Page 54 of The Witch in the Dead of Night

She shook her head. “Did you know that I attended university with Prince Enhart?”

“No,” I admitted. “I had no idea.”

“He was a few years ahead of me at Hollybrook. Always the rebel, running around with his friends or driving the faculty crazy for a lark when he wasn’t in lectures. No one ever reprimanded him, of course, him being the prince.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m surprised he even went to lectures.”

“The prince curates his image rather carefully, you know,” she said. “One might take a single glance at him and think him ever the spoiled brat. The spare of the realm, free to do whatever he wants and travel wherever he pleases while his brother carries the weight of the kingdom on his shoulders.”

“Are you going to tell me that that’s wrong?” I asked.

“To an extent,” she explained. “You may have noticed that I’m a bit of an outsider here at court. When I was in my second year at Hollybrook, a viscount approached my father—who was held in high esteem among the nobility—and asked for my hand in marriage.”

“How old were you?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Not young by mortal standards, but I had barely ventured into the world on my own. I wanted more than to be the wife of some boorish nobleman. Not to mention the more obvious issue.”

“That you weren’t attracted to him in the slightest?” I asked, grinning.

She winked. “It’s not a scandal for two women or two men to fall in love these days, but it can be complicated when your family desires a political union. The more pressing issue, though, was that I had heard some rather unsavory things about him.”

“Unsavory?” I whispered.

She nodded. “One of my classmates was an associate of the viscount’s. One evening, after a few goblets of wine, she warned me about the young vampiresses who were taken into his employ. Impressionable things, each of them prettier than the last. All of whom he used for his own pleasure for a few months before dumping them back onto the street. In his mind, they were wasted goods. There were whispers that he’d even gotten one of them pregnant and had his footman return her, penniless, to her father’s doorstep. As if he couldn’t afford to look after a bastard or two. Pig.”

My fingers curled inwards. “That’s despicable. Your father knew of this?”

She exhaled slowly. “He did, but it mattered not to him. The viscount’s family made their fortune in the trade of luxury goods—gems and rare spices, among other things—and despite his already considerable fortune, my father was nothing if not a greedy bastard. Coin is everything to the nobility, though they’ll never admit it.”

“That’s awful,” I said softly. “If you don’t mind me asking, though, what does Enhart have to do with this?”

She sighed. “I was so devastated by the prospect of the marriage that I began to withdraw. I stopped attending classes and spending time with my friends. I had no energy and yet I could not sleep. One day, Prince Enhart happened upon me as I was wandering the university grounds like some kind of wraith. He was so quick to lend an ear, even though we weren’t close. He encouraged me to tell him everything, and so I shared with him my fears that I was too young, and, more importantly, that I knew I could never love a man even if I were to choose my own husband. So he volunteered to protest the marriage on my behalf to his brother.”

“The King was involved?” I asked, my mind spinning. Apparently, marriages among the nobility included quite a few players.

“The King is involved to a degree in the relations of everyone in his court, simply by nature of his post. The issue was that he supported the proposed union.”

I shifted uncomfortably. “Oh.”

“Prince Enhart had no reason to help me,” she said softly. “In fact, he could’ve gotten in serious trouble with the King for questioning his judgment. But my petty plight mattered to him for some reason. No more than a week later, the betrothal was broken off and my father dropped the subject entirely.”

“Was it really Enhart who swayed the King?” I asked, my voice a whisper.

She shrugged. “I never found out. My father died in his sleep a few months later and I was finally free.”

I nodded. “That’s why you told me you have no desire for a higher station or coin,” I posited, recalling our conversation at the ball. “Your father’s fortune passed to you when he died.”

She nodded.

“So what happened then?” I asked.

“It was a bit of a scandal at the time. Many in court never forgave me my impudence, but it matters not to me. With my father gone, I was free to finish school, and Prince Enhart and I never spoke of it again. There are others who could tell similar stories, I’m sure. For all his faults, he is a good man at heart.”

I shifted uncomfortably. It was easier to think of him in low regard. “What are you trying to tell me?” I asked.

“I’m saying that there’s more to him than meets the eye. Just like there is to you.”

My pulse pounded in my ears, but I said nothing. “And the viscount?” I asked finally. “What became of him?”