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“How wonderful,” Mr. Swann had said. “Where is the star?”
“In the sky, sir.”
Everyone had laughed.
“I think you should try and convince her, Lila,” Blythe said. “She is not the easiest person to like, is she? But Mr. Swann seems to take her in stride.”
Lila thought Princess Amelia was probably very easy to like if Blythe would just try and understand her. But Blythe was like others in that she had a firm idea of who a royal princess was to be, and Princess Amelia did not fit that ideal. Lila couldn’t blame them—all of England was presented with the ideal every day—Queen Victoria’s daughters were the apple of the queen’s eye.
But Princess Amelia fit her own mold and she was not willing to be someone she was not. One had to admire a woman devoted to being true to herself.
At least Lila did.
“I will speak with her again,” she said, only to appease Blythe. But it was painfully obvious to her that she was going to have to make a new list of potential suitors. Her husband, Valentin, was coming to London from Denmark in the next few weeks and she was desperate to see him. She wondered if perhaps another change of scenery would be good for Princess Amelia. They could go to London. Most people she would want to introduce to the princess were packing up to head to the country for summer months. But the princess liked to shop, and she generally liked meeting people who weren’t being assessed as a potential match for her.
Lila caught up with the princess the next afternoon to present her plan. Princess Amelia had gone to the school this morning with the girls, but instead of coming back in an hour or so, she’d stayed away the whole day. She was wearing her brown walking gown and had left her hair in one long tail down her back. The sun hat she wore was so big that Lila could only see her chin. This, too, was unlike the princess. In the years Lila had known her, Princess Amelia had always been meticulous about her appearance. In the last couple of weeks, she’d stopped worrying about petticoats and hairstyles altogether.
“There you are!” Lila said, coming down the drive to meet her. “I’ve been working on a new list of suitors for us to review.”
Princess Amelia sighed.
“There are two gentlemen I have in mind who I think will spark your interest.”
The princess removed her hat and looked at Lila with her light hazel eyes. “Do you really think that two more from your list will be any different than the ones who have come before them?”
Lila hesitated. “You’ve lost faith.”
The princess laughed. “Je,in every possible way. They all know precisely what to say—they will mention their connections, think all they must do is admire my looks to make me esteem them, and smile and be chivalrous and boast of their accomplishments while they imagine all the gains that could be made from marrying me.”
“Good Lord,” Lila said with a surprised bit of laughter. “How cynical you’ve become, Your Royal Highness!”
“Please, Lila. It’s Amelia. There is no need for formality between us. Not now, anyway.”
Lila didn’t know what she meant by “now,” but clearly she’d crossed some threshold.
“You know what I say is true,” the princess continued. “Privately, these men think I am inferior to them by virtue of my sex, and assume they will rule me once we are wed, for isn’t that the way of marriage, royal or not?”
The conversation about female brains had been awfully vexing—Lila had dashed off a letter to Valentin to complain about it that very night. “Mr. Swann’s opinions are hardly the opinions ofallmen.”
“But aren’t they, really?”
She couldn’t argue with that. Mr. Swann did hold views that squads of men held. Lila considered herself the luckiest woman on earth that Valentin was not one of them. “You are describing the push and pull between men and women. Both sexes have a unique view of the other, and their views don’t always align.”
“That makes it even worse,” Amelia said as they reached the terrace steps and walked up. “And the worst of it is, I’m at a terrible disadvantage because of their good behavior. How am I to know if they are unique in any way? It’s impossible. And really, Lila, I am beginning to question the need for it at all.”
“The need for what?”
The princess paused to look at her as if she thought she was being purposefully obtuse. “Marriage.”
Her state of mind was worse than Lila had anticipated. “There iseveryneed for it. Don’t you want companionship and family? Love and fidelity?”
The princess shook her head and continued up.
Lila caught her by the arm and forced her to stop her ascent. “You’re not being fair. You’ve only met a few people thus far.”
“I know, and I was so eager to meet them all,” she said wistfully. “I truly believed I would find something or someone new and exciting in England. But they’re the same here as they are in Wesloria. They’realwaysthe same.”
Many years ago, Lila had tried to match an heiress who could not be satisfied with anyone she met. She lived with her parents to this day, and from what Lila had heard, she had become bitter from the experience.
