An Education in Royalty: A Somerset Novel (Somerset Series Book 1) Read online

  Nikolai took a moment to consider this. "Why do you have an old-fashioned name when you possess a new soul?" he asked her, cocking his head to show that he was particularly interested in her response to his question.

  She tilted her head to the side, regarding him with a suspicious look. "What's it to you?" she asked him. She happened to like her name, thank you very much, old-fashioned or not. It fit her, and she didn't need some vampire telling her otherwise.

  "You know what?" Nikolai began, jutting his index finger into the sky. "You're Tinkerbell, and that's that." His tone sounded as though the argument was closed for discussion and he was right.

  Lizzie felt her cheeks turn red from frustration at how arrogant he was being – though, in reality, she shouldn't have been surprised – and she curled her fingers into fists. "Yeah, well, you're an asshole," she retorted, hoping her voice didn't come out as shaky as she thought it did. She shifted her shoulders so her hair spilled behind her rather than in front of her, and swallowed. "Now, we should probably get going. I need to change, especially since I have decided to grace your table with my presence, but only because my hunger is calling."

  "Well, that is definitely kind of you," Nikolai said, opening the door and allowing her to walk out before he did. "You're very generous, you know."

  "Oh trust me," she said, giving him a look as she began to head up the grand staircase. "I know."

  ---

  Nikolai smirked as he watched her ascend; knowing that no matter what she said about her reasoning for coming to dinner, he had won the round and that was all there was to it. He intended to win them all, but somehow knew that it wouldn't be quite possible, at least not with her.

  Chapter 11

  Lizzie quickly changed into a green, long sleeved shirt that hugged what curves her torso had to offer, and black slacks that hung dangerously low on her hips. She headed back down the stairs where Carl escorted her to her seat.

  "Might I say, mum," he said in his old English accent. "You look rather ravishing tonight. Is that a smile I see playing out on your lips?"

  She pretended to think for a moment, her lips curling into a knowing smile as she tilted her head slightly to the side. "I think it is," she agreed, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "Surprisingly."

  Carl led her down the stairs and to her seat, promising to get her a glass of ice water once everyone else was seated. Only William and Henry were seated, and after Lizzie's encounter with William in the library the previous night, she felt rather uncomfortable. She glanced at the fine china placed in front of her, trying to ignore the looks given between the two male vampires. She wondered what they were thinking, but then decided better of it. When one looked into the mind of a vampire, it was hard to forget, to decipher, and to imagine. And looking at the two vampires before her, she figured that their thoughts would be odder than she could ever imagine. That, and also sickening.

  When Nikolai, along with Lewis, appeared, she couldn't believe it, but she felt calmed. Where had Lewis been at dinner last night, anyway? She tapped the point of her chin and tucked that away for later.

  It was silly, but if the two vampires - William especially - had tried anything with her, she knew she could count on Nikolai to put them in their place. She wasn't exactly sure why she trusted Nikolai blindly when it came to her well-being, but she did. It might have to do with the fact that she was his bodyguard, she was supposed to protect him, and in some way, he was reciprocating, but at least they had some kind of rapport with each other.

  Nikolai looked good too. Not that Lizzie would ever admit it, but she couldn't help her green eyes flickering over Nikolai's taut body, clearly evident in the silk long-sleeved navy blue collared shirt and black slacks held up with what appeared to be a matching belt and black loafers. His hair, as it usually was, was pushed back from his face, the black color contrasting against his peachy skin tone. He flashed his blue eyes over to her, looking surprised that she was even there, despite the fact that he had overheard her stomach say otherwise. He took his seat at the head of the table while Lewis took the one on his right, one seat down.

  "Hello Elizabeth," Lewis greeted with a polite smile. His sapphire blue eyes reminded Lizzie of glaciers. She highly doubted she would ever see them melted. "It is good to see you."

  "And you as well, Prince Dragulia," Lizzie murmured, trying to maintain some level of respect with him. He never gave her attitude the way Nikolai did, so she didn’t feel she needed to go out of her way to cause problems with him.

