**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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
♪ Now it's all rearranging We're waiting here for something to save us ♪ {Lennon Stella—Save us}
Swept up in her troubled fantasies of the two individuals she harbored hard, intensifying, and confusing feelings for, Cordelia didn't react to the sudden shadow looming over her until the voice that accompanied it pierced her ears.
"Charmant," said the Baroness, slithering around the table and into view, revealing her voluptuous, viperous figure. "Am I disturbing anything important?"
Cordelia shook out of her reveries, as if the woman would have been able to read her woes all over her face if she didn't recompose herself.
Neither Helen—immersed into the pages of The Golden Girl—nor Thomas had noticed the sly woman's arrival until she spoke, as they both jumped in their seats and gasped. Helen had the quick and smart idea of concealing the book in her lap, lest the Baroness take an interest in it. She winked at Cordelia before sitting up straight and narrowing her gaze on the woman who had, indeed, interrupted their brief peace.
"Only the explanations I was about to produce for why you took these two lovely ladies as captives," said Thomas, his tone trickling with vice. When Cordelia looked at him, she detected a hint of a tremble to his lips; as if the grand woman intimidated him, despite having yelled at her days prior.
Had something happened since that evening, when he'd lost his temper, and she'd stormed out of their guest chambers, barring him from visiting? And was that why he was still struggling to detail the reasons behind what he'd done, why he'd called the Baroness, of all people, for help? And why his only option to break their imprisonment was to marry Cordelia?
"Those can wait. If you are unable to find correct words, that is not my doing, Mr. Barns." The Baroness' sharp, café noir colored eyes zeroed in on Cordelia and she extended her navy-gloved hand. "I request an audience with her Highness, if you would not mind."
Cordelia wasn't sure who the Baroness was asking, but she doubted she spoke to Helen, who was usually the object of the woman's disdain and crude remarks.
Thomas opened his mouth and lifted a finger, ready to protest—but with her free hand, the Baroness gestured at him to be quiet and stay put. "It was not so much a question as it was a comment, Mister Barns. I do not need your permission." One brow arching, the Baroness approached her other hand to Cordelia. "Only hers."
Uneasy with the idea of being alone with this woman and her ill intentions, Cordelia glanced at Helen. But if Helen wanted to be reassuring, if she wanted to give any sort of encouragement to Cordelia, she didn't show it. She hunched her shoulders, and her chin was dipped as she rose from her seat and offered a grunt and a good day as she hurried inside the manor.
Why did the Baroness cause such fear in Helen? Helen never lacked a snarky retort, never bowed her head to any other woman. She even had lists of insults to fling at the Baroness, stating she was keeping them for the right time. But when would that time be? When would she stick up for herself as she stuck up for Cordelia? The Princess hadn't forgotten how Helen had risen to the occasion to defend her, in the prison. But if that version of Helen was in the vicinity nowadays, she remained hidden, cowering somewhere unseen.
