Page 35 of The Prince’s Wallflower Wife (The Wallflower Academy #4)

Gwen’s smile was not cruel, nor teasing, but it was knowing. ‘The love of a good man can be a little overwhelming.’

Overwhelming. Yes, that was it. Daphne clutched at the word, an anchor in the roiling sea.

Overwhelming. Taking over, drowning her in the possibilities of pain.

What if—what if Christoph continued to love her but discovered more of her character and decided he could no longer love her?

What if his affection became disdain? Oh, she did not think she could bear it.

How would she live if Christoph took his love away? The panic rose again. ‘And he said—he said he loved me. He said it, to my face!’

‘Was he supposed to say it another way? A letter, perhaps?’

Daphne’s lungs tightened at the mention of a letter. She had been quick to fury, a fury masking the sting that Christoph had lied to her and had made a mockery of all they had built these last weeks. Had she reacted too strongly? Had she?

‘Has he…?’ Gwen hesitated. ‘Has he…? I know that some men, they take a mistress and they are not particularly discreet about it.’

Daphne twisted her fingers together in her lap. ‘No.’

Now that she was far enough away from the man, from the moment in the library, she could admit to herself that there had been a strong likeness between Christoph and the woman who had entered the room on his arm. It was possible they were not siblings. But she would not have laid money on it.

Gwen’s shoulders had relaxed, her hackles no longer raised. ‘Well, then. He loves you. You clearly love him. What is the problem?’

It was so difficult to put into words: nothing, and at the same time everything.

Daphne tried to untangle it in her mind.

The thought was painful, yet heart-warming.

Her husband had married her and been quite clear about his rules, about keeping their marriage one of convenience.

It had been arranged. It was not a love match.

It had not been a love match.

‘Gwen,’ Daphne said softly. ‘Do…do you believe that a real relationship, a loving marriage, can come about by accident?’

‘By accident?’ repeated her friend.

Daphne nodded while still staring at her fingers. Because it did all seem so accidental, did it not? Nothing in this marriage had been on purpose, at least not from her perspective. Maybe that said more about her complete lack of ability to wield any control over the situation, but still…

‘Yes, by accident,’ she said. ‘I mean, I was never supposed to marry Christoph—’

‘I’m sorry, what?’ interrupted Gwen, her eyes wide.

Ah, yes . Daphne realised only too late that she had not actually given any sort of explanation as to the letters she had discovered. Not that she fully understood it herself.

‘The way I understand it,’ Daphne said slowly, ‘is that my father wished me to become a…a queen.’

It was no wonder her friend’s eyebrows rose. ‘I am sorry, a queen?’

‘You know what he is like—though, having said that, I suppose you don’t. Rilla will know, I suppose, being my stepsister-in-law now. Oh, it’s all so complicated,’ said Daphne wretchedly with a dry laugh.

Gwen gave her a sympathetic smile. ‘Yes, I suppose so. But isn’t all life? Isn’t everyone’s journey a bit wild?’

‘Some of us more than others,’ Daphne said wryly.

‘Now, now, let’s not drag Sylvia into this,’ grinned Gwen. ‘You were telling me that your father wanted you to be a queen.’

‘That…that is why, I think, he wrote to the oldest brother of the Niedernlein royal family,’ said Daphne slowly.

Her friend nodded. ‘Christoph.’

Well, this was it, and waiting around wasn’t going to make it easier to say. ‘No, Anton.’

‘Anton? Is that one of his myriad names?’ jested Gwen. Then her smile faded. ‘Ah. I see.’

‘I don’t know how it happened—perhaps Christoph picked up the wrong letter; perhaps he read it by accident; perhaps he was nosey!

I don’t know how it started, but I know how it ended,’ said Daphne with a stifled sob.

‘With Christoph coming here, lying to my father, meeting me at the top of an aisle and gaining my hand and my fortune all under deceit. It all began with a falsehood, and here we are now, married.’

‘Oh, well,’ said Gwen bracingly. ‘Accidents happen.’

Very slowly, almost unconsciously, Daphne untangled her fingers and spread her palms over her belly.

Sylvia was large now, but it would not be long before she herself started to swell.

How long would it be before anyone noticed?

Should she have found a way to tell Christoph over the last few days, even as they’d navigated these feelings neither of them had ever predicted?

‘Yes,’ she said aloud. ‘Yes. Accidents…can happen.’

She should have expected Gwen’s gasp. When Daphne looked up, it was to see that her friend’s eyes were filled with tears.

‘You’re not,’ Gwen whispered.

‘You cannot tell anyone,’ Daphne said hastily. ‘I—’

‘Tell? Who am I going to tell? Perce?’ Gwen grinned. ‘My toddler isn’t going to understand. I haven’t been able to get him to understand to be gentle with Florence, and that Sylvia has a baby in her tummy. Do you think I would tell him something like this?’

Daphne had to smile, although Perce was not exactly the person she was concerned about. ‘No. I don’t… I don’t want him to know.’

Gwen’s smile started to fade. ‘Him?’

Swallowing hard, and unsure exactly why it was so difficult for her to say the name, Daphne managed to breathe. ‘Christoph.’

‘You cannot ignore him for ever. You can’t run away from these feelings for ever.’

‘Watch me,’ Daphne said darkly. ‘It has been done. Plenty of ton marriages are conducted apart.’

‘And is that what you want?’ Her friend’s expression was far too knowing. ‘What I want to know is how you found those letters. Prince Christoph does not strike me as the lax sort. They were put there.’

Put there?

At Daphne’s confusion, Gwen sighed. ‘Put there for you to find, to upset you! Is there anyone in your household who wishes you harm, Daphne? Someone who would wish to cause discord between you and your husband?’

There was only one person who immediately came to mind and, at the realisation that she had been manipulated, Daphne swallowed hard, resolution filling her mind. ‘Just one. And I know what I have to do.’

‘I don’t think you do.’

She blinked, her friend coming back into focus. ‘But I—’

‘I think you are focusing far too much on these letters,’ Gwen said decidedly, ‘Because it’s easier than facing up to your fears. To the fact that Christoph loves you, you love him and you were filled with such panic in that moment that you ran away…from the man you love.’

Daphne swallowed. ‘He won’t love me for ever.’

One day he would wake up and realise that he did not care for her at all. One day he would tire of her, grow frustrated with her shyness, reach his last straw with her father and decide that he could no longer tolerate her. And then she would be alone.

Love is a weakness. To open oneself up like that, to become so vulnerable, to place all one’s happiness in the life of another… I swore then I would never do it. I have kept to that promise.

Daphne twisted her fingers together in her lap.

Being a wallflower, she had never thought to be a wife.

Now she was a wife—a princess. She knew love: not only what it was to love, but what it was to receive love.

To make love. To feel it tingling and sparking at the ends of her fingertips because she was so full of it.

And now…what should she do?