Angelica arranged herself carefully in the chambers of Rupert’s townhouse, considering how she would look from the door as precisely as possible, because she knew that she would only have one chance to make an impression. She sat carefully on the edge of a chair before his great bed, balanced in that very precise space between demure and desirable. She’d changed from her wedding dress, wearing a brand new affair taken from a dressmaker purely on the strength of her word. She hadn’t dared to go back to her house yet, just in case the Dowager’s men were waiting for her.
“She expects me to run and hide,” Angelica whispered. “Well, I’ll do neither.”
“Talking to yourself, milady?” Rupert said as he entered. “You make a very poor burglar.”
Angelica had to admit that he was handsome in his way. Perhaps more classically so than his brother, looking the way a prince was meant to. It didn’t change anything about what lay underneath that exterior, of course, but it did potentially make some parts of this… easier. It was worth reminding herself of that.
“I’m not here to steal anything, your highness,” Angelica said, her hands folded carefully. “I’m here to give you something. To offer you something.”
Rupert’s look held a note of expectation. “And just how did you even find me?”
That part hadn’t been hard. Angelica knew all about Rupert’s bolt holes. She’d thought that, once she married Sebastian, it might be useful to find him disgraced in one of them; possibly even dead in one of them, in time. She’d thought that it was prudent to know more about a man who might be her enemy than he wanted the world to know. Now, though, that knowledge had proven useful in trying to work out what to do in the wake of the Dowager’s attack on her.
“Perhaps I just followed the trail of men of quality flocking to your door,” Angelica said. “That was how I got in, incidentally. The servants were easy to convince that since you were seeking allies, I was one you might have invited.”
“Seeking allies?” Rupert said. He frowned slightly, and with him, that was a dangerous expression. “You should be careful where you put your ears, milady, in case I decide to have them cropped.”
Angelica made a point of not showing the fear that lay under the surface in that moment. She’d seen Rupert around the court. The only way to handle him was to match him perfectly, giving way so as not to spark his fury, but only after showing that you weren’t weak enough to be beneath his contempt. It was the kind of balancing act that would have given a tumbler pause. Angelica needed to play it perfectly now.
“Is it so bad that I have heard?” Angelica asked. “Perhaps I’m exactly the kind of ally you need.”
“The woman who was to be married to my brother?” Rupert shot back.
“The operative word there being ‘was,’” Angelica replied. “And I’m also a woman your mother has no love for. Just as I’m told that her love for you has waned in recent months.”
Rupert was there before her then, too close, his hand raised as if he might strike her. Angelica beat him to it, standing and slapping him so that he put a hand to his cheek.
“You dare…” he began.
“I dare that, and plenty else besides,” Angelica said, not looking away, refusing to look weak in front of him. She brushed her fingers over the spot she’d struck, careful as a circus performer working with a barely tamed lion. “Besides, compared to the slap in the face of your mother picking Sebastian over you, we both know that’s nothing.”
“My mother did no such thing,” Rupert said. “As I told the men who came here—”
“You told those fools what they needed to hear,” Angelica said. “And from the look of them as they left, you did a good job of it. They’ll never like you, but they’ll rally to you rather than restart the war, or let your mother behave as she pleases.”
“You make it sound as if I don’t need you,” Rupert said. He caught hold of her hand and squeezed. “It would be very bad for you if I didn’t need you, right now.”
“Oh, I’m sure you feel all kinds of need for me, my prince,” Angelica breathed, ignoring the pain. “We’ll get to that. For now, there’s the part where my family has wealth and resources. Enough to support you in your rise to the crown. Enough to support you against our common enemy, if need be.”
“My mother isn’t my enemy,” Rupert said.
Angelica raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow in a question. “Isn’t she? Haven’t you considered what she’s done to you?”
“Perhaps,” Rupert said, in a tone that suggested he’d thought it through a great deal.
“From what I hear, she tried to exile you in all but name. She’ll hear you’re back soon enough, and then? She probably won’t call it imprisonment. You’ll probably just be confined to one of your family’s estates, or maybe here, but we both know what it will amount to.”
Angelica took a breath, giving that a moment or two to sink in. The trick here was not to say all of what she wanted. She needed to guide Rupert in the right direction, and let him go the rest of the way himself.
“You’ll stay there until you agree to serve Sebastian,” she said. “She’ll probably enjoy watching you bend your knee to him.”
“I am already acting to deal with that,” Rupert said.
Angelica shook her head. “By gathering a little support in the Assembly of Nobles? It’s a start, but it won’t be enough alone.”
He cocked his head to one side. “What do you care, milady? I’d always taken you to be quite unfeeling about anyone but yourself.”