  Nikolai cleared his throat, looking between both her and his brother. "You call him prince and me an asshole?” he asked, disbelief tainting his tone. “I'm the one that's going to inherit the throne, you know. I'm the one that's going to be king."

  "Well maybe if you acted like you were going to be king, I would treat you like one," Lizzie muttered under her breath. She knew that what she said was disrespectful, but at the same time, Nikolai was acting like an asshole. Although, the more she thought about it, the more she knew it wasn’t a justification for her behavior.

  Despite the low murmur of her voice, every vampire at the table could pick up what she said, causing Lewis to hide a smirk. Nikolai bit his bottom lip, but his blue eyes danced with amusement even though everyone else at the table expected him to scoff in outrage. For whatever reason, she seemed to be one of the only people who he couldn't rightly get mad at, which was just preposterous because he barely even knew her.

  Just then, three different servants began carrying silver platters of an assortment of food, and Lizzie's stomach growled with obvious interest. The dinner she had eaten last night was one of the best she had ever had, and she couldn't help but anticipate just what dinner tonight would be and couldn't wait to taste it. She was glad Nikolai had talked her into accompanying him to dinner. She, of course, would never say so.

  Just as the servants placed the platters on the surface of the table, Carl walked over to Nikolai. "Your Highness," he murmured adjacent to Nikolai's ear. "Miss Cozma is asking to speak with you in the tea room privately."

  "Dinner was just served, Carl," Nikolai said, looking at the food with obvious desire. "Is there any way this can wait?"

  Carl gave Nikolai a look that even Lizzie could read. The two seemed to have a close relationship, deeper than one a future-king normally had with his servants. "I highly doubt it, sir," Carl replied.

  Nikolai clenched his jaw together and rolled his eyes before standing up and walking down the hallway and into the first room on the left. Lizzie watched him go, smirking the whole way. Something inside of her told her that Nikolai was currently in the dog house, and luckily for her, not only would she be dining with exquisite food, but she would also be getting a very entertaining show for free. She glanced at the door before looking at the food, and once Lewis started to top his plate, she, along with William and Henry, started to follow suit.

  The first thing she grabbed was a big portion of macaroni and cheese. Yes, she knew that it probably wasn't the healthiest choice, but she loved it despite that fact. Adjacent to the pasta, she placed a small portion of Cesar salad, and then grabbed a good portion of a baguette. The last thing she placed on her plate was some fruit salad which was bountiful with strawberries, her favorite fruit.

  Before she could place a bite of the hot pasta in her mouth, Marie's voice rang through the hall. Everyone could hear what she was saying including Lizzie, except she was the only person who couldn't understand Russian. She tried to ignore it, deciding to focus on every time a single noodle melted in her mouth, and she closed her eyes in order to savor the taste. She was nearly able to block them out when Lewis started to chuckle, probably at something one of them had said. Nikolai had joined in Marie's conversation – fight – and they were speaking so fast Lizzie thought that if someone set music to it, it might actually sound like they were rapping.

  After tense silence and pointed looks, Lizzie dropped her silverware so it clattered to the pristine, white plate, a
nd asked Lewis, "What are they saying?" She arched a cool brow that she hoped didn't give too much of her curiosity.

  William and Henry glanced between themselves, a mysterious smirk on both of their faces as though they were hiding a secret.

  "I do not think I should reveal a private conversation between a royal couple," Lewis said, but his eyes wanted nothing more than to do just that.

  "She is complaining about you," William said since Lewis was not going to. "Of why you are here, your purpose, and that sort of thing. She does not like you. She thinks that you are planning to steal His Highness away from her so you can be Queen."

  "Does she know that I do not want to be Queen?" Lizzie asked, pushing her brows up to emphasize her point.

  "So you say, but she does not believe you," Henry said after a quick look at his brother. "Who would not want to be Queen of Vampires? That is her reasoning at least."

