Thirty-Two - Alan
Looking around at the crowd, I realized I wouldn’t have been alone if I had worn my regular clothes. Certainly everyone had dressed their best for this ball, but men with nothing better than a festival day vest over their plain shirt and trousers mixed in with those who could afford to dress like lords.
I tugged at the hem of my velvet doublet, wishing at the very least that I had worn my usual trousers rather than breeches. Perhaps then I’d be more at ease.
I scoffed at myself. My clothes had nothing to do with my nervousness, they were merely a convenient excuse. Besides, if I was doing this—and I was—then I owed it to Mina to do it properly. That included dressing for the occasion.
I scanned the crowded ballroom once more. There were roses and gold ribbon, glittering chandeliers and sparkling crystal sconces. But no Mina. Though I couldn’t see everyone, the mood of the crowd told me she still hadn’t entered. I moved a little closer to the dais at one end of the room, where the king and queen sat on twin thrones. Though I wanted to stand in the corner, I couldn’t hide.
I spotted Jeff and Kayla, but I didn’t move toward them. Maybe if I ever saw Cole and Gemma, I’d make my way over, but I had warned Jeff that I couldn’t handle Kayla tonight. Too bad Cole hadn’t been the one staying in Haiwella when I came seeking a forge.
It would have been so much easier if I could have made the slippers before leaving Skorsa. But I had needed more gold than remained from the necklace Mina had given me. I had used that to make several pieces and sold them in the city. The money I had made allowed me to buy the materials and enough time in a local forge to make the slippers.
I was done with Skorsa, anyway. After everything that had happened, the decision to sell the forge had come more easily than I expected. Even if I was too late, and nothing happened with Mina, I wouldn’t return. It no longer felt like home. With a fully stocked smithy and furnished house available, it wouldn’t take the village council long to entice a new blacksmith to Skorsa. Then I’d use the funds from the sale to establish myself in the city one way or another.
A ripple of excited whispers drew my attention back to the dais. A door had opened behind the thrones.
Mina stepped into the light, pausing to speak to the king and queen. She was resplendent. Her silvery blond hair was twisted and pinned up, leaving the long line of her neck bare. Her gown clung to her shoulders and swept low across her chest in a shallow V. The wide panniers spreading her skirts to each side turned her slim waist impossibly tiny.
The crowd surged forward, but I could do little more than stare. Then Mina stepped to the edge of the dais and lifted her skirts to step down. I saw the glint of gold on her feet and started moving without thought.
She looked around the room as she stepped down to the dance floor, and I wanted to believe she was searching for me. I hoped she was. But I was still too far away, and the movement of the crowd closed the path between us. I lost sight of Mina, and when I found her again, she was in the center of a ring of men, all vying for her attention. Her eyes still darted past her admirers, but she was facing the wrong direction, her body in profile to mine.
I moved faster, closing the distance. I shouldered my way into the circle, and the grumbles of the men I displaced had her turning to face me. Her lips parted, and she froze.
I held out a hand. “Would you care to dance, Mina?”
The ballroom faded away as she put her hand in mine. I couldn’t feel the floor beneath me, only the space where my skin met hers. I saw nothing but the joy in her hazel eyes. I drew her closer, and suddenly I was aware of every inch of my body once more. Mostly, I was aware of how close each part of Mina was to each part of me.
Mina recovered first, tucking her arm through mine and guiding me away from the dancing. “This way.”
I followed her out to a terraced courtyard. It was early enough in the evening that few people had retreated to this open space and the fresh air, but she didn’t stop moving until we reached the completely deserted bottom level.
She turned to face me. “Alan.”
Hearing my name on her lips, knowing down to my bones that she had forgiven me, though I hadn’t yet apologized—no, that she didn’t even think I needed forgiveness—undid me. I cupped her cheeks in my hands and kissed her.
“I’m sorry, Mina,” I said, breaking away when she tried to deepen the kiss. She might not need the apology, but I needed to give it. “I never should have turned away from you.”
