Page 33 of Take My Place

“Hey, Matt.” Romy nodded at him as he wrote his name on the list. “That looked like fun.”

“Tell me about it,” says Matt, rolling his eyes. “Have you got the buy in?”

“What spoilt rich kid doesn’t?” jokes Romy.

He hands over a fifty-pound note and Matt tucks it safely away in his pocket. All the competitors have to pay to race tonight, with the winner taking all. Of course, the real prize is the kudos of winning and the winner is going to buy everyone else drinks with the money, so it is more of a symbolic gesture than anything else, but it seems weird that someone would get so bent out of shape at the idea.

And the moment I have the thought, I laugh at myself. It isn’t so long ago that the idea of being able to find fifty pounds just to enter a street race would have been absurd. I guess I’m becoming one of those spoilt rich kids and I didn’t even notice.

The guy has a point, even if he was a dick about how he made it.

I do a quick look down the list of competitors. All male, of course.

If Romy meant what he said about my having freedom to do what I liked once we were married, I am going to shake things up a bit. I couldn’t be the only girl who would rather be on her own bike than be nothing more than a pretty side piece for her man. I’m going to drag King Town out of the Dark Ages, kicking and screaming if need be.

“I’m just going to say hi to a few people,” Romy tells me. “Are you going to be alright on your own for a bit?”

“I think I’ll survive,” I deadpan, wiggling my fingers at him in a little wave as he walks off.

I wander over to have a look at some of the stalls. I see Milly examining a boho style coat hanging up on a rack and I turn to walk the other way before she spots me, not wanting to get into a discussion about what happened at lunch, but I’m too slow.

“Hi, Ivy. I’m so glad you came.” Milly comes over and hugs me. “I wanted to say sorry I was so late. I don’t blame you for being angry with me.”

“You’re not the one who should be apologising,” I say. “I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you.I’msorry.”

“I don’t blame you for being in a bad mood. I would be if I’d had to wait as long as you did.I’msorry.”

“Okay, Milly.” I laugh and hold my hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I get the feeling that if we keep this up, we’re going to be apologising forever. Why don’t we say we’re both sorry and put it behind us? I haven’t seen you for months. Haven’t we got better things to discuss than who’s behaved the worst?”

“You’re right.” Milly smiles. “I just missed you so much, you know? Things were weird between us before you disappeared. You’re my only friend and I hated that I didn’t get a chance to make sure we were okay.”

“I wanted to message you,” I told her. “I knew you’d be wondering what happened to me, but I couldn’t risk it, not after Archer was shot. I didn’t want to put you in danger. Who knows what might have happened if my father knew we were in contact? I couldn’t take that chance. But if it helps, I missed you too. You’ve been the one person who’s stood by me with everything I’ve been through. I hated not being able to talk to you about things.”

“Things like your engagement?” Milly nudges me with her elbow. “I saw the ad Romy put in the papers. That must have been so romantic. How did you feel when you saw it?”

“I was surprised,” I admit. “I mean, I knew Romy was going to propose, but I thought he’d do something like take me to a restaurant or maybe a long bike ride to a quiet place in the countryside. I wasn’t expecting him to effectively propose in front of the entire town.”

“I guess you don’t know Romy as well as you thought,” says Milly. “He’s always been about grand gestures and when it comes down to something as important as a union of two Houses, of course he is going to do something everyone would see. I’m surprised he didn’t hire a skywriter to put a message in the clouds like last time.”

“Last time?” I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Oh.” Milly paled. “You didn’t know? He was engaged a couple of years ago to an heiress who lives in London. They were going to have a long engagement because they were both so young, you know? It is pretty obvious they were only getting married because their parents wanted to build business connections between the two families, but Romy claimed to be in love. Then rumours started to spread that you were still alive when we all thought you and your mum had died in a car crash years ago and Romy broke it off.”

“Because he thought I would be a better match?”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Ivy.” she sighs. “It’s different with you and Romy. I’m sure it is. The way he looks at you, I’ve never seen him like that. I think he genuinely cares about you.”

“Until an even bigger heiress comes along, right? You’re not the one being stupid. But I guess you can’t know what you don’t know, huh?” I shrug as if I don’t care and my heart doesn’t feel like it is shattering into a million different pieces.

If Romy had been up front about things from the start, agreed with me this engagement is a sham, that would have been one thing. We could have worked together for both our benefits. But no. He has to pretend he cares about me, seduce me, make me feel like we have a connection. There is simply no need.

I hate being lied to.

“Hey, Ivy. Are you ready for the race?” Romy comes over to join us, that attractive smile on his face.

Milly looks nervously from me to him, but I act as if nothing is wrong.

“Yep,” I reply. “Really looking forward to it. Can’t wait to be riding right behind you when you beat Archer and Declan.”

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