Her eyes lit up. “Love will do that.”
I nodded and stood, the world off-kilter as I offered Mrs. Calloway a lousy curtsey.
“I’ll be expecting an invite to the wedding!” she called as I closed the door.
I bit my tongue as I headed down the servants’ wing and turned to climb the stairs.
Worried I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life.
“Thanks for the flowers,” I said, my fingers intertwined with David’s, my other palm wrapped around his bicep.
“Of course.” David led me down a beaten path under thinning trees. A cool wind signalled the approach of autumn as yellow-tinged leaves crunched underfoot. “I saw them and thought of you.”
I sighed into him, his body familiar from years of walks, conversations, and memories.
“I wish we could marry sooner.”
My heart thumped. “Oh?”
He looked over at me. “I can tell you’re nervous.”
My fingers tightened around his arm.
“It’s normal to be nervous about getting married. This is a huge decision.”
“How do you know we’re making the right choice?”
His eyes crinkled. “Because I know you.”
My gaze wandered over the flowers blowing in the breeze, struggling to stay upright from the ferocity of the wind.
“I know that you have a good heart,” he continued. “You are a wonderful daughter and sister, an excellent aunt. You love me when I’m right, correct me when I’m wrong. You care for the royal family you serve, even though they couldn’t care less about us. I still can’t wrap my mind around it.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.” And while something in me still thrummed with unease, I pressed my face deeper into the familiar warmth of him until it quieted.
I’m safe here, I told myself.David knows me.
We were peasants together, ones who would be blissfully married soon.
“You’re welcome. And you’re going to be a wonderful wife. Did I mention that yet?” He pulled me between two trees, out of the palace’s line of sight.
“What are you—” He put his back to the trunk, drawing me toward himself. Giggles burst from my chest.
“Shh!” he joked. “There’s guards everywhere!”
A grin lit my face as I looked up into the eyes of a man who adored me. I stepped closer and placed my hands against his chest. “You’re a guard, you dolt.”
“Then you’re already in trouble,” he teased, wrapping his hands around my waist and pulling me against his warmth. I sank into the familiar embrace as he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. I let myself get lost in the rhythm of a song I’d listened to for years, one that I’d memorized the melody of.
All stupid, self-absorbed princes forgotten.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Prince Thomas sat cross-legged before the pond when I arrived, a toad in his hands. I wrinkled my nose. “That’s disgusting.”
His fingers pressed into the toad’s back as he lifted it, looking at the creature’s face. “You don’t think he’s cute?”
“No.”
