Chapter Three

Sébastien woke to feel the bed moving as Remus crawled on.

“Turn over so I can wipe you a bit before you get up. You’ve got cum all over your legs.”

He didn’t feel dirty despite the cum, and he shifted. How different sex could be when it wasn’t a shameful thing done in secret. It still surprised him. Remus wiped his thighs with a warm, wet cloth.

“You spoil me.” Sébastien closed his eyes.

“I’m just wiping you up a little.”

“Still…” The small action meant a lot. He was used to being treated like a discarded toy that needed to clean itself up and deal with the shame in private.

Remus didn’t make him feel ashamed. He stretched out on his stomach while he listened to watery noises from the privy room. Remus returned to lay on his stomach by him.

“You know, we should get up or we’ll be up half of the night if we nap too much.”

“I know.” Sébastien made no move to get up.

Remus didn’t immediately move either. Sébastien had a sudden thought, so he finally shifted to straddle Remus’s waist.

“What are you doing?”

“Rubbing your back. You’ve done it to me.”

“You’re going to knock me out again, and there’s something I wanted to do. I figured we’d do it after dinner.”

“What?”

“I know I just got here, but I think we should start working on writing out the announcement. Since we’re going to get married, we’ll be the co-rulers with our Kingdoms merged. I think some citizens get that because I stayed for so long with you last year.”

“I’m sure the servants gossiped that you slept in my bed too.”

“Yeah. Most Kings who just got the throne would be in a hurry to return home and to get things in order.”

“True.”

“We can formally announce our marriage and have a statement from both of us concerning the state of the Kingdoms. Maybe it’ll put the citizen’s minds at ease, and you won’t have any idiots from farther away who will think the Rowland man coerced their Prince into marriage to get his hands on more territory. An official statement might be better before anyone starts bitching.”

“All right. I haven’t heard anything against us. Some might not like it, but if we’re marrying that means we’ll have peace.”

“I told people in Rowland that I’m marrying you, and a few lords weren’t pleased.”

Sébastien rolled his eyes at the last part as he worked the middle of Remus’s back. It was sweet that Remus had been telling others he planned to marry the Soleilian King. Sébastien simply hadn’t said anything in case Remus changed his mind. Also, he’d mostly stayed to himself unless speaking to someone about other matters that weren’t related to his personal life.

“I’m still the villain to them?”

“A couple said you might try to bring back slavery.”

“For fuck’s sake. Ending it was the first big thing I did here.”

“Yeah, but you might change your mind, or you’ll convince me to fuck with the werewolves and make their lives miserable.”

“Who helped us? Werewolves. I don’t want to start more shit.”

“I said that. A couple thought you might convince me to start making other laws that they may not agree with, and Midland will be kept in poverty like the Regent was doing. According to one, I’m not very smart for chasing after a pretty face. As if you have no other redeeming qualities. I almost punched him and rearranged his face.”

Sébastien had a feeling the lord might have said a little more than that if Remus had felt like altering his face. He didn’t want to know. He’d heard enough nasty comments either about his demeanor or his body.

“It’ll get better,” said Remus. “I think the issue with them is that they see Soleil as the ultimate aggressor overall during the war. Maybe that’s why some are doubtful, and Soleil isn’t quite the same.”

“True. They can’t do anything, and in a few years, they’ll see their fears are baseless. I’m not the villain who snagged you with my pretty face so I can start more shit.”

“I’m kinda hungry now.”

“It’s past lunch, and the cook’s probably wondering what happened to us. I’ll get dressed and tell her to make something.”

“Or…you could rub my back for a few extra minutes.”

Sébastien kneaded the muscles of his shoulders. “I can definitely do that.”

***

Sébastien slept better that night than he had in a while. He didn’t have any petitioners the next morning. Or they didn’t. He’d have to get used to thinking in terms of “they” since he wouldn’t be living alone anymore.

They looked over the statements they’d written the evening before and decided to make a few changes before neatly copying them onto a large piece of vellum. The announcement was at the top.

Sébastien didn’t care to have a large party or anything too fancy. It’d be a lot of stress and annoyance, and he didn’t care to invite lords, some of whom he didn’t give a shit about. They could watch and deal with their own accommodations in the city if they wanted. A nice wedding in Sébastien’s mind would be dinner in private, or mostly private, and relaxing in their home afterward. And maybe Remus holding and railing him again like yesterday.

Thankfully, Remus didn’t care to have a big party either.

“Maxime could come to dinner,” said Sébastien. “I think he’s proven himself trustworthy enough, and he lives a few streets over, so he could simply walk home afterward. He can also cut our palms and heal us afterward.”