“That isn’t quite true,” Angelica said. “There is at least one other person I care for.”
She kissed him then, direct and sharp, catching Rupert unawares. He had some skill as a kisser once he recovered himself, but probably not as much as he thought. Or perhaps he just didn’t care about anyone else’s pleasure but his own.
“Are you going to try to tell me that you love me?” Rupert said. “When you’ve so nearly been married to my brother, twice?”
“If nobles only married for true love, you wouldn’t have such an easy time seducing noblewomen from their husbands,” Angelica pointed out. “We marry for power, or for bloodlines. Your brother was the one I thought I could get, when it seemed obvious that you would be married to some foreign princess. Your brother was offered.”
“And you think I am for sale now?” Rupert demanded. He stepped back from her.
“I think that your mother has tried to kill me once, so I have no reason to listen to her decisions on the matter anymore,” Angelica said. “I think I should marry the person with whom I want to spend my life.”
It was a lie, but it was, she hoped, the right lie. Sometimes that was the best thing to hope for. She didn’t want to think about what might happen if it proved to be the wrong lie.
“Because you’re so desperately in love with me?” Rupert said. “You’ve rejected my advances before, Angelica.”
“I had no wish to be some brief fling for you, discarded in the morning,” Angelica said. “I don’t want to be just another one of the women you use. I want to be your partner in all of this. I want someone beside me who will think as I do, and have the strength to act when it is needed. I want to share everything with you, my prince. My king.”
She saw Rupert’s expression change, caught with almost as much surprise as when she’d kissed him.
“Of course,” Angelica added, “marrying me would bring considerable resources to your cause. My family has plenty of allies, enough to help secure a kingdom. For both of us, if we work together.”
“You make a very persuasive point,” Rupert said. Angelica could see him looking her up and down. “Very persuasive.”
“Don’t you want me, Rupert?” Angelica asked.
“Oh, very much,” Rupert said. He moved closer to her, his hand twining in her hair... Angelica gasped as it jerked tight. “Tell me, though, is there any good reason why I should marry you for that, rather than taking what I want from you and finishing what my mother started?”
Angelica didn’t squirm there. Instead, she held still, holding his gaze.
“Three reasons. First, you won’t get anything my family has to offer if I’m not your bride. Second, I don’t think you want to do what your mother wants right now…”
“And third?” Rupert prompted, with another painful jerk of his grip on Angelica’s hair.
She moved quickly, taking a small knife from a fold of her dress and pressing it to the pit of his stomach.
“Because I’ll gut you if you try,” she said with a smile. She pressed forward, kissing him again then. “I’ve told you, Rupert. I understand you, probably better than anyone else here. I know what it’s like, being surrounded by weak, stupid people. Do you want to throw away the one person who sees you for who you are and loves you for it? Your brother doesn’t. He’s fought you at every step. Your mother doesn’t. She’s trying to give away your throne. I will be there, beside you. Don’t you want that?”
Rupert didn’t hesitate. He kissed her hard. “Yes.”
When he pushed her back toward the bed, Angelica barely remembered to get the knife out of the way in time.
***
Angelica lay beside Rupert, staring up at the painted plaster of the ceiling. He was asleep, in a way that was so predictable after everything that had happened between them in the last little while.
His lovemaking had been like his kissing: not quite concerned enough with her to be truly good at it, and just a little too rough for her tastes. Angelica knew that she would have to cover bruises with powder come the morning, but that was a price worth paying for everything she stood to gain.
A kingdom, security, revenge. Any one of them would have been worth this, but all three together would have been enough to make her give herself to almost any man. Rupert… well, asleep he looked like a sculptor’s finest creation, and awake he was at least useful to her.
So why couldn’t she stop thinking about Sebastian as she lay there? Even at the height of Rupert’s efforts, it had been Sebastian’s face she’d been picturing, and she’d had to make an effort to keep from crying out his name. Only the thought of what Rupert would have done to her if she had kept Angelica from doing it.
She pushed aside thoughts of Sebastian. He didn’t matter now. She’d said it to Rupert: nobles like them didn’t marry for love. Rupert was the brother she was going to marry, and who would give her the crown. More than that, with just the right touch, he was the brother who would give her the Dowager’s fall for what she’d tried to do. That thought made her smile, and when she looked over at Rupert, she found him awake and staring at her.
“What has you so happy?” Rupert asked, in a surprisingly soft voice for him.
“You do, my love,” Angelica said. Let him think of that what he would. It was even true in its way. Thanks to Rupert, Angelica would be safe from the Dowager’s wrath. Thanks to Rupert, she would have the position she deserved at last. Thanks to Rupert, she would be queen.
That was worth smiling about, and more.