Chapter 13

Thirteen

"Your mission, Mr. Hawthorne, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate 6A and determine what Muriel Hormsby knows about the Margrave of Hessen and his affair with a mysterious and…" Jonathon paused, using his teeth to hold the screwdriver as he eased the vent's cover aside and leaned it against the wall. "Am I mysterious or enigmatic?" he mused out loud, then shrugged, getting back into character. "What does Muriel Hormsby know about the Margrave and his affair with an enigmatic young American artist? As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions," Jonathon continued, bending lower and sticking his head and shoulders into the wide duct in his secret stairwell studio.

It was no longer in use after the building's air conditioning had been upgraded, but Jonathon had noticed a matching ornate metal vent in Muriel's sitting room and had crawled inside to see if they were connected. They were and while Jonathon didn't have regular cause to snoop on Muriel, the vent had come in handy during the holidays. She was always tickled whenever they bought each other matching gifts so Jonathon would crawl inside and wiggle past the kitchen and along the hallway once or twice a season for gift ideas.

He blew the dust and cobwebs out of his way, pulling himself through and smiling as he heard muffled bits of Muriel and Tilly's conversation. He'd probably owe Riley a new black beanie and T-shirt and Jonathon's favorite black jeans would be filthy after his mission, but he was enjoying himself. Jonathon crawled forward on his elbows and squinted through the grate when he reached the sitting room.

Calista was curled up on her bed by the fireplace and Muriel was in her armchair, having her tea while Tilly knitted a new scarf or a sleeve in the other chair. He could tell that Muriel was troubled, though, because she was holding the cup and saucer on her lap, staring at the fire.

"Your tea will get cold, ma'am," Tilly said, her eyes never leaving her work.

There was a pouty huff from Muriel. "Where could he have gone? I know in my bones that he's alright, but I miss him, Tilly," she complained and she might as well have yanked on Jonathon's earlobe, it smarted and he regretted upsetting her. "How could I have missed it? Jonathan and Leopold!" She let out an indignant humph, shaking her head. "But I would have told Jonathon to watch out for that Sabine, if I had known. That woman was a shark! And she would have pulled out all the stops to separate them and neutralize any threat to the Margrave," she said with a click of her teeth, earning a knowing hum from Tilly.

"Sounds like our boy needed a shark of his own."

"He was certainly swimming in deep, dangerous waters, poor sweet child," Muriel remarked with a sad sigh. "Von Hessen should have protected Jonathon. He might not have been raised in society, but Leopold was not as naive as Jonathon and he had far more power, being nearly a margrave. I would have protected him if I had known, and the very first thing I would have done was tell that Sabine to back off and keep out of it. We could have set Jonathon up in a darling little place in Vienna and covered for him while he studied and waited for von Hessen."

"No point in getting worked up about it now. The Margrave is taking care of that Sabine and he'll make things right with Jonathon. I can't help but feel sorry for the man, though. Calling the wrong number and writing to the wrong address for all those years… And she had him convinced it was best for Jonathon," she added, causing Muriel to scoff.

"Let me tell you something about Leopold von Hessen," she began as she set down her teacup and moved to the edge of her seat. "A man so noble, it's made him stupid. He was so obsessed with saving the planet and keeping Austria in the Middle Ages, he allowed that serpent of an assistant to keep him in the dark. He'd rather live like a Benedictine monk and look at trees than answer his own emails and where has that gotten him?" she said with a disgusted snort. "He thinks he's a rebel because he doesn't enjoy balls or fly in First Class, but he's nearly a carbon copy of his grandfather."

That earned a surprised gasp from Tilly and Jonathon bit down on his lips, stunned as well.

"I would have thought he despised the old Margrave," Tilly said and Jonathon nodded from his hiding place behind the grate.

Muriel snickered and hummed knowingly. "I'm certain he does and I'd wager they'd never met. But Leopold is just as hard and commanding as his grandfather and most of the margraves before him. Except for Maximilian, of course. He was clearly unsuited to the role, but the line ran true with Leopold. He's just as unyielding and serious, but he doesn't have their coldness and cruelty. He's far more… familial and protective of his siblings, and I've heard they're a far more affectionate bunch. They get that from their mother's side, obviously. The Italians are a tactile and emotional people, unlike the Austrians, in my experience."

"We don't find it necessary to announce our feelings or speak with our hands," Tilly said with a shrug. She was actually German, but often stood up for her Austrian cousins.

"Feelings are so bothersome," Muriel said wearily. "I'd prefer that people kept them to themselves nine times out of ten, but I wish I had seen that our Jonathon had feelings for the Margrave. All of this could have been avoided if I hadn't been so distracted with that butler…"

Jonathon's mouth flopped open, he had almost forgotten about that whole business with Herr Weber. But the silent gasp had caused him to suck up some dust and Jonathon covered his nose when it tickled and he sneezed. He managed to muffle it, but Calista's head popped up and she looked directly at him.

