by Ann Omasta
The others stood in stunned silence as they watched her go, until Mo burst into tears.
10
Tess had only seen Mo cry a handful of times during their entire friendship, so she knew what a big deal it was.
Turning to the men, Tess said, “We are exhausted from travelling. Perhaps we could be shown to our living quarters?”
All three men were standing in stunned silence. They had similar looks of fear that males often adopt when confronted with female tears. Geoffrey was the first to come to his senses. “Of course, if you’ll follow me…”
He started off down the long hallway, so Mo and Tess turned to follow. “We’ll see you at dinner at 7?” It was the prince who had called the question out after them. Mo was too upset to do anything but nod. Tess put her arm around the other woman and shuffled her away.
When they reached their room, Geoffrey swept the door open in a grand gesture. “Your bedroom quarters,” he said unnecessarily.
Both women gasped at the gilded and gorgeous room. Matching canopy beds sat on opposite walls. Long, lush pink velvet curtains were roped back to reveal a large balcony that overlooked the castle’s gardens. The thick, white carpet felt like walking on clouds as they both were drawn to look at their view.
“Your belongings have already been unpacked into the armoires,” Geoffrey informed them before making a hasty exit and closing the door behind him.
Tess marveled that they had gotten their bags here so quickly, but it made her somewhat uncomfortable that a stranger had gone through her personal things. That worry was quickly forgotten when Mo threw herself on one of the beds and began wailing.
Moving to sit beside her and rub her back, Tess asked, “What is it?”
“The queen hates me and loves you,” Mo accused.
“That’s simply not true,” Tess responded. “She has only just met both of us. Besides, how could anyone not love you?”
Refusing to be calmed, Mo said, “Lots of people don’t like me. I’m too loud and opinionated and stubborn. I’m not cut out to be royalty. What was I thinking coming here?” she moaned.
“You haven’t even given it a fair chance,” Tess accused. “The Mo I know would never let one little old bitty––royal or not––scare her away from the man she cares about.”
The ‘old bitty’ wording earned Tess a wobbly smile from Mo as she sat up and wrapped her hands around her knees. “I’ll never fit in here.”
Mo was one of the most supremely confident people Tess had ever known, so to see her so filled with self-doubt was disconcerting. “Honey, you fit in everywhere. They just have to make room for your bold, fabulous self.”
“You’re the one who has always wanted to be royalty, not me. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing, and I’m going to make a fool of myself. You should be the one with the prince.”
And there it was. Tess couldn’t deny that she had thought the same thing in the beginning. It wasn’t that she begrudged Mo a prince, if that was what she truly wanted, but it had always been Tess’s dream to have a royal wedding, not Mo’s. While Tess spent countless hours planning her ideal wedding, Mo had preferred playing in tree houses or swimming at the quarry or riding her bike with the neighborhood boys. She had only joined in Tess’s imaginary fantasy world because she liked spending time with her friend, not because she enjoyed it.
This shotgun royal wedding wasn’t something that Tess could ever imagine her friend truly wanting, but she needed to approach it delicately so that it didn’t sound like she was just jealous. “If you want the prince, and all the formality that comes with him, then you deserve him.” Tess paused to let that sink in. “It just doesn’t seem like you, Mo.”
“I know,” Mo admitted sadly. “None of this fanciness is my cup of tea, but the prince is.” She turned to look at Tess. “Something about him just feels right.”
“You’re the only one that can know if he’s right for you or not. If your gut is telling you that he is, then you need to listen,” Tess advised her friend.
“Really?” Mo’s voice held a tinge of hope for the first time since they’d entered the castle.
“Really.” Tess confirmed.
It was then that Mo noticed the dainty crystal bowl filled with green M&Ms on her bedside table. Pointing them out to Tess, she said, “I casually mentioned to Pierce once that my favorite candy is green M&Ms, and look, he made sure to have a whole bowl of them here for me.”
