Before Beauty Read Online Free Page B

treat the servants like people other than his
friends, particularly those who had been just that during his
solitary childhood years. And yet, his father said, it was what he
must do in order to protect it all from the destructive forces of
those who would destroy such a paradise.
    Little by little, under Rodrigue’s
guidance, Ever gained the ability to focus as his father did. His
strength, which had been unusual since he was a small child, was
honed, and by the time he was a young man, he’d been wrought into
the warrior prince not even his father could have dreamed of. The
girl’s face had faded into little more than a bad memory by the
time he was twenty-six years old. She only surfaced when he was
tempted to feel guilt, which thanks to his father, wasn’t often.
She had reappeared, however, the night his mother died.
    Ever had been out riding his
horse, training with some of the archers, when a distant figure
waved him down from a great distance. As he approached, Ever could
see Garin’s thin frame, and something in his stomach had turned
uneasily. While he’d obeyed his father and cut sociable ties with
most of the servants, he’d not been able to tear himself from
Garin. Out of respect for his father, they didn’t flaunt their
communication, however. If the steward was coming out to find him
personally, something had to be wrong.
    “ Your Highness,” Garin had bowed
in his saddle as he rode up to the men. “I think you might want to
call today’s practice short. I have…a message for you.” Dismissing
his men, Ever guided his horse over to walk beside Garin’s. The
older man’s graying hair was messy, as if he’d pulled it back in a
hurry, and his clothes, for once, were rumpled. “Your
Highness…Ever,” he finally turned to the prince. “I’m afraid I am
not quite obeying your father’s order, but I thought you should
know before he called you.”
    Ever gawked at the steward. While
Garin often stretched boundaries and rules, he had never disobeyed
King Rodrigue outright.
    “ Your mother has died,” Garin
continued in a quiet voice. “You know she hasn’t felt well in
weeks, and today she slipped away from us while she slept. Your
father wanted me to wait until he could tell everyone, but I
thought you should at least have time…” His voice faded, but Ever
nodded unhappily. As much as Ever had become his father’s protégé,
he still was unable to completely block feelings like Rodrigue.
Garin had known he would need time to think before he was called
before the entire court to hear the news.
    Garin had gone after that and left
Ever time to be alone before the courtiers were gathered for the
official announcement. He struggled to pin down a name for the
emotions that flooded him. That there were emotions was undeniable,
and none of his father’s training could banish them. Many feelings
swirled around in his mind as he thought. Strangely, what bothered
him most, he finally decided, was that he was not sad.
    Ever had spent years watching his
servants interact with their families, and as a young child, had
even interacted with them when his father wasn’t looking. The
parents would call, and the children would respond with shrieks of
delight, running to their parents for hugs and kisses. It had never
been so with his family. His father had shown him affection in his
own way throughout the years by preparing him to be the best king
he knew how. Queen Louise, however, had never seemed to feel the
maternal affection he saw in the servants and even the mothers of
noble blood. Ever and the queen were amiable, and greeted one
another always with respect and kindness, but there was never
anything more. Guilt, he realized, was the emotion that ran through
him. He felt guilty because he recognized very quickly that her
death did not bring him pain. He would have felt more pain if Gigi
had died.
    On the night of his mother’s
death, the girl’s face had visited him in his sleep for the first
time