Page 2 of The Billionaire's Royal Secret

“We are both alive, though Elena is pouting.”

Her mother was light-haired to her dark, but with matching emerald eyes. She crossed to her and stroked her hair, just as she had all those years ago when she’d met her fiancé. “Do not pout, darling. It will all work out.”

Her mother’s touch was a balm, yet also a reminder of the gentle strength that had long held their family together. Her mother’s words echoed in her mind. “Remember, Elena, true strength lies in understanding and compassion, not just in maintaining tradition,” she’d said so often in the past.

Elena focused on those words, using them as a guiding light amidst her turmoil. “I am not pouting, Mother. I am understandably upset over the end of my life.”

“Now, that’s hardly the case,” her mother said.

“If your mother and I felt that way, you would not be here, my darling daughter.”

Elena heaved a sigh. Her mother and father were a matched pair. They’d grown to love each other, and they expected her to do the same with a perfect stranger. “Perhaps that would be better.”

“Elena Sophia Catherine Montclair!” her mother exclaimed, her voice still soft though clearly showing her disapproval. “What a horrid thing to say!”

Elena chewed her lower lip, the frown still etched in her features. “I cannot help it, Mother. I am not living, merely alive. And I am quite fed up with it.”

She leapt from her chair and stormed from the room. After slamming the door behind her, she curled her fingers into fists and let out a muffled scream. She raced down the thick carpet in the middle of the hall past the suits of armor and the coat of arms tying her to the honor and dignity of the Montclairs.

She took the steps two-by-two past the stained-glass windows, twisted around on the landing and hurried up to the second floor. Tears stung her eyes as she hurried to her suite. She burst inside, raced to the large four-poster bed and flung herself onto it.

A soft, but authoritative voice spoke to her a moment later. “I take it things did not go as planned, Your Highness?”

“Not quite, Caroline,” she said to the auburn-haired woman who had attended her since she was a child.

Her ladies’ maid, Caroline, served as best friend and confidante, in addition to attending to her every need. She offered Elena a tight-lipped smile, clasping her hands in front of her.

“I do not understand,” Elena said through sobs. “How can it be so unfair?”

“Your parents were an arranged marriage, Your Highness. Perhaps it is not as bad as all that?”

“You have met Prince Eric. It can be. He is a pompous ass.”

Caroline sniggered at the comment. “Though not one you cannot handle, Your Highness.”

Elena pouted again as she twisted the silk duvet in her fist. “I do not wish to handle it.”

Caroline crossed to the antique mahogany vanity and picked up the silver brush. “Come, let me brush your hair.”

“I do not wish you to brush my hair,” Elena said with a forlorn sob.

“Don’t you?”

Elena frowned as she tilted her chin down to study Caroline. She pulled herself from the bed and shuffled to the chair before she plopped into it. Her fingers traced the delicate crystal of her perfume atomizer as Caroline gently tugged the brush through herlong, dark locks.

“I have never seen you look so defeated. Where is the fire that lights those emerald eyes?”

“Gone. Smashed by my father as he set a deadline for this ridiculous marriage to happen.”

“That feisty Elena Montclair spirit smashed? I don’t believe it.” Caroline grinned at her through the mirror.

Elena drummed her fingers against the marble top of the vanity as she flicked her gaze out the open French doors leading to the massive stone balcony. She narrowed her eyes at the spring blooms on the flowering trees on the rolling green hills.

“Eldoria is quite a small country, isn’t it, Caroline?”

“Yes, it is. But still important.”

“I care not of its importance at the moment.”

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