  "And he is trying to reassure her that nothing of the sort will happen," Lewis told her. "This is the cause of the fight. Nikolai does not put much into the fight and as a result she is even more upset than she already is. She says she's worked hard to achieve her position in society, and she doesn't need some human to take it away."

  "Which won't happen," Nikolai said as he walked into the room. His voice was flustered and very heavily Russian-accented as he transitioned back to English, and his eyes flashed a dangerous blue as he took a seat at the head of the table. Pressing his lips together, Nikolai glanced over at his brother. "Where's Karina?"

  "She is visiting her parents," Lewis replied, his sapphire colored eyes still holding amusement about the fight they had overheard. "And Marie? Is Marie not joining us this evening?"

  Nikolai's eyes narrowed in his brother's direction. "No," he said crisply. "No, she's lost her appetite."

  "That's too bad," Lizzie murmured, wiping her lips as she stared at her nearly empty plate. The tension had dissipated – for now. Currently, she felt full and bloated, but the food was so worth it. So what if she had to jog a few extra miles to shed a few extra pounds? The food was too delicious to resist temptation. "Now, if you'll excuse me…" She stood up and shot a smirk in Nikolai's direction. "The food was amazing, if you were wondering."

  "Yeah," Nikolai said, feeling his shoulders slack as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I know." And then dryly, he added, "Thanks."

  "Have a good night," she taunted as she headed up the stairs.

  Chapter 12

  The next evening, Lizzie headed back down into the library to do some more research. Not on Nikolai or the Dragulia family, but Marie Cozma. She was dressed down in her pajama pants with crescent moons splattered across a light blue sky and a white wife beater. Her hair was thrown up into a sloppy ponytail and underneath her arm was a rather empty binder. She hoped to fill that binder with her notes on the elusive Marie Cozma.

  Lizzie made her home at the same desk at the library she had worked on the previous night, and she sat there idly for a moment, her mind starting to work some kind of game plan for how to get her research started. Her laptop was back in her room, but she didn't want to use the Internet unless it was a last resort. Though the Internet provided fast results, it was hard to decipher just what was real, what was hearsay, and what was in between. Her results would be biased, and she needed facts on this woman, not opinions.

  But where to find this information? The library was huge, and that wasn't an exaggeration. All she could do was start looking for a diary, a biography on the royals, anything that could give her accurate information on Marie Cozma and her relationship with Nikolai. It took a good hour and a half, and while Lizzie had only found three books with her name mentioned, it was enough to start with. She took her seat once again, grabbed a pen and notebook, and started to write.

  Lizzie actually learned quite a lot about the woman, and even though Marie seemed cold and calculating, Lizzie had to admit she had an interesting life. She was born August of 1504, when Vladislaus Dragulia first started to rule over his people, the vampires. By this time, the man was immortal, as was his wife, and his two sons had been born. Marie's father was a duke and a duchess respectively, so it was only natural for Vladislaus to invite the two to live at court with him and his family. Nikolai and Marie grew up together, and as a result, it was only natural for them to fall in love with each other. By the time their children were two hundred years of age (to humans, the age appeared to be between ten and twelve years old), Vladislaus and Duke Cozma drew up a contract that guaranteed marriage between the two.

  Chewing her lip, Lizzie tried not to let her mind dwell on what she had just read. Nikolai had known Marie for nearly five hundred years, engaged for a little less. Such a prospect seemed rather boring. But then maybe if she was in love with someone, five hundred years together would be wanted rather than shunned. She hadn't known about that kind of love before; never felt or experienced it. A part of her wished that she had, but she believed that if such a thing were to happen, it would happen in time. And her job saved her from worrying too much about that kind of thing. Although there were times when she wished she had someone…

  Now, though, she had to protect Nikolai, and she decided that once this whole mission was over, she would take a much needed vacation. Her lips curled into a soft smile as she skimmed her scrawled writing, and she wondered if their love was like this archive of their relationship made it out to be. Were they really in love, or was it like calculating royals getting married for profit and not love?

