“We found this in the throne room.” He handed me the carcass of my father’s satellite phone. “I thought you might want to have it.”
“Yes, thanks. Saskaya might be able to salvage some of the data.”
I turned the broken device over in my hand. I believed it crushed beyond use, but while the screen is a web of cracks, the body seems undamaged. I might have been able to make it work, had I been brave enough to venture into the murder scene. I could have called for help. Maybe. I never heard it ring, after that night.
Still, the bitter possibility that I suffered pointlessly remains.
Just how pointlessly was driven home not two minutes later.
“Your Highness, I brought you and your knight—oh.” The maid’s eyes widened. I swear she batted her eyelashes as if I, Lorcan’s ostensible fiancée and her sovereign, weren’t standing right there. Slowly, she turned to place the tray she was carrying on the table near the window. Staring, she breathily continued, “Sir Lorcan, I wouldn’t have come in had I known.”
Rubbish. Complete and utter shite, as Scarlett might say.
My knight stood there, bare-chested. There’s no way he’s oblivious to her gawping. Ignoring it, yes. But he’s not stopping her, either.
“Dismissed,” I snapped. The woman pulled herself together and bustled out the door. Which I slammed.
Lorcan shrugged into a shirt, eyeing me warily. I helped myself to an apple from the lunch plate and stalked out.
I can’t stay here.
We’ll expose our sham of an engagement within days, at this rate. He and I might still get along when we’re alone in private, but whenever the real world intrudes, the divide between us remains a cavernous gap. At least my absurd display of jealousy will bolster the illusion that we’re really together, if not quite in a way I would like.
* * *
The rift between us deepened upon our return to Covari Village the next afternoon. I led my horse into the stable, followed by Lorcan, who was in turn followed by Sethi’s nanny, Tahra.
I was briefly tempted to raise the Auralian legal age of adulthood, because seventeen is way too young to be making consequential decisions like sleeping with engaged men—as though laws have ever stopped people from having sex with whomever they wish. (Except me. Lucky me, I always get to be the exception. At least some things never change—and it’s always the shittiest parts of being a princess.)
In a tacit admission that flinging my reins at Lorcan and stomping away the way I did the last time we arrived in town, hadn’t been the nicest thing to do, I brought my gelding into his stall to untack him. Unbuckling leather and grooming my horse gave me plenty of time to listen in on Tahra’s attempts to flirt with Lorcan.
He promised he wouldn’t embarrass me publicly before we part ways in the fall. Three more months of pretense.
Lorcan couldn’t even make it three weeks.
Apparently, it’s harder to bury seeds of hope than it is to bury your own father and surrogate mother. The stuff is a weed, popping up no matter how often I think I’ve eradicated it from the fallow garden of my heart.
I’ll grant that the woman at the camp was only expressing friendly admiration, if you squint hard enough. Arguably, the maid who accidentally walked in on Lorcan’s semi-nudity was taken aback by his stunningly masculine form (sarcasm font) and meant no offense. It’s true that his scars are arresting, and he is very attractive. I’m sure people stare at him a lot. I did.
But this? There’s just no excuse.
Even if Tahra miraculously suffered a failure of vision when I came into the stable, Lorcan damn well knows I’m right here. Anger made my fingers unsteady as I loosened leather straps.
“I’ll help you with your horse.” Brazenly, she followed him into the cramped stall. “I wouldn’t mind some personalized riding lessons myself.”
Ridiculous. The Covari are all accomplished equestrians, taught from childhood. Better than me, and I competed in Olympic jumping. I didn’t bring home a medal but I scored decently high among the best riders in the world.
No. Tahra is asking for another kind of ride altogether.
Did Lorcan tell her to get lost? Give any indication that he understands what she’s after?
He did not. Lorcan played dumb, precisely like he used to do with Raina.
“I could give you a few pointers. Although I’ve seen you on a horse.” Leather slapping as he unsaddled his mount. “You don’t need any—”
I latched my horse’s stall door, slung my pack crossways over my body, picked up the saddle, and strode up the center aisle toward the tack room.
“Princess, you shouldn’t be—”
