Chapter 1

The night before Prince Dorian's consort-selection reception, I had a terrible dream.

I dreamed I got exactly what I wanted. I became his wife, and I wasted my entire life on it.

While I hemorrhaged through the birth and our baby died before it drew a breath, Dorian was at a lodge across the city, drinking to celebrate with another woman.

What they were celebrating was my labor.

My child hadn't been unlucky. Dorian had drugged me.

He'd promised that woman she would be the only one to ever bear his children.

Later I learned the truth, and I found her, and I found the son she'd given him in secret.

Dorian went wild. He broke my arms and legs and kept me locked away for the rest of my life.

He entered the boy into my household records and installed him openly as his heir.

On the day I died, Dorian finally turned up.

Decades of marriage, and it was the most he had ever said to me.

"Celeste was born too low for my mother to accept her. That's the only reason you got the title.

"You were useful, though. Celeste could never enter the house, but our son can inherit it under your name.

"Go quietly. If there's a next life, keep your distance. Stop throwing yourself in my path."

I woke with a jolt, refusing to believe it.

Then, at the selection reception, I walked straight into Dorian on purpose and lifted the handkerchief from his sleeve.

A pair of swans was embroidered on it, and beneath them, small and neat, the name Celeste Beaumont.

The blood drained out of my face. I grabbed the girl I'd hated since childhood and headed for the door.

"I'm not marrying him. And neither are you."

Chapter 1

"Caroline, have you lost your mind?

"We've been at each other's throats our whole lives. Today was finally going to settle it. What are you playing at?"

That face used to grate on me past all endurance. Now it just made my chest ache.

I knew that whichever of us won today, we'd both end up in the same grave.

I let out a quiet sigh. "Vivian, that mistress your father kept. Did she have a daughter? Celeste?"

Vivian went rigid.

"My family buried that. How could you possibly know?"

It's embarrassing to admit.

Vivian and I had fought over Dorian for years, and I'd sunk more people and money than I care to count into digging up anything that might bring her down.

None of it ever touched her. What it did do, entirely by accident, was turn up Dorian's biggest secret.

I told her about the dream, every word of it.

Her brows pulled into a knot and her lip curled. "It was a dream. And you believe it?"

I couldn't blame her.

I'd thought it was ridiculous myself at first.

I took out the handkerchief and held it out. "Then take a look at this.

"I lifted it off Dorian about ten minutes ago."

Vivian turned it over, studying it, and every bit of color went out of her face.

Before she could decide anything, Dorian walked up.

"Caroline. Vivian. How is it I haven't heard the two of you fighting today?

"Did hell freeze over?"

You couldn't really blame him for saying it.

Vivian and I had been oil and water since we were children. We couldn't be in a room together without going for each other.

And today of all days, when it was finally supposed to be decided.

To keep him from getting suspicious, and to get us both out of there, I clapped both hands over my stomach and howled.

"Ow — Vivian, you absolute monster, what did you kick me for?

"Your Highness, my stomach — it's bad. I need a doctor, now.

"I'm afraid I'll have to miss the reception."

I staggered backward, laying it on thick.

When I got close enough to Vivian, I dropped my voice. "Come up with something. Fast.

"Or we're both done for.

"I can't stand you, but I don't want you dead.

"I'd have nobody left to argue with."

There was still something wistful in the way Vivian looked at him, and it made me frantic.

"Vivian, I know my word alone isn't enough.

"Give me one chance. Let me show you.

"After that, choose however you want. I won't stand in your way."

Vivian finally made up her mind.

She's every bit the drama queen I am. She tipped sideways and went straight into the ornamental pond.

They fished her out, and she stood there with her lips shaking. "Your Highness, you saw it yourself. Caroline pushed me on purpose.

"I'm soaked to the skin. I can't stand in front of the court like this.

"Could the selection wait a few days?"

I could hear it. She still didn't believe me.

She was leaving herself a way back.

Luckily, Royal Consort Sabine had already ruled that Dorian's wife had to come from House Beaumont or House Whitaker.

That meant Vivian and I were the only two candidates in the building.

Dorian had no choice. He agreed to push the reception back three days.

To keep anyone from wondering, we left the estate separately and went home.

We didn't meet again until the moon was high, when the two of us crept into a narrow lane behind the old market.

"All right, Caroline. How are you going to prove it?

"And I'll say this up front. If your dream turns out to be nothing, you back off and stop competing with me for him."

I looked at her with open disgust. "God, you're pathetic.

"Over a man? Really?"

Vivian was so angry she laughed.

"You have some nerve lecturing me.

"I'm not the one who slit her wrist over him and threatened to die."

For the first time in my life, I didn't fire back.

I just laughed at the girl I used to be. "I didn't know any better.

"After that dream, though, something finally clicked.

"Some people just aren't worth it.

"Come on. I'm going to show you, and then you can tell me if you still want to marry him."

Chapter 2

Following the clues from the dream, I found it — Eastbrook Lodge, tucked away on the east side of Hearthwick, exactly where I remembered.

