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“Mmm. Well,Icertainly didn’t summon you.” She sipped her tea again.
Oddly enough, William was enjoying this exchange. He was accustomed to talking to ladies about weather and how much they’d enjoyed the vicar’s sermon. He liked a healthy bit of sparring. “I, too, appreciate honesty.”
“Good.” The princess put down her tea with conviction this time, then folded her hands tightly in her lap. “Ifwe are being honest—whyare you here?”
He didn’t think she would appreciate his honesty quite so completely in this. He put aside his tea, too. “Pity you’ve nothing stronger.” He glanced around the room, hoping that something stronger would magically appear.
The princess ignored him. “I can’t imagine why you’ve come. The last I saw you, you’d been banished from a home for conduct unbecoming a gentleman. After that display, I rather imagined I would never see you again.”
William gave a bark of surprised laughter. “Your memory is faulty—youshoutedat me. You called me dishonorable before God and all that were gathered.”
“You were! You pushed me aside to win a silly game.”
“Ipushed—” He drew a breath. “Funny, is it no’, that before I won, you seemed to think that silly game was a matter of life or death. I did no’pushyou, madam. Ibestedyou. It was a contest. And you could no’ bear to lose. Admit it.”
She gaped at him. A bit of color rose in her cheeks. “Fine. I will freely admit I don’t care to lose,” she said with a shrug of her fair shoulders. “Show me a single person who can bear to lose. But that is not the point. I didn’tshout.Isaidthat you had behaved dishonorably, and you called me a spoiled child!”
“Aye, that I did, because you were acting the part of spoiled princess to all who witnessed that night.”
She gasped. “I had scarcely turned seventeen years old! And I had drunk that terrible punch! Better you turn your critique to yourself, sir, as youwere acting like a child and you were what, thirty years old?”
“Thirty! I was the very age you are now!” He suddenly laughed, thinking back to that night. The entire party had drunk the absinthe punch, and all were as pissed as a passel of codgers on homemade gin. “I concede that it is entirely possible I might have been a wee bit childish—I was a bit in my cups.”
“A bit? Lord Iddesleigh threw you out of his house.”
“And you were a bit in yours, too, ma’am. Besides, I went very graciously even though you were clearly at fault.”
She blinked innocently and pressed her hand to her chest as if she were a saint. “If I were at fault, then why did you apologize for arguing?”
“I did no’ apologize for arguing. I apologized for arguing with a mere lass who was half in love with me.”
“I was not! And even if I had been, all affection would have ceased the moment you took that poor woman, whom you clearly did not know, and kissed her under the mistletoe in front of us all.”
He smiled a little lopsidedly. “Aye, and she kissed me back. Were you jealous?”
“Mein Gott!”she exclaimed. And then she picked up her tea and drank it like she was tossing back a tot of whisky before putting it down again.
William chuckled. He was enjoying this lively trip into the past. Princess Justine refused to smile back at him, and her eyes were shining with what he was certain was ire. But the way they shone reminded him of another night he’d been in her company. Another soiree, but at this one, they’d danced.
Her eyes had a different sort of glint that evening. He knew at the time that she was enamored of him. He’d enjoyed dancing with her—she’d made him laugh. But then he’d been pulled away by the hostess, Lady Bishop, and lectured for taking two dancesin a rowwith a princess whose dance card was apparentlyquite crowded. “Everyone will think she esteems you,” Lady Bishop had hissed at him.
He’d said, “Does she no’?”
Lady Bishop had huffed, “I don’t know how things are in Scotland, my lord, but I find you incorrigible!”
“You are no’ alone in your opinion,” he’d said breezily. He’d been an incorrigible man for many years.
But he was a different man now. He’d had to become one, because of his father. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure what sort of man he was.
“Now that you’ve made it clear you are not here to apologize for that night,” the princess said primly, “please do enlighten me as to why you have come.”
“Let us nab two fish with one net, aye? Firstly, I apologize, YourRoyalHighness,” he said with a grin, and pressed the palm of his hand to his heart. “If I insulted you or injured you in any way, I am truly and irrevocably remorseful.” He meant that sincerely.
“Well, you didn’t,” she retorted. “I didn’t care enough to be insulted or injured.”
He laughed. “A proper cut.”
The color in her cheeks deepened a little. “For heaven’s sake,” she said, “can we please get on with it? It hardly matters what happened eight years ago. I want to know why you’re herenow.”
