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The kissing pair flew apart. Aggiani’s face turned white as snow. “Your Royal Highness, I can explain.” He stepped away from Princess Amelia and said, “She kissed me.”
Princess Amelia gasped loudly. Her face turned crimson. “That is not true!” She looked to her sister for help.
“Amelia, come away from there,” Justine said calmly, and held out her hand.
Princess Amelia glared at the Italian and hurried forward, taking her sister’s hand. Justine put her arm around her sister’s waist and off they marched, two women in a temper for very different reasons.
When they turned the corner of the maze, William looked back at Aggiani. The Italian prince looked as if he would be ill. “Well, then. You’ve gone and stepped in shite, have you no’?”
Aggiani sighed. “Do you blame me? The younger one, she’s the beauty of the two.”
William squinted at the man. In the first place, he was quite wrong. Princess Amelia was pretty, but Princess Justine was beautiful. In the second place, “Are you out of your fool mind?”
“It would appear,” Aggiani said morosely.
The two of them began to make their way out of the maze, Aggiani sighing several times, the weight of his folly sinking in with each new step. As they neared the hall, he said, “’Twas a waste of money for the flowers. Did you see them? You won’t see finer.”
William didn’t respond to his lament—his mind had wandered to the bet and how precisely he would go about collecting it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AMELIAFLEDTOher suite of rooms, embarrassed for what she’d done, incensed that Aggiani had blamed her for the kiss and proclaiming utter humiliation to her reputation. Justine wasn’t certain how Amelia figured any humiliation whenshewas the injured party. Her sister seemed to have forgotten that Aggiani was to have beenhersuitor.
Not that she wanted him, God forfend. But it stung that he obviously didn’t want her, either.
Justine had demanded—no,commanded—that Lady Aleksander send Aggiani away at once. Of course she’d had to explain to the matchmaker what had happened, as she had not been present, all while Aggiani talked over her, insisting that it had been a misunderstanding and that Amelia was the one who had kissedhim.
His cowardly protests made Justine hate him even more.
Lady Aleksander had said ofcoursehe’d be sentstraightaway, then had ushered Aggiani into the small receiving room just off the entry for a word.
Justine had stared in astonishment at the closed door, stunned that Aggiani hadn’t been tossed out on his ear. She looked at Bardaline, who avoided her gaze.
Did she have a say inanything?
She needed air.
She whirled around and started for the front door, barking at the guards not to follow her, but of course they did. She strode across the drive, her skirt billowing out behind her. When she reached the stone fence, she whirled around. “Donotfollow me under threat of death, do you hear?”
The two guards looked at each other as if silently debating death versus duty.
Justine picked up her hem and ran through the gate and into the estate’s park in front of the house, running as fast as she could, wishing she could run from Prescott Hall and all the trappings of her birth. But she couldn’t escape, and really, she couldn’t run very far, either, not without collapsing for want of air.
She bent over, her hands on her knees, dragging air into her lungs. She glanced back and saw she’d hardly gained any ground at all. She straightened up and began to walk, her hand pressed to her corseted abdomen, still trying to catch her breath.
She thought of her parents, and how appalled they would have been had they witnessed what had happened. Robuchard would have called the ministers together to discuss. Her mother would have been so infuriated with Amelia that she probably would have forgotten Justine altogether. But her father...
Her father would tell her that she was fortunate to have seen the character of the man so soon. He would say that as the reprobate had kissed Amelia, he was certainly not worthy of her. And then he would add something about Amelia’s impetuosity and how it would be incumbent on Justine to keep her close until she was properly married to save herself trouble and scandal.
Justine kept walking deeper into the park and through a flock of sheep that hardly spared her a glance. There was a small lake at the outer reaches of the park, and she headed for that, knowing there were a pair of benches near the shore.
The walk was restoring her, dousing her anger and shame and turning her numb. When she reached the lake, she put her hands on her waist and took several deep breaths before tilting her head to the late-afternoon sun.
As a girl, she’d never expected that disappointment would become such a constant in her life. She had assumed, naively, that as a future sovereign, everyone around her would want nothing more than to please her. Now she knew that disappointmentwouldbe a constant part of her life, whether she liked it or not. She would never be able to trust the motives of anyone who was not very close to her. She would never know if someone was seeking approval or favor or time from her.
How would she ever be at ease with so much distrust running through her?
She sat on a bench and leaned forward, covering her face for a few moments.
