Five minutes after that, I excused myself from the party when Mark called for me.

As I headed to the door, I nearly tripped over my feet, spotting Nicholas waiting there.

“Prince Nicholas,” I said. “What a surprise.”

“You wanted to go to the store?” he asked me

I glanced at Mark, but he just stared back brightly, like nothing was

“I surely can’t ask a prince to run errands with me,” I said.

wrong.

Nicholas shrugged like it was no big deal. “It would be good to get away for a while.” He turned away

before I could think to argue. I hurried to slip on my shoes, grab a light jacket, and chase after him into the

hallway.

He drove us away from the palace in one of the less flashy sedans. It was black with tinted windows.

“If Julian had any sense, he would use one of these to sneak out properly,” Nicholas said.

“Most of the

bad boy

you into it,”

supposed that was true, Julian had a way of bringing me

and our outings, I was able to

be all

hardened. He said nothing more, just glared out the front windshield as we drove

to town.

pass through a

run–down cars,

had locked automatically when Nicholas had started driving, but he clicked

now, making

said. “A lady shouldn’t have to witness such an unseemly part of

look all that different from

me. Then a

joke about that? Or had that just been wishful thinking

kingdom looks like this. Over the past few years, there’s been such

people are homeless. I’ve had

over

jobs?” Nicholas repeated like he didn’t quite

I

worse off if I didn’t find such a good person to room with. Anna

ever thank her for. I’ll be indebted to her the rest of my life

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