could do for you,’ she said quietly.
His body leapt to attention.
‘I wondered if I could help with the palace correspondence.’
Notquitewhere his mind had gone, but she had such nervousness in her blue eyes, he needed to pay attention to her. She was sweetly earnest.
‘Have you seen all the mail filling up the purple stateroom?’ she added.
Uh, no. He hadn’t been in that stateroom in years. She stood and picked up a box from behind her and lifted it onto the table. It wasn’t full of books but cards, letters, posters, paintings even. Lucian’s chest tightened. He’d been stalling on engaging directly with the public. He’d needed to focus on the politicians first.
‘I’ve been watching the constant deliveries into the courtyard from the library window. I asked them to bring me a selection.’ She looked awkward. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Mind you reading correspondence meant for me?’ He tried to tease but his voice was suddenly rusty.
‘I thought I might be able to help you answer some.’
He stared, surprised she’d even want to.
‘I do sort of know how palaces are run,’ she muttered quickly. ‘Especially when there are limitations on staff, and your staff are really busy right now.’
He glanced down at the table and saw she’d written screeds in strong, clear script.
‘I draft my father’s letters,’ she added. ‘So I’ve written some responses to the sorts of letters you’ve been getting. A skeleton response is easy to tweak and personalise for each. They should get a reply, given they’ve taken the time to write to you.’
She was right. He quickly skimmed what she’d written. It was good.
‘Isn’t your father missing you doing this for him now?’
Colour washed over her skin and an intriguingly cheeky smile lit up her face. ‘He doesn’t know I do it. When I was younger the communications team was in the room next to my schoolroom. It was the most fun room in the place. My governess realised I liked reading and writing and figured I could be left in there while she went and flirted with one of locals in the village. As we lost more and more staff, I took on more and more—not just correspondence with the public, but the contractors and general management of the castle.’
Judging from what she’d written here, she was good at it.
‘So youdowork,’ he said. ‘It’s just that it’s unpaid and unrecognised. Wouldn’t your father appreciate this if he knew?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m scared he would stop me.’
Well, the last thing Lucian wanted was to stop her doing something she wanted, but at the same timehewasn’t going to take advantage of her. ‘If you do this, I’ll pay you.’
