Chapter 5
Five
TILLY
“If you want what’s best for Tilly, just go along with what I say, Wilhem.
” Leland’s tone brooked no argument. His intense stare held no lethal weapons such as daggers, but one could argue that the look itself would follow through on a fatal threat if required.
Tilly herself couldn’t calm the rolling waves breaking in her stomach and she could feel perspiration crawling down her spine.
This was not good. The prince was here. He could demand anything of her. This was about to get messy.
“No need to threaten me, old friend,” Wilham dragged out the last two words. “I just watched you kiss my sister. There will be a wedding.” His glare was equally challenging, and Leland stiffened beside Tilly.
“Let’s go meet this prince,” Etta said, ushering the group into the parlor. To Tilly, it felt like a funeral procession as each foot padded down in front of the other.
When the two pairs entered, the prince stood in the middle of the room, back turned, hands clasped behind him.
At the sound of their footsteps, he slowly swiveled on his heel and rocked back minutely—so microscopically it was almost indiscernible.
But Tilly knew. And she could see a flash of annoyance almost as miniscule slashed across his eyes.
And the waves in her stomach transformed into monolithic stones of doom.
“Prince Friedrich,” Wilhem cleared his throat, “so good of you to visit us here.”
“I decided to stop here on my way back to Germany.” Neither Tilly nor anyone else seemed to question the logic of his travel plans. It wouldn’t have mattered even if they had wanted to because he plowed on.
“I would have been here sooner but I didn’t realize you wouldn’t be at your own country estate.” He said this with dripping condescension, apparently to Tilly’s brother. “Wilhem, I have an issue I’d like to address with you.” He tilted his head, eyeing no one. “In private.”
Those gargantuan stones in Tilly’s stomach felt as though they were about to crumble. Or perhaps trigger a landslide. At the very least, they were on the cusp of tumbling over.
And that’s when Leland stepped up. “Perhaps I should introduce myself to you, Prince Friedrich. Welcome to my home. I’m Leland, Duke of Everstone. My sister, Etta,” he pointed out gracefully before clearly enunciating each following word, “and my betrothed, Tilly.”
It wouldn’t be accurate to say the prince’s head whipped around to find Tilly, but as fast as a prince was permitted to move, Prince Friedrich did.
“Your betrothed?” He walked up to where Tilly stood, taking her hand in his and offering a kiss above her knuckles. “I’ve had the pleasure.”
The weight in Tilly’s stomach rumbled around and she drew her fingers from his grasp as quickly as was politely acceptable.
“I didn’t realize you were—”
“It’s my fault,” Leland interrupted, thankfully, before any scandal could be hinted at.
“Tilly has been promised to me since childhood. But we kept that even from her. I begged my family and convinced Wilhem’s that I should be given the opportunity to build a relationship with her without the formality of an arranged marriage over our heads.
You know, true love and all that. I wanted to give her the chance to choose me.
” He took her trembling hand in his at that point.
At that very point where she was trying to decipher the lies from the truth.
At the very point where the rocks did crumble and the sound was deafening.
So deafening in fact that she wasn’t quite sure she heard the rest of the conversation.
Leland had always been her intended? That couldn’t possibly be true, could it? Really, no one had told her? The secret had been kept by that many people? It couldn’t be so. The questions whirled around in her mind like a tornado.
She tried to meet Leland’s eyes, but his were locked on the prince’s. Almost in a challenge.
“I see Tilly chose you then. So it has all worked out according to your plan.” The prince’s gaze dropped to where Tilly’s hand rested on Leland’s forearm, and she only gripped tighter. He was her lifeline after all. For now.
In watching the prince, she caught a glimmer of disappointment, and although she was endlessly relieved, a pang of empathy pushed her to say, “I have a cousin.”
The prince gave her an almost blank look with the shadow of an imperceptible trace of curiosity. “A cousin?” And his eyes swept over toward the only other female in the room.
“Etta is my betrothed,” Wilhem announced, claiming his stake with a hand on her lower back.
“Of course she is,” the prince said, pushing out his lips slightly. “It appears that everyone in this room is betrothed then.”
“Indeed,” Leland agreed. “Should you like to stay the night as our esteemed guest, we can prepare a room for you.”
“I should think not.” The prince’s shoulders rolled back a fraction of an inch. “My equerry shall arrange my way back.” With that, he bid them all goodbye and left. Leaving a gaping hole in Tilly’s stomach.
Did she even know Leland? They had made a plan for a fake engagement, but then he’d kissed her.
The rake had finally kissed her. Good. That kiss had been everything she had ever thought it would be.
But it hadn’t felt fake. And it certainly hadn’t felt like training, like the lessons she had asked him for before.
His lips on hers, his tongue sliding along hers—sigh—it had felt oh so real.
So loving. So what he had just spilled to the prince made no sense.
Except…it made all the sense in the world.
She’d never had a real suitor. None that her father or brother had ever approved of. Leland had always been around. All these years.
Had he been around to cover up all the lies all these years?
Was her brother in on it? There was no one left to trust. Out of sheer embarrassment and self-preservation, she didn’t even want to try and unpack all of this with Etta.
No. It was all just too much. For the duration of the prince’s visit, she had schooled her features to remain unaffected.
But that had all been a lie. And the lie weighed heavily on her now.
She could feel herself—just like the giant boulders inside of her—about to crumble.
To do so amongst any witnesses would be mortifying.
All the dread of the moment had caught up to her, and without looking at anyone, she excused herself and did the only thing she could do to refrain from breaking down into a flood of tears in front of everyone.
She fled.