“Need you mentionhimnow?” the princess asked, wrinkling her nose.
Tansy almost revealed the king’s visit the day before. She should, she knew. She had always been nothing but honest and loyal to Princess Anastasia. And yet, there was something about King Maximilian’s call the day before that felt distinctly intimate. As if it were a secret best kept between the two of them instead of shared with anyone else.
“No good will come of your plan to offer yourself to this man,” Tansy whispered, ever cognizant of the guards lurking in the hall. “If the king discovers?—”
“How should he discover?” the princess interrupted, shaking her head. “He won’t, Tansy.”
“He is an intelligent man,” she argued, for she had witnessed his keen intellect the day before.
The king saw everything and everyone. He was not the sort of man who would fail to realize he was being betrayed. His keen stare had seemingly bored deep into Tansy’s very soul. Nor was he the sort of man one should cross.
“Do you think he would fail to take note if his wife were not a virgin?” she whispered again furiously, feeling her cheeks go hot at the familiarity of her question.
“And how would he know the difference?” Princess Anastasia demanded, frowning mightily, making a dismissive gesture with her hand, the motion somehow flawlessly elegant.
“He would know,” Tansy insisted, thinking of the forbidden book she’d discovered at a shop in Boritania just before they had left for London.
It was written in English, and it was incredibly descriptive and informative in all matters carnal. She was still working her way through the volume, taking care to carry it with her always, lest one of Gustavson’s guards should discover it. The consequences of such a detection didn’t bear further contemplation, for she knew they could only have one response.
She shuddered.
“Have you taken a chill?” Princess Anastasia asked, her voice tinged with worry. “It is so very damp and cool here in England. A servant should attend the fire.”
“I will tend the fire myself if you are cold, Your Royal Highness,” she offered dutifully, thinking that the princess must be chilled.
“It isn’t your duty to do so,” Princess Anastasia said with a frown. “A servant should.”
But they both knew that admitting a servant could prove ruinous. If a chambermaid looked too closely at the princess, she would no doubt take note that she didn’t appear pale and weary, that she didn’t seem ill at all. And if they allowed another servant within, the guards would likely view it as proof that the princess’s illness was not as deadly as Tansy had reported. Either way, it was certain that questions would be raised. Word would be sent to King Gustavson. Princess Anastasia’s search for her exiled brother would come to a halt.
Tansy shook her head. “We cannot risk it. I’ll stoke the flames myself.”
She moved to go to the fire, but the princess caught her elbow in a staying grip. “It is beneath you. You are not my servant, Tansy, but my loyal and trusted lady-in-waiting. Beyond that, you are my friend and the sister of my heart.”
“I don’t mind, Princess.” Gently extricating herself from her friend’s grasp, Tansy carried the tray to the door.
Laying her ear to it, she listened carefully for sounds in the hall. When nothing reached her, she opened the door, finding the space beyond blessedly bereft of Gustavson’s guards. She placed the tray on the floor and snapped the door hastily closed before moving to the fireplace, where the flame had indeed dwindled low.
She knelt at the hearth, making short work of adding kindling and agitating the hot ashes so that new flames were sparking to life, filling the chamber with some much-needed warmth. When she was satisfied with her task’s completion, her face hot from her proximity to the fresh fire, she turned back to the princess, who had risen from the bed in her dressing gown.
“Were they out there?” the princess whispered.
The guards, of course.
“No, Your Royal Highness,” Tansy reassured her. “I do believe your uncle’s minions must be otherwise occupied at the moment.”
Another sigh left the princess, this one distinctly relieved. “Wonderful. I wish they would occupy themselves elsewhere every second of each hour. Or better yet, that they would throw themselves from the roof or drown themselves in the Thames.”
Tansy’s lips twitched with suppressed mirth. “I fear we won’t be so fortunate.”
“Of course we won’t.” The princess folded her in an impulsive embrace. “Oh, Tansy. I don’t know what I would do without you here with me. Pray don’t be displeased with me for wanting to carry on with my plan. It is the only thing I will have done solely for myself in as long as I can recall.”
Tansy returned her friend’s embrace, understanding her all too well. “I fear for you, Your Royal Highness. It is my duty to protect you and serve you in all ways.”
“I wish you would call me Stasia,” the princess said, her voice sounding small and sad.
And once again, Tansy understood. “But you are my princess, and one day soon, you will be my queen.”
It was an important distinction, one she couldn’t forget.
