Page 27 of Beacon

The crown prince and princess offered friendly greetings, but it was Prince Owen who smiled the brightest, seeming genuinely excited to see me; if this was an act, it was rather convincing. “Good morning, Marisa. Did you sleep well?”

Not at all.I debated how honest to be in my response. It wasn’t that I wanted to deceive him, only that our limited time before the princess’s arrival would be best served with the purpose I had in mind rather than discussions over my well-being. So I simply nodded, a response that seemed to please the prince.

“I’m so glad. I want you to be comfortable.” He motioned for me to join him at the table but paused when Prince Ronan cleared his throat. Prince Owen’s brows furrowed at his brother’s accompanying significant look before his eyes widened. “What? Oh! Of course.”

He hastened to his feet and pulled out my chair for me, but I hesitated in sitting down. Despite only his brother and sister-in-law being in attendance, their presence would still require us to pretend. Not only did my heavy exhaustion make that already overwhelming task even more daunting but it’d prevent us from having the private conversation we needed.

Despite knowing the next necessary step, my sudden swell of nerves made it nearly impossible to execute. After telling myself that this brief moment of embarrassment would allow me to escape an entire meal subjecting myself to more, I took a wavering breath and leaned forward to rest my hand lightly on the prince’s elbow with a rather strained, flirtatious smile.

The table rattled as he jolted at my touch. Before he could question the reason for my sudden forwardness, I motioned to the two of us, picked up my empty plate, and tilted my head in the direction of the door in hopes of conveying my desires to dine with him alone.

By the crimson blush swallowing his cheeks, he clearly understood. “Oh! Yes. Of course…we should dine together. Alone. As couples do.”

As he instructed the servants to bring our meal to the private balcony, I took several deep breaths, but they did little to calm my heart, pounding rapidly at what I’d just done and the thought of dining alone with Prince Owen. I determinedly kept my eyes averted from Prince Ronan and Princess Seren, far too embarrassed to see what they thought about my forwardness.

It’s all pretend, I reminded myself.All pretend. I repeated these words several times as I accepted the prince’s arm and allowed him to escort me from the dining room to the table already set for us on the balcony. The sight of the ocean and the sea’s caressing breeze calmed my anxiety, though not completely.

The moment the servants finished arranging our food and had taken their designated place along the wall, Prince Owen collapsed wearily into his seat. “That was…interesting.” He rubbed his elbow where I’d touched him with an almost puzzled look before suddenly remembering himself. “I almost forgot.” He stood to pull my chair out for me. “This is a gentlemanly duty I will do for you, whether we’re alone or with an audience.”

My cheeks warmed at the sweet gesture. The man was thoroughly charming, something I didn’t particularly want to notice with our impending separation the moment our pretending ended. I allowed him to help me with my seat with a grateful smile.

The moment he settled across from me, he picked up his fork and eagerly dove into his eggs and bacon while I considered how to communicate the true purpose of our private meal, not as a reprieve from the charade but as a business meeting of sorts.

After a moment’s thought I tapped the table to get his attention before pointing to the both of us, arranging my hands in the shape of a heart, and lifting both of mine palms up in a questioning gesture, my form of asking,How did we fall in love?

He frowned. “How did we…but we’re not…oh.” The prince’s fading blush reappeared. “You’re right, we should establish a story. Considering I’ve never fallen in love before, I’m not sure what to come up with that will be convincing. What are your ideas?”

I shook my head and motioned towards him.

“You wantmeto decide?” He looked almost panicked by the very thought.

He needed to be the one to determine our supposed background so there would be no misunderstanding, which would surely come if I tried to convey my own ideas. I nodded, and though he still looked apprehensive, he obediently took up the task.

“I don’t know. We met…and took a fancy to one another?”

Once more I shook my head and circled my hand several times in a motion that moved towards him, my way of expressingmore, momentarily forgetting that the prince had no knowledge of the gestures Father and I had established over the years to help me communicate.

His brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

I frowned in thought, unsure how to teach him the meaning when my lack of voice and illiteracy left me no means of expression. I cast my gaze around the table for inspiration before taking the prince’s mostly eaten plate of food and setting it beside my still full one. I pointed to myself, then my plate, and repeated my gesture formorebefore pointing to the prince and his mostly empty plate, hoping to convey,Marisa has more food than Prince Owen.

I proceeded with a second example, this time borrowing his cutlery before repeating the gesture to try and convey that I now had more utensils than he did. I was just about to tug several chairs to my side of the table to repeat my explanation with them, but thankfully his comprehension dawned before that proved necessary.

“Oh!More.”

Relieved he understood, I nodded. He copied the gesture, as if to commit it to memory.

“It makes sense that you have your own way of expressing yourself, like a secret code. Can you teach it to me?”

Though him learning it would be necessary if we had any hope of our scheme working, I found his clear enthusiasm for the task ahead endearing. He grinned broadly at my nod, a smile that caused my heart to give a strange tug.

I had no time to dwell on the unfamiliar feeling. Though the diversion had been necessary in order to further our last conversation along, I was eager to get back on track. I repeated my earlier gestures to re-ask,How did we fall in love?followed by my gesture formoreand a questioning look.

This time the prince understood, which would make our task of laying the foundation for our scheme all the easier, which was a blessing considering our time before it properly began was already limited.

“I’m not sure how many more details we need; the more there are, the more we’ll need to keep track of.” He considered the matter. “Maybe we should just stick with the truth: you rescued me, and I fell in love at first sight.”

I pulled a face and shook my head again. I knew enough about love to know that was too shallow a beginning for any relationship, especially when the event would have only occurred a few weeks ago. I doubted anyone would believe we’d become engaged after so short a time.

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