Chapter 14
Rose ran blindly through the palace, fleeing from the confused mess of her feelings. But they were wedged in her heart and followed her wherever she went.
She finally slowed her steps, recognizing her location by the hubbub of noise emanating from the dining hall. The evening meal must be in full swing.
How long had it been since she had bumbled her way inside for breakfast on her first morning?
It felt like a lifetime ago. And there was no chance she would go unnoticed in the hall now.
Far too many of the servants had seen her in the interview room with Leo—they wouldn’t welcome her intrusion on their turf.
She turned to walk away, but her steps faltered.
One person was waiting for her to appear in the dining hall—Aurora’s agent.
With everything that had been going on, Rose had forgotten all about him and the problems of Arcadia.
She had become so wrapped up in Lanover’s problems—and in Leo himself—that she had forgotten her duty to her own people.
How long had it been since she had even wondered about the thief and the letter that had never appeared? Too long.
She turned reluctantly back toward the dining hall, hesitating as she tried to force herself to enter. She had nothing to report to the agent, but at least she could get an update from him.
But she was still standing uncertainly at the door when an indrawn breath drew her attention. The footman in question stood a few feet away, stopped short on his way into the dining hall.
“I’m sorry,” she began, but he cut her off with a quick shake of his head.
Within seconds, he had whisked her into the same storage room as the previous time. When the door shut behind them, he turned to her expectantly.
“Have you heard from the thief? When there was no word from you in all this time, we thought he must have changed his mind. Or that our information had been faulty.”
“No, I never received a letter,” Rose said. “I’m sorry I’ve been no use at all. I just came for an update.”
The man watched her, a speculative gleam in his eyes. “You’ve been busy with other matters.”
Embarrassment washed over Rose, but she straightened her shoulders. She wasn’t ashamed of what she’d been doing for Lanover.
“Yes, it has been busy.”
“There was some debate among the agents as to whether you were still interested in the matter of the missing seal.” He said the words carefully.
“Of course I am!” This time Rose did flush. “I’ve been distracted, but I still care.”
“In that case, you have good timing. Approaching you has been complicated given you spend all your time with the crown prince, but there is time-sensitive information you should know.”
“Something’s happened?” she asked sharply. “What is it?”
“We need you to act as liaison,” he said.
“Most agents don’t have positions of authority, and the few who do are with the tour.
Even the Dowager Duchess of Sessily—who has long operated as liaison between Aurora’s network and the Lanoverian crown—is with the tour. Even her son is away from the capital.”
“This isn’t a matter for the Lanoverian crown anyway,” Rose said resolutely. “It’s a matter for the Arcadian crown, and I’m their representative here.”
“If you insist.” Despite the man’s cautious words, he looked relieved to be able to hand responsibility to Rose.
“We still haven’t definitively identified the thief, but we’re certain he’s in league with the forgers.
Unfortunately, that’s a problem because there are increasing signs that the forgery ring is breaking up and preparing to leave Lanare.
If that happens—and if the thief goes with them—we may lose him forever. ”
Rose sucked in a breath. “And the stolen seal along with him.”
“Not to mention any documents he’s already made with it,” the footman said grimly. “He’s had plenty of time to make a damaging number of false documents by now.”
“We can’t let them leave!” Rose cried. “You know where the building with the red door is—you need to stop them.”
The agent didn’t move, showing no discomfort as he spoke. “That isn’t our role. We aren’t in a position for that sort of overt action. Guards are needed for that. I can provide information, but you’re the one who has to decide if you wish to involve guards and move against the ring.”
“I need to organize a raid on the forgery ring?” Rose asked blankly.
“If you deem it to be in the best interests of your kingdom. As I said, there are some among our number who have doubted whether you would wish to make such a move.”
“Of course I do! I just don’t know…” Rose drew a breath. “Tell me all the information you can.”
The agent nodded and proceeded to explain exactly how to identify the building in question. “I would recommend moving as quickly as possible. They may already have moved out some of their operation.”
