Chapter 10
Natalie arrived at the evening’s reception with nerves stretched thin. All around her, others laughed and called to each other, spirits high after the afternoon’s archery, but Natalie couldn’t enter into their good humor.
When she spotted Rose coming toward her, she ducked into the closest clump of people and started for the opposite side of the room. She couldn’t risk Rose asking her to swap back places. She wasn’t ready yet.
She hid behind a potted plant, too on edge even for the refreshment table. But beyond her hiding place, laughter continued to swirl through the room, growing louder until someone called for a dance.
“Yes! Yes!” several voices echoed. “We must dance!”
Either Prince Leo or the staff must have anticipated the request because musicians appeared on cue.
Couples began to form, but Natalie didn’t move from her hiding place.
She knew she was missing her chance to dance with Leo—even with informal dancing, the crown prince was sure to ask the Arcadian princess to open the dancing with him.
But she couldn’t bring herself to have any interest in a duty dance with Prince Leo.
The dance began, and she soon caught sight of Leo dancing with the highest-ranked Lanoverian girl present. Rose was among the throng as well, on the arm of one of the court men. The only face Natalie didn’t see was Luca.
Where was he? Off searching her room for clues?
He wouldn’t find anything there. She kept the note tucked on her person at all times so the maids wouldn’t find it, and she and Rose had already swapped any items that might be incriminating.
“Lila!” Luca’s voice made her start. “Why are you hiding back here?”
“I’m not hiding,” she said, but her words lacked any heat.
“If you’re not hiding, then you’ll have no objection to dancing.” He held out his hand in a movement that was half invitation, half silent command.
The lively notes of the current song wound down, and the instruments paused briefly as they prepared to start another melody. Natalie responded by instinct, placing her hand in his. She had always liked to dance, and hiding had never been her style.
Luca pulled her onto the dance floor just as the second song started. It was the strains of a waltz. His hand encircled her waist, and she sucked in an involuntary breath. But she let him pull her close as the dance demanded, clasping her hand in his.
He spun them into the swirl of dancers, and heat raced up her spine. Her heart beat an irregular rhythm, making it hard to think.
She had to be careful of Luca. He was suspicious of her.
When she worked up the courage to look up into his eyes, his intense gaze trapped hers. He seemed to be trying to search out all her secrets with his eyes alone. She shivered, and he pulled her even closer, the two of them alone in a sea of dancers.
Natalie wanted to push him away and run from the room. She wanted to pull him even closer still. She wanted to tell him to stop looking at her like that.
She did nothing.
“What secrets are you hiding, Lila?” he murmured in a husky voice.
Her heart beat even faster, her eyes still trapped in his. He had been pushing her since the moment she arrived, teasing her, testing her. But she refused to back down. A different kind of fire licked up her spine.
“My secrets are my own,” she said.
Something like disappointment flashed in his eyes, and he broke the magnetic gaze between them. It didn’t feel like a victory.
“I know there’s something you’re not telling me,” he said quietly. “I just wish you would trust me. Whatever it is, I can help you.”
“Can you?” she whispered under her breath.
He caught the words, pulling her all the way against his chest and trapping her eyes again.
“I’m more capable than you seem to think.”
She swallowed, wavering. But it wasn’t his capability she questioned, it was his loyalty. He didn’t know that she kept more secrets than just her own, or that they involved both Arcadia and Lanover.
Or perhaps he guessed as much. Perhaps it was his loyalty to Lanover that prompted the question as he sought out the thorn that had wedged itself in his court.
His arms, still warm and strong, held her close. But her thoughts no longer wavered. She looked up at him with defiance in her eyes.
“I am capable also, Prince Luca. If I need your help, I will ask for it.”
“Will you?” he whispered, half to himself, sparks in his eyes as he held hers.
His face swayed even closer, but the movements of the dance had spun them to the edge of the floor, and she pulled out of his arms. Ignoring the coldness that washed over her at his absence, she stood alone.
“You asked me to trust you. Perhaps you should consider trusting me.” Turning on her heels, she left the receiving room, the fire along her spine driving her all the way to her room.
But inside—as Hilary helped her unfasten her dress—she admitted to herself that her usual self-confidence had dimmed.
She had always believed that if she wanted something, she merely had to go and fight for it.
Now she wondered what good it was to fight when she was no longer sure what she was even fighting for.
What use was all her confidence if she could no longer see her way?
She parted the covers only to pause, her whole body going rigid. Another note on her pillow, identical in appearance to the last. She turned to ask Hillary where it had come from, but the other girl had already disappeared to her cot.
Natalie remembered belatedly why she couldn’t mention the notes to the maids—their loyalty was to Rose. She angled her body to conceal it from view as she opened it. Her fingers trembled as she read the words inside.
An angry hand had written in bold, slashing letters. The message upbraided her for failing to appear at the designated meeting and threatened to disappear forever.
Natalie read the words a second time. The first note had made it clear he was blackmailing Rose over something, but now it was obvious he had something Rose desperately wanted.
Guilt stirred within her. After her failure to appear at the first meeting, the man could have disappeared forever, taking whatever Rose needed with him.
He hadn’t done so, however, instead writing to her again with fresh demands. He didn’t intend to risk a face-to-face meeting a second time. Instead he had taken a different sort of risk—putting his demands down on paper.
In exchange for whatever he had stolen from Arcadia, he wanted a selection of private Lanoverian documents and one of their official seals. The writer described a hidden place to leave them and warned Rose not to test him again. Only once the documents were secure would he return what she sought.
Natalie blew out the candle, her whole body quivering somewhere between shock and excitement. What had the man stolen from Arcadia that was so valuable he could use it to blackmail a princess? And what should Natalie do now she knew what he wanted?
Talking to one of the Lanoverian princes was out of the question. If they thought for even a second that Rose intended to betray Lanoverian secrets in exchange for Arcadian ones, they might have her arrested.
Although there would be some complications to deal with if they arrested a foreign princess. They could send her home, though. And they could arrest Natalie with impunity.
Natalie couldn’t tell Rose either. She felt sure the Arcadian princess wouldn’t want to harm Lanover. But Natalie couldn’t be completely sure Rose wouldn’t feel cornered into doing so. When it came to the matter of loyalty, Rose’s would obviously lie with Arcadia first.
But Natalie had been thinking of Lanover as her future home for three years.
Her loyalty lay with the southern kingdom over Arcadia, despite her friendship with Rose.
There was no way she would give the blackmailer the items he wanted—nor would she let Rose do so.
The documents sounded highly confidential, and the seal was utterly out of the question.
He could do enormous harm with a stolen seal.
So, once again, her best option was to remain as Rose and find out everything she could about the blackmailer. As long as Rose didn’t know what the blackmailer was demanding, Lanover was safe. And if Natalie could find out enough details about the man, she might be able to help Arcadia as well.
Fresh energy coursed through Natalie now that she once again had a goal and a focus. This was why she had wanted to become a queen in the first place. She might be acting alone, but she would find a way to defeat the man who had the audacity to threaten a princess and cheat a kingdom.