Page 21 of Married By Scandal

“The engagement tour.”

“And pretend everything is normal? Pretend I’m madly in love with a spy?”

“Is it much different from when you thought I was Albert?”

I halt in place and round on him. “Of course it’s different. You lied to me. You broke my most important rule.”

His brows knit together, and his vexing foot tapping commences. He purses his lips as if he wants to say something. Is that what his fidgeting conveys? That he’s holding back from speaking? His foot goes still, and his smirk returns. “Technically, that rule was meant for your future husband. Which I am not.”

I open my mouth to argue, but…he’s right.

He’s not my fiancé. He’s not Albert, the man I’m meant to marry.

A strange sense of disappointment sinks my stomach, but it’s soon replaced by the most profound relief.

“If you prefer, I can convince Albert to take his proper place,” Dante says. “When I told him about our confrontation at the Salty Satyr and expressed how important the tour was to you, he still refused. He’s too frightened to show himself in public until I’ve ascertained there is no threat to his life. Tonight’s attack suggests such dangers are real, but not real enough for me to deem it an assassination attempt and have Albert call off the peace alliance. There’s a chance we were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, I must continue my mission. But I can look out for him in other ways. Tail him as a guard instead of acting as his decoy.”

“You’re saying my future husband is a coward?”

“To put it bluntly…I suppose you could say that. But he’s also my friend. The closest thing I have to family.”

I pull my head back with surprise. “The prince you serve is the closest thing you have to family?”

“I was orphaned as a child, before I can remember. My ticket out of the orphanage was joining the military. I was satisfied with that. Getting recruited as Albert’s decoy, having a room at the palace, work that suited me…it was a luxury I never expected. Gaining Albert’s friendship on top of that was more than I deserved.”

I’m struck by a flash of sympathy, but it does little to endear me to Albert.

“The point is, he’s a good man. He’ll attend the tour if…if I strongly suggest it.”

The grimace on his face says otherwise.

And yet, I find that oddly comforting. “So, Albert is a coward who has very little regard for me.”

“That’s not exactly—”

“He has no desire to see me before we’re married. No desire to charm me or flirt with me or try to win my heart. I take it he isn’t looking forward to marrying me at all.”

“Again, that’s putting it rather plainly.”

“He’s…not you. And everything you’ve been doing with me has all been an act. Your flirtations, your flatteries…you’re just pretending to act like Prince Albert.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Fairfield. If I thought I could tell you the truth without risking my mission, I would have done so right away. Now that you know the truth, you have every right to tell your sister and use it as grounds to sever your engagement. You could have me and Albert and all of his guards killed, and it would almost be justified. But if there’s any part of you that wants peace and improved relations between our countries, I beg of you to keep this between us.”

I’m surprised by his candor. His guilt. I could assuage some of his remorse by telling him he isn’t the only one who was given a mission to test the validity of this peace alliance. My sister asked something similar of me—to spy on my betrothed and report on any suspicious activities. It’s ironic, really. Maybe even humorous.

Something escapes my lips. A bark of laughter. Then another. Perhaps I’ve been overcome with a fit of mania in the wake of this evening’s strange events, but as my relief grows, so too does my laughter.

“You and I are fake,” I manage to say once I’ve somewhat sobered from my fit. “A temporary alliance before my union with the prince. We’ll drink, we’ll dance, we’ll show society how madly in love we are, but then we’ll go our separate ways. There will be no chance that either of us will mistake what we do together as something real.”

“Yes,” he says slowly, drawing out the word.

“This is perfect,” I say under my breath, throwing my head back with a smile. “I’m so utterly relieved.”

“Pardon?”

I chuckle again. A bundle of tightness unravels from my chest, making me feel lighter than I have since I first agreed to my marriage. Finding out the man I must spend my engagement tour with isn’t my future husband is the best thing that could have happened. Now I can truly throw my efforts into this charade without having to worry about giving Albert the wrong impression. I’ll still have to marry the prince, of course, and figure out how to act with him at public events when the time comes. But for now…

Now I get to relish in the comfort that this is all an act.

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