45. Oopsy Daisy
Lyra’s bath water had grown cold when Daisy barged in, all in a tizzy. Her periwinkle hair had been tugged in places from her braid, and her eyes were bright.
“You leave in the morning. At first light!” she screeched.
Lyra nodded and sighed.
“Prince Wilder instructed me that you’d be leaving in the morning and staying with four of the noble families.” Daisy’s chest heaved as she grabbed a towel and held it out to her. “We have to prepare at once. You’re pruning. Get out!”
“Ugh, Daisy, calm down. You’re fluttering about like a wild bird.”
Daisy shook the towel out and frowned. “You would be moving a lot quicker if you knew what this meant.”
Lyra rolled her eyes and stood as her bedroom door flew open.
“A tour in the morning?” Maelys yelled as she struggled through the door with an armload of clothes.
“What is the big deal?” Lyra asked, wrapping herself in the towel.
“The big deal is that you’re staying with the noble families. The king’s brother, and at least one of the cousins,” Daisy muttered, grabbing Lyra’s robe off the hook and handing it to her.
Dressed in her emerald silk robe and clutching a cup of tea, Lyra sat cross-legged on her bed as Maelys and Daisy shoveled as many dresses as they could manage into a trunk.
“You’ll be staying with the king’s brother—Warick.”
Lyra scrunched her nose. “Warick?”
Maelys shot her a look. “He is the court gossip. Anything spoken about anyone ever, he knows about.”
“Oh dear, we’ll need the lilac gown then,” Daisy muttered to herself.
“Is there a lot of gossip?”
Maelys snorted. “Depends on which century—but yes.”
Bathroom cabinets slammed as Daisy rummaged around. “Tell her about the etiquette!”
Lyra wanted to roll her eyes. She was a princess, etiquette she knew.
Maelys began pacing and rubbing the bridge of her nose. “There’s just so much to cover in such a short time.”
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. It’s not like I’m trying to win their favor.”
Daisy stumbled through the bathroom door, wrapping a dress around something. “It is very much important!”
Maelys had stopped her pacing to gape at her. “You truly don’t care about this at all, do you?”
Lyra shook her head before falling back onto the bed. She didn’t care about anything lately, not with the stress of using her magic outweighing everything else.
“I have to fulfill this bargain, and then I’m going back home. What does it matter?”
Daisy and Maelys kept her up until late in the night, explaining just how important it was.