Enchanting the King (The Beauty's Beast Fantasy Series) Read Online Free

men, Aliénor was supposed to have stayed at home, waiting for Philippe’s triumphant return.
    Aliénor rose to begin her restless pacing once more, but both ladies jumped as someone yanked the tent flap back. Philippe stormed inside, his pale skin flushed with anger. He was a slight man, slender, but the anger on his face made Aliénor recoil from him. Noémi shifted in her chair but seemed to restrain her first protective impulse to leap in front of Aliénor.
    “You, out .” He flung a hand behind him, and Noémi hustled out with a quick, worried look at Aliénor. Violette and the servants scattered as well, abandoning the mattresses in a lopsided heap for the moment.
    Philippe circled Aliénor and glowered. “You should not have risked yourself. There might have been Tiochene soldiers still about.”
    “Husband—”
    “You are meddling where you are not needed, are not wanted .”
    She folded her hands together behind her back to hide how they shook. “I found the injured man myself. My guard captain was not—”
    “ Bah . One injured soldier? Is that worth the life of a princess of Jerdun? No .”
    She gritted her back teeth, feeling again like she rode an unsteady mount, and at any moment she might lose control of her wild temper. “I thought the soldier might tell us what happened, how the raiders attacked. Then we could take better precautions for ourselves on the road ahead.”
    Philippe blew his breath out through his teeth, looking deflated at this sound reasoning. But then he straightened and waggled his finger in her face. “You should not even have been riding at the front. I knew I should have made you stay in the wagon.”
    She fought to maintain her composure, but the wild stallion of her temper broke from her control. “I did not go on this quest to ride around like some fragile pearl in a jewelry box—”
    “ Always you put yourself forward. Always you seek more than is proper. You are my wife. You belong to me, and you should damn well start learning to obey me.”
    Ever the same argument, ever the same problems between us . She scrubbed both hands over her face, trying to rub the fatigue away. Her efforts were in vain. This weariness went bone-deep, an infection in her blood, her very spirit, which seemed impossible to overcome.
    “Aliénor.” He must have sensed how near she was to breaking entirely, for his tone had gentled. She heard him approach but could not make herself face him. He caught her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry, my dear. I was just so worried for your safety when I heard what you had done.” He planted a chaste kiss on the back of her hand. “Join me for dinner tonight?”
    He framed it as a question, but Aliénor knew she had little choice. He was right: she was his wife. Her movements and every last detail of her life could be dictated by him should he choose to exercise that power. “Of course, my lord.”
    “No more madcap adventures, my girl.” He patted her cheek as he said it but hurried out of the tent before she could make any reply to him.
    She folded herself back into her camp stool and massaged her throbbing temples. At a rustle of cloth, she looked up. Noémi returning.
    “Well?” her handmaiden asked.
    Aliénor puffed out a mirthless laugh. “I know how thin the walls of this tent are. Don’t pretend ignorance. You know how it went.”
    “ Hmm . It’s not…entirely unreasonable of him, you know.”
    “To expect better obedience from me? I know. As a loyal subject I owe that to him, and how much more so as his wife? Did you have such problems with your husbands?”
    Noémi tilted her hand in a so-so gesture. “The first one, I suppose. At first. But then he broke me to bridle. Or I broke him.” Her teeth flashed in a smile. “Or perhaps better to say we learned to work in tandem, like the horses that pull your wagon. To aim ourselves and work together rather than trying to run away in opposite directions. You only end up