I didn’t want his proposal. I didn’t want to be a princess. I was never born to wear a crown.

I missed Potomac—its fields and its heavy heat and Daddy, always Daddy—in my very bones.

The tiara wasn’t large, barely more than a crescent of jewels, but it felt weighty on my head. I smoothed my gown, silvery gray to match my borrowed finery. “Do you think I’m wearing it right?” I reached up, reangling it slightly over my hair.

“You’re wearing it correctly. This is marvelous.” Perrault stepped smoothly into the corridor. “A proposal tonight, no doubt about it. An ace up our sleeve already, and we’ve barely begun,” he added to Yu and Skop and Cobie. The latter snorted as she stomped into the hall in her usual work boots, yanking on the hem of an out-of-style black dress.

Bear’s door stayed closed.

“Cobie, you look wonderful,” I offered.

“Thanks.” She grasped her skirts in her tanned fists, limbs stiff as a board. “Let’s get going.”

“Wait. What about Bear?” I blurted out. Yu and Cobie exchanged frowns as Captain Lang searched my face, forehead creased.

“Bear has been removed,” said Perrault. “We depart tomorrow. There was no need for him to stay.”

I stared at the protocol officer, but his mouth was smug, bleakly victorious.

I’d promised him nothing would happen, and he’d made sure of it. Perrault had won.

Loss wrenched through me as I nodded at him, trying to compose my features into an expression that said, Yes, of course, that makes sense. But my heart was a splinter in my chest.

I’d known our time was short. That it was something I only possessed in present moments, not something I could hold for the future.

But I hadn’t been ready for the present to be taken from me. And the future had arrived a few hours early, and my time with Bear was over.

It hurt.

Captain Lang did not look at me when he offered me his arm, Adam’s apple bobbing in the rigid lines of his neck.

And as on the night we’d arrived, I pretended not to notice, and clasped my shaking hands behind my back.

Every ball and banquet I’d attended in England had been an onslaught, from our first night in Winchester to the last tournament ball. Again and again I’d been overwhelmed, astonished by meeting Bertilak, dazzled with glitter and noise, overpowered by Bear’s touch.

Tonight, though, I was numb. England had finally done me in.

I didn’t care what happened tonight.