“And Lord Rochefort?”

“He can watch and come to dinner if he doesn’t mind traveling here. I’ll write to him directly and ask.”

“What about the citizens? They’d probably like it if we paid for alcohol to be distributed so they can party in the streets and get sloshed.”

“We can do that. Even if we didn’t, they’d figure it out and party anyway. People love any excuse to drink. We could set the date for the end of June.”

“That sounds good.”

Sébastien inked the date with his best handwriting. “The cook downstairs isn’t planning on staying for much longer.”

“Why?”

“She’s getting up there in years and wants to retire. We’ll have to find a new one in a week or start learning how to cook.”

Their statements were basic and spoke about how they wished for the transition of merging Soleil with Rowland and Midland to be smooth and easy since they’d be marrying and putting past issues to rest. It was time for peace and a new age. Since people like making money, they added that they hoped to increase the prosperity of their citizens by creating more trade.

Most would get that. One side of a Kingdom isn’t going to heavily tax the goods from another side when they’re all the same people. Business would grow better with the three lands united as one. Midland might even start to properly grow with more mixing.

“Midland might not like that we’re merging,” said Sébastien.

“I think some know since I said I was marrying you. You proved yourself decent as Duke last time. As long as they can still call themselves Middies, and we’re willing to fairly deal with any problems or issues, they’ll likely be fine with things in general.”

Once the notice was finished, Sébastien took it outside to one of the guards by the door. He’d take it to the printing press shop in the west end of Belle ?me. Copies would be spread out from there so the nation could learn of the coming marriage. If any lords wanted to come and watch the marriage and coronation, they could start making travel plans.

“There’s another issue we need to discuss, and I didn’t want to talk about it by letter,” Sébastien said once he settled behind the desk next to Remus.

“What?” Remus was sanding the parchment they’d originally used to write on so they could reuse it later.

“You know how I feel about people who have forced others to go through what I’ve been through in a sense.”

“Yeah.”

“Quite a few lords and relatives died in the collapse, and Vemer killed many. Several rapists or apologists have been permanently dealt with. Some widows took over their holds since their husbands died in the Palace collapse, and I had to sack a few. I’d only spoken to them a few times at court, but I knew they’d been abusive to slaves. Also, two were reported as trying to keep their slaves because they thought they should be exempt from the law.”

“If slavery had been normalized in Rowland years ago, I cringe to think that someone I consider decent might have been okay with those kinds of actions. Or they’d be asking to keep their slaves like they have a special entitlement. What about the new people you’ve assigned?”

“I’ve picked a few Knights from the north, and Lord Rochefort wrote to suggest a few of his favored men. They aided us in the group and never showed any desire to own a slave. What worries me is that I have lords who released their slaves without issue. They don’t appear to be absolute monsters, but I don't truly know them. I have nothing against them, but that doesn’t mean nothing happened.”

“You might have rapists in positions of power,” Remus stated bluntly.

“Exactly. I’d prefer to execute rapists. I don’t know who is who, and not everyone who owned a slave was like that. Court turned into a midden, but it’s not the same everywhere.”

Remus set down the sanding stone and leaned back in his chair. “If you go on a hunt, that’ll make you look bad. Is that what you’re worried about?”

“Mhm. “Oh, look, the Prince became King, and he’s grown an iron fist.’” The situation was complicated, and trying to figure out who was who would be a lengthy, difficult task.

“You could try to figure it out, but you might end up with a lord who’s innocent and only looks guilty. Fuck, he doesn’t even need to actually be innocent. If enough people believe he is, it doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a revolt, but it won’t look good for you. You can’t even rely on slave testimony because someone might try to get back at their owner just because. A slave who’s mostly ignored and only made to do basic tasks here and there might still hate his previous owner simply for the fact that he was bought. Another person who was free but hated a particular person might say anything too.”

“That’s why I don’t know what to do. I’ve thought about allowing past slaves to come forward with accounts of what happened to them, but you’re right. How do I know if one is lying just to get revenge? I know the apothecary owner here didn’t buy anyone. He could come to me and say anything about another person, and then I have to figure out if he’s lying or telling the truth.”

Remus rubbed his chin as he stared at the parchment. “Sébastien, I hate to say this, but I think you already know you’ll never be able to punish everyone, right?”

“Yes,” Sébastien forced out unwillingly.

“At any time in every Kingdom, there are always at least a couple of people running free who’ve done despicable, horrible things that no one knows about. It’s impossible to catch everyone. If your Father had lived, things had gone his way, and you never said anything, the Regent would be alive and free right this second.”

