I am a mess.

When we were told we had to return to our quarters to prepare for tomorrow's festivities, I knew something was up.

The longer it goes on, the worse I want to throw caution to the wind and just go find Erica. Tell her the truth. Throw caution and my family's hopes to the wind.

Truthfully I'd have done it by now if it weren't for the hulking guards standing outside the door shouting at me every time I even thought to open it.

Which is why, when they shout as I approach the door, I'm not even surprised. I don't even hear what they say, I just turn around and pace a little.

"Hello, we need to talk to you," a disembodied voice says through the door.

No way. It can't be.

"Please let us in," Erica says quietly. "I had to tell her."

So it's begun.

I'd hoped we'd have a bit more time to discuss everything before we had to get other people involved, but...

"Please let them in," I call out, only realizing my shirt is completely unbuttoned after I've allowed the two women entry.

We'd better nope no one catches them coming out of here looking like that while I'm not really wearing a shirt.

Unfortunately, neither of them seems even remotely concerned by my attire. Not even a little peek. Ugh.

"You may go," Princess Anabella—Gemma—says to the men at the door.

With a quick bow and a small click, we're left alone in my sitting room.

If we were at home, all of my siblings would be squished in a little alcove around the corner trying to listen in to our conversation and have the information for the gossip mill. But it's not my home, it's a palace. So my 'bedroom' is actually a 'suite' with a private balcony and housekeepers.

Which is probably good. Because I don't think I want any of them knowing what I'm about to say.

"What can I do for you?" I remain standing, unsure of what the protocol is for when your princesses crash into your bedchambers at... well, I'm not sure what time it is, but it's too late for a social visit with a minor celebrity commoner.

Erica looks up at me and her mouth opens with a pop, hanging open slightly as she just stares. Which I admit is growing more and more enjoyable as time goes on.

Gemma looks between Erica and myself, a small smirk playing at the corner of her lips, and then she steadies her expression and stares me down.

She'll make a good, formidable queen with that look.

"What is it my sister seems to have learned from you?" she begins. "I hear there are external pressures and not just internal ones? Or—?"

She looks at her sister for help, but Erica doesn't give any. Her mouth just wobbles open and closed a few times and then she bites her lips together and shrugs.

"External pressures?" I ask. "Like, international relations or something? I don't know much about that."

Gemma studies both of us for a moment and then turns to face me. "But you do know of something external to the palace."

"Nothing gets past you." I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

Until I can't any longer and the eye roll slips out anyway, like a drip of water through a crack in a dam.

"Please be nice to each other," Erica says, wringing her hands in front of her. I don't love seeing her so uncertain and unsure of herself. She's usually so boisterous and trustworthy and kind. It physically pains me to see her in pain.

"I'm sorry," I say before anything else has time to happen. "You're right. What have you told her?"

"Nothing," Gemma interrupts. "She's told me nothing except that it is somehow related to why I have to marry the most abominable toad of a man tomorrow if I can't find my own spouse in time."

"Abominable toad?"

"She means Spencer. The Duke of Caledon," Erica clarifies for me while her sister paces the floor, trapping her fingers in various tangles of her unkempt hair.

"I suppose abominable toad isn't a bad descriptor of his personality, though I may have gone with aggressive soggy cardboard, myself."

"It would match his terrible suit," Erica chuckles.

The girls let out a laugh and look at each other like they can communicate only using their eyes. A moment passes. And then another.

"Are you going to tell me why you are here?" I ask, interrupting whatever is going on in their minds.

"We did," Erica says, brows furrowing in the most adorable way. Lord have Mercy when did she become so attractive to me? Being away from home has me prone to distractions.

Imagine! Me with the princess.

"I need to know what this threat is," Gemma answers, voice clear and strong despite her shaky fingers. "So I may decide what is best for my people."

"You can't marry the abominable toad," Erica protests.

"I may not have another choice," Gemma replies, as though giving herself up to a life of torture is all a part of the job.

"You'd do that?" I ask before I can filter my thoughts. "You'd marry the Soggy Duke of Cardboard?"

"I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that." Her shudder is visceral, shaking me to my very core from across the room. "But if it's the only way, then yes. I would do it, for my people. And my country. Of course."

"See?" Erica cuts in. "That's what I mean about her being better queen material than me."

"So you keep saying," Gemma swats her sister's arm gently. "But I don't believe you."

"Really?" Erica teases. "Because I do."

They both turn to look at me.

"What? I don't have an opinion. You'd both be lovely queens, I'm sure."

"Cop out answer," Erica snorts. "How very diplomatic of you."

A short pause passes between us, like they are sizing me up for battle.

Finally, Erica breaks the silence, voice steady and clear. "So can you tell her about the threats the people are facing? Can you explain why we need the alliance?"

"The what?" Gemma whips around to stare at Erica. "What alliance?"

"There's a call for—" I begin, but Erica interrupts me, holding up her hand to tell me to stop.

"I really think we need to start at the beginning. Like why you are here." She looks at me like she can see right through me.

How did she know?

"I'm here because I won the lottery for a ticket," I say, steady as I can be. "Who wouldn't want to visit the palace?"

"And who wouldn't want to advance the cause of his own family and community?" she finishes for me. "Who wouldn't want the opportunity to tell his ideas straight to the future queen?"

"I—"

"That's why you came, isn't it?" Erica asks, picking at the skin beside her thumb. "Because you wanted to influence Gemma into acting on your behalf."

