Lucius bows, and I curtsy in return.
“I feel the same, Your Grace.”
“I think I’ll ask Damian if I can buy a royal title,” Arkane says, pulling out the chair beside his for me. “I don’t like Tiara curtsying to anyone.”
Everyone laughs, and this...
It’s a time to laugh, a time to embrace, and for those of us who know the truth—
It’s a time to just hope.
We talk while we have breakfast. They tease Arkane for not letting go of my hand under the table, and for Lucius always wanting to make Tassy blush by having her sit on his lap.
And after, and the men, following the customs of the park, leave the house to join the other gentlemen in the club—
It’s just us women.
Just all of us who know, and I remember, of course I remember the last time it was like this.
It was raining that day. Hard. But not as hard as the way my heart was pounding as I met with Icelle at the cafe, and I saw that Joy and her new sister-in-law Tassy were there, too. The cafe was a quiet one in a part of the city Icelle had picked because no one would recognise any of us there, and the four of us were tucked into a corner booth at the back, the windows fogged from the weather outside, the rain drumming steady on the glass.
“Has something happened to Arkane?”
The words simply flew out of me that day, and those words, his mother would tell me later, were what convinced her that the risk was worth it.
“No, no, my dear. In fact, it’s the opposite...”
And that’s how I learned about The Plan.
“Have you heard about Foxtown?” the older woman had asked, both hands wrapped around her teacup like she needed the warmth more than the tea.
“If Jane Austen wanted to give Disney a run for its money...it’s that kind of place, I think?”
“It is, yes,” Joy confirmed. “The family behind it, they’re friends of ours. But lately, and we suspect it may be because of their business rivals...”
“It’s gone viral,” Icelle finished for her stepmother, her tone its usual flat. “Foxtown is what causes women to break up with broke exes and hook up with rich guys.”
“But it’s not true?”
“It happened to me, though,” Tassy said with a wince. “I didn’t mean it to happen like that, but it did. And because I’m not the only one...”
Oh. Well. That’s bad. But—
“Is there something I can help with?” I asked finally. I mean, I couldn’t think of any way I could, but—
“Foxtown’s marketing team came up with a theme for the new Season. It’s all about Second Chances, and—” Joy squirmed in her seat. “I might have suggested that you and Lucius could be their guests of honor on the first night.”
My eyes widened.
“We can’t guarantee how Lucius will react.” Icelle’s tone was strained, and for someone like her—
“All we can guarantee is that he’ll be there, and you’ll finally have a chance to talk to him. But other than that...”
Icelle looked at me, and I looked at her—
He can really, really kill you.
We had finally reached that stage of friendship where we no longer needed words.