Page 49 of The Bride of Lycaster
The breeze from the Western Sea filled my lungs and gave my face a refreshing kiss as I stepped out into the evening air. It was not the same area of the palace garden where we had entered the hedge maze, but a much more peaceful place with yellow and red roses growing all around. Right in front of me was a large statue of a rearing bull, its golden horns pointed straight up to thenight sky.
Annalisa sat on a stone bench underneath the bull, doubled over and sobbing intoher arms.
My head buzzed and my legs wobbled as I stood. Even sitting next to a wailing Annalisa would be less agonizing than being anywhere near the revelry of the ballroom. I groaned as I walked down the steps into the garden and sat beside Annalisa onthe bench.
“Ruined,” Annalisa choked out between sobs, “everythingis ruined.”
“Worse things can happen to you than your ball getting ruined, Anna,”I snapped.
Annalisa sat up and faced me. Her eyes were red and her makeup stained her cheeks with black tears. She bared her teeth between trembling lips. “After everything I did for you, why are you still someanto me?”
I crossed my arms and shifted my shoulders away from her. “What are youtalking about?”
“I knew,” she hiccuped. “I knew about yourletters, Sera.”
I played cool as I tried to hide how tight my throat was. “What letters?”
Annalisa glared at me. “Stop lying. You know I mean the letters between you and my brother. I found one years ago and I noticed the guards slipping you messagesever since.”
I blinked as the red roses danced in my vision. “How? I wasso careful.”
“Hewas not careful,” Annalisa scoffed. “Midnight? Really? The only way his dramatic ass could have been more obvious is if he signed off as ‘obnoxious pileof bullshit.’”
I gripped my skirt as my stomach lurched. “And you did not tell anyone?” That was not the Annalisa I knew. She did not do favors forpeople. “Why?”
She sighed softly and looked back up at me with whirlpools of sorrow in her blue eyes. “I wanted him to choose you. If the choices were Camille, Dinah, or you, it was obvious who should have been thenext Duchess.”
Annalisa sniffed and wiped away her tears with the heels of her palms, streaking black makeup all over her cheeks. “Plus, I like you, Sera. I am sorry I called you a tiny troll—I did not mean it! I was just mad because your Suitors’ Ball gown looked so much better than mine. I just wanted to stand out at the ball…but I guess that would nothave mattered.”
Annalisa let out another shuddering breath. I focused on the yellow roses in front of us as both my mind and my stomach settled into a still sadness. Annalisa would never scrub away the stain of being Last-selected as the Duke’s own daughter. The only worse shame wasan annulment.
Annalisa lolled her head back. “Besides, if anyone was going to calm down my obnoxious twin, it was going to be you. You would have been goodfor him.”
Waves crashed against the distant cliffside as I pieced Annalisa’s confession together. “Were you writing to himabout me?”
Annalisa nodded and hiccuped, stifling another sob. “I just wanted him to make theright choice.”
I gripped the edge of the stone bench and stared down at the cobblestone garden path as the truth sunk in—Annalisa was actually my friend. She wrote to Derrick for me. She helped me cover up the marks Derrick left on my neck. Annalisa was rough around the edges, sure, but she was a caring friend…and I struck her in front of everyone. Guilt swirled with the wine inmy stomach.
I took her cold hands and looked her in the eyes. “Anna, I am sorry for…what happened in the dressing room. You were a better friend to me thanI realized.”
Annalisa smiled softly and squeezedmy hands.
“A–and,” I hiccupped. “You are too damn pretty to have been picked last. Icall bullshit.”
She snorted a laugh. “The real bullshit is Brietta getting her first fuck in the middle of my ball. I never understood why you liked her so much, with her always doing anythingfor attention.”
I rubbed my arm across my cheek. “Because I thought she couldprotect me.”
Annalisa raised a blonde eyebrow. “You thoughtshecouldprotectyou?”
Brietta would never throw a punch for me, nor would she ever dress someone down for looking down their nose at me, but she was still a person ofsubstance.She was tall and wealthy, her parents were influential, and she had a magical way with her words. She was more powerful than I had ever let her believe she was, and I had foolishly thought her proximity keptme safe.
And now she was going to be the Duchess, and I was still just a weaklittlenothing.
Despite the bruises on my spirit, I gave Annalisa a half-smile. “Life is a lot harder when you aresmall, Anna.”
An angry voice bellowed through the night air. “Get away frommy wife!”
