Chapter 1
There are many stories about regular girls meeting a prince. I’m not sure why this has become such a dream for women all over the world. Is it in hopes life was secretly this fairy tale, only given to a select few, which ended happily ever after? Life, royal or not, doesn’t happen like that. And ended sounded so final. No growth, no change.
Trapped.
Being royal or a part of that circle was anything but magical or a fantasy. It was a cage. Gilded, yes, but a cage nonetheless. I watched it from afar all my life, glad to not really be in the middle of it. They seemed arrogant, spoiled, exclusive, and snobby. But they also lived under an extreme microscope, forced by traditions and severe expectations from family and the world. What they wore, who they dated, what they said. Every inch of their lives when they stepped out the doors was no longer theirs. I could understand why so many went a little nuts at boarding school. Alton College was an exclusive private institute; the press was not allowed to enter.
I was only here because my father’s name had a baron title attached to it, the lowest rank on the aristocracy tree. And at this school, it was the equivalent of getting a “thank you for participating” ribbon. By normal standards, I wasn’t regular, but in the world of the elite nobility and the uber-wealthy, I wasn’t even on their social pages under “friend suggestions.”
But only one ran the school, even causing teachers and staff to bend over backward, doing everything they could to please him. Make his life even more pampered.
Theodore Alexander Philip Robert David Livingston, the Prince of bloody Great Victoria.
The arrogant arse, who happened to be strutting by me heading to class, had the longest, most pretentious name ever. Of course, he was sexy as hell. I was pretty sure it was illegal for royals to have ugly children. With the stunning beauty of Queen Catherine and handsome looks of King Alexander, he had little choice, neither did his absolutely stunning sister, Eloise. But still, there must have been a dungeon somewhere that hideous offspring were sent to, locked away for daring to be anything but attractive.
Prince Theo was more than six foot, broad, with styled light brown hair and sparkling green eyes. So good looking it hurt to look directly at him. Polished, fit, but with a mischievous bite to him. He was probably pinned up on most girls’ bedrooms walls all over the world, not counting the coed populace at this school, along with the staff. The boy was in more women’s fantasies on a regular basis than any other sexy male celebrity in the world.
And he knew it.
Even the “uniform” we were given to wear didn’t diminish his cocky sex appeal one bit or that of his close, selective group of friends, while it made the rest of us peons look like the frumpy cast of Harry Potter.
“Spence?” A voice circled my ear. “Earth to Spencer.” A shoulder nudged mine, drawing my attention back to my friend, Wilhelmina. Only her parents and teachers dared called her that. She liked to go by Mina. She was one of the few like me who had little tolerance for the Prince or his group. Her father was an earl. A few steps above mine, but still so low on the totem pole in the estate where he was earl, she was treated like me. Thanks for coming, but really, we couldn’t care less about the tiny manor your family inherited. “Stare any harder at His Majesty,” she rolled her eyes, sarcasm latching on to his title, “and his bodyguards will put your name on the watch list.”
I snorted, shaking my head. “Like I’m even on their level of notice to get on any list.”
“You say that, girl, but every guy here drools when you pass by.”
I shot her a leveled glance, sliding off the top of a picnic table. I could deny it, but since school started, we had more sign-ups for stopping animal testing than all the years before combined. It was like I went from a ghost to an actual human being. They noticed me now.
“I had a guy ask me yesterday if I was a new student.” I hitched my school bag onto my shoulder. “No, arsehole, I’ve been going to school with you since kindergarten.”
“Guys are wankers and totally obtuse. But really, Spence, you can’t totally be surprised. You completely changed over the summer.” She stood, patting down her pleated skirt, her brown eyes moving over me.
That was true. I was a very late bloomer, one of those preteen kids who would have been locked in the dungeon. But like most things in my life, my mother’s willpower won out and broke down Mother Nature, letting her have what she wanted.
An attractive daughter to brag about.
When Vivian Sutton set on something, not many things could stop her. Only my uncle’s will had been strong enough to break her over the years.
Introducing me to a curling iron and lowlights, my mother turned my silky straight dull brown hair into long, shiny auburn waves. My skin cleared up, now dotted with freckles instead of acne. My plump body decided to let go of the baby fat and give me a waist and thighs that wouldn’t start a fire when I walked. But in comparison to the top girls here, I was very average. Most looked like models or telly actors.
Standing about five foot six, I blended into the background. The only thing that I perceived unique about me were my huge gray eyes. Against my pale skin and dark auburn hair, they stood out.
Charlotte (I swear nobles had like five names they rotated around and named all their children the same), a clear leader of one of the popular clusters, had called me out the other day, noticing the change I had undergone. But her sentiments were followed by words like “peculiar,” “interesting,” and “different” when it came to all of me blending together. To any girl, no code needed to be broken; it was not a compliment.
Mina was used to peoples’ notice. She didn’t blend into the background, being one of the rare black nobles in the country. Her father was white, her mother of West African descent. It was another thing she and I found revolting about the upper crust, besides the clear inbreeding. The diversity, or lack thereof, in the noble circle was horrifying.
She was even more a token to the school than me, the dean practically motioning to her and saying, “See, not only do we let in the bottom barrel aristocracy, but we are diverse as well!”
I think that was why we bonded so much in secondary school. We’re both on the fringe. Oddities in the mind-numbing world of the aristocrats.
“You know you’re gorgeous, Spence.” She brushed her curly black hair off her shoulder. She was tall and thin with a smile that lit up the world. Smart and extremely shy, she came off as unapproachable, but once you really knew her, she was crazy and fun. Hilarious too. I thought she was stunning, but guys at the school tended to stay away from either of us. Landen, my cousin, was the singular male in our minuscule group. Another misfit.
“Just think of it as a compliment when the upper crust starts noticing and insulting you.” Mina grinned as we started to walk to our class. “Highest form of praise.”
“If you say so.”
“Did they even bother to insult you before?”
“Ouch.”
“But true.” She grabbed for the door, leading us into Durham Hall, which was named for Charlotte’s great-great-great- (times whatever number) grandfather. I found it strange that centuries later, children of some man they happened to be related to were living off his name like fat hogs. They seemed entitled and arrogant, without doing a damn thing to deserve it, besides being lucky enough to claim they had his blood somewhere in their pinkie.