“Enough to develop an opinion on them.”
She felt Eddy shrug against her back. “Then you must know how rare it is for princes to be alone. I’m sure you can relate.”
“But I’m not a princess, notreally,” she reminded him. “Haven’t you heard? The French got rid of us.”
There was a strange note in Eddy’s voice as he replied. “I don’t think losing your throne makes you any less of a princess. Royalty is a permanent condition. When you’re born to it, there’s no changing or undoing it, not even if your family is living in exile. Not even if youwantedto change it.”
Before she could reply, he drew to a halt.
“This is where I leave you,” Eddy announced, sliding off Ares. He reached to help Hélène down.
Her heart gave a confused thud as he let go of her and stepped back. For a moment their eyes locked.
“Thank you for helping,” Hélène mumbled.
As she hobbled back to the barn, she sensed the weight of his gaze, as warm as the brush of his skin had been when his bare palm touched hers.
CHAPTER SIX
Alix
AT HOME IN HESSE, ALIX’Sfather kept a decidedly modest household. Things were quite different at Buckingham Palace. Here, when Alix woke, the fire in her room already crackled; someone had slipped in to light it while her bed-curtains were drawn, a luxury that always left her feeling slightly unsettled. Breakfast was summoned at the touch of a bell, and fresh flowers materialized in vases as if by magic.
At home, Alix could visit her father simply by walking downstairs and knocking on the door to his study. A conversation with her grandmother was far more complicated. She had to ring for a footman and ask to see the queen, then wait for the message to travel through a spiderweb of servants and ladies’ maids, until an entirely different footman finally appeared to escort her to Her Majesty.
She followed the footman down one soft-carpeted hallway after another. The closer she got to her grandmother’s quarters, the more awed and hushed the palace felt, as if she had entered a religious sanctuary.
“Your Majesty.” The footman rapped at the final set of carved wooden doors. “Her Royal Highness, Princess Alix ofHesse.”
“Come in, my dear!”
Grandmama sat in an armchair by the window, dressed as usual in a black silk gown. She gestured for Alix to take the neighboring chair. “Are you excited forLa Traviata?”
Alix sat, lacing her fingers nervously in her lap. “Of course. It’s the perfect outing for our last night.”
“Stay another month,” the queen said automatically. She did this each time Alix and Ernie were about to leave. “We’re heading to Balmoral soon, and you love it there!”
“That sounds delightful, but I need to get home.”
Hurt flashed in Grandmama’s eyes. “I’ve always hoped that you would think of England as your home, Alix. You’re just as much British as you are German, like my own dear Albert.”
Actually, while Alix was half British and half German by birth, Grandpapa Albert had been wholly German—and had given it all up to marry her grandmother, because he loved her so desperately. Even now, almost thirty years after his death, Grandmama never took off the black of mourning. It was a story Alix had heard a thousand times since she was a child, and each time, she was struck by the romance of it.
Alix hesitated. “Grandmama…yesterday Eddy asked if he could court me.”
Victoria clapped her hands together. “Oh, I’m so glad! It was about time!”
About time?Eddy had been right; the queen clearly wanted them to marry.
“I’ll write to your father at once,” Victoria went on, smiling broadly. “Given this news, there’s no question of you going home tomorrow. You must stay and spend some propertime with Eddy, not just at Balmoral but here in London. Society will need to get used to seeing you together.”
Alix hurried to interject. “But I’m not certain that Eddy and I are a good match.”
“Of course you’re not certain yet,” her grandmother said blithely. “That’s what the courting period is for! You’ve known Eddy your whole life, but as your cousin; now you must consider him as a husband. I have such fond memories of my own courting period, with Albert,” Victoria added, a bit wistfully. “We spent much of it at Windsor, you know. Perhaps you’d like to go there with Eddy.”
Alix knew she was expected to let go of her objections, but they kept rising, blocky and sharp in her throat.
“Were you aware that Eddy keeps women on the side?”
