Page 43 of Lily and the Billionaire Prince

“Father, this is Lily. My bride, as promised. I even made it with a few days to spare.” Though she could hear the joke in Henrik’s tone, his father didn’t crack. “Lily, this is the King of Einvar, Thomas Simon Nils von Frosk.”

Lily got the impression he was used to trying every tactic he could to get on his father’s nerves, including referring to him by his full name and title.

“Louise arrived a few days ago and mentioned you’d be bringing a woman home with you.” The King didn’t acknowledge Lily at all but rather kept his nose high. “You cannot marry a woman you picked up in some hotel and who you know nothing about.”

Putting it like that he made her sound downright cheap. “Excuse me,” Lily began an attempt to defend herself, but Henrik spoke over her, offering a soothing hand.

“She isn’t someone I picked up at a hotel, Father. You agreed to this.”

The King remained aloof and maintained his rigid posture feet from his son and wife. “Yes, but I didn’t think you’d follow through on your part. I figured you were off for one last jaunt before you were forced back home to settle down.”

One last jaunt. The King’s insults kept pelting right into her. How manyjauntshad the prince had, exactly? She knew he was a playboy and a flirt. Was that all the King saw in her?

Queen Anika stepped around Henrik and rested a hand on Lily’s back. “Come, my dear. I fear they may be at this for some time.”

Lily wasn’t sure if Henrik wanted to be alone to argue with his dad, but he turned to her with an encouraging nod. The Queen led Lily into an adjacent library. Any other time, Lily would have been as taken by the room as she had been with everything else, but she couldn’t let herself bask in its beauty or the sheer number of books it held.

“Was Henrik wrong to bring me here?” she asked, staying close to the closed door.

Henrik and his father’s voices carried down the hall, though she couldn’t make out their angry words. Why had he brought her here if he’d known how much it would anger his father? Then again, she couldn’t judge. She’d defied her parents for Damon, foolish as the choice had been.

Queen Anika didn’t sit on one of the sturdy, leather chairs either. She rested her hands on the back of the chair across from Lily. “No, darling girl. The King did agree, and even shook to solidify his word. It’s only that—well, never mind.”

“He had someone in mind for Henrik,” Lily finished what she assumed the Queen had been about to say. Henrik had told Lily about Lady Eden. She began to wonder what qualities this noblewoman had that Lily herself lacked.

“He did,” the Queen said. “We’ve been discussing arrangements with the young lady’s family for quite a few years now.”

Years. Henrik had told her as much, but he’d made the situation sound so dismissible. Did Lady Eden love Henrik? Was she going to have her heart broken by this?

“I see. Thank you for telling me.” Lily sank into the seat. She’d been so stupid to be so entranced by Henrik. What was she thinking? To marry aprince? She’d been fed on fairy tales from the time she was little. She knew how this worked. Princes married princesses. Still, she thought maybe real life was different.

Apparently not.

Shouting resonated from the entry room. Queen Anika flinched from time to time. Occasionally, Lily considered interrupting and asking to be taken home, but she needed to at least speak with Henrik. After what seemed like hours, Louise appeared and offered to take Lily to her room.

“Thank you, Louise,” Lily said, gratefully. She wanted to be somewhere to think. Somewhere she didn’t have to wonder how she should sit or what she should say.

Surprisingly, Louise smiled. She took Lily’s hand and patted it, deferring to the Queen before leading Lily out of the library and down the second-floor corridor. Tall, old portraits were situated every few feet along the walls. “They’ll get this sorted out. Don’t you worry. Henrik is just as hard-headed as his father and from what I can tell, he’s not backing down just yet.”

Lily supposed she should be relieved to hear as much, and she was. But she was too caught up in wondering what the King would say to being called hard-headed by Henrik’s advisor.

The room Louise led her to was lovely, quaint, and old-fashioned in every sense except for the electricity that had been installed. Despite the light blazing from lamps on either side of her bed, a friendly fire crackled in the fireplace. A fire. In her bedroom. Heat emanated from it, and she welcomed the warmth. Her suitcase had been left on the bed’s burgundy spread, and the cushions looked so plump, Lily craved to swim in the bedding and drown herself in sleep for a while.

Louise bade her goodbye and Lily felt every one of her muscles relax. She kicked off her shoes. Despite the room’s warmth, the stone floor was cold. She deposited her suitcase on the floor at the foot of the bed and sat, testing the bed’s softness. Tensions were high now, but Henrik had mentioned he didn’t agree with his father as it was. She would see what the rest of the day brought.

* * *

Henrik knockedon her door later that afternoon. He wore a gray sweater and jeans, and smiled notwithstanding his tired, rumpled look.

“I came to see how you are,” he said, holding out a plate of scones. Their delicious, freshly baked scent tantalized her empty stomach.

Lily twined her hair into a knot on top of her head and allowed Henrik in. “I’m fine, but something tells me you’re not.”

“What makes you say that?” He took a bite of scone and sat on the end of her bed. While waiting for him and his father to finish arguing, Lily had climbed in and fallen asleep. She hadn’t been able to make it quite as prettily as whoever had done so the day before, but she’d done her best.

“Your father—”

“My father? Pfft. The King is so used to getting his way that he doesn’t like when he can’t with me.”

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