Natalie wanted to push him away and run from the room. She wanted to pull him even closer still. She wanted to tell him to stop looking at her like that.
She did nothing.
“What secrets are you hiding, Lila?” he murmured in a husky voice.
Her heart beat even faster, her eyes still trapped in his. He had been pushing her since the moment she arrived, teasing her, testing her. But she refused to back down. A different kind of fire licked up her spine.
“My secrets are my own,” she said.
Something like disappointment flashed in his eyes, and he broke the magnetic gaze between them. It didn’t feel like a victory.
“I know there’s something you’re not telling me,” he said quietly. “I just wish you would trust me. Whatever it is, I can help you.”
“Can you?” she whispered under her breath.
He caught the words, pulling her all the way against his chest and trapping her eyes again.
“I’m more capable than you seem to think.”
She swallowed, wavering. But it wasn’t his capability she questioned, it was his loyalty. He didn’t know that she kept more secrets than just her own, or that they involved both Arcadia and Lanover.
Or perhaps he guessed as much. Perhaps it was his loyalty to Lanover that prompted the question as he sought out the thorn that had wedged itself in his court.
His arms, still warm and strong, held her close. But her thoughts no longer wavered. She looked up at him with defiance in her eyes.
“I am capable also, Prince Luca. If I need your help, I will ask for it.”
“Will you?” he whispered, half to himself, sparks in his eyes as he held hers.
His face swayed even closer, but the movements of the dance had spun them to the edge of the floor, and she pulled out of his arms. Ignoring the coldness that washed over her at his absence, she stood alone.
“You asked me to trust you. Perhaps you should consider trusting me.” Turning on her heels, she left the receiving room, the fire along her spine driving her all the way to her room.
But inside—as Hilary helped her unfasten her dress—she admitted to herself that her usual self-confidence had dimmed. She had always believed that if she wanted something, she merely had to go and fight for it. Now she wondered what good it was to fight when she was no longer sure what she was even fighting for. What use was all her confidence if she could no longer see her way?
She parted the covers only to pause, her whole body going rigid. Another note on her pillow, identical in appearance to the last. She turned to ask Hillary where it had come from, but the other girl had already disappeared to her cot.
Natalie remembered belatedly why she couldn’t mention the notes to the maids—their loyalty was to Rose. She angled her body to conceal it from view as she opened it. Her fingers trembled as she read the words inside.
An angry hand had written in bold, slashing letters. The message upbraided her for failing to appear at the designated meeting and threatened to disappear forever.
Natalie read the words a second time. The first note had made it clear he was blackmailing Rose over something, but now it was obvious he had something Rose desperately wanted.
Guilt stirred within her. After her failure to appear at the first meeting, the man could have disappeared forever, taking whatever Rose needed with him.
He hadn’t done so, however, instead writing to her again with fresh demands. He didn’t intend to risk a face-to-face meeting a second time. Instead he had taken a different sort of risk—putting his demands down on paper.
In exchange for whatever he had stolen from Arcadia, he wanted a selection of private Lanoverian documents and one of their official seals. The writer described a hidden place to leave them and warned Rose not to test him again. Only once the documents were secure would he return what she sought.
Natalie blew out the candle, her whole body quivering somewhere between shock and excitement. What had the man stolen from Arcadia that was so valuable he could use it to blackmail a princess? And what should Natalie do now she knew what he wanted?
Talking to one of the Lanoverian princes was out of the question. If they thought for even a second that Rose intended to betray Lanoverian secrets in exchange for Arcadian ones, they might have her arrested.
Although there would be some complications to deal with if they arrested a foreign princess. They could send her home, though. And they could arrest Natalie with impunity.
Natalie couldn’t tell Rose either. She felt sure the Arcadian princess wouldn’t want to harm Lanover. But Natalie couldn’t be completely sure Rose wouldn’t feel cornered into doing so. When it came to the matter of loyalty, Rose’s would obviously lie with Arcadia first.
But Natalie had been thinking of Lanover as her future home for three years. Her loyalty lay with the southern kingdom over Arcadia, despite her friendship with Rose. There was no way she would give the blackmailer the items he wanted—nor would she let Rose do so. The documents sounded highly confidential, and the seal was utterly out of the question. He could do enormous harm with a stolen seal.
