“Because you expect everyone to recognize you?”
“Because we’ve met before, Nina. At the League of Kings banquet.”
Oh. The memory crashed over her in sudden, vivid detail. James had bumped into her on the terrace late at night and asked her to dance, but then Nina had seen Jeff—had gone into the gardens and kissed Jeff—which promptly obliterated everything else from her mind.
That night felt so far off now, so detached from reality. The Nina who’d fallen for Jeff a second time, who’d let herself dream that they might finally have a future together, felt like a distant memory.
“I remember,” she said softly.
Something glimmered in James’s eyes. “To be fair, I wasn’t wearing my glasses that night. Like Clark Kent in disguise.”
“You were wearing a wolf pelt, if memory serves.”
“It’s a fur vest, and you have to admit it’s better than most ceremonial outfits. The Albanians’ bronze helmet with goat horns?” He shook his head. “That thing looks heavy.”
He almost coaxed a smile from Nina, but then she shook her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you at first, but James—Jamie—” She faltered, not sure what to call him. “You should have told me.”
“Would you have gone out with me if you’d known?”
“No,” she admitted, because he deserved the truth.
“Then I don’t regret it,” he declared. “Look, Nina, when I saw you onstage and you acted like we’d never met, it was a blow to my ego. But it was also…kind of nice. I wanted a chance to get to know you on my own terms, without all the royal drama getting in the way.”
Nina knew the royal drama all too well.
“I can’t believe there’s another prince at King’s College,” she muttered.
“My father insisted that I do a study-abroad program here. He pulled some strings so that I could come straight from the League of Kings conference and start mid-semester. I didn’t really want to come, but…” Jamie shrugged. “At least I’m not attracting the same publicity that I do at home. You Americans don’t seem to care about foreign royals nearly as much as you do about your own.”
“There’s a media ban on campus, because of Jeff,” Nina said absently, her mind spinning.
Study abroad—it explained Jamie’s presence on campus, but not in Nina’s life. How utterly surreal that her path would cross that of not just one but two princes.
Unless it wasn’t a coincidence at all, and those princes were connected.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you doing, Jamie?”
“Trying to get passing grades and have fun, the same as everyone else in college.”
“I meant, what are you doing with me? Did you ask me out because of Jeff?”
“What does Jeff have to do with it?” he asked, but she’d seen him flinch at the name. Nina felt both vindicated and saddened that her suspicions were right.
“I saw the tension between you two at the League of Kings conference. You obviously know he’s my ex-boyfriend—did you ask me out hoping someone might snap a photo and it would upset him? Because I have news for you: he’s engaged and doesn’t care what I do!” Nina’s voice had risen in volume; she lowered it self-consciously. “Is that why you tried out for the play, because you knew I’d be there?”
“How would I have known that?” Jamie asked, bewildered. “When we met at the League of Kings, I had no idea that you were at King’s College, let alone that you would turn up at a Shakespeare audition.”
“I’m not stupid, okay?” Nina felt dangerously, foolishly close to tears. “I used to date a prince, and now another prince appears out of nowhere and kisses me at a party, and I’m supposed to believe that those two things aren’t connected?”
“You kissed me!”
“That’s not the point.”
Jamie ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “You’re best friends with Sam, you go to palace events all the time, and you’re surprised that the guys who keep asking you out are princes? That seems pretty logical to me, Nina,” he observed. “How is an ordinary guy supposed to meet you when you’re on the royal circuit?”
“You’re telling me you just happened to ask me out, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Jeff?”
Jamie hesitated, and she made a disgusted noise.
“Stop!” he exclaimed, before she could storm off. “Okay, fine, Jeff might be the reason I knew who you were, but he has nothing to do with the connection between us! Come on, Nina, do you honestly think I’m using you as—what? Emotional sabotage?” He shook his head. “Who would even do something like that?”
Daphne would, Nina thought darkly. A small, sad part of her wondered if Daphne had ruined her—turned her into a mistrustful version of herself, one she didn’t recognize.
“I don’t know what to think,” she muttered.
Jamie sighed. “Maybe it just takes someone as confident as a prince to see how awesome you are.”
Nina’s heart beat erratically in her rib cage, scrambling her thoughts. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to melt into Jamie’s arms or kick him in the shins. It took all her self-preservation and willpower to do neither.
She wanted to believe Jamie; but even if he was telling the truth, and had no ulterior motives, what did it matter? She’d already been out with a prince once, and look how that had ended. What was it Blair said earlier? Nina, you seriously have a type.
The tabloids wouldn’t phrase it that nicely if they learned she’d been hanging out with Jamie. They would call her a prince chaser, a tiara tramp, a gold-digging, fame-obsessed commoner. No one liked a social climber, and they would paint Nina as the worst social climber of all.
She was almost to the door when Jamie’s voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Are you really not doing the play?”
Nina looked back at him over her shoulder. “I don’t think so.”
His next words chased her onto the street, echoing in her head long after she’d reached the comparative safety of her dorm room.
“That’s too bad, Nina. I hadn’t pegged you as a quitter.”
“Don’t worry, Daphne. Everything will be fine,” Jefferson promised, with a slightly nervous glance around the examination room. He kept looking at the anatomical posters on the walls, then awkwardly away again.
Don’t worry. What a useless thing to say. Daphne worried constantly. Worry was a strong motivator, the force that kept her aware of threats and dangers from all fronts.