"I knew that something was off with that butler," Muriel continued, unaware as Calista stood and stretched her long legs before crossing the room and sniffing the floor around the vent.

"Go lay down, girl," Jonathon mouthed and she let out a keening whimper as her snout pushed against the grate. Jonathon pressed his hand against it. "Shhh!" He thought she might calm down when she smelled him but she became agitated and scratched at the carpet next to the vent and started pacing and whimpering.

"What is it, Calista?" Muriel asked her, causing the dog to let out a loud yip! as her tail pom-pom flicked back and forth.

"It's probably a rat," Tilly said as she jumped to her feet. "I'll call Mr. Bradford and tell him to send someone."

That was Jonathon's cue to make his escape so he pushed himself backwards through the vent, smiling as he remembered Muriel's investigation into Sch?nbühel's butler. He had been half-convinced that she would cause an international incident, but Jonathon hadn't done very much to discourage her efforts. At the time, he thought it was a good thing that she was distracted and employed elsewhere, too busy to notice and interfere with him and Leo.

Now, Jonathon regretted that he hadn't confided in Muriel, instead of worrying over her correspondence with Herr Weber's past employers.

"I've heard back from Kent," Muriel had informed Jonathon on one of their walks in the garden at Sch?nbühel.

"Kent?" he had responded, mystified by the sudden segue. They were discussing their latest reads and sharing book reports when she curled her arm around his and gave it a conspiratorial yank.

"I told you I'd be looking into the ‘butler's' references."

"Oh, God." Jonathon tripped to a halt. "You meant the Duke of," he realized and she made an impatient sound as she towed him along.

"Keep your voice down or he'll hear us."

"But he's all the way in Kent, I'd imagine," Jonathon replied, making her splutter at him.

"Not the duke, you ninny! Herr Weber, the so-called butler," she whispered and Jonathon frowned back at the house.

"I doubt he could hear us either," he murmured but Muriel just hissed and dragged him further away from the back terrace.

"There's no telling where he may be lurking," she whispered.

"I'd guess the house since that is where a butler usually lurks," Jonathon said sarcastically, rubbing his chin and squinting at her. "Not that I'd say he was lurking… He appeared to be peeling potatoes for the cook when I passed by the kitchen an hour ago, the scoundrel," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Kent has never heard of a Herr or a Mister Weber," Muriel said, tilting her nose back. "He's going to look into the rest of those references and get back to me."

"Dear Lord, what have you done?" Jonathon said and opened his mouth to warn her, then remembered that Muriel was far less trouble for him when she was entertained. And a little "nothing" scandal involving an imaginative elderly woman might be a good cover and distract the rest of the castle's staff.

He had meant to mention it to Leo to see if Muriel's latest scheme could be helpful, but Jonathon had forgotten all about the butler when they met in the library a few hours later.

Jonathon had closed his laptop and popped to his feet, reaching for Leo when he peeked into their secret alcove, looking far too serious. "Are we a go for Vienna? I found train tickets for me and Aunt Muriel and we should be right behind you."

"Jonathon," Leo had whispered, pulling him close and nuzzling into the corner of his neck. "I'm so sorry but I don't think Vienna is a good idea. We need to slow down and be more careful."

"Okay…" Jonathon said, even though he hadn't felt okay as he leaned back and searched Leo's face. "What happened and what do you mean by ‘slow down'?"

Leo squeezed his eyes shut and Jonathon's heart sank as tears formed at the corners. "I was too careless. The staff here knows about us and it won't be long before news spreads. We'd be asking for a scandal if we were seen in Vienna after spending a month together here in Sch?nbühel."

"Fine." Jonathon sniffed hard and nodded, accepting that their plan would need revising. "We can lay low and be penpals for a few months. What about London? You said you can always find a good reason to be there. I'll be in school and just down the road."

"Me being in London would be far too risky for us right now." Leo cradled Jonathon's face in his hands. "You won't be able to go to school if this gets out. The media will be relentless and they'll drag out everything about your family. Sabine says the only way I can protect us is if we marry before it gets too messy and I think I want?—"

"Marry?" Jonathon interrupted, shaking his head. "I was joking before about finding a prince and being an archduchess."

"I know. You can't, " Leo agreed, making Jonathon roll his eyes.

"I can dream! But we don't have to get married. Why can't we just keep it quiet and date long-distance for a few years?"

"People will assume things about us and me. Dating a college student isn't a good look. You being a man and an American with a family to expose…" Leo winced apologetically, but Jonathon still felt the burn.

"I see," he said, taking a large step back and hugging his chest. "Everything about me—us—is wrong and the best thing you can do is marry me quickly and let the Foundation sweep me under a rug. Like Max's archduchess."

Leo pressed his hands against his face, muffling a tortured groan. "None of that matters to me and I want to say it wouldn't be like that! I want to promise that we won't be like Max and Ella. But I don't see how you and everything you're meant to be isn't crushed by this."

