Tansy pressed a gloved hand to her mouth, stifling a hopeless sob.
Crunching soles on gravel somewhere behind her alerted her to the fact that she was suddenly no longer alone in the courtyard. With a deep, shaking breath, she tried to calm herself, blinking furiously to force her tears away. Although it was dark, she would be mortified if anyone were to find her in such a state.
“Lady Tansy?”
The masculine voice, though familiar, was not the one she had been longing to hear.
She turned, hoping there would be no evidence of her upset on her countenance in the lack of light, and forced a feigned smile to her lips. “Prince Ferdinando,” she greeted formally, peering into the shadows as his tall form appeared around a neatly trimmed hedge.
But of course it was the prince and not Maxim coming to find her. The king could not leave his betrothal feast without everyone taking note. And despite his earlier insistence that he needn’t attend, he had been regal and painfully handsome in his full court dress, seated at the princess’s side.
There had been a moment when Princess Anastasia had appeared distressed, and Maxim had covered her hand with his on the table. The smallest of gestures, and yet one that had shattered Tansy’s heart and any foolish hope she might have been clinging to that she could watch her best friend marry the man she loved.
The prince stopped before her, the glow of a cheroot hanging from his mouth as he gave her an elegant bow.
He withdrew it to speak and exhaled a puff of smoke. “I thought that was you I spied dashing into the gardens. I know it’s terrible form to smoke in the presence of a lady, but I lit it before I saw you, and it’s a damned fine cheroot. I’d hate for it to go to waste.”
The scent of it curled around her, cloying and unpleasant. She didn’t want company, and she didn’t want to smell the cheroot. But she was a visitor to the prince’s court.
“I hadn’t even noticed it, Your Royal Highness,” she lied.
“You are to call me Nando,” he said smoothly, taking another measured puff of his cheroot, smoking it with the same easy confidence he applied to every action, word, and gesture.
She wondered what it was like to be so assured of oneself. For so much of her life, she had been too terrified to be herself, lest she be cast to the streets. Not by the princess, whose heart was pure and good, but by the princess’s uncle, King Gustavson.
“I do not think it wise to adopt familiarity,” she told him cautiously.
“Why not? I imagine we will be getting to know each other quite well as the years go on,” he said, tilting back his head to puff high into the air.
In an effort, she supposed, to spare her the brunt of his cheroot smoke.
“I don’t think so.” The words left her before she could think better of them, and not without a hint of bitterness she couldn’t hide.
She bit her lip and cursed herself for saying too much.
“And why not? You will be staying in the palace. In Maxim’s apartments, if today is to be any indication.” His tone was shrewd. “He has made you an offer, has he not? I assume that was the reason for your visit to his rooms.”
“I won’t be remaining for long,” she admitted, hating that she would leave Maxim, yet knowing that she had no choice.
“In the palace?”
“In Varros,” Tansy clarified. “I don’t belong here. There’s no place for me.”
I can’t remain and watch the man I love marry another.
But she kept that to herself, tucked safely inside the remnants of her broken heart.
“Does Maxim know of this?” the prince asked, calmly taking another pull of his cheroot.
She shook her head, an ache deep inside her at the thought of leaving him, never seeing him again. “There’s no need for him to know. It doesn’t concern him. I’ll be securing passage to England as soon as I’m able.”
She couldn’t return to Boritania, not if there was a war about to be waged. England seemed the most reasonable option.
Prince Ferdinando exhaled a cloud of smoke. “If you leave him, he’ll be devastated.”
She blinked furiously against another stinging rush of tears, fighting to keep them at bay. “If I remain here and watch him marry another, it will destroy me.”
Her voice trembled with unspoken emotion.
