"So, you've barely spoken to Lady Angela."
"She wasn't brought here for me to get to know," Blythe said pointedly.
"I think my mom and Prince Canute are matchmaking." Janice gave Blythe an apologetic look. "I'm sorry."
"Why?"
"I know you kind of had a thing for him."
Neither said Tor's name and both spoke in undertones unlikely to carry to the others at the table.
"I told you I didn't."
"And you've never been able to lie to me."
Blythe nearly laughed out loud at that. Though the sound would have been more graveyard humor than comedic.
No, she'd never made a habit of lying to her sister-by-choice, but Blythe did not tell Janice everything. And she had been hiding her sexual relationship with Tor for almost three years now.
"It doesn't matter." Blythe did her best to infuse her tone with confidence and truth. Her words were true, after all.
Whatever feelings she had for Tor, they didn't matter because he had to marry a woman who could give him children, a woman born to fit into his world.
Prince Canute especially would expect Tor to marry another royal, or at the very least, someone of the nobility, like Lady Angela.
It was archaic and smacked of elitism, but Blythe had gotten to know the family patriarch well enough to realize the truth. Even if Blythe had been willing to deal with the whole "marry a prince" thing, Prince Canute would never consider her as a potential daughter-in-law.
He was nice to her, of course. But he was old fashioned and very entrenched in certain beliefs about how a royal family operates.
Add her infertility to the mix and she and Tor had no hope of a future together.
"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think Tor is taken with Lady Angela."
Blythe had to agree, if only inside her own head. There was no chemistry between the two of them.
And if Blythe was glad about that, that was her own business.
She knew she had Tor until he finished his military service, but not beyond that.
When he came home permanently, his family would expect him to start looking for a suitable wife.
Blythe would not be on their list of prospects.
For too many important reasons.
That night when Tor came to her room, she didn't even pretend to be surprised to see him. She had not invited him, but they hadn't maintained their no touching in the palace rule since she offered to break it the first time.
He was careful to be circumspect, telling her that he had access to the security tapes and erased the proof of his arrival and departure to her room before anyone else had a chance to see them.
He kissed her now, doing nothing else but holding her close for long minutes.
When he finally lifted his head, their gazes locked.
Molten with desire, his grey eyes drew her in. "I have wanted to do that since I saw you in the reception room."
"Me too," she admitted, though it probably would have been smarter not to.
Tor didn't reply with words, but with actions, pulling her back into a passionate kiss with full body contact.