He Likes me, He Likes Me Not

The rest of the night passed by a lot faster than the first half, and Carina found that by the time she had arrived back home she was already exhausted.

Jane had refused to even look at her the entire carriage ride home, which suited Carina fine, but she knew that Jane would be reporting to Vanessa everything that happened that night, and she was sure that if there was going to somebody in the way of her new development with the first prince, it would be her stepmother.

As soon as Carina made it back to her bedroom, she fell face first onto her bed and groaned.

"Marie..." Carina mumbled, her voice barely heard since it was muffled by the sheets. "Did you think I acted too hasty tonight? With the prince?"

Marie, having secretly been following Carina the whole night, had seen the whole exchange between her and Prince Spencer.

"I'll be honest, Miss, I wasn't expecting you to agree so quickly. But I do think there are certain merits to having the prince's attention."

Carina scoffed at her smart response, even though she agreed.

Carina had just never thought about it. From the moment she woke up in this body she had never even once considered the possibility of romance, or dating. In her past life she had a couple relationships, though they were never anything serious, so it wasn't as if she was completely clueless. She just hadn't considered that people would be interested in her, too lost in her own plans for escaping the Rayburn house to think about much else.

She knew too that it was unlikely she'd develop any feelings for Spencer, seeing as she's mostly treating this as a business transaction more than anything, but she'd still have to be playing the part of a girlfriend essentially, so she'd still have to be actually dating him. Or at least act convincingly enough to make it seem that way to everyone else.

"Did it seem like Prince Spencer had any ulterior motives with courting me? It just happened so suddenly... I'm not sure there isn't some kind of plot he's planning."

Marie was shocked at Carina's question, wondering how she couldn't tell just how much Prince Spencer seemed to be taken with her.

"I don't suspect he's hiding anything. He seemed genuinely interested in you, Miss."

That was an answer Marie thought would usually please someone, but instead Carina had only sighed and burrowed herself further into her sheets, as if the thought that Prince Spencer actually liked her was distressing.

Marie figured there was still much more she had to learn about her new employer.