Chapter 15
She sent the note. Sophia’s lady’s maid was discreet, and her brother was a footman.
Now, she waited. At nine o’clock, Sophia would plead a headache, and in the commotion, Louisa would declare she wouldn’t go without her and was staying in this evening.
Thea would tell their father before he left for his club.
As soon as he departed, she would go out for a breath of fresh air in the garden, sneak through the shrubbery, and hopefully find a carriage waiting for her on the street behind their home.
Thea felt transported back in time to memories of sneaking out of her parents’ home in India to meet a raja’s son waiting on horseback just beyond the wall.
Never in her life did she expect to be sneaking out of her uncle’s home to meet yet another prince.
It made her feel young and free again—feelings she had missed while assuming a matronly existence for the last decade. Thea would not trade her time with the twins for anything, but the excitement of the prospect of meeting a man to whom she was compellingly drawn was welcome.
Thea was dressed for the party they would not attend, wearing the least daring of her new gowns—a deep amethyst frock she hadn’t expected to see among the second delivery, but it was beautiful and welcome.
As she waited in the parlor, seconds ticked on the mantel clock with excruciating slowness. Her uncle checked his pocket watch as nine o’clock approached.
“I have changed my mind. I will attend the ball as well. We will marshal all resources toward finding the twins suitable matches. My club will have to wait.”
Thea smiled, even as she felt herself freezing inside. This is not part of the plan.
At one minute to nine, Sophia’s lady’s maid knocked quietly on the door.
“Miss Templebourne, Lady Sophia is asking for you. She is feeling unwell, my lady.”
“Unwell,” her uncle said. “How so?”
“Her head pains her, my lord.”
“I’ll go check on her, Uncle.”
“Do and make sure Louisa is ready. We depart momentarily.”
With a nod, Thea left the room. Surreptitious meetings were not her forte, nor was subterfuge.
As Thea climbed the stairs, she mentally resigned herself to whatever was to happen this evening. If she couldn’t see him tonight, then so be it. There was nothing she could do to change that. It would be as it was.
When she reached Sophia’s room, Louisa was inside as well.
“So, what did Father say?”
“He wants to go to the ball with Louisa and me.”
“He doesn’t care that I am ill?”
“I am certain he cares. He just doesn’t want to waste time.”
“Well then, I am ill as well,” Louisa said.
“You think he will believe that?”
“Sympathy pains are real for twins.”
“He is going to come up here when I return with that announcement.”
“So be it,” Louisa replied.
“For what it’s worth, I want to point out that this is what comes of lying. It is not wise, nor is the outcome generally what one expects.”
“Forever the governess,” Sophia said.
“Noted, Thea,” replied Louisa.
“I will return.” Thea shut the door and gathered herself for what she hoped wouldn’t be an unpleasant encounter.
But when she reached the parlor, her uncle was absent.
She turned around to ask the butler. “Has my uncle gone?”
“Yes, my lady. He received an urgent message and departed immediately.”
“From whom?”
The butler did not immediately reply.
“It is fine. Never mind, Lewis.”
“I do not know, my lady. But he looked quite upset after he read the note.”
“Thank you for sharing that.”
“You are quite welcome, my lady.”
Thea ventured back upstairs with the news.
“Then, you’re going, right?” Sophia asked.
She sucked in a deep breath. “Yes, I am.”
Both girls squealed.
“Hush before you alert the whole house.”
“I’ll leave a candle burning in my window until Father returns,” Sophia said. “Be safe.”
“Thank you.”
“Thea,” Louisa said, making her pause, “change into the jade gown. I’ll help you. Quickly.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re going to see a prince.”
In the jade gown, Thea certainly felt like a princess once more.
“Stunning. Now go. And take my cloak.” Louisa threw it around Thea’s shoulders.
“I love you both.”
“I know. And we love you like the older sister we never had. Be careful. We will be waiting.”
Thea snuck down the back stairs with her heart pounding and palms sweating. Thankfully, no one noticed as she stepped outside and walked around the edge of the garden. Keeping to the shadows, she slipped through the hedgerow.