"That's our only option?" Jonathon couldn't make sense of it or the rising panic he felt. "What century is this, Leo? You can be bisexual and you're not the first royal to date someone ten years younger than them. And let's be real, a lot of men in your position have much younger mistresses."

"I can't start like this, Jonathon." Leo's face twisted and his eyes were puddled as he shook his head. "Not as Margrave and not as your husband. I don't want my legacy and my marriage to begin with a shameful scandal. Not when I know that we are good and that I can use my title and the Foundation to do good. And I won't ruin your life like Ella's." Leo shook his head again, sniffing hard. "I can do good things, but you are capable of brilliant, beautiful things. My life and the Foundation would snuff out every bit of that. You'd be lost in a castle somewhere—swept under a rug—or falling apart for the world to see like Ella."

"What are you saying?" Jonathon sank onto the seat of their chair as the alcove spun around them and his face started tingling.

Leo dropped to his knees with him, wrapping his arms around Jonathon's waist. "I don't know. I know my feelings haven't changed and they won't. But I don't know how to save us."

"My prince!" Jonathon gasped, spearing his fingers through Leo's hair. They kissed and their lips and tongues tasted like tears.

"I will always be yours. I love you, Jonathon."

"What am I going to do? I don't want to let you go. I don't care about?—"

"Shhh!" Leo pecked at his lips and rested his forehead on Jonathon's. "You will. Later, when you're tired of me and sick of the Foundation and the public poking and picking apart our lives, you'll regret everything that loving me will cost you."

Jonathon gave his head a defiant shake, unwilling to accept what Leo was telling him. "But what if there's a chance that we could be happy? What if we could wait out the storm and find a way to make it work?"

"Wait out the storm? We could be talking years: after you've finished school and had a chance to establish yourself and I've proven that I'm stable and dedicated to carrying on in Max's place."

"Could it work if we waited?" Jonathon asked, his hands shaking as they covered Leo's.

"I think…it could," he said slowly, his gaze stretching past the room as he thought it through. "It probably wouldn't be all that noteworthy in four or five years—understandable, even—if I fell in love with a brilliant young artist who's taken the world by storm."

Jonathon would wait forever for Leo and he didn't doubt his own talent, but he couldn't help himself. "Is this plan contingent upon the storm? I might flop and be good for nothing but marrying a sugar daddy. Might be saving myself a lot of trouble with you and I might be good at being married to a royal," he said bravely.

"Stop it." Leo tapped their foreheads together and kissed him. "You'd be miserable."

"I'll be miserable without you," Jonathon predicted. "But I'd rather give you up for a few years than never hold you again."

"I can do it," Leo stated as he sat back on his heels and nodded up at him. "If this gets out, though… I'd have to pretend that nothing happened, that you were nothing but a close family friend. And I'd have to draw attention away from us quickly so that any gossip about you and me at Sch?nbühel would be too old or too insignificant for anyone to care about."

"You'll wait for me, though? I know you'll have to pretend you're single and looking, but you'll wait for me?"

Leo nodded, hushing him. "I won't have any choice, mein Liebster. You will have my heart and I'll be waiting for you to return it. And I will sneak into London to see you as soon as it's safe. I'll come as often as I can."

"Okay." Jonathon had agreed shakily, scared as he felt the odds stacking up against them. "What if I can't do it and I need you, Leo? What if I decide I don't care about my life if you're not in it."

"Then, get word to me or Sabine and we'll come up with something else."

"You'll come back for me?"

"I promise. I love you and will always want you, Jonathon."

As the years passed, Jonathon would convince himself that it had all been a cruel game and that Leo had been lying. Now, it seemed that Leo had been in the dark as well and oblivious as to what was happening in Jonathon's life.

Instead of feeling hopeful or relieved, Jonathon was devastated to learn that he had degraded and humiliated himself for no reason. And Leo had been unhappy as well, so it had been all the more pointless. They had both been incompetent in allowing Sabine to come between them so easily. But as Muriel had pointed out, Leo wasn't a young man at Sch?nbühel. He was thirty and had far more experience in general and could have tried harder to leverage his new power to save them.

Leo might not have been the heartless villain Jonathon had cast him as, but that didn't absolve him or make up for the past. No matter what Sabine might have said or done, Leo should have believed in them and the promises they had made to each other.

"I waited for you, Leo. Even when I didn't want to. It shouldn't have taken this damn long," Jonathon said under his breath while climbing out of the vent. His hands were shaking as he wiped them on his jeans, he was so bitter at Leo and himself. "None of this would have happened if we had trusted anyone other than Sabine."

He muttered several curses at himself and Leo as he left 6A via his bathroom window and climbed the fire escape up to the 8th floor, still incensed when he hopped down onto Milo Ashby's balcony.

"Did you learn anything good?" Luna asked when she slid the glass door open for him, but Jonathon shook his head.

"Nothing good, I'm afraid. I'm off to burn these clothes and take a shower."