Chapter 345: She Must Be Nineteen Now

Behind Henry, Alessandro was still staring at Lorenzo as though he had forgotten anyone else stood in the room.

"Elena had a child?" The king’s face had gone strangely pale. His eyes unfocused for a moment as he calculated something only he could know. "She must be nineteen now, no?"

Henry turned back to Alessandro, careful not to let even a trace of desperation show on his face. "Yes."

"Would you have your guards seize my Lord Chancellor and keep him under guard while I remain here?" he asked. "If you will allow me to remain in England. I want to see her."

Henry believed the shock. He believed the confusion too. But Livia had spent too much of her life paying for other people’s lies for Henry to simply hand this man access to her. "Answer me one question first."

"Anything."

"She told me her father sold her into bondage. Did you do it?"

The question seemed to strike Alessandro harder than everything else.

"How could I have done such a thing when I did not even know she existed?"

Henry watched him before slowly turning back towards Lorenzo. "Let me guess. You posed as her father."

"It was not my idea. The queen ordered me to have the girl killed after Elena sent word to the palace when she fell ill. I could not do it. I could not kill royal blood. The only thing I could bring myself to do was send her away."

"Oh, do not stand there and pretend that was honourable." Henry looked back at Alessandro. "Your daughter was sold. She was passed from one set of hands to another. She eventually ended up in the keeping of a brothel owner."

Alessandro’s face lost its colour. "My God."

Henry did not spare him. Why should he? Livia had lived through every part of this. Alessandro could survive hearing it. "She was sold again and again. Used, moved about as though she were property, and at one point she was thrown from a roof."

Alessandro looked at Henry as if seeing him properly for the first time. "You said she is your intended."

"Yes."

Alessandro frowned, struggling to reconcile everything he had just heard. "She is to be your wife or your mistress?"

"Wife. Queen of England."

"How?"

Henry’s brows drew together.

Alessandro shook his head. "I do not mean—" He stopped, gathered himself, then tried again. "How did she come here? How did she come to be at your court?"

"That is a considerably longer story."

"She does not know she is a princess?"

"No. None of us knew until a few moments ago." Henry glanced towards Geoffrey. "We all find this new revelation rather shocking."

That was an understatement. They had just been discussing whether Geoffrey might need to disgrace his own reputation by inventing an illegitimate daughter simply to satisfy the Church.

Now Livia had acquired a royal father without anyone having to lie at all.

Henry almost wondered whether God had finally decided to make one thing in his life easy. "But my Lord Chancellor here has been of tremendous help in establishing her place in high society."

"Please. I will give anything. Just let me see her. Let me see my daughter."

Henry could not afford sympathy yet. Alessandro had only discovered Livia existed minutes ago. Livia, on the other hand, had spent nineteen years believing something entirely different about the man who had fathered her. "First, this depends entirely on Livia herself. If she chooses to accept you publicly as her father, then everything changes."

"This would no longer simply be a marriage between the King of England and a woman under the protection of Langford House. It becomes a royal marriage between two royal houses, which means terms will have to be agreed between our kingdoms."

"Anything," Alessandro said again. "Whatever terms you require. I only want to see her."

Henry believed him. That did not mean Geoffrey should.

"Your Majesty?" Geoffrey called.

Henry looked towards him.

"You should go."

If Livia acknowledged Alessandro as her father, the question of her marriage would immediately become a matter of diplomacy. Dowry, titles, political obligations, perhaps even trade concessions would suddenly enter a marriage Henry had previously intended to settle by simply marrying the woman he loved and daring anyone to object.

And the groom was not supposed to sit in the room negotiating the price and terms of obtaining his own bride.

Neither he nor Geoffrey had anticipated this. They had suspected Livia might have come from a respectable family. Perhaps a merchant house with money. Geoffrey had even entertained the possibility that some hidden connection to an Italian noble family might explain her education and manner.

Neither man had imagined this.

A king.

Royal blood.

Henry turned towards Lorenzo. "Have this fool apprehended. I want him held securely under guard at Whitehall until arrangements are made."

Alessandro did not object this time.

"I would very much enjoy taking your head myself," Henry continued, "but I shall leave that particular pleasure to your king."

Lorenzo swallowed. Henry stepped closer.

"That does not mean I cannot have some fun before I surrender you." He had been remarkably civil considering the man standing before him had helped condemn Livia to a life of slavery. Henry turned away.

The moment he left the chamber, his mind was already several steps ahead. He found the guard who had taken Lionel’s place and stopped him with a sharp gesture.

"Go to the Abbey. Speak directly to the Archbishop."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Tell him Lady Livia is to be returned to Whitehall tonight secretly."

The guard bowed. Henry lowered his voice.

"And inform Lionel to make certain she is watched every moment between the Abbey and here."

"At once, Your Majesty." The man hurried away.

There was no time to waste. Fortune had placed something useful in their path instead of another corpse.

God had given them this stroke of luck. There was no sense tempting fate by wasting another moment.

But in the end, everything depended on one thing.