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“The dress is fine.”
“We altered it to pull the hem up,” Alexandra said. “The minute she sees the papers and that I went out like this… she’ll take it out on me.”
“You look great. You’re young, Alexandra. Celeste can’t possibly think you should always dress like you’re fifty.”
Alexandra crossed her arms. I took her in—not seeing the issue. I came onto girls wearing far less. She looked saintly in the white floral number. It was perfectly serviceable for a Thursday evening out with friends. If anything, it was an improvement on her regular wardrobe. Apart from her gear for the barn, she often looked overdressed and buttoned up.
“You should be able to dress the way you want,” I said. “Live a little! She can bitch all she wants, but you hold the cards here. They are salivating over you. It would be to her detriment to actively sabotage you.”
I had the urge to put her at ease. It seemed appropriate to rub her back to comfort her. It might have been an overreach, but ignoring her felt wooden.
She looked at me, big blue eyes vulnerable. “You mean that? You don’t care if we catch flak?”
“I will defend your right to wear what you choose, Alexandra. That’s an essential part of being a person. You don’t seem the type to parade around in a club dress.Thatwill get you in trouble. Of course, if you did, I’d still defend you.”
“Really?”
“It’s ridiculous. You’re a grown woman! People shouldn’t care what you wear. I know that’s easy for me to say, Alexandra, but I don’t believe in telling women what to wear. It’s contrary to how I was raised.”
She smiled. “That’s nice. We should visit Lundhavn soon. And then I shall buyallthe clothes and be nothing but vindicated.”
“We should, yes,” I agreed.
She doted on my horses lovingly, satisfied somehow that I would stand up for her. It was heartbreaking in a way I didn’t anticipate. I began to worry the other shoe would drop when she found out who I was deep down. All the while, my protectiveness of her and her sisters won out. She didn’t deserve this. I may have been a prick, but I didn’t think of women as property. My parents raised me better than that. Women were people.
We departed in the car.
“Can you not ever drive yourself as monarch?” I asked.
“I cannot drive at all,” Alexandra answered.
“You do not know how to drive?”
“It sounds like a dream,” Alexandra said. “But I never got the opportunity.”
It was so sad. She couldn’t drive. Independent people drove cars!
“I cannot drive a car. I cannot dance. I cannot do a lot of things normal people my age do. They let you drive?”
Celeste and her courtiers saw Alexandra and her sisters as pawns to control. They reduced them to silly girls over which to exert themselves. It was deplorable. I dug in. Three weeks in, I wasn’t the man they wanted, but I was probably the man they needed.
“Of course. I normally drive at home,” I said. “You really cannot dance?”
She shook her head. Something about that was even sadder. The girl was neglected. I suspected if her parents were alive, things would be different. I wish they had been there for her. I realised what I read as boring wasn’t that at all. Alexandra never had the benefit of growing into someone with the opportunity to have hobbies and love things. She wasn’t boring. She was clever but deprived. The more we spoke, the more I read her as quick and eager to learn. She was a sponge, wanting to feel everything and do everything. Alexandra deserved the chance to spread her wings.
“We’ll remedy both,” I promised.
“I will need to learn to dance. But drive?”
“Do you want to drive?”
She nodded. “And I would drive if only I were able to even get a moment to myself. I am not stupid, Rick. I graduated top of my class—early. I am clever and could easily drive a car.”
“Of course,” I agreed.
“Everyone thinks I am stupid. They underestimate me. I… I hate it. I know you don’t know me that well, but… I don’t want you thinking I’m daft.”
“God, no! I don’t think that, Alexandra. You engineered a plan to free yourself and the girls and ran in front of a train—all with a massive weight around your neck in the form of a complicated prince.”
