Page 41 of Twelve Nights In The Prince's Bed

Which was a disaster.

What she needed was her best friend and a proper distraction. Reaching for her phone, not minding that it was still early, she texted Eleanor.

Can we spend the day together?

The response was almost immediate.

I thought you’d never ask.

There was a little love-heart emoji for good measure.

Whatever else happened, Poppy would always have Eleanor—her very best friend in the world. Poppy had to push Adrastos way out of her mind, and a day with Eleanor was just what she needed.

Unfortunately, Eleanor had suggested a shopping trip into the city, one of their favourite pastimes, particularly at this time of year, when they selected the gowns each would wear to the New Year’s Eve banquet at the palace. Where they’d usually been able to slip out with a degree of privacy, that was not possible now, and, to Poppy’s chagrin, the paparazzi scrum tailing them from boutique to boutique all seemed to want to harangueher.

‘Poppy, is it love?’

‘When’s the wedding?’

‘Princess Eleanor, will you be a bridesmaid?’

Eleanor squeezed Poppy’s hand at that last question, keeping a blank face where Poppy was sure her abject horror must be quite visible on hers. They gave up after only forty minutes of trying on dresses, with Eleanor instructing the final boutique, ‘Please send these six to the palace. We’ll make our selections and send the rest back.’

Poppy was too shell-shocked to say a thing.

In the car, being chauffeur-driven back to the palace, Poppy turned to Eleanor. She hadn’t realised how badly she was shaking until Eleanor reached out and put a steadying hand on Poppy’s. ‘It will be okay. This will die down.’

Poppy nodded, but Eleanor was wrong. At least, in theory she was wrong. If Poppy were actually dating Adrastos, then the media attention would only intensify. There’d be an engagement, and a wedding, and then pregnancies, all to navigate in the spotlight of this sort of media circus. How could he ever be expected to fall in love when this was his life?

‘That was intense,’ Eleanor said, perhaps just to fill the silence, or maybe to justify the sense of fear both women were feeling. ‘I didn’t expect it. I thought it would be like normal.’ She grimaced, removing her hand. ‘But this isn’t normal,’ she whispered, her own voice quivering a little. ‘Poppy, what’s going on with you guys?’

A lump formed in Poppy’s throat. The outright question made it almost impossible to answer, because lying to Ellie was her worst nightmare. But she’d made this awful, awful web and had no choice but to stick with it. Just for a little while longer, she mentally added. The original plan had been to stay at the palace for the full twelve days, but she could leave early. Plead work deadlines and escape back to her own home. That wouldn’t change anything about the faux relationship, nor their ‘amicable break-up’, but it might just spare her sanity.

‘What do you mean?’ she asked, not bothering to try to smile.

‘Adrastos has never been with a woman for more than a week.’

He hadn’t been with Poppy for more than a week really, she thought with a grimace.

‘He’s certainly never brought a woman home for Christmas.’

‘That’s not what he’s done,’ she said with a shake of her head.

‘Nonsense,’ Eleanor dismissed. ‘You’re dating. You’re sleeping in his room. If things were as casual as you seem to want to insist, then why not stay in your own room and simply spend time together?’

Heat flooded Poppy’s cheeks. How could she answer that delicately? Because the only silver lining in this whole debacle was getting to share Adrastos’s bed.

‘You know what he’s like,’ Ellie said gently. ‘Which means you must see that this is very serious to him?’

Guilt was an awful, toxic taste in Poppy’s mouth. She shook her head, wanting to deny it with the truth, feeling suffocated by the car’s heating, by Eleanor’s nearness, by the lie she’d told with the best of intentions that was now eating her alive.

‘It can’t be serious,’ she blurted out, finally, latching onto a way out. ‘Do you remember the promotion my name was put forward for?’

Eleanor nodded.

‘I got it,’ Poppy admitted. ‘I only heard on the day of our birthday party, and I was going to tell you straight away, but all this...’ She gestured to herself, implying the relationship. ‘There’s been so much going on. The thing is, I’m leaving in the new year,’ she said, so glad she could finally say something that was completely honest. ‘And Adrastos must remain here.’

‘Oh, Pops.’ Ellie’s eyes were moist. ‘I can’t believe it. The timing—could it be any worse?’

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