The prospect was like a knife. Every day, Sébastien had been forced to see his abuser and interact with him like nothing had ever happened. When Father had originally gone to war, and Sébastien had been made to sit with Uncle and watch him deal with petitioners, there had been a man brought in to be sentenced for rape. The woman’s family had accompanied her to give their statements along with the physician who had treated her many injuries. With that many witnesses to the aftermath, the evidence had been undeniable.

Violent rapists weren’t permitted to be slaves. Uncle had given him the typical sentence: the noose.

Sébastien, trying to pack down his own past during that petition, had felt sorry for the woman. He’d also been insanely jealous. The criminal’s death wouldn’t undo the past, but if she wanted, she could watch his neck snap and go forth in life with the knowledge that he’d never be able to touch her or anybody else again. She got to have at least some form of closure.

After petitions, Sébastien had to go to lunch with the man who’d hurt him instead of watching him dangle from a noose.

“I know I can’t kill them all,” Sébastien said as Remus put an arm around his shoulders. “I also don’t want to force anyone to come forward to speak to me if it’s something they can’t talk about. Just because the Kingdom knows what happened to me, it doesn’t mean another might wish to share their own story.”

Remus squeezed him. “What I think you could do is send out a few people. Have them go from hold to hold and collect all the records of sale. Release too. Afterward, they could try to find out where those freed slaves are and attempt to speak to them. If one was raped or abused, they could write a statement. If they have proof or other witnesses, you could deal with the offender.”

“I don’t think most rapists do it in front of everyone.”

“If there was more than one slave or servant working in a lord’s home, they might have seen signs of trauma or abuse. They might have heard something. Not every rapist can hide it as well as your Uncle did, and since Jean and Remere were dealing with their own feelings after Margot and Enzo’s death, I don’t think they were paying a lot of attention to you.”

That would work. If a prior slave could provide evidence and witnesses, he could use that. It was better than neighbors possibly pointing the finger at others if they knew a hunt was going on. If a person wished to say nothing and try to move on with their life on their own terms, they could do that too. Truly, most of the worst were dead and gone or at least removed from power. Not all owners had been raping or abusing their slaves.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll do that in a while and-”

Tom’s voice came from down the hall. “Your Majesties, are you busy?”

“What is it?”

Tom came to the open doorway. “There’s a woman named Milly outside, and she wants to see you. Wasn’t there a Milly who used to work at the Palace?”

Sébastien blinked at him, almost at a loss for words. Milly had returned after all of this time? “Let her in.”

Tom headed down the hall as Remus spoke. “Milly was the woman you told me about, right?”

“Yes…she was the only one there with that name. I didn’t think she’d ever come to see me.”

“The Regent’s gone, so perhaps that’s why? Do you want me to go so you can talk and have a few minutes of privacy?”

Sébastien hesitated. “All right.” If she wasn’t mad at him, and he could ask her a particular question, she might not want to say it in front of Remus. “It’s not because of you.”

“I didn’t think it was. I figured you might want a minute with her.”

Sébastien hadn’t been able to speak to her after the necklace incident, and since she’d been sentenced to slavery for five years, and it had ended, he’d assumed she’d never return. He had the sudden thought that she’d come to blame him for everything right to his face.

Technically, it was his fault.

Footsteps returned, and Remus gave Sébastien a quick kiss on his temple when they stood. Tom entered to gesture into the office, and Milly stepped into view. Remus greeted her and excused himself.

“Hello, Prince Sébast-I mean, Your Majesty. You’re technically the King now, not a Prince.” Milly adjusted one of the straps on the pack she was carrying and came toward the desk to do a little curtsy.

“Hello, Milly.”

“You’re all grown up.” She paused in front of the desk. “I don’t know what you were told back then, but I’d swear to Elira herself, I didn’t take that necklace, and I’m not here to ask you for anything.”

“I know you didn’t. The Regent planted it. He was the one who suggested checking the servant’s quarters. I’m assuming he alone was the one who snuck into the lady’s rooms, took it, and planted it under your mattress to be ‘found.’”

Milly’s shoulders sagged. “I thought another servant-He did it?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry.” Sébastien’s chest tightened. She’d sort of been like an Aunt or an older cousin. When she’d cleaned downstairs, she’d never seemed to mind if he came to find her and hang out. It had been a bit of normalcy since he’d no longer had real friends. “I tried to have you released.”

“I didn’t expect anything of you. You were fifteen.” She slid her pack off to set it on the floor by the chair and came around. “If you’d let me-”

Sébastien wasn’t inclined to hug people, but it was Milly, and women didn’t usually make him feel unsafe. He let her, and she patted his back.

