Page 16 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

He looked at her for a long moment and then let her hand go, pacing away to the French doors. Ridiculously, Maddi felt almost rejected. She held her hand to her chest.

He turned around and looked at her, and at her hand. Sharply, he said, ‘Did I hurt you?’

‘No, not at all... I just...’

She dropped her hand. How could she explain that when he touched her it had burned, but not in a bad way?

He folded his arms across his chest, but that only made her notice the way his muscles pushed against his shirt. ‘So, who are you?’

Maddi swallowed. ‘I’m Princess Laia’s lady-in-waiting.’

‘What’s your name?’

Rapid-fire questions.

‘Maddi Smith.’

‘You look very alike.’

Maddi scrabbled to find an explanation. No way could she tell him she was Laia’s half-sister. He would use the information to draw Laia out of hiding, or God knows what else.

‘Have you never heard of doppelgangers? We’re just very alike. My mother was from Isla’Rosa...’ She stopped there.

‘Did you grow up there?’

She shook her head. ‘No, I grew up in Ireland.’ To stop him asking questions for a minute she repeated her own. ‘When did you know?’

‘I don’t think you’re really in any position to ask questions, are you?’

Maddi bit her lip and she saw his gaze move there. The air between them snapped and crackled.

He looked back up. Almost as if he couldn’t help himself, he finally said, ‘The dog. I saw you with the dog. I remembered Laia has a fear of them because of her father.’

Of course. Maddi had stopped to pet a dog one day, when she and Laia been walking somewhere, and she’d only noticed that Laia had turned to stone behind her after a few seconds. Laia had explained about her irrational fear. She wanted to like dogs, but her father’s fear after being attacked as a young boy had seeped into her consciousness too, and she couldn’t seem to let it go.

‘So what happens now?’ she asked.

Aristedes sat back on the wall of the balcony and Maddi felt her insides swoop as she thought of the perilous drop on the other side.

Before she could stop herself, she put out a hand, ‘Could you not do that, please?’

He frowned. ‘Do what?’

‘Perch on the only thing between you and crashing to your death on the rocks below.’

He didn’t move. ‘These walls have been here since the Middle Ages and they’ll outlast us.’

Something about her face must have transmitted how terrified she was and he stood up. ‘What happens now? What happens now is that you tell me where Laia is.’

Maddi’s hand dropped back to her side. ‘I don’t know.’

The King’s mouth compressed. ‘I don’t suppose you went through all this just to turn around and give me her location.’

Maddi almost felt sorry for him. ‘No. But the truth is that I have no idea where she is. Honestly. All I was doing was giving her a chance to escape.’

‘Escape the life she knew she was destined for? A life of privilege?’

‘She wants more. And she wants to be Queen of her own country.’