"That's not exactly how it is," I start, stammering slightly in an attempt to get my feet under me after she tugged on a rug I wasn't aware she knew was there. "But I did think it would be a good chance to speak directly with you both."

"About what?" Gemma questions, perching on the edge of a chaise.

I heave a sigh and plop myself down on a nearby armchair. "My mother thinks it is futile, but I think it's worth mentioning. I don't think you are your father. I think you want what's best for us."

At least, I think that now.

"And yet you seem shocked I would do something so simple as consider marriage to a man who interests me about as much as a singular slice of bread."

"Have you met him?" I challenge. "I mean, I'd be surprised anyone would be willing to marry him."

"Then you understand me," she says. "You know what I'll do. You know what I'd sacrifice for you if I have to. Now tell me what is going on."

"She's on your side," Erica says to me. "Just like I am."

"Later, you're going to tell me how you know all of his secrets," Gemma says to Erica. "But for now let's focus on the time-sensitive issue of my disgusting need for nuptials."

So I tell her about the unrest in the community. About the growing distrust that the monarchy has the best interests of the poor in mind and the mysterious removal of several grants that were keeping people alive.

"He's also keeping his community afloat with that sponsorship money," Erica says, and I could swear her voice held a note of pride. "He's not going to be able to prop them up forever, though."

"I'm not, no. But that isn't the real issue. The real issue is we've been fighting for better worker safety protections and we'd just about received the numbers we needed to vote it through into law when someone from the king's advisory circle stepped in and turned at least five of our votes."

"Why would he do that?" Gemma gasps, just like Erica had two days ago when my slightly inebriated self had told her the whole story.

"I don't believe that he did," I say with a shrug. "I think someone acted without his consent, but it doesn't look good for him. Everyone else thinks he's the one who pulled the strings. And we're not going to be able to hold them off for long. My being here makes it rather harder to do, actually, but I thought the chance to discuss this with you in person was worth the risk."

"He probably wasn't planning on this going down the way it did though, huh Erica?" Gemma waggles her eyebrows again and the implication that I am in cahoots with a princess tugs at my heart again. Because I would consider Erica a friend.

How am I going to keep her friendship and my place in society? It doesn't seem possible, but I'm trying not to think about that right now.

One problem at a time.

Erica and Gemma are both staring at me, identical thoughtful looks pinned to their features.

"What?" I say, their uncanny resemblance making me feel like one person was watching me from all angles.

"We need someone to marry my sister," Erica says.

"And?" I ask. "How is that my problem?"

Erica just raises her eyebrow further.

"You want me to, what, find someone suitable?"

"You could do it yourself," Erica says, eyes now refusing to meet my gaze. "If it would help our people."

"To see me married to the princess?" I scoff. "I think that would be the worst thing I could do right now. With the tension how it is, it will look like I've switched sides and I'll lose all the goodwill I've gained from the money and the grants."

Erica and Gemma flinch in tandem when I mention I cannot marry the princess. As though anyone was expecting that I would agree to that proposition.

"Tell me more about this alliance," Gemma says, completely ignoring my rejection of her like it hurt even less than a paper cut.

She really knows how to puff up a man's confidence.

Erica begins telling her about the contracts our people lost with Manarola when recent laws came into effect. And I fill in the gaps about specific issues of environmental protections and livelihoods and anything else I might know that she doesn't yet.

"So our most efficient course is to shore up an alliance with mining partners?" Gemma asks, drawing her brows together.

"I don't think so," Erica says before I get a word in. "I think our most efficient course is to shore up an alliance with Manarola."

I can see the wheels turn in Gemma's head as she calculates everything. "Antonio," is all she says.

"Prince Antonio? Is that why you've been spending time with me?" I ask Erica, trying not to pay too much attention to the ache in my chest telling me why I might care. Jealousy isn't a good look on me.

"No," she says, offering no explanation. "But he is our best bet for saving this country."

The room is silent for a moment, the air full like a balloon set to burst, pressure applied to everything inside.

Finally, Gemma turns to face me. "If it meant I could spare your family and your neighbourhood, would you help me get an audience with Antonio?"

"I think you can get an audience all on your own," I remind her. "We are literally here for your birthday ball."

"Yes, but I don't need just any audience. I need him to understand what's at stake. And I think the two of you will do a much better job of that than some random princess he's never met."

She is asking us to ask Antonio if he'll marry her for the sake of our entire nation.

Which... no pressure.

But Erica is looking at me with such hope I'm certain I'm powerless to resist.

It's clear as the sky over the Southern Sea. I'm smitten for our princess, whose entire life is about to change in an instant when she convinces Prince Antonio to marry her sister. This whole time I thought she wanted him for herself.

But there is no longing there. No anguish. Just fear.

And I'm left to wonder what might become of us if I have a chance to try.

I really hope I can achieve my goals alongside Erica's, because I have a feeling if I have to choose, my family will not be happy with the outcome. 

~ * ~ Author's Note ~ * ~ 

Hi there! As you might have noticed, I'm posting quite a few chapters of this book at once. Like three in the last four hours! That's because this book qualified for round three of the Open Novella Contest and I have until basically tomorrow to mark it complete. So look out for three more chapters coming your way over the next 24 hours as I make a push for the finish line with this, the last of my ONC novellas. 

Thanks for being awesome! See you tomorrow 💖