Vivian and I lay flat on the wall for a long time, but the place stayed dark. Not a sound out of it.

Vivian ran out of patience and turned to me. "Nobody lives here.

"Caroline, are you making a fool of me on purpose?"

The truth is, I couldn't have promised her anyone was coming.

In the dream, Dorian hadn't installed Celeste at this lodge until years into our marriage.

Everything had moved up. Maybe they hadn't taken the place yet.

My silence was all the confirmation Vivian needed.

"I'm done.

"Caroline, I'm going to Laurelcrest House right now, and I'm telling Dorian you've withdrawn.

"He can have me instead."

She let go of the wall and started to swing down, and I caught her by the sleeve.

"They're here."

Two figures had come up to the gate below us, leaning into each other.

One tall, one small. Both in broad-brimmed hats pulled low over their faces.

Vivian squinted. "How is anyone supposed to tell who that is —"

She didn't get to finish. The pair went through into the courtyard.

The moment the gate shut behind them, the hats came off.

They were on each other before they'd cleared the path, kissing like they'd been starving for it.

Vivian watched them come apart at the seams, clothing sliding loose, and her eyes went perfectly round.

"That — that really is Dorian. And that little snake."

I got a finger to my lips fast.

"Quiet. Keep watching."

I don't know how long it went on. Eventually the two of them were finished, and they came back out.

Celeste had thrown a robe on without tying it. She hooked both arms around his neck and put on a voice like syrup.

"Your Highness, I hear the reception got pushed back.

"Couldn't you just let it die there? Not choose anyone at all?

"I don't want to share you with anybody.

"Including my sister."

Vivian was shaking with fury. "That little bitch. I'm the trueborn daughter of that house."

I gave her a look.

"Your family won't even let her through the front door. Don't start claiming her as a sister now."

Vivian's face went dark, and for once she didn't come back at me.

"You don't know the whole of it.

"Rosalind — Celeste's mother — came with my mother when she married. She was her maid. She waited until my mother was pregnant, and then she got her hooks into my father.

"When my mother went into labor, Rosalind tampered with her medicine. She meant to kill both of them.

"My mother caught it in time. And she was soft-hearted about it. She wouldn't have the woman beaten to death, so she just put her out of the house.

"And Rosalind didn't end it. She kept seeing my father in secret, and she had that child.

"So you tell me why we owe either of them a place at our table."

Vivian's eyes had gone red at the rims, and for the first time in my life I felt sorry for her.

I hesitated, then took her hand.

"Don't. Once we know everything, I'll help you deal with the both of them."

Down in the courtyard, Dorian started talking.

His eyes were full of tenderness. What came out of his mouth cut Celeste to pieces.

"Celeste, I'd give you anything. Anything but this.

"Beaumont and Whitaker are the two pillars this whole realm rests on. My mother won't hear of me marrying outside them.

"That alliance is the only thing that will keep me standing later.

"Frederick and Wesley are the Queen's own sons. My mother is a consort. Without powerful backing I'll spend my whole life underneath them.

"You don't want to watch me go down, do you?"

Celeste understood the arithmetic perfectly well. She just couldn't swallow it.

"Then what happens to me?

"I've given you three years. There's nothing left of my name.

"And I'm carrying your child. He'll be born with no place in your house at all."

Dorian pulled her in closer, and what he said next put ice down my spine.

Chapter 3

"Don't worry. Whoever I marry, she's only ever going to be a screen.

"I'll make sure she never carries a child of mine.

"When you deliver ours, I'll bring him home and enter him in the records as hers.

"That makes him my heir. He'll hold this house one day.

"And you think he'd ever forget who his real mother is?"

It all lined up. Every last piece of it.

The dream hadn't been a dream.

Something out there had felt sorry for me and sent me a warning.

Vivian believed it now too.

On the way back from the lodge she wrestled with herself for a long while before she got it out.

"Caroline. Thank you. For saving me."

I flapped a hand at her.

"Don't make it weird.

"Honestly, when you think about it, Dorian was the only thing we ever actually fought about.

"Neither of us wants him now. So what's left to fight over?"

Vivian smiled.

No sneer in it, no edge. Just relief, and something like honesty.

"Fine. Old business stays buried. From today we're friends.

"You said you'd help me deal with them. Let's hear it."

I gave her a slow smile.

"Sabine said Dorian's wife has to come out of Beaumont or Whitaker.

"She never once said it had to be the trueborn daughter.

"And Celeste is Beaumont blood, whatever else she is."

Vivian looked doubtful.

"She never said it because she has no idea my father has a daughter he won't own.

"If we come out and tell her, there's no chance. She'd never take a mistress's child for a daughter-in-law.

"My father lost interest in the pair of them years ago. A match like that buys Dorian nothing but a laughingstock."

I jabbed a finger at her.

"Do you only think in straight lines?

"If they'd say no when we ask, then we don't ask. We just deliver her.

"You act like you've accepted him. On the wedding day, we swap the bride.

"Sabine set the terms herself. A daughter of one of our two houses. That's all she said.

"We give her exactly what she asked for, and there's nothing for them to grab hold of."

