AllFreeNovel
Share Us
On the lawn, couples milled about beneath the torches. Happy people. Presumably people who did not offend others with their mere presence as she seemed to do. She wished Justine was here. Justine would put it all into perspective for her, but without her sister, Amelia was at a loss to do it herself.
She leaned over the railing and drew more deep breaths to keep her tears at bay. Crying accomplished absolutely nothing. Her feelings were hurt, but she wasn’t going to ruin her powder and her evening with tears.
She was six and twenty.Six and twenty, and still hoping for the very thing she could not command: Love. A husband! She couldn’t command children, or a purpose for living. Was it really so difficult to find someone who loved her and didn’t find her off-putting? In her mind, she was personable. Easy company. A truth teller. It hurt that people thought ill of her. It hurt that she seemed to easily alienate people. She thought herself refined, but she didn’t understand all the rules of civility, quite obviously.
A movement caught her eye, and she glanced down at the lawn. There, in the shadows, behind a hedge that separated the lit part of the lawn from the rest, were two figures. At first, she was uncertain what she was seeing. But her sight adjusted to the dark, and she realized it was a couple dancing in the light of the moon to the faint sounds of music drifting from the ballroom. It was terribly romantic, and it pulled at her heart. She bent over the railing to have a better look at the slow, sultry waltz. She thought it odd that they would both be clad in black.
And then she understood why. It was not a man and a woman as she had assumed, but two men. And not just any two men. She heard one of them laugh and knew instantly it was Donovan. The other was Mr. Peterborough. The two of them were engaged in a very private bit of dancing behind a hedge.
Amelia moved back from the rail. She couldn’t help but be a wee bit envious. That made three gentlemen here tonight who could not be less interested in her: Marley, Donovan, and Mr. Peterborough. Her prospects were dwindling before she’d even begun.
The tears were burning in her eyes again. She wiped one from her cheek and made up her mind to go back to the ballroom. Face the crowd like a warrior. Dance as she liked to do. Meet the rest of these blasted suitors with her head held high. She was a princess, for God’s sake.
“Perhaps she is up here?”
She recognized that voice as belonging to one of the women in the retiring room. They were looking for her. Amelia was paralyzed with fear that she’d be found with tears after their comments. That was unacceptable. It was one thing to be wounded, and quite another to let anyone know.
“Shall we try the balcony?”
Her heart leaped. She didn’t think she could summon up the devil-may-care easy mien for them. She began to back up, tiptoeing to keep her heels from making a sound, keeping her eye on the doors to the balcony as she moved. Their voices and footfalls were drawing closer. Amelia held out her hands to keep from hitting a wall or toppling over the railing. Just as one of the ladies stepped onto the balcony, Amelia stepped behind a potted tree—and into the unmistakable body of a man.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SOMUCHFORHIDING.
He’d just wanted a moment of peace and quiet, to avoid idle banter for a space, but now he found himself in an untenable situation. Joshua caught the princess’s arm nonetheless and pulled her deeper into the shadows before she could cry out and alert everyone that she was in a dark corner with a man she hardly knew. He was reminded that one should never stand in darkened corners on balconies, because thisvery thingcould happen. Who knew what trouble would come for you?
What the devil was she doing here, trying to hide on his balcony? Why wasn’t she off somewhere being admired? And what had caused her to take such heaving breaths? He took them quite often, but generally it had to do with his general despair. She possessed no despair that he could detect. Why wasn’t she at this very moment laughing in a circle of admirers or relating some fantastic royal tale?
When she’d stepped onto the balcony he had, naturally, thought to tell her that he was there, too, but he’d hesitated, certain she’d think he was following her, which would mean he was in the hunt, which he had expressly told her he was not, and he wasnot...but before he could say it, she’d been drawing those breaths and, if he wasn’t mistaken, wiping away tears? And then, just like that, she was tiptoeing backward.
It wasn’t until the women stepped onto the balcony that he understood why, and he’d pulled her deeper into the shadows.
Naturally, the princess had opened her mouth to shriek or shout at him, but he quickly pressed two fingers to her lips and shook his head. Then, with his chin, he silently indicated the women.
She understood him, but batted his hand away from her mouth, and silently pushed him away. Then, as if they had discussed it, the two of them at the same moment stepped deeper into the shadows of the corner. Which was how Joshua found himself pressed against her behind a tree that scarcely covered them, the fronts of their bodies touching in all the wrong places.
The princess glared at him, almost as if she thought he had a choice other than to smash himself against her. Surely she could see that he didn’t? That close to her, he noticed something else in the light of the moon—the very faint, but certain track of a tear streaked down her cheek. He leaned forward to have a better look. She pushed him back with a little too much gusto. He put his finger to her lips again. She batted his hand away again.
“I feel absolutely wretched,” one of the women said. “I never thought she’d overhear.”
“It’s not your fault, darling,” said another. “You can hardly be blamed for noticing what everyone else has noticed. She’s very blunt.”
Joshua could feel the princess stiffen beside him.
“I would like to be so blunt with my husband,” said another one.
“Please, Mary—you could never be so presumptuous or rude.”
“Perhaps the princess will teach you,” another one said. The three women giggled.
Joshua was confused. They were clearly talking about the princess. What could she have possibly said to warrant this discussion?
“Frankly, as much as Robert vexes me, I should never like to speak to him so indelicately. He doesn’t deserve cruelty.”
Cruelty?The princess said each and every thought that popped into her head, yes, but she was not cruel.
The princess’s mouth dropped open, and there was a flash of true dismay on her face that Joshua hadn’t ever seen before. She reminded him a bit of a wounded puppy. She drew a breath and he realized that she meant to speak. He caught her wrist and squeezed. She glanced down at his hand, and then at him, frowning. He shook his head. He put a finger to his lips to indicate she should keep quiet.
