“The worst of it,” Natalie said in a defeated voice, “is that I don’t think I’d even like being royal, after all. All those tedious court occasions and the endless small talk. Being on display all the time…” She sighed. “Gwen is going to laugh at me. She tried to warn me that I might not like being a queen as much as I imagined.”
She looked wistfully around the garden. “I will miss Lanover when I leave, though. I’d convinced myself it was my future home, and it’s just as beautiful as I imagined.”
“You’re leaving?” Luca sounded dismayed. “You’re not just giving up on being queen but leaving Lanover completely?”
“Of course. I never had any true claim on your family’s hospitality, so I can hardly stay and continue inflicting myself where I was never invited. Rose will be returning home in a week, and I’m hoping she’ll let me travel as far as Arcadia with her. That’s assuming she’ll still speak to me after I blurted out the truth to Leo.”
Luca raised his eyebrows. “You told Leo? How did he take it?”
Natalie shrugged. “I have no idea. He dashed off almost immediately.”
Luca frowned, but after a moment he shook his head, apparently dismissing his cousin’s strange behavior from his thoughts.
A cool breeze hit Natalie’s bare arms and shoulders, and she shivered. Now that the excitement of the chase was past, the cold of the night was seeping into her.
“Thank you for helping me,” she said. “And for not taking offense at our charade. I hope that one day Lanover will become just as close an ally of the mountain kingdom as it is of Arcadia.”
“I think,” Luca said with an enigmatic smile, “that there’s a good chance of that.”
Natalie tried to feel pleased at the prospect, but all emotion seemed to have leached out of her along with the heat of the chase.
“Goodbye,” she said. The word felt utterly insufficient, but she couldn’t think what else to say. She began walking toward the palace.
“This isn’t goodbye!” Luca said quickly. “You said you’re not leaving for a week.”
She stopped and turned back with a sad smile. “But as of now, I’m no longer Princess Rose of Arcadia. So I’m certainly notgoing to push myself into court gatherings any longer. I think I’ve already done quite enough of that.”
“Lila!” he called after her, but she kept walking, and he must have thought better of it because he let her go.
CHAPTER 18
Natalie’s feet tried to take the familiar route back to her room, but the room she’d been occupying wasn’t hers anymore. In truth, it never had been.
She turned in another direction, walking to the room Rose had been using instead. Joanne leaped up when she entered, looking disappointed to see it was only Natalie.
“Where’s Princess Rose?” she asked, abandoning her sewing on her chair. “Didn’t you see her at the ball? Is something wrong?”
Natalie, overcome with sudden exhaustion, shook her head. “No, it’s nothing like that. She’s probably still at the ball. But I’m tired and wanted to come to bed.”
“But why are you here, then?” Joanne asked.
Natalie stared at her, remembering only slowly that the maids didn’t know the charade was over. After everything that had happened, Natalie’s confession to Leo seemed like a distant memory. But it had actually been less than an hour since she’d spoken to the crown prince.
“We’ve told the princes the truth,” she said in a flat voice.
“So it’s time for us to swap back to our proper places.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Joanne said tartly, rushing to pack up her sewing. “It’s been quite long enough—and more too, if you ask me.”
“Yes,” Natalie said, still fighting against exhaustion. “You’re probably right.”
Joanne paused in her work and peered at Natalie. “Are you all right, Miss?”
Natalie summoned a smile. “Yes. I just need to sleep. If the others are still awake, maybe they could help you swap back all our belongings. Rose should be in her rightful room now.”
“They’ll be happy to help,” Joanne assured her, rushing out of the room to go find the other maids.
Natalie sighed. She hadn’t meant for Joanne to leave quite so quickly. She was desperate to slip straight into the bed, but she couldn’t unfasten her ball gown without help. She would have to wait for the maid’s return.
