𝚂𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 ✔

Chapter Forty-Eight

The carriage ride home was eerily silent. Each of us too shaken in our own individual ways to even try to carry on an empty conversation.

Though I could probably assume correctly what we all had been thinking.

That could have been me.

One wrong argument at a very bad time could have cost us our faces and one of our eyes, like it had Marjorie, and none of us knew how close it was to being one of us instead.

Part of me felt as if Thomas held some of the blame, because it seemed as if he had chosen Marjorie to dance because it would anger Castellana. But I doubt he had known his jest would end in such a tragic way.

However, that could not have been the only reason she snapped. Yes, she had a horrid temper and was obnoxiously rude to no end, yet those ill qualities of hers weren't enough to convince me she had acted just to act.

Not when what she had done could have ruined everything she had been working toward.

Once we arrived back at the palace, we four bid one another goodnight and retired to our rooms.

"You are back early." Cordelia had been putting away fresh sheets into one of the cupboards in the receiving room of the apartment. "Did something happen? You look pale."

"Yes, a great many things did happen." I laughed weakly, "Mother berated me, Henry kissed me and Castellana mutilated Marjorie all because she wasn't Thomas' first dance of the night." I took a seat on one of the tufted chairs, pushing my shoes off with my feet.

"What?!" Cordelia quickly walked over towards me and kneeled so that we were face to face. "Someone was hurt? Henry, Prince Henry the Heir to the throne of Myrce and the brother of the man you are trying to wed kissed you?!"

"Oh fuck." I covered my face with my hands trying to hide my embarrassment.

She pulled my hands from my face, "Oh no you cannot run from this one. Emma why in the name of the Gods of old were you kissing Henry?"

"I-I. . . it just, well-" I stammered trying to figure out how to explain it.

"Gods Emma." She sighed, "You love him."

I stared back at her, expecting the look of disappointment to be glaring back at me but all I saw was a mix of confusion, joy and pity.

"I do." I admitted, completely defeated.

She was silent for a while, brows raising and falling, lips scrunching and relaxing as she internally argued with herself. Then, she closed her eyes and placed a hand on my cheek, "Well how are we going to proceed?"

"What do you mean?" I was taken aback by how calm she was.

"How are we going to secure Henry?" She sat back on the floor, crossing her legs while she waited for my reply.

Out of everything I had expected to hear from her, that was not it. I was sure she would have lectured me on how dangerous the situation I had found myself in was, or that I needed to focus on Thomas because he was the one I had come to secure. But she did not even question my motives, my love for Henry. She just accepted my feelings and that was that.

"I am unsure." I shook my head, tears flooding my eyes, "Up until tonight, I was not sure he had felt the same as me. So when he confessed and then kissed me, I did not even have a chance to consider where to go from there."

"Did he say anything about a future together? Or make it seem as if his intentions were to claim you as his own?" Her brows were beginning to furrow again.