THE UNSUITABLE BRIDE

CHAPTER TEN

Roseanne held it together for just as long as it took to reach her bedroom and then she collapsed onto the floor as the door swept shut, dropping her head into her hands and weeping until she could no longer fight the source of her grief.

She loved Lisa.

She loved Lisa with everything she was, and Lisa’d confirmed for her just now that love would never be a part of the equation for her. She’d done the only thing she could – walking away with her head held high – but oh, it hurt.

It hurt to know she wouldn’t see Lisa again. Or that if she did see her again, she wouldn’t be able to speak to Lisa, and certainly not to touch her. Roseanne felt as though a thousand little electric shocks were firing through her body and she wanted, more than anything, to run back through the palace and stop Lisa from leaving, to throw herself to the ground and pull her close, to beg Lisa to marry her after all, no matter what form that marriage took.

Only the knowledge of how it felt to be left out in the cold held her still. For years she’d known her father’s cold dispassion and it had cut her to the quick, his rejection an ever-present pain deep in her soul. She wouldn’t knowingly walk into another relationship like that ever again.

She’d done the only thing she could – and one day she’d get used to living with this awful, broken heart.

* * *

I think in time you’ll be relieved I didn’t fall pregnant. There’s some other princess out there who’s far better suited for you. Please just – forget about me, Lisa.

Lisa stared across the room with Roseanne’s words pounding through her mind, even now, a month after Roseanne’d issued them. She felt their cool, incisive dismissal and wanted to roar. Lisa wanted to shout at everyone to leave, she wanted to stalk out of the formal event.

She did no such thing. Instead, Lisa went through the motions, as she had done frequently in the past four weeks, speaking with dignitaries and guests, even if she kept her answers short.

There were many women in attendance who had been, at some point, on the shortlist for her bride. “See?” He wanted to say to Roseanne. “All these beautiful, suitable women and you are the only one in my head.”

But that wasn’t the point.

Roseanne would have married her if Lisa could have told Roseanne that she believed in love. That one day she might even love Roseanne. But Lisa didn’t lie, and she knew that love was a double-edged sword, one from which she wisely steered clear.

It wasn’t as though Roseanne loved her, just that Roseanne wanted to hold out for someone who could give her everything she wanted, everything she’d never had, and that wasn’t Lisa.

“Hi, stranger.”

Lisa turned in the direction of her voice, finding her smile came naturally for the first time in a month.

“Jennie,” Lisa kissed her cheek; she took Lisa’s hand.

“I hear congratulations are in order?”

Lisa bristled. “Oh?”

“Your marriage?” Jennie prompted, a brow lifted.

“Ah.” Lisa’d made sure Roseanne’s departure from her palace wasn’t mentioned anywhere. No one beyond a very small circle of staff knew the nature in which Roseanne’d left. It had been easy to suggest she’d gone back to Mosar to oversee wedding preparations.

People would judge Roseanne if news broke that she’d left. It wasn’t fair to her, and Lisa wanted to protect her from malicious gossip for as long as she could.