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“Miss?”
I spat, rinsing my mouth before looking at her. “Eloped?”
She frowned while nodding. “Yes, they said that you both are already married and did so against the palace orders. Can you believe them? First, they say His Highness doesn’t love you. Then they say he is in love with some other woman and that they are having an affair. Now they are saying you both were so in love that you eloped and planned to run off together. I do not know if there is a single person with journalist integrity at that whole paper. They just write whatever comes to their mind, regardless of the truth.”
I did not have words.
Instead, I remembered the old saying that even a broken clock was right twice a day.
“Don’t let it bother you, miss. You should be able to hold your head up today. You proved so many people wrong yesterday, and you will do so again tonight at the state dinner.”
“Thank you, Gelula.”
“I’ll give you a moment,” she said, setting the towels onto the counter before stepping out of the room.
It was only once she’d left that I exhaled. Oh, shit.
I couldn’t have one full day.
Not one full day of being in everyone’s good graces? I thought about how angry Arthur had been with Gale when he had found out. I had no idea how bad his mother’s reaction would be. What would people say? How bad would this get? The more I thought about it, the sicker I felt. So sick, I rushed to the toilet, hunching over as I vomited.
“Miss!” Gelula called as she rushed to me, holding my shoulders.
I waved her off. Sinking to my knees. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” I said, slowly getting up off the ground and moving to the sink.
“Miss, I’ve meant to ask you...”
“Yes?” I asked, grabbing my toothbrush.
“When was the last time you had your period?”
I dropped the toothbrush and toothpaste from my hands, staring at her wide-eyed in the reflection of the mirror. She stared back.
Snip went all those wedding dress sketches.
God, save me from the queen because she is going to kill me.
I was fixing my tie when all of a sudden, without even bothering to knock, the door opened, and my mother—with Ambrose behind her—stormed inside.
“Mother?” I questioned, bowing my head to her.
She inhaled sharply before turning to Ambrose.
He merely lifted a newspaper. “‘We have it on good authority that we should not be addressing Odette Wyntor as Miss Wyntor but as Her Royal Highness, Odette, the Duchess of Wevellen, and now the Adelina, due to a recent discovery that Her Royal Highness was married to Prince Galahad in a secret civil ceremony in Seattle, Washington, the home of the Adelina.’”
“That is enough, Ambrose.” I couldn’t bear for them to keep reading. For the love of God, could we not catch a break?
“Why should he stop? Is it not just gossip?” my mother questioned.
They had ambushed me as I prepared and gave me no chance to deny or pretend. I was caught flat-footed once again. But how in the hell had the damn press discovered this? Who was the person leaking this? It couldn’t be Wolfgang or Iskandar. They had no reason to, and their loyalty was far too deep for that. Wolfgang already acted as if Odette was his queen, and for Iskandar, I was king. The only other people who knew this secret were Eliza—she could never—so all that was left was my brother. And he was gone. Who else?
“Gale, I’m waiting for you to tell me this is idle gossip, so I may leave your rooms and prepare for breakfast.”
I glanced up to her, trying to lie, but for some reason, I had lost all my skill. So, all I could do was stare.
