Chapter Four: Loneliness Knows By Name

The castle felt different the next morning. Not visibly.

Banners still fluttered from the towers. Sunlight still spilled through stained-glass windows. Servants still hurried through corridors carrying trays, documents, and armfuls of freshly folded linens. Yet despite the familiar rhythm, something heavier lingered. Something uneasy. The kind of silence that followed bad news before anyone dared speak it aloud.

Jeremy noticed it immediately. People whispered more softly. Smiles appeared less often. Even the guards seemed more tense than usual.

The answer arrived shortly after breakfast.

"The king collapsed again."

Jeremy paused.

The words drifted from two servants walking ahead of him.

"He did?"

"They summoned another physician before sunrise."

Over the past week, stories about King Alistair's illness had become impossible to avoid. Each rumour seemed worse than the last, and yet hearing that the king had collapsed felt different. More real. More frightening.

Jeremy found himself wondering whether the king would actually recover. The thought followed him throughout the morning. By noon, every servant in the castle seemed to know.

The physicians remained inside the royal wing. The queen had cancelled several appointments. The council had been called together unexpectedly. And Prince Kelvin had reportedly spent most of the morning with his father.

No one knew much else, which naturally encouraged everyone to speculate.

Jeremy avoided joining the discussions. Not because he wasn't curious. Because something about the situation felt wrong. The king wasn't merely a topic of conversation. He was a man. A husband. A father. Somewhere above them, a family was suffering. That should have mattered more than gossip.

*

The afternoon found Jeremy assisting in the eastern wing of the castle.

Most of the work was simple. Dust shelves. Organize records. Deliver correspondence. Nothing particularly difficult, which explained why he was thoroughly startled when the palace steward approached him personally.

"Mercer."

Jeremy immediately straightened. "Sir?"

The older man handed him several sealed documents. "These need to be delivered to Prince Kelvin's study."

Jeremy blinked. "Myself?"

"Is there another Mercer standing here?"

"No, sir."

"Then yes."

The steward walked away before Jeremy could say anything else.

He stared at the documents. Then at the distant corridor leading towards the royal wing. Suddenly, his pulse quickened. Not because he feared the prince – at least that wasn't the entire reason. The truth was slightly more embarrassing.

He simply hadn't seen Kelvin in several days.

And for reasons he preferred not to examine too closely, he had noticed the absence. The realization annoyed him. There was absolutely no reason for a servant to spend time thinking about a prince. Yet lately, Kelvin seemed to wander into his thoughts with alarming frequency.

Jeremy sighed. Then began walking.

The royal wing occupied one of the oldest sections of Evercrest Castle. Towering windows overlooked sprawling gardens while portraits of previous monarchs lined the walls. Generations of Evercrests watched him pass. None appeared particularly welcoming.

Eventually, he reached the study.

The door stood partially open.

At first, he hesitated. Then he summoned courage and knocked.

"Enter." The voice sounded tired.

Cautiously, he pushed the door open.

The room was larger than his entire family home. Bookshelves stretched towards the ceiling. Maps covered one wall. Sunlight poured through arched windows overlooking the western gardens below. And seated behind a desk overflowing with documents sat Prince Kelvin Evercrest.

For a moment, Jeremy barely recognized him.

The prince looked exhausted. Dark circles formed around his eyes. His shoulders seemed weighed down by something far heavier than paperwork.

When Kelvin glanced up, surprise briefly crossed his face. "Jeremy."

The sound of his name caught Jeremy off guard. Somehow, he hadn't expected the prince to remember it. "I brought documents, Your Highness."

Kelvin gestured towards the desk. "Thank you."

He crossed the room and placed them beside several other stacks.

Normally, that should have been the end of the interaction. A servant delivered documents. The prince thanked him. Everyone moved on. Instead, silence settled between them. An uncomfortable one.

Eventually, Jeremy spoke. "You look tired." The words escaped before he could stop them.

He immediately regretted it. A servant had no business commenting on a prince's appearance. Fortunately, Kelvin didn't seem offended. He merely leaned back in his chair.

"Tired is one way of describing it."

Jeremy shifted slightly.