Tess shook her head at her friend’s characteristic boldness. “Do you think he knows about the rumor that green M&Ms put you ‘in the mood for love,’ or is that an ‘uncouth American’ thing?”
“I don’t know,” Mo answered, before waggling her brows suggestively and adding, “But I hope they work their magic.” Grabbing a handful of the candies and stuffing them into her mouth, Mo said around a mouthful of chocolate, “Only one way to find out if it really works.” Both girls burst out with laughter at the ridiculousness of it all.
After swallowing the candy, Mo turned serious and furrowed her brows together. “But what about his mother? She already hates me.”
“She doesn’t matter.” Tess asserted. “Haven’t you ever heard that men always want what they can’t have? Having her decide that you aren’t right for him will send him straight into your arms.”
“Wait, I thought men always chose to marry women who were just like their mothers.” Mo refused to allow her concerns to be assuaged. “I couldn’t possibly be more of a polar opposite from that rigid woman.”
“Don’t worry about her,” Tess said. “We’ll find a way to get you into her good graces.”
“You think so?” Mo’s eyes were filled with renewed hope.
“I know so,” Tess said confidently, silently praying that she wasn’t making promises to her friend that she would never be able to keep.
11
Dinner was a formal affair, so the women were glad they had purchased new stylish clothes to bring with them. They both selected wrap-style, ankle-length floral dresses and peep-toe heels. Laughter erupted from both of them after they emerged from their individual powder rooms into the foyer.
Geoffrey was standing at attention, waiting in the hallway to escort them to dinner. “Twinsies!” The ladies shouted in unison in the hallway outside of their room.
It was only after Geoffrey cleared his throat that Tess realized their volume was way too loud for their posh and formal surroundings.
“Is it dorky to dress so similarly?” Mo worried as Geoffrey led them down the grand staircase towards the dining hall.
“Perhaps, but our dresses are different patterns. I think we look cute,” Tess weighed in. Her confidence in their attire made Mo feel better.
The prince and Sebastian both politely rose from their seats when the women entered the grand dining hall. “You both look lovely,” Pierce weighed in, but his startling blue eyes never strayed from Mo.
Tess enjoyed the way the prince was looking at her friend. The corners of her mouth tipped up as she watched him openly gawk at Mo. One of these days, she hoped to find someone who would look at her with such adoration.
When her eyes were drawn inexplicably to Sebastian, she couldn’t help noticing that he was giving her a bemused look. Deciding that if she couldn’t be the recipient of an awe-filled gaze, somewhat intrigued would have to do, so she graced him with a shy smile.
Once they were settled in the chairs, the queen spoke from the head of the table. “Now that everyone is finally here, we can eat.”
Tess and Mo’s gazes darted to each other. They were five minutes earlier than the appointed time for dinner, so they had both been surprised to be the last to arrive at the table. Apparently, Her Highness didn’t approve of having to wait for anyone, even if they weren’t late.
As if by some mysterious royal magic, ornately decorated glazed porcelain tureens of lobster bisque appeared before each of them in perfect synchronization.
“Oh, yum!” Mo sounded delighted as she pi
cked up her spoon and took a big slurp of her soup. Realizing too late that it was piping hot, she fanned her open mouth with her hand and tried too cool it off. Once she was able to swallow the hot bisque, she picked up her crystal water glass and took a few gulps.
The queen bugged her eyes out at Mo as if she were a cockroach doing the backstroke in her soup. “We sip and nibble our food like human beings. We don’t gulp and gorge like animals,” she reprimanded Mo. “And no one picks up utensils before the monarch!”
Mo looked down at her lap, feeling chastised. Tess was fuming that the queen would so rudely pick on Mo in front of the others. The kind way to address any issues with manners would have included privacy and sensitivity, but this woman had not bothered to even try to keep from publicly embarrassing Mo.
As Tess took a calming breath before giving the uppity woman a piece of her mind, Sebastian stepped in. “She didn’t know, Your Highness. We have etiquette classes scheduled for both women starting tomorrow.”
