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“How to what, dearest?” Iddesleigh asked mildly.
“How toduel,Papa. That’s when you put your backs together, then march twenty paces, and then turn and shoot!” She mimicked shooting her father.
The princess laughed. Everyone else stared aghast at the child. Then several of them shifted their stunned looks to the princess.
“What? It’s not as if they have pistols,” the princess said. She looked around, as if she thought that would appease everyone. “I suppose the tale of the two generals was very much on my mind.”
“Mrs. Hughes?” Lady Iddesleigh said, twisting in her chair. “Mrs. Hughes!”
A middle-aged woman hurried forward to take the child and her intention to duel somewhere else. Perhaps to an empty field at dawn.
Joshua turned back to the group, determined to get to the bottom of why they had to have a princess here at all...but Miles beat him to it. “Marley, my old friend, you’ve been keeping a secret—you failed to mention you’d made the acquaintance of Her Royal Highness.”
“I genuinely wasn’t aware that I had.”
The princess laughed gaily, as if he had said it to be amusing. “Did you not see my regal bearing?” She made a flourish with her hand and gave him a mock bow of her head.
He cleared his throat. “As I mentioned earlier, you were dressed rather plainly, Your Royal Highness.”
“Very true, Your Grace. I will admit that it is hard to bear regally when one is wearing brown muslin.”
The guests laughed with her. She smiled at Joshua and her smile was...stirring. He knew that sort of smile. It was employed to draw a man in. An attractive woman hardly had to smile at all to draw a man in. A mere look in his direction. A glance.
Men really were pathetic creatures, himself included.
“Ah, but my plain brown gown has served me well since I arrived at Iddesleigh. I have discovered that I like to walk,” the princess continued. “Isn’t that something? I’ve never been made to walk—or allowed to walk very far at all. But here, I am at liberty to walk for miles. Unfortunately, I don’t possess the sort of clothing one should have for rambling.”
“You’ve been so kind, Your Royal Highness, walking our girls to school every day,” Lady Iddesleigh said.
“It’s my pleasure! But one must be awfully careful on that road. There are reckless riders.” She glanced again at Joshua.
Joshua wasn’t entirely certain, but he thought he might have flushed a little. He had come awfully close to her, despite his insistence otherwise. “There are hardly any riders at all on the road,” he pointed out. “There are so blessed few of us in this valley.”
“But the road can be treacherous,” Iddesleigh said, agreeing with the princess. “A few too many quick turns, if you ask me. Frankly, I’ll be glad when we find a new home for the girls’ school.”
“You’re looking for a new location?” Miles asked.
“We must. We’ve outgrown the cottage. Who could imagine so many girls would need an education?”
The princess raised her right hand as she took another bite of cake with her left.
“My man is searching for a suitable location. It must be large enough to accommodate a few dozen girls, it must be accessible, and it must have room for growth.”
Joshua sincerely hoped that the new location was as far from Hollyfield as possible. Perhaps in Essex. Or Cornwall. Wales. Scotland. Belgium. Wesloria.
“Something nearby, of course,” Iddesleigh added.
Damnation.
“Oh, look, they’ve set up the archery field,” Lord Wexham said. “Your Royal Highness, are you as skilled at archery as you are at Skittles?”
She put down her fork and craned her neck to see. “I am adequate. My sister is a much better archer than me—she likes to pretend that the target is our prime minister and aims for right between the eyes.”
There was another stretch of silence around the table as the guests all privately tried to assess the truth in that statement.
“That was a jest,” the princess said.
“Ah,”said everyone.