He should leave. Every sensible instinct told him to leave. But something kept him rooted where he stood. Perhaps it was the expression on Kelvin's face. Or perhaps it was the loneliness. Because behind the exhaustion, that was what Jeremy noticed most.

Loneliness.

The kind that couldn't be hidden behind titles.

"The king?" Jeremy asked quietly.

Kelvin's gaze drifted towards the window. For several moments, he didn't answer. When he finally spoke, his voice had softened. "He barely recognized me this morning."

Jeremy's chest tightened. The words made him a little uncomfortable.

"Everyone keeps talking about the throne," Kelvin said. "They discuss succession, alliances, wedding arrangements." A bitter smile touched his lips. "As though my father is already gone."

Jeremy didn't know what to say. No comforting speech came to mind. No clever wisdom. Nothing. So he simply listened. And that seemed enough.

Kelvin exhaled slowly. "The physicians speak in circles."

"They don't know?"

"No." The answer came immediately.

For the first time since entering the room, genuine fear appeared in the prince's eyes. Not fear of battle. Not fear of failure. Fear of loss.

Outside, a breeze stirred the trees beyond the glass. Somewhere in the distance, bells rang faintly across the city. The world continued moving. Inside the study, everything felt still.

Jeremy suddenly remembered losing his own father. The silence afterward. The emptiness. The strange feeling that the world should have stopped turning but hadn't. Perhaps grief looked the same regardless of whether someone lived in a palace or a cottage.

"My father used to say something."

Kelvin glanced towards him.

Jeremy swallowed. "He said people spend so much time fearing the future that they forget they still have today."

The room grew quiet.

"I didn't appreciate those words when he was alive." A small smile touched his face. "Now I understand them fully."

Kelvin studied him. Really studied. Not as a prince examining a servant. As one person looking at another.

The moment stretched. Unexpectedly warm. Unexpectedly intimate.

Jeremy became aware of every beat of his heart.

Then a knock interrupted and the spell shattered instantly.

A royal advisor entered. "Your Highness, the council is waiting."

Of course they were. The kingdom never stopped demanding pieces of him.

Kelvin straightened. The prince returned. The future king once again occupied the chair. "Thank you, Jeremy." His words carried more meaning than they should have.

Jeremy lowered his head respectfully. "Of course, Your Highness."

He turned and left.

As he walked through the corridors, something felt different. The prince he'd met during his first week at Evercrest had seemed distant. Almost mythical. A figure from stories. Today, that illusion had cracked. Not completely, but enough.

For once, Jeremy had seen the man behind the crown. And somehow, that alone felt far more dangerous.

*

That evening, Lady Elaine Rosamund Valcourt stood beside one of the palace windows while the sunset bathed the kingdom in gold. Her attention remained fixed on Kelvin.

The prince sat across the room reviewing council reports. Or pretending to. He had read the same page three times. Elaine knew because she had been watching.

"You haven't heard a word I've said."

Kelvin glanced up. A faint smile appeared. "My apologies."

"There." Elaine pointed triumphantly.

"What?"

"That."

His confusion deepened.

"You only smile like that when something is bothering you."

Kelvin laughed softly. "I wasn't aware my smiles had categories."

"They do." She folded her arms. "And yours are very easy to identify."

For a moment, warmth passed between them. Even as she smiled, Elaine couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed recently. Not dramatically. Just enough to be noticeable.

Kelvin seemed distant. Distracted. As though part of him remained elsewhere. She simply didn't know where. Or why.

*

Later that night, Jeremy stood upon the eastern balcony overlooking the sleeping kingdom. Thousands of lights glittered below like fallen stars. The air smelled faintly of roses carried upward from the gardens. Above him stretched an endless sky.

He rested his hands against the railing. His thoughts drifted unwillingly towards the prince. Towards conversations. Towards smiles. Towards eyes filled with sorrow.

A dangerous recognition settled quietly inside him. He had spent the entire day thinking about Kelvin Evercrest. Not because he was a prince or because he would one day become king. But because he was Kelvin.

The thought should have frightened him. Instead, it lingered like a secret beneath the stars. And somewhere deep within his heart, something began to awaken.