Court of Flowers (Sutherland Book 1)

XXXI | Lies and Compromise

Everything drastically changed for Sasha.

The secrets were beginning to mount, and she struggled to take control, all the while hoping that she was doing the right thing.

Never had she thought that she would come to a point where she had to break Belcourt law. All for one woman she could not even find. All because she chose to trust a man.

Be a good girl...

The words echoed in her head.

Was she? Was she being a good girl?

Or was she a woman who succumbed to the manipulation of a man?

But it seemed right. It felt right.

Yet why did she feel regret?

Was it the sudden change of the dynamic of the game between them?

He never sought her out again after that night, did he?

He never came near for three days.

Their last meeting ended with her being taken home by his carriage alone.

It ended when they signed a new agreement, one that did not prohibit them from being lovers. Neither of them dared mention it, and none dared to pen it down. They had learned their lesson.

The agreement was plain and simple.

They looked for his sister and perhaps they would find answers about Gabrielle and Belcourt.

He would not take his sister by force.

No one betrays anyone either.

Three simple rules with some left unspoken.

What would happen to them now?

His question stayed with Sasha even to this day.

It haunted her thoughts at night when she would lie in bed, alone and in fear. Willoghby was still free and Gabrielle was letting him for some unknown reason.

She and West would never be the same.

There was no point in regretting it.

She made her choice and it was a choice she should live for from now on. It could never be undone.

She knew from the very first time they met that her goal was to serve Belcourt and stay in Belcourt. His was to find his sister. And perhaps save the kingdom by doing so.

"You are staring blankly in the air again, dear," Prince Albert's voice said.

Sasha blinked, looking at the man sitting across from her.

Should she have trusted this man instead?

Should she have gone to Belcourt and reported the journal?

Was she making the same mistake she did when she did not report Willoghby?

The questions attacked her as notoriously as the prince did at their game. She looked down at the chessboard. "I seem to be losing."

"Because your mind is elsewhere," the prince pointed out with narrowed eyes. "Why so, Sasha?"

"It is nothing."

"I heard that you and Blackwood have been seeing some progress. You are often in his villa."

"Yes."

The prince grinned, his blue eyes glimmering with mirth. "Did I not say Humbrick is the trick?"

Sasha flushed. "You did not, but that one is true. Humbrick did the trick, indeed."