Chapter Nine

"That has to have been a first." Vincent burst into the carriage causing a flurry of activity. "Yes, you two can sit up top for a bit. I'm not about to apologize to my new husband with an audience. Thank you, go, go, go," he added as Morgan and John left the carriage and went to sit up with the driver.

"Now." Vincent sat down, still in a rush, taking Orion's hand as the carriage lurched and got underway. "I'm sorry. I'll probably say that a lot, but I am sorry for the farce of our wedding reception. Are you feeling all right? I'm so grateful that you decided to accompany me. I swear this is all new for me. I've never been banished from a court before." His laughter filled the carriage space.

"I'm still not sure what happened." Orion wasn't going to object to Vincent holding his hand. He quite liked the fact the man seemed to want to touch him, even if the feeling was foreign to him. It wasn't unpleasant. "I know the Sullivans were intolerably rude, but surely I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. I should never have said what I did, and in public. I would've understood completely if you'd left me behind and sought an annulment from the World Council."

"You had every right to say what you did. If there's one thing you will learn in this marriage with me is that I will support your right to say whatever you feel, whenever you want, and to hell with what anyone else says."

Says the man who's lived with rank and privilege his whole life. But Vincent was apparently on a roll.

"What happened was, after you left I complained to the king about those annoying people. They were insulting to you and me both, but you most of all. Why couldn't they see that you were the one person out of so many others I wanted to commit myself to, that I was happy to pledge to be faithful too, even if our relationship is only ever platonic? Didn't those fools understand how important that made you to me?"

"It's not surprising they didn't know why you married me." Orion felt he had to point out. "I still don't know that either."

"We'll get to that. We'll get to that." Vincent patted his held hand with the other one, glancing out the window. "Isn't this lovely? Not how I thought this afternoon would go, but I'm glad I'm here with you. The king, and I know I need to be a tiny bit respectful here, because he is your father, but King Oscar waved off my concerns, loudly proclaiming to everyone else – all those people who came to our wedding – that he had scooped the opportunity of a lifetime by securing a deal with Faast over a card game. He was relegating your importance to that of a poker chip. I was furious on your behalf."

Oh dear. "I could see where that would be an insult to you as well," Orion said cautiously. "Are you planning to complain to the World Council about all this at all?"

"I was this close." Vincent held up his free hand showing a tiny gap between his thumb and first finger. "This close. But some man randomly appeared and whispered in your father's ear so he was carted off, and then Onyx grabbed me when I was asking Morgan how I could find you…and after a discussion in your brother's office, I told him somethings, he told me somethings, and I agreed not to complain to the World Council at this time."

He was looking in Orion's direction. "Should I have pushed harder to defend your honor and reputation? Because it's not to late to do that."

"No, but I sincerely appreciate the offer." Orion shook his head, finding it easier to look out of the carriage window. An attentive Vincent was almost overwhelming. Orion didn't think he'd ever met anyone who was so charismatic.

"Apparently you and your brother have dealt with similar situations in the past."

"Onyx is doing the best he can in difficult circumstances." Orion felt a pang at leaving his brother behind. As the heir, it wasn't as though Onyx could just go off and live a quiet life with his lovely wife, the way they dreamed of doing. "I'm genuinely sorry that you were subjected to such insulting behavior by the king and the Sullivans. But you have to know, the word is out now. Gossip spreading about our wedding is inevitable, and it's not going to take long before everywhere you go, those same people are going to know you won your husband in a card game."

There was that hand pat again. Orion wasn't sure if Vincent was even aware of what his hands were doing.

"People who care about us won't be rude enough to mention it, and for those people who don't care about us, then why would we care about their opinions of us."

He really doesn't get it! Turning to face his new husband, Orion glared at him. "You might not care about that sort of thing, but I do. You're the gifted one, oh so charming, who can talk anyone around to their way of thinking maybe, but this impacts me, too. Those people will be rude and treat me as if I was, as you called it earlier, a poker chip, and personally I could do without that sort of negative attention."

Orion expected a rude retort in return, or possibly for Vincent to just wave off his concerns. He did not expect his new husband would beam at him as if he was the biggest holiday treat.