“But—” She stared at him blankly. She hadn’t brought any guards with her from Arcadia, and she knew nothing about organizing a raid.
The footman bowed. “I’ll leave it in your hands, then.”
Before Rose could think of a suitable reply, he’d left the room. She stood there alone, mind spinning. Her fingers rose to her lips. Too much had happened that day for her to make sense of any of it.
But she needed to force her mind to work. The agent had said haste was necessary, and she could hear Natalie’s disparaging voice criticizing people who dithered. Rose couldn’t afford to dither.
But the fact remained that she had no guards to call on. Her parents hadn’t sent any Arcadian guards to Lanover as a gesture of good faith, placing their trust in the Lanoverian guards to protect her. But that meant Rose had no one to command.
However, it also meant that Rose had been given permission to use Lanover’s guards as if they were her own. If she needed guards, she would have to make use of Leo’s. Her first stop needed to be the guard barracks.
She hurried out of the palace, making straight for the administrative building attached to the barracks. Inside she stopped at the first large office which contained a guard captain sitting behind an enormous pile of papers.
“I need a squad of guards,” she said, still panting slightly from her haste. “Or maybe two.”
The guards brows slowly rose as he examined her from head to foot. “Do you now, Miss?” Rose stiffened at his tone, but he continued. “I’ve got quite enough work to do without people joking around.”
“I can assure you, I’m not joking,” she said in her iciest voice.
The captain hesitated at the instinctive note of command in her voice, but after a second examination of her, he sighed.
“Look, I don’t know how things are done in the mountains, but here the guards aren’t a public resource to be commandeered at will by all and sundry. And they’re certainly not to be used in personal squabbles.”
Thunderstruck, Rose stared at him. The mountains?
After talking with Aurora’s agent as her true self, she had completely forgotten that most of the palace still knew her as Natalie. The guard captain wasn’t seeing Princess Rose of Arcadia, commandeering guards as part of a royal exchange, he was seeing a commoner girl from the mountain kingdom.
She opened her mouth to claim her true identity, but her words stalled in her throat, and she closed it again without speaking.
She had been living in the palace for weeks, happily playing the role of Natalie.
Why would this random guard captain believe her if she suddenly claimed to be Princess Rose?
At best, he would kick her out unceremoniously.
At worst, he would drag her off to Leo to let the prince deal with her delusional claims.
Holding her head high, Rose left the office without another word. It was past time to tell Leo the truth—that much was clear. But she didn’t want a random guard captain in attendance for that conversation. Nor did she want it to begin with someone declaring her to have delusions of grandeur.
But when she walked back into the palace, she turned toward Natalie’s room, not Leo’s. Natalie had been faithfully acting in Rose’s place for weeks. Even with Rose stealing all Leo’s time, Natalie had still fulfilled the terms of the swap.
Rose needed to give her warning of what she was about to do. Natalie might even want to accompany her to talk to Leo. Rose couldn’t deny she had the right, although she preferred to confront Leo alone.
Every step she took carried her closer to reclaiming her true name and position. Relief blossomed inside her, unfurling leaves that stretched and curled all the way through her.
She had thought she was freer without her title weighing her down, but being Natalie had been restrictive in different ways. Rose had experienced firsthand some of what had driven Natalie to want to become a queen.
Maybe everyone had aspects of their life that felt imposed and foreign to their true selves.
Maybe navigating that reality was something everyone had to learn to do.
Leo had said he could be a responsible crown prince and still have fun—that his old mischievous self was still a part of him, even now he was crown prince.
Rose’s experiment had proved the same was true of her.
Posey and Princess Rose weren’t two separate people.
They were two facets of the same whole, both an integral part of her.
When she had tried to live just as Posey, she had constantly fallen back into Princess Rose.
Trying to separate the two had been a futile effort, and one that would only cause harm if she allowed it to continue.
Together she and Natalie would end their ruse.
