Page 54 of The Prince and the Puck
I thought about that. When I had trusted Lizzy, it had felt good. Like I had a partner. But maybe she was too close to all of this to be a partner now.
Lambert suddenly pulled out his phone, scrolling through photos. He turned the screen to face me, and I saw a picture of a woman, smiling serenely—a very pretty woman, with dark hair and dark eyes.
“This is Celeste,” Lambert said in a voice I had never heard him use before. “We’re going to get married.”
CHAPTER 30
LIZZY
NEEL AND THE CLOSET.
I watched Declan walk away,understanding that this was a definitive line between us. He was returning to his position as prince, and I was a royal guard. Nothing more.
Whatever we had shared in the time that we had both worked for the Wombats in Wilcox, Virginia was over. I needed to remind myself of that. I needed to remember it.
I left the palace proper and walked down the narrow streets inside the palace complex to the long, low building I called home. Because my mother and I both worked for the monarchy, we had always lived here, on the palace grounds. Our home was a small, two-bedroom villa inside the palace gates. And as I unlocked the front door and stepped inside, the familiar scent of Mom’s traditional island cooking lofted toward me, embracing me like an old friend.
“You’re back.” Mom stepped from the kitchen, where she spent most of her time when she wasn’t at Her Majesty’s side.
“I’m back. What are you making? That smells amazing,” I said.
“I knew you’d be back today. The queen told me so. And I figured I should make your favorite dish.”
She stepped close, pulling me into a hug, and the familiarity and comfort there nearly made me cry.
Mom held me at arm’s length, her sharp eyes scanning my face, missing nothing. “And what has happened? Something is wrong.”
So many things were wrong. But I couldn’t tell my mother, could I?
“Come sit and have some coffee, and you can tell me.”
It seemed so simple. A cup of coffee. Tell my mom. Maybe it was that simple.
I sank into the familiar armchair that faced the kitchen, but was really part of the tiny family room nestled at its side. Mom brewed coffee on the stovetop using the pour-over method she had always used, then set a mug in front of me, wiping her hands on the apron around her waist before sitting and looking at me expectantly.
“So. You have spent some time with the prince. Your old playmate. And I expect that has brought up some feelings, no?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Eliza, it has never been a secret that you and the prince were close as children. And it was never a secret to me that you might have been closer than you shared with anyone. I know how a young girl’s heart can yearn, and I also know that yearning for a prince is a pointless endeavor.”
I didn’t like these words. But that didn’t make them untrue.
“I am not yearning for a prince,” I told her. Maybe I was. But I didn’t think of him as a prince. I thought of him as Declan, a hockey player. A very complicated hockey player.
“I can see it in your eyes,” my mother said, leaning back and crossing her hands over her stomach as she lounged in the chair. She had always been like this—seeing more than I wanted her to and passing judgment. That was the part I hated. Maybe sheknew me better than I knew myself, but I didn’t like to think she arrived at every conclusion before I’d had a chance to get there.
“Well, all of that is over now,” I told her. “I’m back, so I assume I’ll be getting another mission shortly.”
My mother’s eyebrows rose, then lowered as she considered me. She was privy to the deepest inner workings of the royal family and often knew things before anyone else.
“You know, I think romantic relationships are rather pointless,” she mused. “But that’s just because they’ve never worked out for me.”
She tilted her head, studying me. “I fear I’ve doomed you.”
“Just because you’ve never been successful at love doesn’t mean I won’t be,” I told her, more to assuage any guilt she might feel than because I thought I had any real chance at finding true love.
“It’s not that. It’s your place.” Her voice softened, but the weight of her words didn’t. “You were born a servant, and loving a prince is pointless.”