Tess was surprised that it was Sebastian who spoke up to the queen in Mo’s defense. She figured the woman would have him guillotined or some other overly-harsh, archaic punishment for daring to talk back to her. To her surprise, the woman’s pinched face relaxed a tiny bit.
“It can’t be soon enough,” the woman said, finally picking up her own spoon and blowing daintily on a sip of soup. “I know they’re uncultured Americans, but I would have thought they would have a handle on basic manners.”
Infuriated that the woman had managed to insult her and Mo as individuals, as well as their entire country, with one biting sentence, Tess prepared to speak up in their defense.
Before she could devise a fitting and proper rebuttal, the prince jumped in. “Let’s give our guests a break, Your Majesty. They’ve had a long day, and I’m sure they would appreciate us being gracious and welcoming hosts.”
Seeming properly chastised for being rather rude herself, the queen gave a curt nod and set about the business of daintily sipping her soup. After just a few tastes, she waved her white-gloved hand and servants appeared to remove all of the soup tureens. Tess wasn’t anywhere close to being finished with the delicious creamy broth, but it was swept away from her before she could object. Apparently, when the queen was done, everyone was done.
Several more courses of delicious food were presented to them, including a filet that was so tender it could be sliced with a butter knife. The queen raised a brow when Mo swirled her butternut squash, green beans, and creamed corn into a gooey pile of combined flavors and textures, but she refrained from calling Mo out again for her unrefined eating habits.
By the end of the meal, Tess was glad she hadn’t been allowed to finish the mouth-watering soup. She was completely stuffed, and the remaining sips of her bisque would have put her over the top.
The men had competently guided the conversation into safe territories to avoid upsetting the queen any further. They discussed the recent duck hunt, how the horses in the royal stables were faring, and the sites they had taken in on their trip to America.
When there was a lull in their polite chatter, Mo couldn’t keep her curiosity at bay any longer. “So, why didn’t the king join us for dinner?”
Silence permeated the room as all eyes gawked at Mo. She instantly regretted her question and wondered if she had stuck her foot in her mouth again.
The queen picked her linen napkin up from her lap and tossed it onto her gold-rimmed dinner plate. A waiter rushed forward to pull her chair back and whisk her plate away. In an obvious snit, the queen arose and glared at Mo as she spoke to the room at large. “There aren’t enough etiquette lessons in the world to teach this one proper manners.”
With that, she stormed out of the room and Mo’s face crumpled.
12
“I don’t belong here,” Mo wailed loudly, blowing her nose into her cloth napkin.
“She’ll come around,” the prince promised, making Tess feel like scoffing. Somehow she managed to refrain, even though she knew there was no way that hateful woman would ever approve of Mo marrying her regal son.
Proving that she didn’t believe his comforting words any more than Tess did, Mo said, “She hates me!”
“She hates everyone at first.” It was Sebastian that spoke, and Tess was surprised that he would speak so strongly about his sovereign. When he added, “It’s part of her charm,” and began chuckling at his own joke, she couldn’t help but laugh with him.
Before long, they were all giggling. It felt wrong to be ridiculing such a prominent member of the royal family, but she had been so mean to the women that it also felt delightfully fun. The thick tension of the evening dissipated with their laughter, and suddenly they all felt better. Even the ever-present servants surrounding the table seemed to relax.
Pierce chose that moment to lift his crystal water glass high in the air. With his pinky raised and in a high falsetto voice, he said, “We sip and nibble, you inane American barbarians.”
Hearing the prince ridicule his hoity-toity mother was hilarious. They had all been thinking that her snootiness was unwarranted and extreme, but no one else would ever be brave enough to parody her. Tess noticed the upturned lips of some of the waitstaff, but none of them dared to openly laugh. She figured they would likely cut loose later, when they were off-duty and without the prying eyes of Pierce and Sebastian.
