picture window and watch the terrain as it rolled by.
“The whole truth and nothing but?” she asked.
“That would be great.”
“And you promise not to hold anything against me?” She glanced at him before turning back to the window.
Joss thought about that for a moment. “No. I promise to listen with an open mind and try to be fair to you, knowing I may not fully understand what you’ve been through, but I can’t promise not to hold it against you. Not until I know what you have to say.”
Lady Waterford took a moment before speaking. “My father has always been a social climber. He’s an earl and hates that he’s so low on the nobility totem pole. My mother was the same way. They both wanted me to snag a prince and somehow manage to get them better titles.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“I know that. I think even they know that, but that was still what they wanted. I wasn’t close enough to any of you in school. Except for that one Trilunium project we did together in literature during Year 9, I never talked to you. I talked to Caleb even less. I met David once. Gideon and Ezekiel were too much older than me.”
“You were after Gideon in recent years.”
“I was,” she agreed. “My parents pressed me for a long time, but it wasn’t my style. If something had happened naturally, it would be different, but that’s not how it turned out.”
The project she’d mentioned had only solidified Joss’s love of Trilunium. It was why he’d sought out the online community. Why he’d made some friends who didn’t know who he was, even if they were only digital.
“We were in different classes, had different lunches, and, outside of official functions, simply didn’t run with the same crowd.”
“Even at those, we didn’t do more than dance together occasionally.” He took a sip of his water and wished it wasn’t too early for something a bit harder, then retracted the thought. He needed to be coherent for this.
“After I graduated, Mother died. We’d never been close. I was raised more by nannies than my parents. But things changed nearly two years ago.”
Joss had noticed. Everyone had. But no one knew what.
“My father lost a sizable portion of his wealth. I’m not certain what happened. He’s tried repeatedly to blame Ms. Robertson’s parents, but I’m not sure I believe him. For starters, if that’s what happened, he would have applied for funds from the investigation as soon as possible. Instead, he’s kept it quiet.”
Joss thought about that and wondered if there could be something more to it. “I can understand how it would be a blow to his ego. Perhaps he’d rather remain anonymous.”
“Maybe. He continues to live in the master suite. The few staff members we have left live in the staff quarters. I live in the house manager’s apartment. The front room is the only room still fully functional. Even the kitchen is only the bare minimum. The temperature is kept warm in the summer and borderline cold in the winter.” She paused.
Joss waited for her to go on.
“He’d already tried to get his hands on the Trilunium estate. That’s part of why my name is Minerva.” She shuddered. “I hate going by Minnie even, but I’ve never come up with anything better. My middle name isn’t anything to write home about either.”
She stood and started to pace, holding onto the backs of chairs or the brass railing above her head when she needed to. “After he lost almost everything, my father decided the best solution was for me to marry Gideon. He still had some money left and used it to keep up appearances and buy the dates with your brother.”
“They didn’t go well?”
“The first couple were fine. Last year, he’d already met Ms. Robertson, and he was clearly smitten. The night of the release party, my father gave me one very clear instruction - find a way to compromise a prince.”
She held onto the rail as she stared out the window, doing nothing to stem the flow of tears down her cheeks.
“Actually sleeping with one of you was optional, as long as I was compromised enough to leverage it into...” She shrugged. “Something. I invited you up, knowing you were Joss, but the only thing I could actually talk myself into was kissing you. If you’d walked away then, I wouldn’t have pursued you.”
She swiped at her cheeks. “But I can’t regret what happened that night. No