~ DAVID ~
The night before, during the ball, I had had to keep a low profile and manage Erik. He'd been in the field for so long, he was forgetting the restraint needed in the Palace. While I'd always appreciated my brother's forthrightness, his candor, the fact remained that he offered a poor example to those nearby when he spoke to me as his brother, rather than his King.
Our childhood had been mostly separate. We knew each other much better as men than we ever had as children.
I would trust him with my life—I had to. He had placed himself in my shoes, quite literally, a dozen different times when the threat was too great. Willing to take the assassin's arrow, or the poisoner's cup for me.
It was humbling. And so, I endured the lack of boundaries.
