Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 76

Man of my dreams
Anaisa struggled to contain Sapphira’s excitement.

“It was only a dream,” She reminded the girl once again. “This man isn’t real.”

“Of course he’s real.” The princess gushed. “I know it. I know I’m going to meet him at the ball, and we’re going to fall madly in love!”

“Your attitude was very different about this matter yesterday,” Anaisa tried a different angle and just missed the sound of the door opening, “The chances for a happy marriage to a stranger are practically impossible!”

The door shut, and she jumped, looking over to where Trace was standing with the breakfast tray he’d obviously just received from a servant. His gaze was pained. It made her want to swallow her words. Take them back.

She’d said practically impossible, not actually impossible!

“I know, I know, I know all that Annie,” Sapphira threw her hands up, “but I can’t stop believing in him now.”

“Breakfast looks delicious,” Anaisa jumped up from her place and took the tray from Trace to settle it on the central table. She tried to catch his eyes, but he looked away. She clenched her teeth.

“Join us, Trace, I want to hear a man’s perspective,” Sapphira invited.

“I’m afraid my opinion is the same one you’re currently arguing against,” Trace warned, but Sapphira brushed him off.

“You two are entirely too logical. Where is your sense of adventure and romance? Have you ever been in love, Annie?”

The question caught Anaisa entirely off guard.

“What?”

“Love, Annie. Have you ever loved a man?”

Heat crept up Anaisa’s neck, and she struggled with an answer.

“Should I leave for this?” Trace asked. “It seems like a conversation I’m not meant to be privy to.”

“No, I have the same question for you!” Sapphira declared. “And since Annie seems reluctant to speak, I think her answer must be yes. I may have to interrogate her in private later if she’s unwilling to say so now. Will you be more straightforward, Trace?”

“I’m not sure, per His Majesty’s orders, that this is an appropriate question for me to answer,” Trace said calmly.

“Trace, please,”  The princess begged. “I know almost nothing of love. I must learn somehow! Have you never loved a woman? Never dreamed of someone you longed for?”

The man sighed heavily, and Anaisa watched him with wide eyes. What would he say? She’d never probed into his past in this regard. Did he have some childhood sweetheart that she didn’t know of? Some woman in the town near his home that he had been interested in but not spoken to before she was dropped on his doorstep like unwanted baggage?

After several moments, he looked at the princess and spoke.

“I will tell you, Your Highness, that for me, romantic love and trust are heavily related. Intertwined, even. If you do meet someone you think you might want to love, my advice would be to make sure he is a trustworthy, good man, before you give your heart away.”

Anaisa stared at her husband, feeling shame settle deep into her soul. Was she trustworthy? She’d entered their marriage intending to leave him. He was a means to an end, a way to keep herself clothed and fed while she plotted her revenge on Barnabas.

Even now, wasn’t she using him as a tool for getting back at the evil man?

No, not a tool, a partner. They were sharing more information with each other than ever. Trust was being built… but at some point, she would have to confess everything. It would come out eventually. Whether or not she pretended to be the princess at the ball, someone was bound to notice the resemblance, and her identity would be whispered about.

Would he despise her for her disgrace? For being the daughter of a terrible man, and the distant cousin of the one who blackmailed him?

That couldn’t be a coincidence, either. The blackmailer’s letter said he had arranged this particular match for Trace. Barnabas must have used his new power to influence whoever appointed the matches so that he would have more blackmail material on Trace.

She frowned, putting more pieces together. Did that mean Barnabas knew she was working in the castle?

Her mind scrambled. He knew Trace was here. That was certain. But she’d put her name down as Annie, just a maid. And she hadn’t seen Conlan or Barnabas since entering the castle, in addition to moving around partially disguised when she wasn’t pretending to be the princess.

In fact, the only time she’d been around any of the Counts was in the throne room, when the king spoke with her while the Lords were behind the screen. Barnabas had never seen the princess, and so he couldn’t know Anaisa was her look-alike. She breathed a little easier as her racing mind calmed enough to come back to the conversation at hand.

“You both are very dramatic about all this. Maybe you two don’t know anything about love after all. You’re very concerned about trustworthiness, but I’m sure Father wouldn’t invite anyone to my ball who wasn’t trustworthy.” Sapphira breezed, wistfully taking a bite of breakfast. She seemed completely immune to their efforts to discourage her infatuation with this imaginary dream man.

Anaisa bit her tongue before she made a sharp remark about who exactly was being ‘dramatic’ in this room: the girl who raved about love with a stranger from a dream, or the two logical adults trying to bring her back to reality.

“You don’t seem to like your father much, and you didn’t seem to trust his opinions before on who you should marry,” Anaisa cut in.

“Because they would probably be old and stuffy and power hungry, not because they would be untrustworthy.” The princess shook her head, trying to deny it.

“Power-hungry men,” Anaisa breathed deeply, “are never, ever trustworthy.”

“You’re being such a doomsayer, Annie,” Sapphira sighed, “If I didn’t know better, I would say you’re jealous that I dreamed of an amazing man and you didn’t.”