Tarnished Crown

"Belle, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Caspian reluctantly allowed Belle to tow him to her room.

"I don't do things I'm not sure of, Caspian," she informed him. They reached her room and she practically shoved him inside, closing the door and leaning back against it. Caspian sighed.

"What about your party?" he asked.

"It's more for Lucian. No one will even notice I'm not there."

Before he could protest further she had wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips down to hers. It took him nearly a full minute to make himself draw back slightly.

"What's wrong?" Belle asked, looking slightly nervous.

"It's just...Belle, I don't want to become something you regret. What if tomorrow you're back to wishing you'd never laid eyes on me?"

"That's not going to happen," Belle said firmly. She pushed his jacket off his shoulders. "Caspian, do you really want to try and talk your way out of this?"

"No," he admitted. "I just-"

"Caspian!" she said, exasperated. But she was smiling slightly. She cupped his face in her hands gently. "I'm not going to have regrets. Not about this. Not about you."

Caspian's concerned frown eased, his gaze softening. He took her hands away from his face and held them for a moment, leaning down to place a kiss against her forehead. "As long as you're sure," he said teasingly. Belle rolled her eyes as she kissed him again, tugging him toward the bed. Caspian didn't have time for poking fun at her after that.

It was much later, when Belle was lying against his chest and he was on the brink of drifting off that she quietly asked, "do you really have to leave in the morning?"

Caspian opened his eyes, looking into her jewel blue ones. He brushed a strand of hair from her face.

"I'm afraid I do," he admitted. Her lips turned down in a pout. Caspian cracked a smile, turning so she was half pinned beneath him. She squeaked in surprise, laughing as he left a trail of kisses from her forehead to her shoulder.

"I wouldn't go if it wasn't important," he said quietly. "Trust me, I have absolutely no desire to be away from you."

She blushed. "Then why are you going?" she asked, pushing him back onto his back and crossing her arms on his chest to stare him down.

"My grandfather," he said reluctantly. "On my mother's side. He's sick."

Belle blinked. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even know you were in contact with that part of your family."

"I'm not, for the most part. My mother has managed to get a few letters to me since she left. But with Helene around it's difficult for us to maintain any contact. She's the reason my mother left in the first place. My parents were seeing each other secretly, and then my grandparents arranged a marriage of convenience and wealth between Helene and my father. My father is dutiful, and attached to his inheritance. So he married Helene, while leading my mother to believe he wasn't going to go through with it. They continued their affair until a while after they got married, and my mother was furious with him. But she was already pregnant with me. She told my father and he came to see us occasionally. Always in secret of course.

Helene found out about the affair and me, and of course she was furious and wanted my mother out of Elbis. My mother was a persuasive and tenacious woman. She left, but not before making sure my father gave me his name. Family names are very important in Elbis. It would have shamed him even more to turn away a child of his blood and name than to adopt and take in his illegitimate child. My mother would have taken me with her but Rehan wasn't a safe place then. She wanted a safer, better life for me. I'm not sure if it was exactly better. I never got the kind of love and adoration Oskar has, but by most people's standards I'm still a useless, pampered rich boy."

Belle leaned forward to brush a kiss against his lips. "You're not," she said softly. "You've been wonderful to Lucian. You told a little girl she could be a knight if she wanted to be. You realized how much Izzy meant to me and fixed her. You're more noble than you realize, Caspian."

"So you liked the gift?" he asked, pleased.

"I loved the gift. Why do you think I chased you down the way I did?"

He chuckled. "My head still hurts a bit but I'd say it's worth it."

"I wish you didn't have to go. I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too," Caspian said softly. "But I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise."

"Well if you really have to go in the morning, we'd best make the most of tonight," Belle said, a mischievous twinkle forming in her eyes. Caspian woke up late, feeling like he'd only been asleep for ten minutes. He couldn't make himself get out of bed at first, just watching Belle as she slept. He didn't want to wake her but thought it would be rude to leave without telling her goodbye. He gently shook her shoulder.

"Mmph." She cracked her eyes open, blinking groggily before giving him a small smile.

"Can't you leave tomorrow?" she asked hopefully. "Or next week?"

He laughed, leaning down to kiss her. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm going to be thinking about you every moment of every day until I get back. And when I do, I'm never leaving again because it's going to kill me to not wake up to your face every morning."

She blushed, smiling even harder. "It makes me a feel a little better," she said. Caspian rummaged around the room looking for his shirt.

"Are you looking for this?"

He turned to see Belle clutching the shirt in her hands and giving him a coy smile. He tried to reach for it but she scooted out of his reach, so he was forced to crawl back onto the bed after her. She shrieked with giggles as he pinned her down and kissed her neck while wrestling his shirt free. He spent so long lounging in bed kissing her that he very nearly missed his ride.

Belle slipped out to walk him home, where a carriage was waiting to take him to the harbor. His hair was mussed and his clothes were crooked because he'd gotten ready so quickly. Lara was waiting for him, and gave him a stony stare when he arrived, grinning like an idiot with Belle beside him.

"You have a hickey," Lara said, wrinkling her nose. "Gross."

"I'm going to miss you too," Caspian laughed. He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.

"I'll leave you and your maiden fair alone," she said. "I don't want to witness this."

She flounced away as Caspian pulled Belle into his arms and kissed her forehead.

"You promise you'll be back soon?" she asked.

"As soon as I possibly can," he said. "I'll be back before you know it."

"And here I'll be, just lying in that big cold bed all alone," Belle said mournfully.

"Please don't bring the bed into this, that's completely unfair. Your bed is my new favorite place."

Belle laughed, hugging him tightly. "What if you meet some pretty Rehani girl and forget all about me?"

Caspian tilted her chin up so her gaze met his. "I can promise you that will never, ever happen," he said seriously. "I will never forget about you."

He pulled her closer and kissed her again, before the carriage driver finally cleared his throat.

"I do hate to interrupt this, but we'd best be on our way, sir."

Caspian sighed. He lifted Belle's hands and brushed a kiss across her knuckles before forcing himself to get into the carriage. He poked his head out the window and she smiled and blew him a kiss. She stood there until the carriage was gone and they couldn't see each other anymore. Caspian sighed, reluctantly pulling his head back into the carriage and leaning it back against the seat. He hoped this ship he was taking really was as fast as it claimed to be.