What is Hidden (25 page)

Not that his opinion of what I looked like mattered to me or anything.

Oh, who was I trying to kid? I wanted to look pretty for him—beautiful, even. I wanted him to feel like I deserved him and his gift.

“You look . . .” His voice was low, and I was unspeakably nervous waiting for him to finish that statement. Nice? Ridiculous? Like I shouldn’t have bothered? “Beyond words.”

“Good words, I hope,” I joked nervously, my throat dry.

“The best words.” He smiled and held out his hands to me. “Does this mean apology accepted?”

“Oh!” In my excitement to see him, I’d completely forgotten about that part. “Of course. Although it was just as much my fault, if not more so. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” His tone was joking, but his eyes were serious.

“I
am
sorry.” I looked down at the floor, suddenly uncomfortable. I just wanted to get past this part.

“And I know that. Which is why I forgive you, save you grant me one request.”

“And what is that?” I asked, filled with trepidation. The last time I’d granted him a favor, I had ended up with sore muscles that didn’t recover for a week.

“Dance with me, please, my lady.”

Now that was a request I’d be only too happy to oblige. I couldn’t even pretend to think about it and keep him in suspense; I was still too starstruck by how surreal
everything felt. I just smiled happily and nodded, squeezing his hand in response.

He led me to the dance floor as a spirited number started to play. He wrapped one arm around my waist, gripping my hand carefully with his other hand.

“Do you know the steps?” he whispered teasingly.

“Oh, I know the steps,” I said. “The question is, can you keep up with me?”

He laughed and led me through the twirling number, spinning me around and guiding me across the dance floor. It felt effortless.

For about the first thirty seconds.

After that, the time lapse from when I’d last danced started to kick in, and I stumbled through the steps, stepping on his toes and nearly tripping over my skirts a number of times. He took it all in stride, though, and however ridiculous we might have looked, bumbling around the dance floor, I was having the time of my life.

The way he held me made me feel safe, and even though I was tripping all over myself, I felt like he would catch me before I could really hurt myself—or anyone or anything else for that matter. That funny feeling in my stomach revisited me, and I found myself looking at Aiden in a new light.

He hadn’t been a part of my life for most of its duration, but that didn’t seem to matter. As soon as he stepped into it, he became a part of it—like a missing puzzle piece to a frustrating jigsaw, or a key spice to a dull and disappointing recipe.

With as much as life twisted and turned, I knew he could be out of my life just as rapidly as he’d been dropped into it, and that caused an inexplicable ache in my heart.
Though perhaps it wasn’t so inexplicable. I somehow found myself trusting him. I found myself caring a great deal about him.

I might even have found myself . . . loving him.

The thought didn’t shock me as much as perhaps it should have. I think my heart knew it all along; it was just waiting for my mind to catch up. Waiting until I’d unlocked all the locks and loosened all the chains I’d put on it.

And then, having recognized it, a sort of peace settled over me.

“What’s got you so cheerful all of a sudden?” Aiden whispered in my ear as the music slowed to a soft waltz.

I didn’t want to tell him. Not yet, anyway, and certainly not here, with all these people around us.

“Am I supposed to be feeling something else?” I teased instead. “I’m at the biggest party of the year, I’ve got beautiful clothes, I have a breathtaking mask, and the company’s not so bad either.”

He chuckled. “That’s true. I suppose you do have a thing or two to celebrate.”

“I do, don’t I?” I said thoughtfully, meaning it this time. “A lot has changed in the past couple months, hasn’t it?”

“That it has,” he said somberly. “You haven’t really had things easy lately, huh?”

“That’s got to be the greatest understatement of the year.”

“Believe me, if I could have pulled any strings with fate to make your life easier, I would have done it in a second.”

I smiled but shook my head. “You don’t play with fate’s strings. You never know when she’ll just cut them out of spite or boredom.”

“Is fate always the only one in charge of our strings, though?”

I got a feeling he wasn’t talking about a mythical goddess anymore.

Shaking my head, I said, “No. There are a lot of strings. Sometimes we have to give her a hand. Sometimes we have to force her hand. And sometimes, we have to take things out of her hands.”

The music stopped then, though we’d already stopped dancing. The conductor announced the musicians would be taking a short break, but my eyes were solely on Aiden’s.

“Evie,” he whispered, resting his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes, relishing the feeling of him being so close to me and the brush of his breath as it fluttered across my cheek. Our hands lowered from the dance position to rest at our sides, our fingers intertwined.

When I opened my eyes, Aiden was staring at me with such . . . resolution and determination. We were silent for a long moment as the party continued to swell around us.

“I need to tell you something,” he finally said. “Walk with me?”

“Of course,” I answered, puzzled, and then followed him out the door.

A
iden led me outside and
into the gardens. We passed the place where the bonfire had been the previous night as evidenced by the immense pile of ashes and wet timber. Several other guests were out here, enjoying the crisp autumn night air, but Aiden ignored them all, determinedly leading me by the path to the destination that only he knew.

He walked with such surety, I had to ask him if he knew where he was going or if he was just faking it to impress me.

He laughed dryly, saying, “Yes, I know this place very well. Don’t worry, I won’t get us lost or in trouble.”

I hadn’t even thought about us getting in trouble. “Trouble?” I asked, suddenly nervous. “Why would we be getting in trouble? Where are you planning on taking me? Is this the part where you take me out back where no one can hear me scream and kill me?”

I was joking, but the slight stumble in his step really made me anxious.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going to kill you. Or hurt you in any way, before you ask.”

“Okay, seriously, though. Where are we going? My feet are starting to hurt.”