“I’m sorry, too,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t—”
I pressed my finger against her lips and lowered my forehead to hers. “No. You owe me no more apologies. I was wrong to lump your actions in the same category as Powell’s. You were right; I do know you. I know that you never wanted to hurt me.”
Unlike me, Mina hadn’t hesitated to apologize, either. Even when I wouldn’t speak to her, she wrote her apologies in her letters. All while empathizing with my irrational sense of betrayal. I didn’t understand how she could be so understanding. I had handled everything horribly .
It had taken me a few days after Prince Noel knocked on the forge door and handed me the invitation to the palace before I read either of Mina’s letters, though I had carried them both in my pockets. I must have run my fingers over the paper countless times before I finally pulled them out and broke the seals. I think I had already known that I would forgive Mina, but I hadn’t been ready to admit it.
Even after I read the letters and understood why she had used the charm, I wasn’t ready to take the next step. There had been too much uncertainty. The village council had spent over a week bickering about whether I could serve as Skorsa’s blacksmith. They debated if they wanted me to have a claim to my own house and forge. I hadn’t been in a place to act until matters settled.
Then I had to wait longer because the Haiwellan magistrate wanted to bring a master smith out to Skorsa to certify my mastery.
Then Powell returned.
After the incident with his new charm, I truly realized how wrong I had been to imply Mina’s use of a charm was anything like his.
Then I discovered that the invitation was missing.
“I would have been here two days ago,” I told Mina, “but I think Powell stole my invitation.”
“He did,” she said, surprising me. “He gave it to his son, who happens to be the heart-changer who made the charms Powell used. He came to the palace pretending he was you.”
I had never even known Powell had a son, but that was the least important part of Mina’s news. “He used his magic on you, didn’t he?”
Mina slid her arms around my waist. “He tried. But there is no magic strong enough to change how I feel about you, Alan. He ended up in prison, and the constables learned enough from him to find and arrest Powell, too.”
Though I no longer feared Powell’s interference in my life—without the forge, and despite his marriage to my mother, there was no connection between us—it was still freeing to hear that he had been found and arrested. Knowing that the maker of the charms was also in jail was even better. “I’m glad they are locked up.”
“So am I.” She leaned back, her eyes meeting mine. “Why didn’t you come to the palace, Alan?”
I raised a brow. “How was I supposed to get in without an invitation before the ball? I’m surprised I convinced anyone to deliver the box to Sam.”
“If you had given your name, the guards would have delivered you right to me.”
“Now I’m mad that it never even occurred to me that I could just give my name. I would have greatly preferred to speak to you before the ball.” I lifted a hand, tracing the edge of Mina’s necklace, my fingertip brushing against her skin as I followed it down past her collarbone and to the upper slopes of her breasts.
She shivered beneath my touch, her breathing growing faster. “We’ve already slipped away from the ballroom. We could sneak back into the palace through a different door.”
I grinned and kissed her. “I don’t think the guest of honor is supposed to disappear from the ball.”
Her fingers laced together behind my neck, pulling me back for another kiss. “I don’t think the ball serves much of a purpose now, so I don’t care.”
With Mina pressed against me, I didn’t care either.
Then a whistle from the terrace above us interrupted. I looked up and recognized Prince Noel.
“Come on, Mina, people are starting to wonder where you are!”
She didn’t look away from me or release her grip, keeping our bodies close. “Let them wonder, Noel.”
“Mama said she’ll come looking herself if you aren’t back in the ballroom in the next five minutes.”
Mina’s arms fell. “Affenala save us.” She turned around to glare at her brother. “Tell Mama I’m on my way.”
With a careless salute, the prince turned and sauntered back toward the ballroom .
“So much for disappearing.” Mina turned back to face me. “It looks like it is time for me to introduce you to my parents.”
I offered Mina my arm, but after half a dozen steps, what she said and what the words meant merged in my mind. I stopped.
She tugged on my arm. “Alan? What’s wrong?”
“Your parents are the king and queen.”
“Yes,” she said slowly, clearly not understanding why I had stopped.