In the lamplight, a beautiful black lacquered carriage waited with a snowy-white pair of matched horses.
She walked toward it, and a footman jumped down.
“Good evening, Miss Templebourne. He awaits.”
“Who?” Thea had to clarify, just in case.
“His Highness, Prince Karalovy.”
She breathed a relieved breath. “Thank you.”
She took the footman’s hand as he helped her into the carriage. But it wasn’t empty. Alexander was seated inside.
“You’re here. I thought—”
“That I would waste one single moment of time I could be spending with you?”
Her breath caught at his forthrightness, and her heart began to pound anew. Thea had not lied when she said he was dangerous to her. He made her want to throw caution and good sense out the carriage window.
“Why does that surprise you?”
“I don’t know. Everything you do surprises me.”
His smile was lit by the brass lamps, and his blue eyes appeared sapphiric when surrounded by the blue silk brocade lining the carriage walls.
“This is the finest carriage I’ve ever been in.”
“Then it’s yours.”
She laughed with shock. “You can’t just give me a carriage.”
“Says who?”
“You just can’t.”
“Perhaps I had it made for you.”
“Did you?”
“I just didn’t know it at the time, but clearly”—he pointed upward—“someone else did.”
“I don’t know what to make of you.”
“Then marry me and spend a lifetime figuring me out.”
“You make the offer sound so tempting.”
“It is not temptation, but a promise. There is a difference. Temptation proves hollow. Promise leads to substance.”
His wisdom stunned her.
“How old are you?”
“Old enough to know what I want and wise enough to let it come to me.”
Thea laughed and shook her head. “I suppose you are. For here I am.”
He leaned forward. “And you are stunning. Far finer than any carriage. Let your cloak fall away. You have no need of its covering now.”
It felt foreign to remove an article of clothing at the request of a man, but then also right with him.
“Stunning.” He breathed the word as she let the cloak slip from her shoulders. “Like an empress.” He paused as his gaze seemed to take in every detail of her face, form, and the dress. “What will it take, Thea?”
“What will what take?”
“For you to say yes to me.”
“I don’t know.”
“A miracle perhaps?”
She couldn’t help but laugh quietly. “I suppose we shall see.”
“Your cousins safely married to men they could love?”
Her head pulled back until it bumped the cushion. “How did you know?”
“Your concern for them is obvious and commendable. You could’ve danced with me and left them to their own devices, but you would not. You have honor, loyalty.”
“I love them.”
His smile softened. “They are lucky then.”
“I have cared for them since they were children. I could never abandon them during their time of need. And—” She stopped abruptly, not sure she should continue.
“And what?”
“Can I trust you?”
His eyebrows rose, and he grinned. “You snuck out of your house to enter an unmarked carriage to meet me.”
“Good point.”
“Trust your judgment, more than any man’s words.”
Somehow, his answer was more powerful than giving her the reassurance she had sought.
“I have recently come to believe that my uncle is in financial difficulty. He may owe someone money. Someone … influential … used the phrase ‘impending financial ruin’ just recently to describe my uncle’s situation.”
The prince sat back against the blue silk cushions. “Interesting. I will see what I can learn. But you fear for your future and your cousins’?”
“Not for myself. I will be fine. I can always go live with Great-Aunt Albina. She and Uncle don’t get on, but she has always loved me.”
His lips quirked at that.
“But the girls … I am afraid he will push them to marry wealthy men, whether they want to or not.”
Alexander steepled his fingers. “And you wish to see them marry for love?”
“Of course I do.”
“You have a soft heart, Thea.”
“How can you tell?”
His smile widened. “Trust me when I say, a woman cannot fake that.”
She could only imagine how many women had faked one thing or another in an attempt to ensnare him.
“You see my dilemma.”
“If this is your dilemma, then it isn’t yours alone. It is ours.”
Thea never knew what it felt like to melt before, but his words unleashed a flood of warmth and left her feeling it acutely. How long had it been since someone had cared enough about her to shoulder her burdens?
“I would be a fool to say no to you,” she whispered.
His grin nearly lit up the interior of the carriage. “It is good we both agree on that.”