Turning serious, Pierce looked directly at Mo when he said, “Besides, it doesn’t really matter what she thinks. Thankfully, we did away with arranged marriages in this kingdom a long time ago, so I get to make my own decisions about my love life.”
Mo’s eyelashes fluttered prettily as she waited to see what the prince would say next. Tess enjoyed seeing her friend look so enamored. It was the first time she had shown more than a casual, passing interest in a member of the opposite sex.
When the prince added, “I find you to be utterly charming, Maureen O’Malley,” he enunciated his words with a dazzling smile aimed directly at Mo.
Tess almost felt invisible, and she wondered if that was how Mo normally felt when they went out together. It wasn’t unusual for men to gravitate to Tess, so having Mo be the center of the prince’s attention was new territory for both of them.
The wait staff had unobtrusively cleared the table. They chose that moment to present the molten lava chocolate dessert. Tess would have sworn that she couldn’t possibly eat another bite, but the gooey, warm treat proved to be irresistible. She even let out an unladylike, impolite groan of delight as the sweet melted chocolate assaulted her taste buds.
Sebastian sat back in his chair and watched her enjoy the meal’s final course. The enamored, enchanted gaze he graced Tess with made her cheeks flare with heat.
Missing the sizzling moment passing between the two, the prince said to Mo, “To answer your earlier question, the king generally take his meals in his chambers. He is having some difficulties dealing with recent events.”
It was a somewhat cryptic response, but neither woman felt it was her place to ask for any further clarification. It seemed like the royal family had some secrets they weren’t willing to share. Tess just hoped there weren’t any skeletons hiding in the sovereign closets that would upset her best friend.
13
Despite being full, both women cleaned their dessert plates. “I would lick this plate, if I didn’t think it would be frowned upon in present company,” Mo joked.
The prince seemed surprised by her brash statement, but he raised his brows and said, “If we were alone, I would be delighted to see that.”
Taking the hint that their company was no longer welcome, Sebastian said to Tess, “May I accompany you on a walk down by the sea?”
“Absolutely,” Tess answered, thrilled not to have to sit alone and bored in her room while the prince wooed Mo.
Although Tess was fairly certain that Sebastian was only entertaining her to keep her from intruding on the prince’s time with Mo, she was still happy for the company.
The warm, salty breeze that wafted in off the water was refreshing. The stray strands of hair that escaped Tess’s classic chignon whipped around her face.
They paused and pulled off their shoes at the end of the cobblestone path that led to the pristine white sandy beach. Sebastian gallantly offered his elbow to steady her balance while she removed her heels. The briny scent of the air served as an immediate mood booster for Tess. She had always loved sea breezes, but on this tiny, isolated island, it seemed especially fresh and aromatic.
The cool granules of sand felt like a luxurious loofa on Tess’s bare feet. She was certain this beach would be better than any swanky spa treatment for softening her tootsies.
Walking along in comfortable silence, Tess wondered if she should tell Sebastian that he didn’t have to keep her company. He likely had better things to do than keep her entertained and away from Mo and the prince. But she didn’t really want to be alone, so she refrained from offering to occupy herself.
When Sebastian suggested they rest on a flat piece of driftwood that looked like it had been purposely placed on the deserted beach as a place to relax, Tess quickly agreed.
Breaking the silence, Sebastian asked, “Is it bothering you to see how much the prince cares for Mo?”
Tess thought it was an incredibly odd question. “Why would you think that?”
Giving her a knowing smile, Sebastian responded, “You weren’t shy the other night after the gala about revealing your lifelong dreams of marrying a prince.”
Tess hid her face in her hands, shocked that she had revealed so much to this man. “No!” she exclaimed, before peeking out at him and asking, “I told you about that?”
“You did,” Sebastian confirmed, nodding and smiling at her. He seemed amused by her horror. Increasing her embarrassment, he added, “You also told me that Mo is a tomboy and that you are much better suited to be a princess than she is.”