Quincy sipped his wine as he tried to read her face. She was worried, but there was something else there. Did she have a man back at home waiting for her? He’d thought Melinda said Olivia was single, and the thought of another man near her made his hand clench dangerously tight around the glass.
“I do not know. I’m certain you’d have your own small guard detail.”
She choked on her wine. “Seriously?”
“No. No offense to your future princess status, but we’re not exactly a large country,” he said. “I’m sure half the world doesn’t even know we’re here.”
“I didn’t either, ‘til mom came home with her news.”
“And you’re not happy for her?”
Olivia sipped her wine as she wandered around the room. “I am. Your dad’s great and she’s really happy, but I don’t know what this means for me.” She stared at him for a long moment, and Quincy wondered what she was thinking. “I thought you brought the wine over for your own sake.”
Now it was his turn to look surprised. “What do you mean? I’m sure you won’t be that bad of a princess.” He laughed but stopped when her eyes fell and her cheeks turned red. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing… You didn’t miss anything.”
“Oh no, you don’t get to just say that and then not tell me,” he said as he set down his wine glass. “Olivia, we’re going to be siblings soon. You can tell me anything. Why would I need a bottle of wine?”
She shifted from one foot to the other as her cheeks turned even redder. “I may have gone into your room, trying to find something embarrassing to make up for the underwear thing,” she confessed quickly.
Quincy still didn’t follow and laughed. “So? If I wanted people to stay out of my room, I would lock the door more often.”
“Well, I’m sure you didn’t want me to see the folders.”
For a second, he wasn’t sure what she meant. “Ah, those folders. Yes, well, it’s not exactly a secret amongst the islanders, so I guess there’s no harm in you knowing it, too. Cheers then, to two weddings this year!” The words were bitter as he swallowed the rest of his wine and poured another glass.
Olivia reached out a hand, but it fell back to her side before it reached him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up.”
“No, I’m not upset at you,” he assured her. “I’m going to have to face it sooner or later.”
Silence fell over them until Olivia moved closer and clinked her glass against his. “Well, at least for now, you have a drinking buddy to get you through.”
Quincy smiled. “That I do. Come then, future sister of mine, let us drink to our soon-to-be-sibling lives of secrets and rivalry,” he teased, but even as the words left his lips, he felt a slight pang of regret in his chest. What it meant, he had no idea.
Chapter 4
Sun streamed in through the wooden blinds the following morning, and Olivia rolled over, trying to bury her head under the covers. A moment later, they were suddenly yanked from her bed. “What the hell?”
“Good morning, miss,” a woman with a heavy French accent said as she stood at the foot of the bed. Olivia frowned when she saw her blankets in the woman’s arms. She was young, maybe a few years older than Olivia, and had a smile on her face that wavered between being amused and polite.
“Morning. Was that necessary? Who are you?”
“I am Allete, miss, your personal servant while you are here on the Isle of Bijoux.”
“Oh, right… Well, I’m not used to having a servant,” Olivia said as politely as she could. “I really don’t know what to do with one… I mean you. Or any of this.”
“Of course, miss, but I’m afraid I am here for you no matter what, as are these other ladies,” she said and clapped her hands once. Four more women of varying ages came through Olivia’s bedroom door, and she cringed inwardly. “We are your ladies-in-waiting.”
Olivia nodded as she screamed inside her mind. What the hell did Mom drag me into? “So you all will be around me, all the time?”
The women smiled before they moved around the room, opening the blinds and the doors to the balcony to let in the fresh morning air. Allete set Olivia’s blankets back on her bed and walked to the wardrobe across the room.
“Not all the time,” she said over her shoulder. “But we are meant to assist you with your everyday needs and, of course, for the many special occasions you will attend.”
Olivia fell back onto her pillow with a groan. “Don’t remind me. I can’t do this. I’m from Nebraska, and the only royalty there was queen of the Fall Festival.” She put a hand over her face and decided maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. She didn’t know the first thing about palaces and servants or dealing with high-class occasions like balls. All she wanted was a place to do her art, but instead, she’d been whisked away to an island kingdom to watch her mother get married. And to become a freaking princess in the twenty-first century.