“It was my fault,” he mumbled.

“You were a teenager-”

“No, the Regent did it because I was always talking to you. He saw us when we were sitting on the back step, and you were eating your lunch and telling me about babies born on the Winter Solstice. He’d often told me to stay away from the servants because they were beneath me, but it was so I wouldn’t get close to anyone. He didn’t want me to spend time with you, and he planted the necklace so you’d be arrested and taken away.”

Milly drew back to squint at him. “Do you mind if I sit? It was a long walk trying to find what street you were on. I asked a woman for directions, and I think she got her streets mixed up.”

“Yeah.”

She took the chair across from him. “I heard about…things. With the Regent.”

“Mhm.” His gut tensed. Another reminder that he’d been violated.”

“I wish you’d told me something.”

Sébastien didn’t know what to say to that. Uttering the words out loud to anyone had been unthinkable at fourteen and fifteen.

“I know I wouldn’t have had the power to stop him, but if you’d wanted, I could have slipped a note into Jean’s room or something,” she continued. “So someone with more power could have stopped it.”

His chest squeezed. The idea of anyone knowing back then had made him utterly sick with fear. Even if he’d known Milly would have tried, he wouldn’t have been able to admit the truth. “Jean wouldn’t have believed any secret notes left in his quarters. He would have thought someone was trying to smear his brother. Corentin committing such an act…he wouldn’t have ever believed it.”

She frowned. “I thought you were just lonely. I figured with you and Prince Remere being teenagers, perhaps he’d been trying to have his own friends. Some brothers don’t want the little one tagging along, and with your Father constantly busy, you seemed lonely. I don’t see why the Regent went to such extremes unless he thought you’d tell me.”

“He didn’t want me to have any friends. It was easier to keep me isolated so he could manipulate me. Once the abuse stopped, I’m sure you heard the rest about how he was seeking the throne.”

“I’ve heard enough lately while I was traveling.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I thought one of the servants had planted the necklace. She’d been rather sour about me getting a raise the past year, and she hadn’t. It was all I could think of. I didn’t think the Regent was trying to keep you alone. That’s not your fault.”

“I should have stayed away from you.”

“You couldn’t imagine what would happen. Nobody did. You also couldn’t control anyone else.

Sébastien took a deep breath. “I begged Uncle to talk to Jean to make him change his mind. He said he did, but I think he was lying.” He had paid the price for asking too.

“You were a teenager, and none of that was your fault.”

If he asked Remus what he thought, he knew deep down Remus wouldn’t say it wasn’t his fault.

“Do I need to go kill someone?” Sébastien asked.

“Huh?” She blinked at him.

“I don’t know who bought you. If they did anything to you…” Milly wouldn’t lie about a thing like that, and he’d personally deal with the person himself.

“No, no.” She shook her head. “An older man bought me to clean his house. He didn’t touch me.” She made a face. “I was more like a piece of furniture.”

“Did he hit you?” Sébastien would take care of that too.

“No, I stayed out of his way, and he didn’t bother me. I’m not even sure if he knew what I’d supposedly done. I cleaned the house, and that was all he cared about. I left as soon as my five years were up, and he offered me a paid position. I said no. Like I’d want to later work for someone who bought me. I found a job as a nanny for a bit. My son invited me to come up to the Windswept Isles where he’s living now, but I don’t want to leave Soleil. The Isles are too far anyway. The kids I nannied for are older now, and they don’t need me, so I figured I’d come south and see you if I could.”

“Do you have any plans?”

“I’ll look for work around here, and if there’s nothing, I’ll go along the coast.”

“If you want, you could work here.” Sébastien remembered she’d once told him she’d come to the Palace hoping to get a position in the kitchens because she liked cooking. The kitchen had been full, and she’d taken over for a servant who’d left to get married.

“I don’t want to put someone out of a job. I’m sure you’ve already got a couple of servants working here, and this house isn’t that big.”

“The cook is leaving soon, and if you’re willing, you could take her position. It’s just me and Remus right now, so you wouldn’t be making huge meals.”

She thought for a moment. “Actually, I would like that.”

“We won’t be staying here forever, and you could come later when we move if you want. We haven’t fully planned that all out, but we’re getting married.”

“I can definitely work for you now. It’s not like I’ve got anywhere to be. I’d heard the Rowland King might be marrying you. I wasn’t sure since it was just rumors.”

