People are talking on social media, too, now. Quite a lot of them. Danni grimly passes her phone to me while we wait outside history class to show me the dozens of notifications and message requests she’s received since lunchtime alone. Even Molly pulls us aside to show us the barrage of comments on her posts asking about Danni and me.

The rumor is finally sprouting roots now that it has ideal growing conditions. It’s one thing for the princess to be a little too close to a girl from her school. But the princess being a little too close to Danni Blythe—a name that both Molly’s fans and royalists are starting to recognize? That is rather more interesting.

It’s beginning to feel as though the universe itself is conspiring to complicate my relationship with Danni.

William calls me during class, and I return his call the moment I leave my Italian tutoring session.

“Rose,” he says, picking up on the first ring. “It’s time to be honest with me.”

I would really rather not. “What about?” I ask innocently.

“Enough people are speculating around you and Danni Blythe that the papers want to pick up the story.”

“What?” I ask sharply.

“I’m handling it, but this is exactly the sort of thing I could have prepared for if you’d told me about Danni to begin with.” He’s not even asking me to confirm it anymore, I realize. As far as he’s concerned, it’s fact. This seems an overreaction based on the—again—limited evidence. Does he simply know me that well? Or has he seen this sort of thing often enough to confidently piece the truth together? “I don’t ask for transparency because I’m nosy about your personal life, Rose. It’s so I can do my job. And you are making that much more difficult than it should be.”

I want to tell him I’m sorry, if only reflexively, but I’m not. I’m not sorry for refusing to out Danni to him, nor am I sorry for seeking one skerrick of privacy. So, instead, I ask what I really want to know. “Do my parents know?”

“About the rumors? Rose, I’m sure even the prime minister knows at this point. Regardless, we’ve shut down the story in all of the tabloids that matter. If the smaller ones run their story, well, no one truly finds any of them reputable. We’re also working with the Daily Horizon to give a new angle to the Valentine’s Day story. Just to warn you, there will be an insider source statement that you and Alfie have begun to discuss a possible engagement.”

“I’m sorry—we what?”