  She was glad she was human in this day and age. No prearranged marriages. No forcing love. Nothing of that sort. Lizzie knew that the traditions still rang true for some cultures, and she wondered for a moment if it was common for regular, non-royal vampires to still do such a thing.

  Another couple of hours later, Lizzie stood and stretched. She didn't seem to find anything new besides what she already had already found, and decided to put some food in her stomach. Maybe this way, she'd be more energetic and inspired to continue to look through the archives. On her way towards the kitchen, she happened to run into none other than the woman she wanted to know more about. Marie Cozma was walking gracefully down the hallway in a sky blue silk robe, her luxurious pale blonde hair piled elegantly on the top of her head. Even just waking up, the woman was beautiful. Cold, but beautiful.

  Even Lizzie could feel the tension bristling between the two of them. She knew that things needed to calm down between them if Lizzie was supposed to do her job to the best of her abilities. Though watching Marie and Nikolai fight was amusing, it was also distracting, and Lizzie took offense to Marie's constant complaining of her presence when all she was trying to do was to protect Nikolai and the Dragulia name.

  She cleared her throat, but apparently, Marie either didn't hear her or ignored her, because she turned and kept her focus on walking passed Lizzie without so much as a courtesy nod.

  "Miss Cozma," Lizzie tried, deciding to go with something polite rather than demanding. It was only then that Marie granted her with a look – an icy one at that. Marie stopped, but she only tilted her chin up in order to look down at Lizzie, emphasizing her position in the vampire hierarchy. Lizzie forced down a retort she had on the tip of her tongue, and forced a smile. "Listen, I know that you don't really like me being here and I completely understand, but I just want you to know that I'm not here to upset you in any way. At least, I don't intend to. I'm trying to protect your fiancé, His Highness. That's why I'm here."

  Marie scowled, contorting her feminine features into something harsh and even ugly. "I am not stupid, Miss Grant," she said, her voice still beautiful despite its sharpness. "This whole assassin protector business is just a cover-up."

  Lizzie blinked, literally confused at just what Marie was suggesting. "I'm sorry?" she asked, trying to keep her patience. "I'm not exactly sure what you're saying. What is it that I'm supposed to be covering up, exactly?"

  "You and my fiancé," Marie snapped as though it was the most obvious thing in
the world. Lizzie noticed that when Marie became more agitated, her hand gestures became more animated. "This whole assassin business is just a cover up because the two of you are fucking."

  Even a word as crude as fucking sounded beautiful when a Romanian accent touched it.

  Instead of being upset, Lizzie opened her mouth and let out a long laugh. "That's absolutely ridiculous," she said once she could catch her breath. Marie did not seem to be as amused as she was. Her whole face stiffened, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Me and Nikolai Dragulia – His Highness?"

  "I'm not stupid," Marie repeated; her voice cutting as she stared daggers in Lizzie's direction. "I know what is going on between the two of you. I'm not blind. Do not take me as a fool, Miss Grant. This isn't the first time such an event has occurred when it comes to Nikolai Dragulia. I promised I wouldn't let such a thing happen right in front of my face again. I have put up with too much before; I don't need to deal with it again, especially not with some human."

  "May I ask you a question?" Lizzie said, giving each word weight, making sure to articulate each and every word in order to control the rest of the patience she had. "If something like this has happened before and you guys didn't reestablish your trust, then why are you marrying him in the first place?"

  "You know what I think?" Marie asked, and before Lizzie could answer, she continued. "I think you are the one that is stupid, Miss Grant. Did you just ask me why I am marrying Nikolai Dragulia? Might I remind you that he is next in line to inherit the throne from his father, who has prepared to step down once the threat against Nikolai is settled? Do you honestly believe that we love each other? Maybe, once, centuries ago, but that has faded into obligation. I am well-bred and would make him the best ruler the Dragulias would ever hope he would be." She gave Lizzie a once over, her face contorted into obvious displeasure. "I do not care who he is fucking as long as he marries me and I become the Queen of vampires."