Chapter 4 #2
“That has yet to be seen,” Natalie said loftily, fearing that he was once again laughing at her for making a mistake. Were princesses supposed to confine themselves to eating lightly at royal functions? “I haven’t tried any of it yet.”
Luca laughed. “My apologies for making assumptions.”
“Do you do that a lot?” Natalie asked tartly.
Luca’s eyes gleamed. “I may have been guilty in the past, but you’re already confounding all my assumptions, Princess.”
His casual use of the false title sent a pang of discomfort through Natalie, so she turned away without a word and found a nearby seat. He followed her despite her rude departure, his own plate now full.
They ate in silence for several minutes before Natalie gave up her attempts to take only small, occasional bites and dug into the food properly.
She didn’t like to pander to the second prince’s already comfortable ego, but justice prompted her to retract her earlier qualification and compliment the food.
“There’s no need to sound so delighted about it,” Luca said with a suppressed laugh. “I promise not to take it as a personal compliment, given I had nothing whatsoever to do with either the menu or food preparation.”
His words surprised a laugh out of her. Once again, he had seen her too clearly, and she should have been even more annoyed. But somehow, she couldn’t muster the feeling this time.
“If nothing else, I’m fair,” she said. “No one could find fault with this food.”
“You clearly haven’t met Puss.” Luca gave a private chuckle.
“Puss?” Natalie asked, intrigued in spite of herself.
Luca launched into a string of tales about the talking cat from the Palace of Light who made occasional visits to Lanover. Clearly the mischief-loving princes had delighted in the creature’s arrival, while their parents were less enamored by Puss’s presence.
The cat’s exploits—aided by a young Leo and Luca—were so amusing that she entirely forgot any remaining irritation with the second prince. Before she knew it, she had finished her plate, her stomach too full to allow another bite. At least not while wearing that dress.
Someone called for Luca’s attention, and Natalie took the opportunity to slip away. She would use his distraction to seize another chance with Leo.
But the crown prince was no longer talking to the duke, and it took Natalie several minutes to find him. When she did finally locate him, he had Rose stuck in a back corner, trapped in conversation with him.
Natalie grimaced. It was only the first evening, and she was already failing in her half of the arrangement. Rose had given Natalie her position so that Rose wouldn’t end up stuck spending all her time with the prince she was determined not to fall in love with.
Natalie started toward them, resolving to rescue Rose and achieve her own purposes at the same time. But she was once again intercepted before she could reach her goal.
“There you are!” Luca exclaimed. “Some of the courtiers are less mobile than others, and I’ve been tasked with delivering you to them.”
“I’m occupied right now.” Natalie’s short response barely sounded civil, but it did nothing to discourage Luca.
“You don’t look occupied.” His look of innocence made her want to shake him.
She drew a deep breath and reminded herself that she was representing Arcadia and Rose. She couldn’t slight the courtiers of Lanover, however irritated she was with their second prince.
“Very well,” she said through her teeth, giving him a fake smile and forcing herself to accept his arm.
He smiled broadly, and she told herself she was imagining the look of victory in his eyes as he led her toward the other side of the room. But when he began to pay her fulsome compliments, she snapped.
“Stop that!”
“What’s the matter?” he asked in a wounded tone. “It’s hardly my fault that your beauty lights up the room. Aren’t princesses used to compliments?”
Her step faltered, her eyes flying to his, but she couldn’t read anything but amusement in his smile. Had his choice of words been mere chance?
She needed to get a handle on herself. She would have plenty of future opportunities to talk to Leo. For now, she needed to focus on allaying any suspicion.
She forced her face into a more natural smile. “Compliments are one thing, flattery is another. I don’t appreciate the latter.”
Luca’s grin turned a little wicked. “Then you needn’t worry, Lila. I meant every word, I assure you. You’re a breath of fresh air here.”
She gazed at him, her surprise turning to wrath as he extricated himself from her light grasp and disappeared into the crowd with a wave and a wink.
She slowly turned to face a clump of elderly courtiers, all of whom were regarding her avidly.
Had he truly just fled without even performing introductions?
The babble of voices soon proved his services weren’t necessary, and Natalie gave up any hope of keeping all the names and titles straight.
They soon explained that they were all too old to go traipsing around the kingdom on tour, which explained their presence at an event almost entirely dominated by young people.
“We don’t intend to run ourselves ragged all spring like you young people,” one of the women informed her. “But of course we had to come tonight to at least see King Maximilian’s youngest for ourselves.”
Her words launched a series of reminiscences as the group remembered all the times each of them had seen her supposed parents or grandparents in the past. It took nearly an hour, and Natalie’s cheeks were strained from smiling by the end.
Natalie herself had remained as silent as possible—a feat she usually found difficult.
But her current companions clearly had far more familiarity with the Arcadian royal family than any of the younger courtiers, and she was desperately conscious of the risk of saying something that would give away their charade.
By the time she finally escaped, she had a headache, and she could see no sign of Rose, Leo, or even Luca.
She ground her teeth together as she left the event, wishing cold morning chocolate and holes in his socks on Luca. He deserved it after abandoning her like that.
She stormed through the corridors toward her room, relieved to find she remembered the route. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that Luca had been playing with her all evening.
But why? What had motivated the prince to treat her that way when he thought she was Princess Rose? Did he truly suspect their switch?
The idea made her hot and uncomfortable, and she knew her own guilty awareness put her at a disadvantage against him. How could she hold her own against the infuriating man when she had to maintain a facade?
And what had that facade gained her, anyway? She hadn’t gotten near Leo all night.
She would go to Rose in the morning and tell her she wanted to switch back immediately. Leo didn’t seem to have any issue talking to Natalie, the commoner, and Natalie would much rather get to know him as herself.
She only hoped she had a chance to see Luca’s face when she proved she could surprise him, after all. She had been wrong-footed with him since the start, and she looked forward to finally turning the tables.