She wouldn’t be hoofing it to wherever, and she was a person Sébastien was familiar with, not that he had a problem with the other cook. Giving her a safe position that wasn’t too difficult was like another fuck you to the Regent even though he was dead and wouldn’t know.

“Does he make you happy? I mean, King Remus?”

“He does. He’s stuck with me during some very difficult times.”

“Well then, it’s nice to see you grown up and about to be married.”

She didn’t have anywhere to stay, and Sébastien had money in a lockbox in the desk drawer. She tried to refuse money and said she didn’t need a bonus for a job she hadn’t started yet. He practically had to force the lans into her hand.

“There’s a good, clean inn at the end of the street where you can have meals in your room, and the food is quite good from what I’ve heard. You can stay there for a week without draining your savings and look for a place to live. The servants don’t live here.”

She finally agreed, gave him another hug, and left. Sébastien sat at his desk and tried to get himself in order. He was glad she didn’t blame him, her time as a slave hadn’t been as bad as he’d been afraid of, and she was safe now. It still dragged up shit he didn’t want to think about, especially the afternoon when he begged the Regent to do something.

He’d known Uncle was at fault for Milly's arrest although he hadn’t dared to accuse Corentin. Uncle would have punished him. Sébastien pulled over some parchment packets so he could work and try to force his mind elsewhere even though he didn’t feel like dealing with much else at the moment.

Remus knocked and peeked in. “Did she go?”

“Yeah. I hired her, so she’ll take over for the cook when she leaves.”

“That’s good. Is she okay?”

Sébastien nodded. “I told her I’d kill her owner if he’d touched her, but he didn’t do anything besides make her clean.” He explained what they’d talked about while Remus sat beside him.

“What are you doing now?”

Sébastien finally ripped open a parchment packet. “This is from Lord Riqtwa. I’m sure he’s whining about the ship routes near the border to Moria like it’s my fault the lord next door charges an outrageous tax for ships coming up the river through his hold. I can’t tell Morian lords what to do, so I’ll have to tell Lord Riqtwa in very polite terms that it’s out of my hands and to shut up about it.”

“Do you really want to deal with it right this second?”

“Eh. It needs to be done eventually or he’ll be writing and asking if I got his last letter.”

“How about if we relax?”

Sébastien wasn’t sure if he meant to actually relax or get naked and destress in a different way. “I’m not up for sex.” He wasn’t mad at Milly for coming by, but remembering certain things made it hard to want sex.

“I didn’t think you were. We’ve got time before lunch, and since Lord Riqtwa can wait…”

“I can’t shirk work forever either.”

“It’s fine to take a break, and I think the morning brought up a lot of stuff.”

He was right. Maxime had even said it was all right to relax and do something he enjoyed if he was having a bad day. He had the freedom to pull back and not give a shit about what someone else would think, so why not use it? The last thing Sébastien cared about at the moment was a damn lord whining about taxes, and he could read it later. Fuck it.

“All right.” When he stood, Remus immediately scooped him up. “I can walk.”

“I still like carrying you.”

Sébastien couldn’t pretend he didn’t like it either. Even if he wasn’t in the mood, he still enjoyed feeling Remus’s hard body against his. “You’re just showing off your strength again.”

“Hmm. Maybe. I don’t think you mind.”

“I don’t.”

Remus carried him upstairs to the sitting room attached to their bedroom. “You can talk to me if you want, or we can sit and have quiet time.”

“I’d rather have quiet.”

He set Sébastien on the couch and hurried into the bedroom. Someone who actually cared if he wanted quiet time to relax was a foreign experience. When Remus returned, he had two books.

“This was your bedside table, so you’re still reading it, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I took this one from your shelf. I read it before, so I know I like it.”

Remus settled by him, and Sébastien kicked off his shoes before he drew his legs up to curl against him. Remus kissed the side of his head and put an arm around him before he opened his own book. Reading couldn’t block out reality, but it was definitely a way to relax. In fact, it had been one of his main coping mechanisms as a teenager.

Sébastien lowered his book after a few minutes. “You’ve told me I can talk to you about things quite a few times…”

“Yeah?” Remus lowered his book like he was ready to listen.

“You can do that too. You’ve lost people and went through a lot of shit, so you can talk to me if you want. It can’t just be one-sided.”

Remus squeezed him. “I already knew I can. I have told you things before, and you listened to me.”

“I figured I should still say it.”

“I tell you because you’re more reserved, and it was so you could cope for years. That’s not going to vanish in a day. I know you doubt things too, and I don’t want you to start doubting or thinking you can’t share things with me. I also know I can talk to you if I need to. Right now, I’m content to read if you are.”

“All right.”