Really, I was pulling that card? When did I get to be such a weakling? Barely a few hours in these fancy clothes and I was turning into one of those spoiled courtiers.

He cast a sidelong glance at me, probably wondering the same thing. “Sorry, went too far there, huh?” I said weakly. “I’m just impatient.”

“We’re almost there,” was all he said.

I thought he was going to take us to some hidden place in the gardens or back out in the city, but I was wrong. The palace bordered the forest on the north side, and apparently, that was where we were heading. This forest had been around longer than the city itself, and the trees were ancient, easily hundreds of years old. Not too many people ventured into them, because it was extremely easy to get lost amid the giant oaks, especially if you were unfamiliar with the area or the night sky. Not that you could do much navigation by the stars, unless you were to climb up the trees to see beyond the leafy forest rooftop.

“Are you positive you know where you’re going?” I asked anxiously.

“One hundred and ten percent,” he replied readily. “Relax, Evie. I just want some place private to talk, and the palace doesn’t have a place where we’d be comfortable.”

“What about my room? That’s always worked before.”

“Yes, but before, you weren’t dressed like the real lady you are. I can slip in and out of certain passageways to make my way down, but I doubt you could in that gown. Besides, I have something to show you.”

He had a fair point. And I didn’t want to risk using the royal family’s room again, especially when I knew it had to be nearing midnight, when the prince made his grand announcement and revelation.

As we marched through the underbrush, I knew we were getting closer when I heard a soft scuffling noise. I turned to him in alarm, but he just grinned at me in that way that said he knew something I didn’t. “We’re almost there.”

Finally, we came to a stop before a large oak tree. I think fifteen men could have encircled it, standing with their arms outstretched. But what really caught my attention was the familiar little brown dog, loosely tied to a stake in the ground.

“Is that . . . ?” I began. “Did you find
Hachi
?”

Aiden beamed at me, looking proud of himself, and my heart felt like it was going to burst. I didn’t know what to say or do. I didn’t know if I should hug him or the dog first, and I didn’t know
how
Aiden had pulled it off.

The little Akita yelped happily and, jumping around, tried to pounce on me, his entire back end wagging so hard I thought he might fall over. I knelt carefully, trying not to muss my beautiful dress, and scratched his ears. He twisted and licked my hands, keening softly.

I turned back to Aiden, still kneeling, and simply asked, “How?”

He shrugged. “I knew he was important to you. You already lost your father. I didn’t want you to feel like you’d lost Hachi too, when there was still a chance he was alive. Then, I got lucky.”

I stared at him in amazement, absently running my hands through Hachi’s thick fur. Aiden stepped forward
and, brushing aside some vines, pushed open a small, hidden door.

I gaped at him. He had a hidden retreat out here in the woods? Who managed that? And why?

“A little cloak and dagger, don’t you think?” I managed to choke out. “What on earth is this?”

“Just come in and I’ll explain. I don’t like standing out here longer than necessary. Hachi will be okay. He has food and water, and you know he won’t run off.”

I hesitated just a moment more but decided that if I was going to trust Aiden, I needed to trust him completely. No going halfway with this sort of thing. If I was going to do something, it had better be worth doing wholeheartedly. And I think that trusting someone fell into that category.

The inside of the tree was carved out to form a small room. It was actually quite comfortable. I was nervous that it would be dark and claustrophobic when Aiden shut the little door, but it was surprisingly light. Looking up, I realized that small slots had been carved all around the trunk, too small to be noticed from the outside, but big enough for moonlight to creep through.

And it wasn’t just a hollowed-out tree. There were rugs on the floor, cushions to sit on, and a table with books stacked on top of it. It looked like a home.

“What is this place?” I asked again.

“This is my place,” he said simply. “My father helped me make it. Whenever I needed to get away from the . . . life, I could come out here and no one would bother me. No one even knows it exists except my parents. And they know that I want to be alone when I’m here, so they usually leave me to my own devices.”

“Wow,” was all I could say. A private retreat on palace grounds?

“Yeah. Have a seat.” He directed me to the pile of cushions and watched me as I made myself comfortable. He gingerly sat in front of me, fidgeting with the fringe on one of the pillows.

I certainly didn’t have anything else to add, and he looked really nervous, so I waited for him to say whatever it was that required him to drag me all the way out here. Not that I didn’t appreciate him sharing this place with me, but I wanted to know what was going on.

He didn’t speak, and I had to prompt him. “Wasn’t there something you wanted to tell me?”

He took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes, I’m just trying to think of the best way to say it.”

“Well, you’re making me nervous. Just spit it out already,” I joked to lessen the tension.

He laughed once. “I guess that would be the best way to say it, wouldn’t it? Okay. Here goes. Remember what we talked about the night of the first ball?”

“We talked about a lot of things. What in particular do you mean?”

“The, um, hypothetical situation. If I were the prince.”

A beat passed. “Yes?”

Aiden hesitated. “What if that wasn’t so hypothetical?”

I stared at him in disbelief. “If this is some kind of joke, I will kill you. And I’m completely serious.”

“It’s not a joke.”

“But . . . but that doesn’t make any sense! I’ve seen you and the prince at the same time!”

He chuckled without amusement. “I have a body double.
When I’m unavailable for public appearances, my father arranges for someone else to take my place. It’s not hard, since no one has ever seen or heard me before. Same basic body type, and the prince could be any number of personal servants.”

I was completely baffled. “Why would you be unavailable for public appearances?” I asked, putting his words back at him. “Wouldn’t your princely duties overrule everything else?”