6
A s the ballroom erupted into applause, someone grabbed my wrist.
“Is that who I think it is?” Samantha whispered. She smelled like she took a bath in her grandmother’s perfume. I tugged my arm out of her clammy fingers.
The other debutantes seemed to have similar reactions. Genevieve looked perplexed. I could only feel horror and embarrassment as I recalled what I had done mere minutes ago.
“Why in the blazing fires was the second prince of the kingdom disguised as a waiter?” Tori emerged from behind us in her magnificent sapphire blue gown. “Do you think he might be a pervert?”
Samantha shot her a glare. “His Highness is entitled to do whatever he wishes.”
“Really? I wonder why you had such a fit when His Highness spilled water on your gown, then,” Tori said, tilting her head.
Samantha bristled and glared but said no more.
When the cheers died down and Prince Ash took his seat next to the queen, the orchestra at the balcony began playing a light air. The guests gravitated toward the dance floor, and several debutantes were whisked away by the boldest of the gold-ribboned young men.
A hook-nosed matron I recognized as Lady Thornbush, one of Lydia’s friends, approached Genevieve.
“Enchanted to see you, my dear girl! You look as lovely as ever. Have I introduced you to my son, Edward?” Lady Thornbrush said, fluttering a feathered fan beneath her nose. I wondered how she didn’t sneeze.
Beside her, a scrawny youth no more than sixteen executed an awkward bow. Genevieve curtsied. “Lovely to meet you,” she murmured.
At this, Edward blushed a deep red and stuttered a request for a dance. My stepsister threw me an apologetic look. I motioned for her to go.
Lady Thornbush gave a contented sigh as Genevieve and her son made for the dance floor. After a moment of staring, her ladyship walked off, completely ignoring my presence.
Tori gave a low whistle. “Well then. Off to the refreshments table, Amarante?”
“Gladly.”
The other side of the ballroom was filled with platters of sandwiches and cakes, far away from the dais and the dance floor. I was beyond relieved. The last thing I needed was attention on me. Tori grabbed a few cucumber sandwiches and I helped myself to berries and a puff pastry. We devoured our snacks against the wall, observing the chattering groups around us.
My eyes darted around the ballroom for Julianna, but she was nowhere to be found in the midst of opulent gowns and swirling couples. The undercover prince showed no signs of leaving his dais either, his head bowed in conversation with Queen Cordelia.
“How long do you suppose we could go without dance partners?” I said, popping a raspberry into my mouth. I forced my voice to be light, hoping it didn’t betray the churning anxiety in my gut.
“However long it takes us to eat this entire table,” was Tori’s reply. She swallowed her bite of sandwich. “Actually, I ought to find my Pa. He said he would be arriving late.”
“Ah. The roads are crowded with carriages,” I said.
“Oh, no. He’s walking here.”
I raised my brows. “All the way to the palace?”
Tori took another bite of her sandwich. “Our place is a quarter mile from the west wing,” she said. “I would’ve walked here if I didn’t like these shoes so much.” She poked her foot out from her skirts, revealing a dainty high-heeled slipper encrusted with sapphires.
As she bent over, a gold coin tumbled out from her bodice, dangling from a chain around her neck. It bore a stamp of a lion and crossed swords, different from the standard coins of the kingdom.
“This is Captain Greenwood’s insignia,” Tori explained after noticing my interest. “Illustrious families usually have their own coins to reward to people of their choice. To us Strongfoots, it’s a symbol of merit.”
“You must really revere the captain,” I said.
Tori shrugged. “My Pa certainly does, but I haven’t met him.” She straightened. “And speaking of Pa, I think I see him.”
I sagged against the wall, picking at my berries. Was I doomed to spend the rest of the night alone?
Tori looped her arm around mine. “Don’t think I’m leaving you,” she said with a lopsided grin. There was a bit of bread stuck to her teeth, but it didn’t make her smile any less bright. “Pa’s been nagging me to find some proper lady friends. He’ll be over the moon to meet you. That is, unless you want to stay here.”
I spotted Lydia’s head amongst the crowd. She was probably looking for Genevieve, or worse, me. I had no desire to be forced into a dance with one of her friends’ sons.
“Not at all,” I told Tori, abandoning my plate.
Tori led me through the crowd to an open space near the exit. A large man with muscled arms and a protruding gut stood aimlessly about, looking extremely out of place with his grizzly black beard. His gray eyes lit up when we approached.
“There’s my girl!” he bellowed. “What did I miss? Wait, never mind that. How’s the food? Have they got any turkey legs?”
Tori grinned. “No, Pa. But they’ve got a load of candied pineapples.”
“Ah! My favorite. The best thing I ever tasted as a boy,” Lord Strongfoot said wistfully. He noticed me standing to the side. “And who is your pretty friend?”
“This is Amarante. Amarante Flora,” Tori said.
I dipped a curtsy. “Good to meet you, Lord Strongfoot.”
