Prince Fernando
The pale, languid healer opened her eyes two hours after she arrived. Ocean-gray irises locked on mine. Then they widened. My heart thumped. She was the woman who fell from the sky? The maid I saw this morning in the city’s market?
What were the odds?
Her ward, Mr. Guo, broke her gaze when he stepped between us. He could have been an arrow with the razor sharp glances he aimed at everyone.
He married a male colleague; I believed. So why was he possessive? His intense hovering came from a motive not steeped in desire. I’d figure that out soon.
She whispered something to him.
“What did she say?” I asked.
He twisted to face me. “She’s in pain.”
I didn’t reply, instead motioning the physicians forward to continue their duties. They had already searched her for injury, even requiring the men to turn their backs to protect her naked form. Now, they brought poppy extract and other bitter substances to ease her discomfort. I sighed and spread my feet wider, bouncing at the knees to keep my legs awake. The king ordered me to attend to our new acquisition, and I obeyed until I took his place. Though I had no wish to usurp him. As much as we butted heads, I loved my father. The stubborn ruler didn’t see my attempts at taking on more royal work as leadership, instead choosing to believe I threatened him.
My mind wandered to Queen Catarina and the dead assassin. Was she desperate to eliminate me and give Lorenzo a chance to rule? I exhaled sharply. This healer could bring me back from the brink of death if the next attack injured me, but not in her current weakened state.
“How long until she is well?” I asked, lifting my head from my ruminations.
“Weeks, possibly months,” the physician replied. She frowned and retied her long, gray hair behind her neck.
Mr. Guo jerked up from his attentive stance beside his ward. “The priestesses said she was nearly well.”
“She was healing, but her malnourished body needs rest.”
The man muttered foreign words under his breath. The woman responded, her voice shaking.
“Were you aware she’s a mother?” the physician asked.
Mr. Guo kept his features calm. “No.”
Concern gnawed at my gut.
“She has children?” I asked.
“The stretched skin around her middle shows at least one pregnancy, though she’s past the point of nursing a baby.”
“I won’t strain her mind with this information. Let her recover. We can only hope that her memories return and she can be reunited with her family.”
I suppressed a snort. He wanted her for his own reasons, though he played the part of a protective guardian well.
“She’s not leaving,” I said, raising my voice. “The healer will stay with the royal family and learn Astralini. She will not remain ignorant, however. We must begin a search for her relatives. If she is truly a mother, she will be reunited with her children immediately.” This woman did nothing to deserve separation from her family, unlike my mother.
He frowned and squeezed the woman’s hand, then translated the conversation. “Her name is Stella, by the way. You can stop calling her ‘healer’ every time you address her, Your Highness.”
Stella. The Astralini name meant star.
“A Stella fell from the sky, hm?” I asked.
“She liked it when I suggested it,” he said.
Defensive, much? The similarity of the name to her situation bordered on ridiculous.
I stepped toward the bed, and she stiffened at my approach, exposing a sharp collarbone from the tension. Softening my scowl to a more pleasant half smile, she visibly relaxed. Upon closer inspection, the small lines in between her eyebrows and at the outer corners of her eyelids showed her age. I thought she was a maid, perhaps in her young twenties at first glance.
“Ask her how old she is.”
Mr. Guo cleared his throat. “I believe she is between thirty and thirty-five. She doesn’t remember her birthday.”
Bitterness coated my tongue. Her age didn’t matter, yet I snuffed the remaining attraction and straightened my spine. It would be easier to allow her to risk her life for me, or other royals, if I didn’t care. I narrowed my gaze and frowned, finding the physician.
“Strengthen her with your finest medicines. I need her strong enough to save me if I’m attacked again.”
The physician bowed her head. “Consider it done, Your Highness.”
“She will sleep in the prince’s hall, between mine and my siblings’ rooms.” I had three siblings: Prince Lorenzo, Princess Valeria, and Prince Luca. We would all benefit from Stella’s magic, though she’d sleep closest to me, to preserve my life.
It had nothing to do with her unique irises with swirling blue and gray that seemed to pull me closer against my will.
Stella muttered something, and her ward shushed her.
“Translate everything she says,” I ordered.
The man bowed his head and sighed. “It’s nothing. Gibberish. That’s why I shushed her.”
Liar.
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