The Prince

“It’s Marie-Laure,” Kingsley said, without preamble. “She’s alive.”

Søren stood up and looked him in the eyes.

“I know. Your sister is alive. Which means—”

Kingsley’s knees nearly buckled with the realization. It hadn’t even occurred to him until that very moment, as he stood inside Sacred Heart with Søren before him in his Roman collar and clerics and his vows of obedience and poverty and chastity perfuming the air like incense…

“Your wife is alive.”

SOUTH

Wesley had a plan. A stupid plan. A terrible plan. The worst plan. But it was the only plan he had. And he could only hope that Nora, who was the queen of stupid terrible plans, would go along with it. It started with a horse.

“I’m not getting on that thing.” Nora stood at the white fence while Wesley walked his horse past her.

“You don’t have to get on this thing. This thing, which is actually a saddlebred stallion, is my thing. Your thing is still in the stables.”

“Is my thing much shorter than your thing?”

“Much shorter and much tamer.”

“Good. Then let’s get this dog and pony show on the road. Where’s the dog?”

“We don’t have a dog. It’s just a pony show.”

“I can live with that.”

Wesley dismounted from Bob for Short, the most trustworthy and sure-footed of the two dozen saddlebreds his parents kept on the farm, and tied him to the fence while he took Nora into the stable. He saddled up a mare named Purse Nickity and handed Nora the reins.

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” Nora said as they walked the horse out in the sunshine.

“Making you do what? Go horseback riding with me?”

“Yes. After this morning? And last night? And yesterday afternoon?”

Wesley stared at her blankly. Nora rolled her eyes as she came to stand directly in front of him.

“Young man, you have f**ked me raw.” She poked him in his chest. “I am saddlesore and I haven’t even been on a saddle.”

Wesley winced in sympathy. “Ow. I’m sorry. I didn’t know…I’m sorry.”

A huge grin spread across Nora’s face.

“I’m not. Let’s do this.”

She put her foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle, not even flinching as she adjusted her seat.

“Come on, Wes. If I’m not sore after sex, I assume someone did something wrong.”

Wesley laughed, hopped in the saddle, grabbed his reins, trotted Bob up to Nora.

“Well, I’m glad you’re just sore and not in actual pain. I know that’s kind of your thing, but I’m afraid it won’t ever be mine.”

“It’s okay,” she said as Wesley led them out of the pasture and onto a well-worn trail that wound through a few acres of hardwoods. “I don’t miss the pain as much as you’d think. It’s been kind of nice not feeling like I have to pay for the pleasure with a day off my life. Not that I’m complaining or anything. Kinky sex is intense, to say the least. But being with you…” She turned and smiled at him. “It’s been good, Wes. Better than I ever would have dreamed. Better than I wanted to dream. What about you? You doing okay being with a woman old enough to have given birth to you had she gotten knocked up at age fourteen?”

Wesley gripped the reins and pulled Bob around so he’d be looking Nora straight in the eye when he answered. “More than okay. It’s been the best thing ever.”

“Ever?” she asked, her face flushing. Wesley prayed the color on her cheeks was inspired by his compliment and not simply the exertion of riding in the last summer heat up the side of a sloping hill. He could have picked an easier trail, but he had something to show Nora and the only way to get to it was up. “Ever’s a long time. Almost as long as forever. And definitely longer than for-fucking-ever.”

“I kind of like the thought of forever,” Wesley said as they passed under a canopy of bowed tree limbs and came out on the other side into the early morning sunlight. “Don’t you?”

Nora shrugged. “Depends on the forever we’re talking about. Forever waiting for something you want is another definition of hell in my book. Forever with someone you love? That’s the other definition of heaven.”

“Want to know my definition of heaven?” Wesley asked as they reached the top of the hill.

“Does it involve a swimming pool full of mud, me in fishnets, a hunting horn and seven-layer chocolate cake?”

“No.”

“Then yes, tell me.”

“Here. I’ll take Zach’s advice and show you instead of tell you.” They paused at the edge of the clearing and looked down. “Just look out there.”

“My God…” Nora breathed, and a smile as wide as Kentucky spread across her face. “Damn.”

“Exactly.”

Damn indeed. Wesley had seen this land, this valley a million times, but until he saw Nora’s face light up when she looked on it, he knew he’d never seen it until now. He was happy that his first time really looking at it was with her. He wanted all his first times to be with her. And his last. And everything in between.

From the summit of the hill, they could see for miles into the valley below them. Winding stone walls carved S-shapes in the lush blue-green grass. A thousand horses pranced and danced behind gleaming, pure white fences. The pond glimmered like a diamond in the sunlight.