Page 12 of Crown of Thorns
Chapter 5
Cats and Promises
“What should I wear?” Dahlia asks as she pulls open an ornate armoire and flips through hangars.
“Uh…” I laugh as I lay sprawled on her big bed in a mound of monochromatic toss pillows. “You know I don’t know how to wear anything other than jeans and old college sweatshirts unless Maeve finds it and tells me how to wear it.”
She stares at me with a wicked twinkle in her eyes. “You are kind of hopeless, aren’t you?”
“Thanks, brat!” I toss back with no heat as I launch an embossed velvet pillow at her head.
“I’m just saying,” she says. “You’re lucky to have me as a bestie. I’ll keep you on the fashion straight and narrow.”
“I think it’ll take more than one person… Maybe I even need a superhero of clothes.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” she replies. “Just think. Before you know it, we’ll be going on girls’ trips to fashion week in Paris, Milan, and New York.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” I laugh. “I would definitely embarrass you there. I’m not ready.”
“You will be soon enough,” she says as she pulls a sleek, winter white dress and matching coat dress out of her closet and holds them up for my inspection before replacing them and pulling the same dress out, only this time in a soft gray-green.
“Where are you going this time anyway?” I ask. While I had only been on a very limited number of royal engagements before the accident, Dahlia has been doing these kinds of visits her whole life.
“I’m going to meet the Chief Admiral of the Royal Navy,” she says with a heavy sigh. “He’s probably some stuffy, old goat who would be happier fawning all over my mum.”
“Nonsense,” I tell her, speaking a truth that I can say only to Dahlia. “She’s absolutely awful. Who would want her when they could have you?”
“Yes, because a twenty-two year old alcoholic is so much fun to be around,” she says drolly.
“You are fun to be around. More so since you stopped coming home with throw up in your hair,” I kid.
“Funny.” She rolls her eyes.
“Too soon?” I ask, worrying that I’ve hurt her feelings. I’m the only person she can be real with as well. My accident scared the shit out of her enough that she decided to completely dry out while I was in the hospital. The spin being that Harris had indulged with his early supper and my wish to leave the property had caught him off guard. Not wanting to displease me, he drove us while under the influence. Only Leo and I are left witness to the truth but neither of us have spoken otherwise. By the time I came home, Dahlia and I were both lonely and drowning in our respective miseries. As far as I know, Leo is back at Rhys’s side, business as usual.
“No,” she says. “I’m just burned out on these assignments. I don’t know how much more I can be around—” she stops speaking suddenly, cutting off her words mid-sentence.
“You can’t be around what? Who? Should I go through all of the question words?” I ask, playing the fool.
“No, you arse,” she says with a smile. “It’s of no consequence.”
I’m just about to tell her that anything that bothers her or makes her uncomfortable is important to me, and should be to the rest of her family, when there is a knock at the door. The look that passes over her face is relieved when I can’t take hold of one of my favorite topics: how her family should have been supporting her emotionally the entire time. I was lucky to havespent so much time with my uncles, whether actual relatives or not, because they showed me what healthy relationships should look like.
“Come in,” Dahlia calls out. And all of a sudden, she’s the Princess Royal, catapulting us into the zone of members of the Royal Family and not just friends hanging out and goofing around, no matter how casual we may be dressed or my black eye at the moment. I roll over so I’m no longer flopped on my belly but sitting up to recline regally on her ridiculous stack of pillows.
Ailsa, one of the household staff, pokes her head in. “His Majesty is looking for you,” she says to me, her brogue thicker than just about anyone else here. She’s young and full of life, and I’m pretty sure she has a screaming crush on both Taylor and Leo. I let out a sigh, not just because Rhys wants more of my attention after this morning but because her not-so-hidden feelings for Leo put her at odds with Dahlia and I hate that. I also hate that I’m fairly sure Rhys is preventing Leo from ever being with Dahlia in any sense.
“Maybe you should tell him that I don’t come when called like a puppy,” I tell her.
“No!” Dahlia shouts. “Don’t do that. Good heavens, Stella, you’ll get the poor girl killed,” she says even though Ailsa’s probably the same age as us.
“Normally, I’d agree with you,” Ailsa says cheekily. “We can’t let the men think we’re at their beck and call, but this you’ll want to see. I promise.”
I have to admit, her joyful grin has me smiling back even though I’m still not sure what in my life there is to smile about. I sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed.
“Looks like the party’s over,” Dahlia says in a sigh.
“Hush.”
