Page 63 of Reign

“And Canada trumps America where princes are concerned,” Jamie added cheekily. “The Prince of Canada is higher ranking and, we can all admit, vastly better-looking than the Prince of America.”

Nina made a noise that was somewhere between a cough and a strangled cry of outrage. “I can’t believe you just said that!”

“You were thinking it. I’m just the one who said it aloud.”

“You’re terrible,” Nina protested, but her insult didn’t land because of the laugh that was bubbling out of her chest.

“Of course I am. I’ve been told it’s a large part of my appeal.”

Nina’s laughter faded, and she shifted on her barstool to look Jamie full in the face. “Jeff is in class again, now that Beatrice is better. You might run into him on campus.”

“So?”

“So, I thought you’d want to know, since you and Jeff areapparently in some kind of silent competition! Are you ever going to tell me what that’s all about?”

Jamie’s blue eyes fixed on hers. “I will if you tell me who hurt you.”

Nina must have flinched, because his expression instantly softened. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.” He grabbed his beer mug, then set it down again. “I get this feeling sometimes, in rehearsal, that you’re thinking of someone who caused you pain.”

Jamie probably thought Jeff was the one who’d hurt her, and he had. But so had Daphne.

“It’s a long story,” Nina warned.

He nodded. “It goes without saying that I won’t tell anyone, if you want to share it.”

And the thing was, Nina did trust him.

She explained how she and Daphne had teamed up against Gabriella, how Nina had thought they were becoming unlikely friends, only to learn that Daphne had been playing her the whole time: trying to keep her far from Jeff.

When she finished her story, Jamie frowned. “Didn’t Daphne’s family lose their baronetcy anyway? How did that fit into her plan?”

“I…” Nina hesitated. Why had she never considered this crucial detail? An uneasy regret spiked through her, and she almost reached for her phone, but now wasn’t the time.

“What happened between you and Jeff?” she asked, flipping the focus back to Jamie.

He stared down into his half-full beer. “Jeff broke up my parents’ marriage.”

Nina stared at him, dumbfounded. Whatever she’d expected, it wasn’t this.

“It was the summer of that last visit to Washington, when Jeff and I were twelve. We caught my mom and her tennis instructor together. Yes, Henri came on tour with us,” headded, in response to Nina’s questioning look. “I guess that should have been the first clue, right? She told my dad that she wanted to keep working out while traveling, and he never questioned it.”

Nina made a sympathetic noise but didn’t interrupt.

“Jeff and I went to get our rackets for water-balloon tennis—you may remember that game; he and Sam had invented it that summer and were all obsessed. It had been raining that morning, and we didn’t expect to find anyone on the courts. But then we got to the equipment shed and heard voices.” Jamie swallowed, tightened his grip on his beer mug. “I would give anything to unsee it…my mom and Henri, in there, together.”

Nina reached for Jamie’s hand; she couldn’t help it. There was nothing in this moment of the bold, confident prince who sauntered through life with such fearlessness. He looked like a lost little boy.

“That’s terrible,” she said softly.

“I’m okay, really. I’ve had years of therapy to work through it.” Jamie spoke flippantly, but there was something raw and wounded beneath his words, as if he’d tried to put on his armor but couldn’t quite make it fit.

“We both panicked and ran back to the palace in silence,” Jamie went on, picking up the thread of the story. “When we got back, I asked Jeff not to tell anyone what he’d seen. Maybe not the most mature reaction, but…” He sighed. “I kept hoping that if no one else knew, it wouldn’t be real.

“The next day, though, my parents were fighting about Henri. Jeff must have told someone—probably his parents, who’d felt obligated to tell my dad,” Jamie explained. “My dad wasn’t even angry. He kept begging my mom to stay, saying that they could move on as if this whole thing had never happened, but it was too late. She’d already chosen to leave him.”

Nina’s hand was still resting on top of Jamie’s; she forced his palm over and laced her fingers in his. He gave her a grateful squeeze.

“Jamie. I’m sorry that happened, and that you were put in the middle of it, but you can’t blame Jeff for your parents splitting up,” she said gently.