I squinted my eyes. “For me?”
A weary sigh was his only response.
“I realize we haven’t talked about the entire event in detail. Don’t think you can get away with the paltry, vague information you gave us, princess,” Winston said. I tried to hide my flinch because, honestly, Iwashoping they wouldn’t ask, so I could only share the important bits.
Could I get away with distracting them, though? “I thought you promised you wouldn’t call me ‘princess’ outside of the group. Why did you say it during the Royal Announcement?”
“I didn’t specifically refer toyouas our princess. That was fair game,” he retorted. “And for the people here who are not Champions … I guess you could say they’re trusted confidants.” His angelic smile never faltered from taking my breath away.“Clearly, these are people who had at least one common goal that brought us together.”
“Me?” I asked again, stupefied.
“Yes, you!” Claude happily confirmed as warmth enveloped me. He grinned. “Stars, you look so adorable blushing. I’ll never ever get tired of that!”
“You’ve only known me for a week!”
“And people can fall in love in a day. I think that hardly matters,” Amos chuckled.
My incredulity was obvious. “You’re actually defending that?”
Amos lost the laughs and had a sudden look of solemnity on his face. “Bea … I will never deny people who are in love. You don’t have to reciprocate, but do not invalidate their feelings as well.”
The warmth in my body spread, now mixed with shame. I was properly chastised. “You’re right. I’m sorry, everyone. Sorry, Claude. I shouldn’t say your feelings are wrong.” Even if I didn’t prefer it at the moment.
But Claude was still grinning, leaning over with his elbows on his knees. “I get it, baby girl. It’s not the right time to talk about that. Because we have the kidnapping to discuss.”
Goddammit.
“Let’s start with lunchtime,” Samuel started the discussion, wine tray within his arm’s reach. “What happened then, Bea?”
They really wouldn’t let me get away with it, huh? “We were about to head for the dining hall when I excused myself to Dahlia for the restroom. I asked her meet with my personal maid and bodyguards. Where is Mia anyway?”
“In your dorm. Continue,” Samuel urged.
Locked down.“I went to the restroom, and that’s it. Next thing I knew, I was waking up on the floor, all tied up.”
When I’d first told them I’d been tied up, they had reacted with visible shock. Now, expecting it and hearing it again, their shock turned into rage. I couldn’t understand the logic of that.
“Before we continue with your point of view, let’s go back.” Samuel seemed to have taken the reins in leading the investigation. “You were also supposed to meet with your classmates in the library, correct?”
“Yes, but that was for after lunch. Again, with Dahlia and Elias.”
“Dahlia?” It was Winston who asked.
“Dahlia Phortho, a baron’s daughter from the northeast,” Uriel informed the Prince.
“And I, Elias Drakon,” Eli bowed respectfully. “I don’t usually have my lunch with Bea, so I didn’t think there was anything wrong then. I was at the library starting from halfway through lunch.”
“I can corroborate that, as one of the librarians,” Theodore muttered.
Samuel gave a curt nod to their answers before turning his attention to my knights standing guard behind me. “You were supposed to wait for her in the dining hall. What happened?”
“When Lady Dahlia informed us that Bea’s in the restroom, we waited for a while.” Reuben responded as I noticed some of the men raise an eyebrow at his lack of title for me. “Halfway through the hour, Mia offered to check out the restrooms. This took about another half an hour until she confirmed she couldn’t find our lady.”
“That’s when we sought help from Lord Vincent, since he’d know the process better than us,” Robin shared. I remembered they had a brief acquaintance about the bullshit last week involving perverted classmates.
Vincent cleared his throat, taking his turn. “Yes. I was in my usual lab at Greenhouse Number Four. Preparing for mytime with Bea in the afternoon, of course. I was laying out my materials, my research, all the books and references needed for my experimental potions —”
“What ‘time with Bea’?” Amos asked, narrowing his eyes.