You could watch it land on Vivian's face.

"Caroline, how did I go my whole life without noticing how clever you are?

"Thank God I turned around when I did. Otherwise I'd never have known what hit me."

I still couldn't tell whether that was a compliment or an insult.

Didn't matter.

"There's one more thing worrying me, Vivian.

"Sabine can't move against our families out in the open, but she's not going to let this go quietly.

"We need someone behind us before we start."

Vivian frowned.

"She isn't the Queen and Dorian isn't the heir, but the King dotes on the pair of them.

"Who's going to stick their neck out against that?"

I stared at her.

"Think about who you are. Think about who Celeste is."

Vivian's eyes went wide.

"Frederick and Wesley?"

"Obviously. They're the Queen's own sons. There's nobody better placed."

That same night, the two of us went quietly to the royal brothers.

Frederick and Wesley are both far too sharp to have missed it. They'd worked out long ago that binding Whitaker and Beaumont to the Queen's side was all upside.

The problem had always been that Vivian and I were hopelessly gone on Dorian, and neither brother was willing to force it.

So they'd let it lie.

Now that we'd turned up on our own, they couldn't have been happier to move.

The next morning, before the sun was up, betrothal gifts arrived at both our family estates — one set from the Crown Prince's household, one from Prince Wesley's.

Vivian and I sat in a private room at the Red Oak Inn with the signed compacts in our hands and finally let ourselves breathe.

The ink was barely dry when Dorian pushed the door open.

Chapter 4

Vivian and I got the compacts out of sight.

Dorian crossed the room in two long strides and dropped into the seat between us.

For one awful second I thought he'd caught something. Then he opened his mouth, and what came out nearly made us both throw up.

"Caroline. Vivian. I've been thinking about this all night.

"Instead of the two of you tearing each other apart over it, why not both marry into my house?

"I talked it over with my mother this morning. You'd come in as equals. Both of you my wives."

I wanted to put my hand across his face.

One alliance wasn't enough for that pair. They had to have two.

But there's still such a thing as rank, so I kept my hands where they were.

"Your Highness, I'm not sure that would go over well."

Dorian shrugged. "Why wouldn't it?

"King Gideon had two queens sitting side by side. It's been done.

"Anyone who questions us is questioning the crown itself, and that's the kind of thing that gets a whole family put to death."

He had a point. Infuriatingly, I had nothing.

But I wasn't about to fold either.

For the sake of the plan, I made myself say it. "Your Highness, I asked Vivian here today because something finally became clear to me.

"I've been fighting over this for years, and I'm tired.

"Let the Beaumont daughter have it."

Dorian didn't like that at all, and started to argue.

I cut him off before he could get going.

"You know as well as anyone that Vivian and I can't share a room without drawing blood.

"Put us both under one roof and your household turns into a public spectacle.

"I don't imagine you want the embarrassment."

He had nothing to say to that, and finally laughed and gave in. "All right."

He turned to Vivian. "Will you be my wife?"

Vivian made a show of hesitating.

"I want to. I do.

"But I'm afraid Caroline will find some other angle to work.

"Why don't you go downstairs right now and tell the whole room you're marrying a daughter of House Beaumont?

"Then it's settled, in front of witnesses.

"I'd rest easier.

"And skip the selection reception. It's a waste of money and it gives people something to talk about.

"Two days from now, come to our house and collect me."

Dorian nodded without a second's thought.

He even managed to look generous about it. "Why say a daughter of House Beaumont?

"I'll tell them straight out. I'm marrying Vivian Beaumont."

He stood up to go do it.

Vivian grabbed his sleeve, blushing on command. "Your Highness, a lady's name is her reputation.

"If you say it that plainly, what will the court think of me?

"How am I supposed to show my face after that?"

Dorian is arrogant, and he was certain nobody alive knew about Celeste.

So it never occurred to him to be careful.

"All right, all right. Whatever my wife says."

Probably worried the Beaumonts would back out, he stood in front of the whole room and said it three separate times: he would marry a daughter of House Beaumont.

Vivian and I let out the same breath at the same moment.

Watching him walk off pleased with himself, Vivian took my hand and grinned.

"Caroline. When he finds out he married the love of his life, do you think he'll be thrilled or destroyed?"

"Why guess? Let's follow the procession and find out."

Two days went by in no time.

I was at Beaumont House first thing in the morning to watch the show.

Frederick and Wesley came with me.

Wesley took one look at Dorian riding up like a man who'd won everything, and laughed. "Brother, he used to stand there bragging that the Whitaker girl and the Beaumont girl were both out of their minds over him.

"And in the end neither one of them would take him.

"When Sabine finds out what he's actually married, I think it might kill her."

While we were talking, the attendants handed the veiled bride up into the ceremonial carriage.

Once the procession had pulled away with everyone trailing after it, Vivian finally put her head out from behind the doors.

Something in my chest finally let go.

Nothing had gone wrong.

I handed her the veil and the plain traveling cloak I'd brought. "You'll have to put up with this for a bit.

"If Dorian spots you, the fun ends far too early."