Page 30 of Legacy of Glass
As she fastened the dress into place, she chattered away. “Of course now that the royal wedding will be a family wedding…” She stopped to chuckle happily. “We’ll be able to secure the services of the most sought-after seamstress in the capital. I’ll have something even more lovely made for Nell before the big event.”
She stepped back and admired Olivia in the dress. “I must say, you look lovely. I’m a fair woman and can admit the dress looks far better on you than it would have on my Nell.” Her eyes lifted to Olivia’s hair. “We’ll have to do something about that, though.”
She whisked Olivia into the chair in front of Nell’s dressing table and began brushing out her hair. The feel of her hands and the tugging of the brush reminded Olivia so forcefully of her own mother that she had to blink back tears.
Her aunt’s movements slowed. “What’s wrong, dear?”
Her tone was so gentle that it only made the tears harder to fight. Olivia met her aunt’s eyes in the mirror, but she didn’t know where to start. She stayed silent.
Her aunt put the brush down with a clack and began twisting Olivia’s hair onto her head in a far more expert manner than Olivia had expected.
“You listen to me, Olivia,” she said, quietly but fiercely. “I’m not going to pretend it’s not a great benefit to our family for you to be crown princess and one day queen. It’s beyond anything your uncle or I ever imagined. But we’re your family. And that means we’re on your side. That prince has his parents and the whole court behind him, but don’t you go feeling like you’re on your own. You’ve got us, and if they mistreat you, we won’t stand by, royalty or not. There’s more than one way to exercise strength, you know.”
The tears spilled over Olivia’s cheeks, and she sniffed and quickly wiped them away.
“Thank you, Aunt,” she managed.
Her aunt put the final pin in her hair and stood back. “There! You look beautiful, my dear, and I’m sure anyone would expect a few emotions from you on a day like today.”
Olivia smiled weakly and wiped the last of the moisture from her face. If she was about to face the court, she didn’t want to look like she’d just been crying.
She didn’t want to face Prince Julius looking like that either. Her aunt had just reminded her that if she wanted to hold her own among the royals, she needed to be strong. And knowing she wasn’t as alone as she had felt out on the hill helped.
“Thank you, Aunt Helen,” she said when she stood up and surveyed herself in the mirror. “I didn’t know you had such skill with hair.”
Her aunt grinned. “We weren’t always wealthy the way we are now. I did my own hair for years before I could afford a personal maid. But you’d better hurry downstairs as fast as you can. The prince has been waiting long enough.”
Chapter11
Julius
It took all of Julius’s self-control, honed from twenty-one years of royal life, not to pace the entryway. He was barely listening to the chatter of Olivia’s cousins. Where was the girl? How could she have been totally unprepared for his arrival? It seemed incredible that she really knew nothing about the traditions for the morning after the ball. Her cousins seemed convinced of her ignorance, though, and they seemed like artless girls.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs made him turn. Something clenched in his chest at the sight of Olivia descending alone, the picture of royal beauty in a light blue dress that emphasized her figure and elegant bearing.
She had already taken him by surprise with her earlier arrival. As someone who had always had to present a polished image, he had expected to find her disheveled appearance and general uncooperativeness off-putting. Instead, he had been knocked off balance by how beautiful she looked without any adornment or effort. In the short hours of their separation, he had already forgotten her beauty.
But that moment had been about her natural beauty. Descending the stairs, she was stunning on a whole different level. Seeing her dressed for their betrothal made it obvious why half his kingdom was convinced he had fallen in love with her. She looked every inch the princess, in both appearance and bearing.
That didn’t make the rumors easier to stomach, though. If anything, it made them worse. Apparently he had been besotted by a pretty face.
His hands clenched into fists, but he forced them to relax. Even after the terrible errors of the ball and the discovery that he had to go forward with a betrothal, he had thought his parents would quietly let it be known that a mistake had occurred. So he had been dismayed to learn that, instead, they expected him to do and say nothing to contradict the public’s impression of a passionate romance.
The whole business was humiliating. After a lifetime of putting duty to the crown first in all things, Julius had supposedly thrown all of that aside and begged his parents to accommodate some infatuation.
But lurking beneath the humiliation was an even worse fear. Currently, the public mistakenly believed him to have failed in his duty as crown prince, but they were excusing it away with romantic notions of love. If he was forced to spend much time with Olivia, they might soon see missteps they couldn’t so easily accept. He couldn’t even imagine the errors he might make in the coming weeks. No one had ever thrown him out of his well-practiced role like she did.
And to begin it all, she was running them late. Not that he could show frustration at that. He was permitted only the mask of a man in love.
“You look…lovely,” he managed to say in a straight tone. It wasn’t the love-struck effusions of a besotted groom, but at least it didn’t give away the turmoil within. “We need to leave immediately. The court will be waiting.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” Olivia’s aunt said from behind her. The woman had been barely containing her glee since his arrival, and her excitement grated on his raw nerves. “I’ll pack her bags and have them sent to the palace this afternoon.”
“What? Bags?” Olivia tried to turn to her aunt, but Julius clamped down on her arm and pulled her inexorably toward the door.
Arriving at the palace a little late was forgivable, but if they didn’t get moving, they would be late enough that it would reflect poorly on both of them. The court was waiting in the summer heat, and the new royal couple had enough obstacles to overcome without upsetting the court further.
“We don’t have time,” he said when she seemed inclined to resist.
