*Isolde*
After lunch, my sister was quite certain the Alpha Prince disliked me, given my hoydenish behavior. But he didn’t look as though he dislikes me.
“Are you an enthusiastic horsewoman, Miss Darkwood?” he asks, after a minute or two.
“Yes!” I say, grateful for a topic of conversation. “I had a pony growing up, and nowadays my sister and I regularly ride in Hyde Park. Have you ridden there often yourself, my Alpha Prince?”
“Not in some years,” he says. “Does your fiancé like to ride?”
“Rupert? He has some trouble staying in the saddle,” I say, belatedly remembering I shouldn’t tell virtual strangers Rupert couldn’t stay on a horse until he was fifteen. “Though he’s much improved in the last year. He has a weak… a weak knee,” I add hastily.
“All the more reason to admire his deci
