Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 72146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
I do not stay to watch my brother speak to the king. I slip back into the palace, my mind no more changed than it was when I came out onto the balcony.
I did what needed to be done for Princess Cora. If I had not, she would have given herself to whomever caught her fantasy. The princess might have ended up with someone else—not Jasper, and certainly not me. I would never let that happen.
She was always meant for the both of us.
Chapter 19
Cora
“No, no.” I wave Isabel off. “I’ll be fine. I am quite all right.”
I take several deep breaths and attempt to compose myself, but I only break down sobbing again.
The two men I love. Brothers. At war with one another. Hearing Jasper banish Casen… it’s as if I felt the strike of his condemnation myself.
Isabel murmurs some comforting sounds and swoops in again with a damp cloth. She dabs my face, though there is no point to it. I cannot stop the tears. I’ve posted my maids outside my chambers to ensure I’m not disturbed, and I fear that I will need to keep them posted there forever.
It hurts. The pain in my heart is unrelenting. It is merciless. I wish I could go back. I wish it never got this far. It is my fault for not being more honest with them both.
After a time, Isabel coaxes me to come out of my washroom and into my chamber. We walk together as we would in the garden, albeit in much smaller circles.
“I don’t know how to fix this. I wish I could climb down the side of the castle and disappear,” I tell Isabel when all my efforts fail.
“Do you? If you do, Cora, I will find a way to get us both down.”
“No one would let us disappear,” I murmur to her. And some small part inside of me fights at the idea of leaving.
Isabel thinks about it. “You’re right. It’s not likely that we could slip away unnoticed. We’d have to wait until the middle of the night, and your father would know you were missing by morning.” She cocks a brow at me as if she’d truly do it. As if one more person I love would destroy their life for my selfishness.
Thinking of my father’s distress turns my eyes glassy with fresh tears and I hate it. The emotions are far too much. Isabel dabs my face again. My eyes will be swollen until at least tomorrow. I can’t decide if that is a blessing or a curse.
“I’ve failed him,” I tell my friend miserably. “I have failed my father, and the kingdom—”
“Shh,” Isabel says. “You have not.”
“I have,” I insist. “Everything is ruined now.”
“It’s not ruined,” Isabel soothes. “We do not yet know what distressed Prince Jasper. Perhaps his brother had news from home that could not wait.”
Or perhaps I took a secret lover without knowing that he was the brother of a prince. Perhaps I gave part of my heart to a man with a scarred face…then gave the rest of it to his brother. Perhaps I did not see the foolishness of my ways until Casen stood before me in the sunroom, and now I cannot see a way out of this cruel web I’ve woven that does not break my heart.
I’ve yet to confess to Isabel, my one true confident. Every time I try, my throat tightens and I swallow the words down.
I let Isabel think she has convinced me. She does not know what I have done in my chambers with Casen. No one knows now except Prince Jasper…and Prince Casen.
It is a blessing that only I heard the whispers prior to the banishment. A small reprieve.
Will it come to a brutal end for one of them? I don’t think I can bear it if that happens. I cannot watch their relationship sour because of what I’ve done.
There’s no way to decide between them. I gave myself to both men. Will it come down to who I gave myself to first? That would be Casen, but it was done without the blessing of my father. I didn’t care about such things when I was with him in the dark, and in truth I do not care much about it now. I only care about the heartbreak I will cause if I choose Casen. Though I will not cause less heartbreak should I choose Jasper.
If either of them will have me, a voice whispers in the back of my head.
Even now, they could be preparing to ride out from the palace and return to their own kingdom. They might leave it to me to explain how Prince Jasper’s courting of me ended in disaster. Word would spread out through the kingdoms. There will be no one who does not know of me in the end.