**THE PRINCESS SERIES is part of the GOLDEN UNIVERSE, and considered a sequel to THE GOLDEN QUEEN/A BRAZEN LOVE**
♦YOU MUST HAVE READ THE GOLDEN UNIVERSE NOVELS AND THE BRAZEN NOVELS TO READ THIS SERIES!♦
Cordelia, the Princess of Totresia, has alw...
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♪ I been doing stupid things Wilder than I've ever been ♪ {Ariana Grande—Bad decisions}
Minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into more hours. After Sébastien departed Cordelia's chambers, pretending to storm out in anger to preserve himself from potential involvement in her escape, she'd hoped for a fast reply. She'd hoped for him to prevail in record time and rescue her from her confinement of awaiting her punishment.
The only person the guards let in, aside from Sébastien, was Clarisse. And, sensing ominous events to come, Cordelia begged her lady-in-waiting to disappear.
"With all this going on," she jutted her chin at the mattress, and Clarisse gulped, understanding what she referred to, "you are not safe here, Clarisse. You need to leave. Take a sabbatical. Beseech the King to let you out of court because of a family matter. Family, insist on that; it seems to be a big deal to him nowadays."
She shooed her friend and maiden out of her quarters, and prayed Antoine would let her take off before he put two and two together and linked her to Cordelia's Anonymous novel.
It was the following evening, exactly twenty-four hours after he'd left the living room, that Sébastien resurfaced in Cordelia's chambers. But first, he let her wonder what in the world was going on outside her door, when she heard high-pitched giggles, heavy heels on the parquet, and deep grunts—the manly chuckles of her guards?
"Who is..." Cordelia had been struggling to read a book, lounging on her sofa, when the commotion began. It sounded like a party in the corridor; laughter and loud conversations, whistled tunes, a scent of baked goods seeping under her threshold.
She pressed an ear to her door, overhearing what was going on in the hallway.
"But you must try them," said one voice—an unfamiliar feminine tone, sultry, seductive, and addressing one of the guards.
"I cannot leave my station," replied the man in question, though there was a hint of a smile in his voice, a flicker of interest in the rhythm of his words. It was as if it saddened him to not be allowed to move. "Otherwise I would join you in a heartbeat."
"Does it not intrigue you?" Another lady-like voice emerged, followed by more clicks of heels and a muted giggle. "A secret game-playing society that meets after supper in various locations throughout the castle? You, a King's man, should be ever so curious to see this. And report it to your boss, hm?"
Cordelia snorted—she'd been privy to rumors of this secret society, and had no doubt Jules was at the head of it, meaning Antoine would already know all about it.
"And I swear," the first feminine voice returned, "these tarts are to die for, but they are upon request only. I see you here every night, bored and famished—"
"Oh, you must be famished!" A third woman added to the mix—this one exaggerated and girly sounding, but Cordelia couldn't place her. Cordelia couldn't place any of these women, and had no idea what they were doing. "I bet they only give you a few scraps... and they never let you abandon your post, do they? Cruel, I say. Cruel."
