Page 84 of Rivals

Except that Connor had neverunderstoodBeatrice, not really. He’d always tried to fit her into a space where she didn’t quite belong. And then Beatrice had outgrown that shape, because that was what people did as they got older: they grew and changed. And instead of growing together, their lives twining ever more tightly together, she and Connor had grown apart.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to tease,” Louise went on. “But it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who’s had their heart broken by…”

“By a bodyguard?”

“By a friend.”

Beatrice ventured a guess. “You’re talking about Alexei, aren’t you?”

Louise sat up so abruptly that her hair whipped over her shoulder. “He told you?”

“No, I just suspected.” Beatrice had wondered for a while now if there was something between those two; she’d sensed it from the quick way Alexei always looked to Louise for approval, the way she teased him more than the others, as if to prove he didn’t matter.

“How observant.” Louise seemed grudgingly impressed.

“I don’t understand, though. If he broke your heart, how are you still friends? Isn’t it painful to be near him? Unless…” Beatrice groaned. “You’re still seeing him, aren’tyou?”

“Well, what do you expect!” Louise exclaimed. “It’s very rare that Alexei and I are in the same country, let alone on the same private island! You can’t blame me for having a little secret fun.”

“I don’t understand why it has to be secret, though. Can’t you just date?”

“We’re both future monarchs. How would that work? What exactly would Alexei and I do if we ever got married, merge Russia and France into a single nation? They aren’t even contiguous!” she added, as if geography were the only flaw in that plan. “There’s no future for me and Alexei,” Louise concluded, speaking almost to herself. “He would have to give up Russia and come to France as my king consort, or I would have to leave France and go to Russia as his tsarina. There is no way that we can rule our respective countries and be together.”

Beatrice thought of Teddy again, and felt heavy with guilt. She tried to speak her next words lightly. “To think you fell for the one prince you can’t have. Who knew you were such a hopeless romantic.”

“Oh, shut up,” Louise teased, but her lips curled upward all the same. Beatrice was just relieved to have coaxed a smile from her.

She laced her hands over her stomach and stared up at the stars. For once, she did feel rather small, in the scheme of things.

It wasn’t a terrible feeling.

Nina was out with her roommates on Embassy Row, the neighborhood near campus that, despite its pretentious name, was lined with dive bars boasting shot-and-a-beer deals and BYO restaurants. They were at one of those restaurants now, platters of pad thai and fried rice scattered on the table before them.

Jayne sighed enviously. “I can’t believe you’re going to the League of Kings banquet. Your life is unbelievable.”

“Ooh—while you’re there, you should ask Princess Louise what’ll be in style next season,” Rachel chimed in. “You know she personally setseveryfashion trend.”

Nina snorted. “I’m not going to the League of Kings to gossip about fashion with some princess I don’t know.”

Rachel reached for a potsticker with her chopsticks. “Speaking of fashion, Nina, what are you going to wear?”

“Oh, um.” Nina coughed. “Actually, this is sort of random, but I’m going shopping with Daphne?” The sentence ticked up at the end, becoming a question.

Rachel’s eyebrows shot up, and Jayne choked on her drink. “Daphne Deighton?”

“We don’t know any other Daphnes, so, yes.”

Jayne cut in. “How didthathappen?”

Years of rivalry, a strange alliance as they decided to take down a mutual enemy, a slow thawing toward each other, awary truce, and then…Nina didn’t know what to call their relationship anymore.

There were entire pieces of her life, now, that she didn’t show to anyone but Daphne. Secrets that she and Daphne had made together, which Nina shared with no one else.

“It’s complicated,” she said vaguely. “I’ve seen Daphne more often lately, now that I’m friends with Jeff again.”

Nina’s phone rang from a number she didn’t recognize; she ignored it, glancing back up to see Rachel’s dubious expression.

“And that’s all you are with Jeff? Friends?”