Page 26 of The Scandal That Made Her His Queen

“You don’t have to tell me, of course,” Nina said with a shrug. “After all, ours will be two very separate lives.”

She didn’t think she was imagining the way his jaw tightened at that. “I don’t know that either one of us has the faintest idea what our lives will be like. But we were speaking of motherhood, were we not?”

“Indeed we were.” She felt as if she’d dodged a hard punch there, or maybe caught it, because her breath seemed to come a little quicker. “I don’t remember my mother, you see. Not really. I have vague impressions of a kind voice, a hand on my cheek. Though I can’t say that those are actual memories. They might just as easily be things I thought I ought to imagine. Some of the kids at the orphanage could remember everything, back to when they were in a cot, staring up at their parents. But not me. You lost your mother, too, did you not?”

He was still lounging, but somehow, he looked more like a predator set to pounce than he did relaxed in any way. “I did. I was eleven.”

Nina nodded. “Then you remember more.”

Still, he didn’t move. “I do.”

The prickle of some kind of warning moved over her then, though she couldn’t have said what it was. She looked down at her bump instead, smoothing her hands over the soft, stretchy material that somehow managed to both emphasize her pregnancy and make her look more delicate at the same time. It shocked her how much she liked it, when she’d spent so many years concealing anything real about herself—loath as she was to admit it. Not only choosing the most unflattering clothes, but wearing them two sizes too big, or too small, so she always looked misshapen. All for the reward of hearing Isabeau’s shriek of fury every time she walked in the room.

I cannot bear the sight of you!the Princess would scream. Which meant Nina could retreat and have an afternoon to herself.

But she hadn’t simply gotten used to the subterfuge—she’d liked it. And yes, maybe hid there, too. Because she hadn’t changed the way she’d dressed when she’d gone traveling. She’d continued to do nothing with her appearance except make herself look worse.

This was the first time she’d tried to look pretty. And somehow, it felt important that it was with Zeus.

“I hope that I do all right,” she said after a moment. “With mothering. I have no examples to look up to.”

“You will be an excellent mother,” he said, his voice something like rough.

And Nina didn’t realize how badly she’d needed to hear those words until he said them. How she’d longed to hear someone say that to her. “I hope so,” she whispered. “But it seems such a complicated thing, to raise a child. I was raised by a committee of disinterested matrons. Who knows what harm a single person might do?”

Zeus got an odd look on his beautiful face. As if she had somehow disarmed him.

“My mother was lovely,” he said, his voice gruffer than she’d ever heard it before. “Being a small child in a palace is not, perhaps, the laugh riot you might imagine. But she made it fun. Everything was an adventure. We were always playing games, and looking back, that’s probably because she was closer in age to me than to my father. The courtiers you hate so much were not kind to her. But that was just as well, as it meant we spent more time together. I would say that in terms of mothering, she taught me that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you make sure to do it with intention. I have lived by that ever since.”

And she could tell by the look on his face that he had never said such things to another. She would be surprised if he’d ever said such a thing out loud before. Maybe because she knew he hadn’t, she had the strangest urge to go to him. To move across the little space between their seats and put her hands on him. Hold him, somehow. This hard, bronze statue of a man.

But she did not dare.

He might not let her. Or worse, he would—and she would not know how to stop.

“I will do my best,” she told him instead, feeling that starkness between them again. As if there was no artifice, no masks. Just the two of them.

She pressed her palms against her belly, as if already holding their child. The way she hoped she would, with love and wisdom, as long as she lived. And was surprised to discover that she was blinking back tears.

“Before we confront our deficiencies as parents,” Zeus said in a low voice, “which in my case will be epic indeed, I am certain, there is the little matter of our wedding.”

She didn’t want to look at him. It felt too fraught with peril. She blinked a few more times. “I already agreed.”

“Your agreement was unnecessary, yet still appreciated.” He only smiled, faintly, when she glared at him. “Before our wedding, we must turn our attention to presenting our relationship to the world. Our adoring public, if you will.”

Nina sighed. “They will all find out soon enough. I’m sure you’ll see to that personally.”

Zeus made a tsking sound. “I think you know that’s not quite how it works. Scandals are much easier to sort out than brand-new story lines, drip fed into the world to create a new impression of existing characters.”

Nina made a low noise and directed her attention out the window, where everything was bright blue and sunny. This high above the clouds, surely no one should have to concern themselves with these concocted displays—the lives the public thought people in Zeus’s position ought to be living, not the lives men like him actually lived.

“I hate all this,” she said, more to the window than to him. “Constantly having to come up with these stories. Pretending to be whatevercharacterit is the papers have decided I ought to play. I can see it now.Queen Hen, clucking her way across Theosia.”

And with her not hidden at all, but out here looking likeher.

She shuddered.

“Nina. Please. No one will call youhenbut me.”

She looked back at him, and as ever, Zeus looked at his ease. She told herself that it was annoying, but somehow, she felt a little bit less...fluttery.

He waved a languid hand. “I only spend time with beautiful women, as you know. Therefore, it follows that the woman I marry must be the most beautiful of all.”

“I think you’re forgetting something,” Nina said. He lifted his magnificent brows. “We already created one scandal. They already think I’m a mercenary gold digger. That was when I simply slept with my mistress’s fiancé. What do you suppose they’ll call me now?”

“Whatever I ask them to,” he said, as if the matter was already settled, the articles already written.

She could feel the dubious look on her face. “Is that how it works? You think you’re in control of the tabloid cesspool?”

But Zeus only laughed. “Nina. We’re going to tell them a love story. Don’t you know? All is always forgiven with love.”