The Duke's Bed Warmer

Chapter 179: Upto The King

After dinner, Emeric had again disappeared upstairs with another stack of documents muttering about royal disasters and never helping nobles again, leaving Austin and Alina alone downstairs.

It was almost midnight. There was no sound except for the crackling of fire. Alina sat curled at one end of the couch with a blanket around her shoulders while Austin sat beside her, his one arm stretched along the back behind her.

"You should sleep," Austin finally said breaking the silence.

Alina snickered.

"You are saying that as if you’re planning to sleep yourself."

"You must be tired after such a long journey," he replied.

"And so must you. As you rode beside me."

Austin didn’t argue further. He knew he would lose.

Alina then shifted on the couch and nudged his arm off the backrest, using it as a pillow for herself. Austin glanced at her, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he quietly adjusted his arm so she wouldn’t slip off and could sit more comfortably.

"Do you think the king ever loved her?" she asked after a while.

"I don’t know," he replied. "The king has always loved the crown more than people. And now i think that might include Audrey."

They remained sitting like that for a long time. A little later, Alina yawned, rubbing her eyes and glancing at him again.

"You’re warm," she said.

Austin gave her a look then stood up and pulled her up with him.

"Come on," he murmured. "If we keep sitting here, we’ll still be awake by sunrise."

Alina smiled and they went upstairs quietly. Emeric had given them the guest room at the end of the corridor. Alina sat on the bed while Austin loosened his collar and pulled off his coat. The exhaustion of the journey had finally begun to catching up to both of them.

"Come here," Austin said as he lay on the bed with Alina following him.

She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes as he wrapped his arm around her. Within minutes, they were both fast asleep. Both of them were too tired to carry the weight of the entire kingdom on their shoulders.

Emeric was already waiting for them downstairs by the time they arrived, looking half-dead, beside a mountain of papers and cold tea.

"I’ve reached a conclusion," he said the moment he saw them.

They both sat across from him immediately.

"Why do I feel it will be something dangerous?" Austin asked.

"Because it is," Emeric sighed. "But I’m serious. Don’t expose the truth publicly unless you absolutely have to."

"You think negotiating with the king is safer?" Austin smiled.

"Yes," Emeric replied as he pointed towards the documents. "These files are our only chance. We should present these files privately to the king and force him to cancel your wedding with Audrey himself."

Austin laughed.

"You think it’s that easy?" Austin asked. "The man hid an affair between his wife and Chancellor Crane for decades. He even officially adopted another man’s child just to protect his reputation and his position from the scandal. If he was willing to do all that for his reputation then, what makes you think he won’t destroy all three of us to keep this buried?"

Emeric became silent. He hadn’t thought about this possibility. Austin was right. The king had spent decades protecting this secret. There was no way he wouldn’t try to eliminate anyone threatening him to make it public.

Alina had been quiet until now, listening to both of them. After thinking for a while, she finally spoke.

"I still don’t want to destroy her."

Both Austin and Emeric looked at her.

"I know Audrey is cruel," she admitted. "And what she did to me was unforgivable. But this..." She looked at the adoption papers and shook her head. "This isn’t her fault."

Austin listened to her patiently.

"She didn’t choose how she was born, and she doesn’t even know the truth herself. She had spent her whole life believing herself to be the princess...everything she was today, she had built around that identity. If this becomes public, it won’t only ruin her politically, it’ll destroy her from inside."

Emeric sighed.

"So what should we do?" he asked.

Alina finally lifted her gaze and looked at him.

"We will speak to the king privately."

Austin frowned but didn’t interrupt.

"We will show him the evidence we have and will give him a choice. Either he cancels the engagement himself and leaves us alone or the truth becomes public."

"You know how dangerous it could be, right?" Emeric asked. "You’re planning to gamble with the king’s pride."

"I know."

"And what if he refuses?" Emeric asked.

"Then I’ll resign," Austin answered before Alina could.

Both of them turned to him in surprise. But Austin looked calm.

"If the king will still insist on forcing this marriage after everything, then I’ll step down as duke right there and leave with Alina."

"You’d abandon Ravenmoor?" Emeric asked, still in shock.

"Yes." Austin replied without any hesitation.

If anyone would have asked Austin to leave Ravenmoor just a few months ago, he’d have laughed at them. But now he spoke about leaving his everything behind as if it didn’t matter to him at all.

"You two are exhausting," Emeric said dramatically.

Austin raised a brow.

"You committed treason yourself. You’re even more exhausting than us," Austin replied.

"That’s exactly my point," Emeric pointed at both of them accusingly. "I was living peacefully before meeting you two."

Alina laughed while Emeric groaned.

"Look at this. I’m risking my execution and somehow you’re both still flirting in front of me."

"We’re not flirting," Austin replied. "We are just stating the truth."

"That makes it even worse somehow," Emeric replied.

Finally, the tension inside the room diffused a little. All three of them understood what waited ahead for them. And sooner or later, they would have to make the difficult choice and that too in front of the king.