“Oh, that.”
“Yes,” he said wryly. “That.”
“He recognized I wasn’t the princess, so I told him I was Princess Rose’s lady-in-waiting. He was going to kill me in order to punish her and send her a message.”
Luca’s hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. “He was going to…”
Words seemed to fail him, and Natalie sighed. Now he looked ready to dash off after her attacker. Where was that outrage when it could have been helpful?
Luca gestured toward the bench where she’d hidden the satchel. “I think we should sit down because I need to heareverything from the beginning. And I get the feeling it’s going to be a long story.”
He took her arm firmly, guiding her toward the seat. But he paused before sitting. “Unless we should be worried about a fresh wave of attackers arriving at any moment?”
Natalie shook her head. “I don’t think so. As far as I know, it’s just one man, and I think you effectively scared him away.”
Luca nodded and gently pushed her onto the seat. He took the time to retrieve the abandoned lantern, removing the shutters before sitting beside her. The fresh illumination revealed the determined lines of his face. He was clearly going to insist on hearing everything before he let her escape to her room.
Her shoulders slumped. She’d been fooling him for weeks, so she had to admit he had the right to demand answers.
“Rose and I traveled here together,” she said, starting at the beginning, as she’d been instructed. “Just the two of us. That’s when we came up with the idea to switch places.”
“It’s incredible you got away with it,” he said. “It never would have worked if the whole court was here.”
“We wouldn’t even have attempted it except for the tour. Rose was certain that everyone she knew would be traveling with your parents.”
“You said it was Princess Rose’s suggestion? What reason could she have to want to live your life?”
“I think it was more that she didn’t want to live hers—just for a little.” Natalie peeked at him warily. How much could she safely say? “She was feeling a little…pressured. About certainexpectations.”
“About Leo, you mean?” He went off into fresh gales of laughter.
Once again, he made no attempt to explain his merriment, merely wiping his eyes and gesturing for her to continue.
“We were expecting the crown prince to be dancing attendance on Princess Rose, and it suited us both for him to spend that time with me instead of her.” Natalie wrinkled her nose. “Not that it worked out anything like we expected.”
Luca fixed her with a stern expression, all trace of laughter extinguished. Natalie winced, but she was sick of half-truths and careful concealments. If Luca hated her once he knew the full truth, that was his right.
“I came to Lanover to marry Prince Leo,” she said in a rush. “So I could eventually become a queen, like Gwen and Charlotte.”
His eyes narrowed, but he looked more triumphant than horrified. “I knew it! Right from the beginning I questioned your motives. I could tell you were hiding something. Leo thought I was imagining it, but I was so certain.”
Despite her guilt and contrition, Natalie felt the stirrings of indignation.
“It didn’t stop you kissing me!”
Her accusation sobered him instantly.
“As I said at the time, that was a mistake.”
The repetition of his earlier words hit her in the chest like a blow.
But he continued without pause, his expression rueful. “As much as I’d been wanting to kiss you, I was determined not to do so until I knew what you were hiding from me. But I lost control for a moment, and…” He gave her a boyish grin. “Sorry about that.”
Her mind went blank. He’d been wanting to kiss her even before that? For how long?
She wanted to demand answers, but she couldn’t do that until she’d taken responsibility for her mistakes.
“I’m the one who should be sorry,” she said. “The whole scheme was outrageous—I can see that now. When Gwen tookthe throne in the mountain kingdom, my parents shut me out of court. After everything I’d done to help the rebellion, I felt betrayed. I thought the answer was to become someone so important that no one could ever shut me out again. I thought that way I could become the kind of person who mattered—who did things that mattered. But I never properly considered Leo in the middle of all that. Looking back now, I was painfully naïve. I didn’t think of it as using him. I was so sure that I’d arrive, and Leo and I would just…just fall in love.”