"I was right. I was right. Remind me to tell Morgan. He didn't believe me, but I was right. This, my wonderful new husband, this interaction is why I wanted to marry you."

By the goddess, he's demented. "You wanted to marry me so people could refer to me as a poker chip for the rest of our days?"

"No, no, no, you lovely man. I will slay anyone who calls you that to your face."

"Please don't. That could get messy and I'm sure the World Council wouldn't approve of your actions." Because with Vincent smiling the way he was, Orion could actually see the man doing it – running a sword through anyone who upset him. "What did you mean about why you wanted to marry me?"

"Because you don't fawn over me, you delightful man. You talk back to me. You tell me when you're upset with me. In my whole life, only two people – just two people – have ever done that for me. One of them is my mother and the other one is Morgan, and that was only after he'd been with me for years. That is why I wanted to marry you."

"You don't know me at all," Orion said cautiously, because frankly that was the most ridiculous reason he'd heard of anyone wanting to marry. But then he hadn't lived the way Vincent had, and it was possible there was some truth behind Vincent's intent, even if he wasn't articulating it very well. "I do not want to spend wedded life with a man who would purposefully upset me just so I would argue with them."

"I know my recent actions might suggest I would do that, and I'm sorry I gave you that impression. Did you see what I did there? I apologized again and I never apologize. With you, I've done it at least twice already." Vincent seriously looked as though Orion had given him a present. "But no, you're not afraid of talking back to me or sharing your opinion. You don't just stare at me like I've hung the moon and treat everything I say as though it's a prophecy."

"People seriously treat you that way?" Or do you have an overactive imagination?

But Vincent was nodding. "You'll see for yourself when we stop for the night. Doesn't matter who the people are, they all do it. There was this one time, when I was so bored with everything people were talking about around me. I think I was in Monce at the time. So I just randomly stated that I thought the gremlins who lived in the border mountains were starting a clothing line exclusively for society and royal family members."

Orion frowned. "There's no such thing as a gremlin and nobody lives in the border mountains. The lands are frozen up there year round causing any magical crystals to break before they can be used. Unless a person wanted to subsist on goat meat cooked over open fires, there's nothing up there worth having."

"I know." Vincent almost doubled over in laughter. "But when I said it, you know with my serious face on, one person said that they'd heard something similar, nodding with that self-important air of a person in the know. Then someone else piped up and asked me how they could get in touch with the gremlins. A third person then asked me if the jacket I was wearing was part of the gremlin's collection. I'm not joking. The company I was keeping was so keen on seeking my approval they bent over backward trying to show support for mythical gremlins and their new clothing line."

"That genuinely happened?" Orion started to laugh. "You promise you're not joking with me?"

"The story is true, and that's not the first time it's happened. I've had people agreeing with me that it's a pleasant day when our noses are so red they're about to fall off. You're not going to be that way with me, are you?"

"Not in private, no. I will share my opinions with you, whether you agree with them or not. But I won't disrespect you in public. I wouldn't do that to you."

"Don't be a yes man." Suddenly both Orion's hands were being held, and he was aware again of Vincent's charisma. "I made you my equal from the moment our vows were said. Stand by me and speak your truth, no matter who is talking to us. I wanted to marry you because in you I saw someone who could look past who I was or how I looked and just treat me like another person. That's all I've ever wanted."

It would be so easy to scoff, make a joke, or even mention yet again, that Vincent really didn't know Orion at all. But Orion hadn't lived Vincent's life. For all he knew everyone around the man had always wanted to agree with him no matter what ridiculous things the prince might say. He did know society family members in Tyrion fawned over the crown prince – there was plenty of gossip around about that - so there was an element of truth to what Vincent was saying.

"I promise I won't look at you as though you've hung the moon," he said with another chuckle. "Unless you have done, in which case, I'll pat you on the back and say, ‘well done.' Will that work?"

"Brilliant." Vincent flashed those perfect teeth. "Now tell me, seeing as we've got a way to go this afternoon, have you ever read anything by Jonas Moore? I was reading his book on the formation of policies within the World Council the other day…"

Orion had read the book, and while he hadn't imagined spending his first day married discussing politics with his husband, it was an unusually pleasurable way to spend an afternoon.