But when Rose let herself into Natalie’s room, the other girl was nowhere in sight.
From the look of the room, Natalie had just finished elaborate preparations for an evening event, and all three maids bustled around, restoring the room to order.
Rose tried to remember what had been scheduled for that night and failed.
“Where’s Natalie?” she asked. “I need to talk to her at once.”
“She’s at the ball, of course,” said Donna. “As she should be, considering it’s the final event of the season and being held in honor of you.”
Hilary shook her head. “She’s as bad as the other one.”
“What do you mean?” Rose asked. “Are you talking about Natalie?”
The three maids exchanged looks, and Donna sighed. “Not too long ago, she came rushing in here just like you did. And she was saying she needed to urgently talk to you as well.”
Rose’s eyes widened. “She did? I need to find her immediately.”
“She’s at the ball!” Hilary sounded scandalized. “You can’t rush into the ballroom looking like that.”
Rose looked down at herself, frowning. She looked respectable enough, but it was true that she’d become somewhat bedraggled over the course of the day. And she certainly wasn’t dressed for a royal ball.
“That isn’t what’s important—” she began, but Cate cut her off, apparently too frustrated to worry about insignificant matters like status.
“Of course it’s important! Eventually everyone is going to know you’re the true Arcadian princess, and you can’t turn up to your own ball looking like that!
It won’t take us long to get you ready, and if the two of you are so desperate to talk to each other, then it’s fortunate you’ll both be at the ball and can do as much talking as you like. ”
“Something you won’t be able to do if the footmen refuse you entry,” Donna added warningly.
Rose deflated. “Fine, then. But be as quick as you can. It doesn’t matter what I look like. I just need to look fancy enough that they won’t stop me at the door.”
Even as she said the words, a traitorous part of her thought of Leo. He would surely be at the ball.
But it didn’t matter whether he thought she looked more beautiful than the other girls. He had kissed her while she was dressed exactly as she was.
She put her hands to her suddenly burning cheeks, and the maids exchanged another round of looks, Cate bursting into giggles.
“No need to wonder who you’re thinking about,” she said archly, making Rose snatch her hands from her cheeks.
“I’ll run and fetch a gown from your room,” Hilary said briskly. “Donna, you start on her hair.”
Hilary hurried from the room, and Rose forced herself to sit down at the dressing table and hold still while Donna’s quick fingers worked on her hair.
It seemed a long time but was likely only a few minutes before Hilary arrived back, out of breath.
Joanne was only steps behind, reverently carrying a dress Rose had yet to wear.
Her parents had ordered it especially for the trip, but she hadn’t attended many formal evening events.
Rose couldn’t help a slight lift to her heart at the sight of the filmy peach material. She had loved the dress during her fittings.
The maids helped her into it, and Joanne sighed with satisfaction when they stood back to regard the result of their efforts.
“Now you’re looking like a princess,” she said. “As you should. It’s past time for this nonsense to end.”
“You’re quite right,” said Rose. “I’ve let it go on far too long. That’s why I need to talk to Natalie.”
The maids exchanged surprised and pleased looks, but there was something else there as well. A hint of guilt?
Donna stepped forward. “We should probably confess that we may have been a little untruthful with Natalie tonight. She was just as heedless of the ball as you, but one of you had to turn up! We told her you’d instructed us to make sure she attended and to make sure she did so looking like a princess.
” She frowned in judgment. “Both of you have been so busy lately that no one has been considering your duties.”
Rose winced. Given the way she had lambasted Natalie on the beach, Natalie had no doubt believed the maids’ words without question. Rose would have to apologize to her at some point. It was Rose’s fault if her duties had been ignored, not Natalie’s.
She sighed. “Well, now we’re both going, so I hope all four of you are satisfied.” She relented and gave them a small smile. “I do appreciate you keeping quiet all this time.”
“As long as you’re truly returning to your proper place now, that’s all we want,” Cate said.
“It will happen tonight,” Rose promised.