The Royal Games

Chapter 24

Recap:

A silence falls upon us once again before I decide to just go for it and broach the little four letter word I'm dying to know the truth about.

"Stefan... I-I heard you last night. You said... you said you loved me."

Fever

He seems to freeze upon hearing my questions, for a second only, before he regains his composure and looks at me coolly.

"I-I'm sorry Rose. I never said that... I don't know what to say..."

I glance at him in disbelief. I could have sworn... but then I was drunk as hell and basically asleep. But did I really dream it?

"Oh. Yeah no! Of course not... Sorry." I try to laugh it off, never having wanted the ground to swallow me up as much as I do in this moment right now. "I probably just had a weird dream."

The silence between us is awkward now, I can feel it. After a few more uncomfortable moments, Stefan makes his excuses and leaves me alone. Sighing, I lie back down in bed and let myself drift back to sleep wondering if he was telling the truth or not. But then, what reason would he have to lie?

One thing I know for sure though. And that is that I love him. Despite everything, I can't deny it any longer. I love him. I am in love with Prince Stefan Arthur Alexander Williams.

➰➰➰

It's been a week since Matilda's welcome dinner. A week of pure torture; and we're only half way through her visit.

Stefan and I haven't really talked about what happened the night of her welcome dinner. What can we say? Sometimes I catch him wistfully staring at me and we awkwardly catch each other's eye for a few seconds before promptly averting our gaze. But I have managed to steer clear of any time alone with him. I don't trust myself and to be honest; the sooner that this is over, the better. The sooner I'll be able to move on.

Him and Matilda have been engaged in activities all week. From day trips around England, to picnics and strolls in the palace grounds, to afternoon tea with Stefan and his parents. Everywhere I've turned they've been there. And it's not going unnoticed by my fellow selection candidates. I think there's an unspoken acknowledgement that none of us will be making as Stefan's bride... Even Zoe believe it or not.

Laura was right though - Matilda is a snob of the highest degree. She's insanely beautiful, I'll give her that. With the smoothest olive skin and silkiest, brown hair that flows down to her waist, she looks like a doll come to life. Yet any time she encounters any of us mere 'peasants', i.e. any of the girls from the selection, a perfect frown makes its way upon her face, her disdain clearly shining through. She doesn't bother to hide her distaste for the selection, and it's abundantly clear she has not one single humane bone in her body. From what I can tell, all she cares about is how wealthy you are and what tittle you hold. Miss and Mrs just doesn't cut it; anything below a Duke and Duchess and it's like you don't exist. I actually even overheard her complaining to Stefan the other day about our presence.

"Must you have all these commoners mulling around the palace? It's a contradiction of everything we are Stefan. I don't know how you bear it."

I swear I literally even heard her shudder.

As you can imagine, my opinion of her only went downhill from there. Along with Lexi's and Laura's. Laura has been having a hard time too; she's often sought out Lexi and I in the afternoons to complain about the tedious familial activities she's been roped into with Matilda. It is lovely to be surrounded by Matilda haters though I have to say ... but other than Laura, ofcourse, she has the whole royal family wrapped around her little finger so it would seem.