“You want to introduce me to the king and queen.”
She pressed her lips together. “No. I want to introduce you to my parents.”
I understood the distinction she was making, and suddenly the weight of meeting Mina’s parents was more daunting than meeting the monarchs. “What if they don’t like me?”
“They’ll like you.” She leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Trust me, Alan. You have nothing to worry about.”
***
Mina’s parents greeted me with a degree of enthusiasm that shocked me and had Mina rolling her eyes. I almost managed to forget that they were the king and queen. After a thankfully brief conversation, Her Majesty chivvied Mina and me off the dais and we joined the dancers.
Though she grumbled about it, Mina admitted that she ought to dance with a few other people. I understood.
What I didn’t expect was the level of scrutiny I would garner without Mina at my side. Everyone wanted to know who I was and how I knew the princess. I discovered quickly that looking past people and answering their questions with indistinct sounds that could have meant anything was surprisingly effective.
“You’re very good at that,” Prince Noel told me in the brief lull after one pair left and before more could come around .
“I told you he didn’t need saving.” The man with Noel was a stranger. He was dressed simply in the type of outfit I’d have been comfortable in.
“So he didn’t. But Mina would be mad if we left him to face the crowd on his own. Alan, this is Jacob. Jacob, Alan.”
I shook the man’s hand, unsurprised to feel his callouses. Though almost all the men in the room were commoners, plenty were still the type who had led the spoiled lives of the rich. Jacob looked like the type who relished getting his hands dirty.
“Prince Noel here is too much the gentleman to ask, but we’re both dying to know: why did you leave Princess Mina waiting for so long?”
I looked just to the side of Jacob’s ear, shrugged my shoulder the slightest amount, and made a noncommittal noise.
He laughed. “You are good. Fine, save your explanations for the princess.”
“I think he already gave his explanation. They looked very cozy together when I hunted them down earlier.”
A hand slipped into mine, and I smiled.
“Noel and Jacob,” Mina chided. “Did you come over here to tease Alan?”
Noel grinned. “Believe it or not, we actually came to help him with the swarms who are determined to figure out why you are spending so much time with him. But he didn’t need our help. He has the inscrutable courtier act down perfectly. Much better than you, in fact.”
“Sorry.” Mina squeezed my hand. “I should have realized what would happen. I saw Gemma and Cole during my last dance. Perhaps we can go find them?”
“It was fine. Like your brother said, I handled it. I’d love to talk with Cole and Gemma, though.”
Mina led the way to where she had seen them last, Prince Noel and Jacob deciding to come, too. The next few hours passed in a blur. It was much like the Midsummer Festival, though the setting was far more ornate. We ended up going out to the second terrace, where we could talk more easily. A few people who had come to Haiwella for the ball and a handful of men Mina had befriended over the years all drifted in and out of the group over the course of the evening, as well as her brother.
Throughout it all, Mina stayed by my side. Every now and then, I’d catch her gazing over at me, a small smile on her lips. When I caught her looking, she’d blush, then turn back to the conversation.
Gemma yawned, then turned to whisper something to Cole. He nodded and turned to Mina. “I think we are done for the night. It has been a long day.”
“Thank you for inviting us to the ball,” Gemma said, hugging Mina. “And please do come visit Skorsa every once in a while.”
“Of course.”
When they left, I realized that our group had shrunk to just Mina, Sam, and me.
“Well, I’m not tired yet,” Sam announced. “Shall we head back in and discover what mischief Noel has gotten up to on the dance floor?”
Mina glanced up at me, then shook her head. “I’m all danced out.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “I think I’m ready to retire.”
“I’ll show you where your room is.”
Sam snorted. “That is my cue to leave.”
Mina smiled. “Tell Noel goodnight for me.”
Sam moved back toward the ballroom, and Mina guided me down the terraces and around the side of the palace. Before we made it to the door, a clock chimed the hour.
“Midnight,” I whispered, setting my hands on Mina’s waist. “A new day.”
She leaned in and kissed me. “I want to start every new day with you.”
“That sounds perfect.”