CHAPTER FOURAs Charlotte and Alana went upstairs after tea to rest, as Lady Odele had ordered them to do, Charlotte said,
“Come into my room. I want to talk to you.”
As soon as they were both inside and the door was closed, she exclaimed,
“Alana, I am frightened! Aunt Odele would not let the Prince leave my side all today and I feel sure that at any moment – he will ask me to marry him. And then I am – lost!”
Alana sat down in a chair, knowing that Charlotte was not exaggerating when she said that Lady Odele had kept her and the Prince together almost by compulsion.
There had been no mistaking the anger in Lady Odele’s eyes when last night she and the Prince had returned to the ballroom and even though the Prince immediately danced with somebody else, Alana knew that the suspicion was
