Madeline

Chapter 17

I didn't feel like doing much of anything for the remainder of the day. Eventually Rebecca came to sit with me and we moped together until she had to attend to her other duties.

I laid down in bed when it was time to go to sleep, but I got very little rest. My mind was too busy going back and forth between worry over what the prince might decide and sadness over never seeing Mr. Mitchell again. Well, that and regret for that first night when I stupidly ran away.

It was probably true that he wouldn't be interested in me once he knew who I was, but my mind stubbornly kept coming back to the question of what if. What if that wasn't true? What if I could have explained the situation to him?

They were useless thoughts, of course. The only thing they accomplished was to keep me from getting any kind of decent sleep. Not that it really mattered. What did I have to do now anyway? Without those dinners, I didn't have any obligations. No one would care if I spent whole days sleeping.

Or mostly anyway. I suppose now that I wasn't certain what the prince had in mind, I had to return to the rules Alma laid out for me at the beginning. I had to be ready to see him at any moment.

Grudgingly I got out of bed in the morning and let Rebecca help me as always. Her mood had improved some since last night, but she was still pretty subdued. Something that made her demeanor later that afternoon quite strange.

Some time after lunch, she returned to my room, looking much happier than before. To my astonishment, she didn't share whatever made her that way as soon as she arrived. Instead, she began doing little tasks around the room, more or less ignoring me.

I watched curiously, waiting for her to say something about her behavior, but she never did. When she came out of my dressing room with three options of evening gowns, I finally asked.

"What are you doing?" Without the special dinners, I planned to eat alone in my room. I didn't need an evening gown for that.

"Your presence has been requested for dinner this evening," she said happily. "Which do you like?" She tried to hold up all three dresses at once so I could decide. "I love this green." She focused briefly on the dress on the left.

"What do you mean?" I ignored her question. Was Mr. Mitchell still here? Was that why I was invited to dinner? Maybe he wasn't feeling well last night.

"You look wonderful in green," she said, and I knew she was teasing.

"Not the dress. I meant what you said about dinner!" I attempted to sound irritated, but I didn't do a marvelous job. If she was this giddy, it could only mean he was still here, right?

"The prince has requested that you join everyone tonight," she said with a smile. "Apparently he has something he wants to discuss with you."

My stomach dropped in dread. "He does?"

"Mmm hmm." She nodded, oblivious to what that must mean. "So how about the green?"

"It's fine," I answered, not really caring about the dress or much else.

He planned to "discuss something" with me tonight. It could only be one thing. It seemed a little odd that he chose such a public place to talk about it, but I guess it made sense. While people mainly had negative opinions about mistresses, officially, it wasn't a negative thing. It was perfectly acceptable to discuss arrangements in public. Lord Colton certainly proved that. He'd propositioned me in full view of his wife.

And maybe it was just more convenient for the prince to speak with me at dinner. Which probably meant his plans involved the time following dinner.