The Heiress Queen (Season Series Prequel)

Chapter 18

For the first time since she'd arrived at the palace, Isabelle went out of her way to start avoiding the prince. Before, she'd considered him a nuisance and a pest, but after their walk in the gardens, she'd come to realize that he was far too skilled a manipulator for her to spend any more time in his company than was necessary. The fact that she'd begun to question Leopold's character after their conversations had shaken her, especially since she still hadn't yet received any letters from her betrothed.

Conflicted, she'd turned to the advice from the one man she knew that she could always trust. Her father had warned her from the beginning about staying away from Prince Graham. Now that the prince had dared to insinuate that her father had lied to her to keep her content with Leopold, she realized that the jaws of a trap were slowly closing around her. Graham had planted the seed of doubt in her mind and she'd allowed it to take root.

But she was done with that now.

She wouldn't spend any more time with him, if she could help it. She'd rip those doubts from her mind and stay far enough away that he wouldn't be able to plant any more. Her father had confirmed that he had also not received any word from Ardalone, which reassured Isabelle that perhaps Leopold's letters had been delayed by some shipping mishap.

Of more concern, however, was what Graham had told her about Alicia. Now that she knew what the lady-in-waiting was up to, Isabelle had taken to writing double the letters, one for the benefit of the queen and one that she truly intended to send. When it came to her letters to Leopold, she didn't change very much as she didn't care if the queen knew exactly how she felt about her farce of a court, but she didn't dare let her questions about Rhysalia fall into Graham's hands. For him to know that he'd shaken her sufficiently for her to gently question her betrothed about his mother and her court would please the prince, something Isabelle vehemently refused to do.

Though even as she artfully arranged her papers so Alicia could easily steal them as soon as Isabelle left for the evening's ball, she couldn't shake the nagging thought that she was missing something. Graham had told her about Alicia's ruse with the stationery, but why? Clearly he'd gained from the wicked little imp's espionage, so why eliminate the only access he had to Isabelle's letters?

Unless, of course, he had something else up his sleeve.

She hated that he always seemed to be five steps ahead of her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't puzzle out what he was up to until it had already happened. Her best guess was that Graham's father had put him to the task of ensuring that she never married Leopold. He was doing an unnervingly good job of attempting to change her mind, but now that she'd caught on, she wasn't going to allow him to make any more headway.

Little did she know, however, that the prince had only just begun.

Graham wasted no time upon entering the ball that evening, bypassing all the other debutantes that had flocked towards the thrones to haul Isabelle onto the dance floor. She'd been loitering behind a column on the other side of the buffet table, but he'd located her with ruthless efficiency. She refused to let him think that she'd been hiding, accepting his outstretched hand with a smile that probably looked more like a grimace.

"Honouring me with your first dance, how fascinating," Isabelle mused, channelling her inner manipulator as the prince lined her up for a waltz. "Does this mean that you're no longer disappointed in me?"

"On the contrary. It seems that I'm now waging even more of an uphill battle," Graham replied, his trademark arrogant grin in place.

"If you're referring to your attempts to sabotage my betrothal, you should know that there isn't a thing you can do to change my mind," Isabelle said, doing her best to appear disinterested as they spun around the dance floor.