I shrugged it off for later as we walked into the dining room that could seat a hundred easy and saw the dignified couple who got to their feet as we walked in. His mom got tears in her eyes as soon as she saw me and I’m sure broke protocol when she came from around the table, arms outstretched and hugged me.
“Oh Lucien she’s beautiful! Let me see.” She put me away from her and did everything but turn me this way and that. Her eyes fell on the mark and she too changed almost completely. “Your royal highness.” She didn’t drop to her knees but she clasped her hands and bowed formally as her husband joined us and did the same.
The last occupant seemed stuck in place. She’d only made it to her feet but now at the reaction of these two seemed stumped. My new mother in law’s hissed order and Lucien’s raised brow got her moving. Unlike my in laws she did get down on her hands and knees on the floor the way Millicent had and kissed the ground at my feet.
I couldn’t burst into laughter or they’ll all think I’m nuts but it was close. “You have to relieve her princess.” Lucien leaned over to whisper in my ear. You don’t say. Had my new in laws not been there I would’ve left her there for an hour at least. But I have to put my best foot forward for this first meeting of course so I did as I was told. “You may rise!”
The servants, one for each of us, lead us back to the table and seated us. The blonde had taken a seat to the left of Lucien at the head of the table while his mom and dad sat on the opposite side. I’m guessing I was supposed to sit at the other end of the table but that wasn’t about to happen.
Before I could say anything though Lucien the wonderful took care of it. “I’m sorry Sabrina, my wife sits there.”
“Oh, I didn’t know, I thought…” She looked towards the far end of the table and I wanted to deck her.
“Yes, but this is not a formal occasion, it was supposed to be a family dinner and there aren’t that many people here. Besides, Natalia and I like to be close.” Woot, is he in on it too? That was perfect. I felt my first blush of pleasure when she shamefully left her seat and moved down and then it just got better.
“No, move to the other side, you know better. You’re not allowed so sit next to her.” And there he took the very last little bit of my heart. It’s like he’d read the script in my head and knew that I meant to put this twit in her place.
So I didn’t go looking for Lucien and wouldn’t have because of all the fears and misconceptions I once held. Was that really only a little more than a week and a half ago? But now he’s mine and the more time we spend together the more I come to feel for him. After what I’d overheard this afternoon I have a pretty good idea what her game is, and why she’d shown up here tonight, but I aim to put an end to her once and for all. By the time she leaves here she’s going to have no doubt who my man belongs to.
I thought I was cold, but Lucien ice; and he is vicious. No sooner had I taken my seat than he took my hand in his on the tabletop and turned to talk to his parents like it was the most natural thing in the world. I could feel her eyes on me this whole time but did my best to ignore her, giving her no importance whatsoever.
“Lucien, my new daughter is perfectly beautiful, thank you.” His mom thanked him like he had something to do with it.
“Her hair is a bit unusual. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that color before, did you dye it?” This twit!
“Oh Natalia, this is our foster daughter Sabrina, Lucien and her grew up together like brother and sister.” I think that’s the first time I heard his father speak except for the greeting earlier.
“We’ve met already haven’t we?” I looked at her then turned to Lucien with a smile. “It was my first day here. You were with grandpa and I felt like a little exploring. You did say it was okay.” I turned back to the table at large. “I made my way to what looked like a ballroom with thrones set up and this lovely princess was nice enough to tell me that I didn’t belong there.”
“Is that so? Sabrina?” My mother in law turned to her and she started stuttering.
“I, it wasn’t, she…”
“Oh no, did I say something wrong? I didn’t mean to get her in trouble. I’m very glad that she taught me that since my husband neglected to tell me that there were some places that are off limits to his wife.” I let that sink in.
“And besides, she’s family. Had she been an outsider I would’ve been so embarrassed.” There was a lot of throat clearing and deep inhalations while I dipped into my soup that the servant had just placed in front of me. Take that you wench.
“There’s nothing off limits to you here. In fact, everyone and everything here are now under your control. Other than my grandfather and myself no one else is above you and no one can tell you where or what you can do in my kingdom. Not unless they want to lose their head for offending a royal.” Ooh, somebody’s salty.
“Thanks for clearing that up, I was feeling kind of bad about the whole thing. I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot, especially with your sister.”
“Sabrina’s not really my sister, my parents brought her home when she was younger, I was already grown by then so we never really got to be that close. And by the way, it’s unlawful to call someone a princess if they’re not.”
Oh shit, what did she do to piss him off? The usually tactful vampyre was out for blood. I almost felt bad for her and the way his parents reacted it was obvious that they too were wondering what they’d missed.
“Oh, but…” I pretended to be confused as I looked around the table.
“It’s nothing to worry about love, you’ll learn all of this soon enough. That’s why I wanted to give you a few days of respite before everything gets started, there’s going to be lots to learn.”
I pretend pouted because hey, I know what my man likes. He grinned and reached over to rub the corner of my lips with this thumb. “Not to worry I’ll be here to help.” If my grin got any wider my face would split in two.
We went back to eating and I gave them ten minutes before I started in again. The conversation was going ever so smoothly with my in laws who were pretty down to earth for royalty and seemed genuinely fond of me. No one mentioned the baby which I was beginning to think was supposed to be top secret, so the conversation was light and centered mostly around the wedding ceremony.
“So can we go back to that throne room tomorrow? I really want to see what I missed that day.” Sabrina cut into her succulent braised goose too hard and the gold fork smacked against the fine china loud enough to make a din in the otherwise quiet room
“Of course, you may go anywhere you please, but not without me.”
“Lucien, I got a look at the golden robe and I must say it is spectacular.”
“What robe?” I was genuinely interested and his mom explained.
“It will be part of your marital robes your royal highness, something Lucien insisted on that caused quite a stir at the time.”
“You see, only he and the sky monarch are allowed to wear such a robe as that. But I have a feeling once everyone sees that you are his one true mate, they will bend over backwards to make amends for even questioning him. It was really very bad of you not to tell everyone though Lucien, it could’ve saved us a lot of time.”