Page 35 of A Queen's Match
Hélène came to join him at the iron railing. “I’m glad at least one of us had a good night.” Normally, she might have attempted a shocking joke, likeI trust youdidn’tsleep well,but she didn’t have the heart.
Nicholas clearly saw her distress. “Are you all right?”
“It’s Eddy.” She stared down at the water below, the wind sending little ripples over its choppy surface. “Her Majesty told him that if he doesn’t announce an engagement soon, he will be sent on a three-year world tour.”
“She’s probably been talking to my father. That’s exactly the type of threat he would come up with,” Nicholas said. Hélène could tell that it wasn’t a joke.
She fought to keep her voice steady. “I just…I wish I knew what to do.”
Nicholas nodded slowly. “You said that it was morecomplicated than a quarrel. Did the queen refuse you permission to marry?”
“She gave us permission, actually. Last year, before I…”Before I ruined everything.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I can’t explain.” Hélène’s voice caught. “All I can say is that there’s an obstacle, and I’m trying to solve it without telling Eddy because he would only make things worse. If he got involved, everything would fall apart, and then he and I wouldneverbe able to get married….”
Hélène was rambling. She realized, to her mortification, that tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry. I’m not usually this distraught,” she managed, sniffling.
“Of course you’re distraught. You’re hurting, and you can’t even be comforted by the person you love.” Nicholas hesitated. “I know I’m not Eddy, but you can always talk about these things with me.”
“Thank you,” Hélène replied, but for some reason she was crying harder.
Then Nicholas did something completely unexpected. He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug.
“It’s all right,” he murmured, cradling his arms around Hélène’s upper back, her hair. “Everything is going to be all right. Please, don’t cry.”
After a moment of shock, Hélène found herself relaxing into the hug. There was something so reassuring about Nicholas. His body felt so warm and steady against hers, so resolute. Hélène guessed that he’d done this many times with his mother, or his sister Xenia, or perhaps even with Alix, though this embrace didn’t feel romantic in nature. It feltcalming. She sensed that she could offload all her problems on him and he wouldn’t be fazed; he would just help her think through them all, with logic and reason. As a friend.
Hélène’s head tipped onto Nicholas’s shoulder, and she let herself listen to his heartbeat. It was nice, simply being held like this. No one had wrapped their arms around her in weeks, not since she’d seen Amélie in Portugal.
“Sasha will be pleased to hear howcloseyou two have become,” purred a voice to her left.
Hélène opened her eyes and stepped back, wiping at her cheeks in case they were still wet with tears. Nicholas’s uncle Vladimir stood near the entrance to the yacht’s salon, leaning against the doorframe.
“Uncle,” Nicholas said warningly.
Vladimir chuckled, waving away Nicholas’s concern. “Don’t worry, I doubt anyone saw you two together. And even if they did, what does it matter? You and Her Royal Highness are practically engaged,” he added, with a deferential nod in Hélène’s direction.
She realized with a bolt of surprise that Vladimir had drawn his own conclusions about her and Nicholas. He assumed their easy manner meant that they had held each other before, in a far more intimate setting.
For some people—people who weren’t as demonstrative with their emotions—that might be the case. Well, Vladimir didn’t know Hélène.
“Speaking of the engagement,” Hélène’s father cut in, “you must ask His Imperial Highness to reply to my last letter.”
Hélène whirled about to see her parents standing at the top of the staircase, watching the scene that had just transpired. Philippe seemed to be bursting with glee, while Marie Isabellewas quietly studying Hélène. She alone seemed to sense that her daughter was upset, that this was not the embrace of two lovers, but something else.
Hélène didn’t care what her father or Vladimir thought. What did it matter, when this farce of an engagement with Nicholas would be over soon anyway?
She had bigger problems. Like what she was going to do about Laurent’s letter.
As strange as it was to believe anything May claimed, Hélène sensed that May hadn’t been lying about the letter’s location. She really had given it to someone else. But whom?
Hélène needed to figure it out, and fast. Because if she didn’t get the letter back soon, she risked losing Eddy forgood.
Chapter Fifteen