“Now, none of that,” he said with a jolly laugh, grabbing my hand and shaking it profusely. My shoulder was nearly shaken out of my socket. “Any friend of Tori’s I welcome with open arms and no formalities. Though I do get a kick out of being called ‘lord’.”
“Don’t scare her away, now, Pa,” Tori said, giving my throbbing shoulder a pat.
“Impossible. I know you don’t make friends who scare easy,” Lord Strongfoot said, flashing me a toothy smile. “But what are you girls standing around for? This is a ball!”
Tori and I exchanged looks.
“Ah. Suddenly shy, my girl?”
“I am nothing of the sort!” Tori said, affronted.
Lord Strongfoot tutted. “Now, now, there’s no shame in that. Back when I was courting your mother, I was as nervous as any lad, but I got over it. Everything turned out fine.” He thumped Tori on the shoulder. She bore it surprisingly well. “Look! Here comes a young man now.”
I turned around and found myself face to face with the waiter—no—Prince Ash. He was dressed in a crisp aquamarine waistcoat, his dark hair combed to the side. He had taken his crown off but it certainly didn’t diminish his princely appearance.
“Hello,” he said, grinning. “Miss Amarante Flora, if I remember correctly?”
I nodded, realizing that I should have curtsied.
“Will you spare me the next dance?”
I nodded again.
“Splendid! I’ll see you then.” With a smart bow and a polite smile at the Strongfoots, the prince was gone.
Lord Strongfoot grunted. “He looks like a nice chap. See, Tori? It can’t be that hard to find a partner. Amarante didn’t have to say a word.”
The first dance ended quicker than I could’ve imagined. When a five-minute intermission was announced after one of the violins went horribly out of tune, I excused myself from the Strongfoots and fished out Genevieve from the crowd.
“Amarante? What’s the matter?” Genevieve asked as I steered us away from the dance floor to the short hallway outside.
“Prince Ash asked me to dance,” I said. Of all the things I imagined would happen tonight, dancing with a prince was not one of them.
“That’s wonderful! Where are we going?”
“The powder room.”
“You look fine.”
“I’m going to hide.”
“Amarante!”
I pulled Genevieve inside the powder room. Debutantes and their mothers were crowded in front of a mirror that stretched across the wall, chattering and refreshing their rouge.
“It cannot be wise to shirk a dance with a prince,” Genevieve said. We squeezed ourselves through the trailing skirts and perfumed wigs to the last few inches of the mirror.
“You don’t understand! I did something incredibly stupid,” I said. I told her about my blunder with the apple. Genevieve hid her laugh with a cough. “So you see, I’m doomed!”
“On the contrary,” my stepsister said. “Everyone knows the waiter is Prince Ash, so Julianna can’t say anything. Now it just seems like the prince favors you.”
Her comment seemed to garner some attention. I pretended to adjust my hair, ignoring the familiar faces of those who had attended the dinner. Most of them had snickered when Julianna and Narcissa mocked me. I did not want to know what they thought of me now .
“Is it true?” a girl said. “Did Prince Ash really ask you to dance?”
Several other faces looked at me eagerly and a few matrons whispered. My embarrassment mounted.
“Amarante is too delirious with happiness to answer.”
The group parted, revealing Lady Narcissa in all her glory. Tonight, she was wearing a gown of ruby silk and a swath of diamond necklaces at her throat.
Genevieve and I curtsied, though I wanted to slap the sneer off her face more than anything else.
“Lady Narcissa,” I said curtly.
“I suppose city girls who cannot recognize a royal when they see one would be similarly elated,” she said, rearranging her curls. “But don’t forget the advice my mother so kindly bestowed upon you. Do not flirt with inconsequential men.” She laughed. A few others joined in, but some looked doubtful.
“But it is His Highness Prince Ash,” the girl who had addressed me piped up.
“Inconsequential,” Narcissa said, narrowing her eyes. The girl shrank back. “Really, Amarante. If you’re going to pursue a prince at least pick the legitimate one. Or not. Bennett is far above your station.”
A few gasps sounded at the familiar way she spoke of the crown prince. I merely pressed my lips together and looked ahead.
Narcissa scowled at my silence, perhaps disappointed that I hadn’t lashed out and said something foolish. She snapped open her fan, blowing the hair from my face. “Now get out of my way, I have a dance with the crown prince.”
I stepped aside to let her pass. When the door swung shut behind her ruby skirts, everyone began chattering about Narcissa and Crown Prince Bennett .
“They knew,” I said, scowling. “Narcissa and the duchess knew the waiter was Prince Ash all along.”
“How odd,” Genevieve said. “I wonder why Her Grace lost her temper with you at the banquet.”
I wondered too. Was their distaste for me caused by Julianna?
Staying in the powder room proved to be impossible. All the occupants surged out at once at the commencement of the second dance. I tried to make myself inconspicuous, but a few debutantes pulled on my arms and urged me to go.
Genevieve, after accompanying me back to the ballroom, was bombarded by another one of Lydia’s friends and taken away by a lanky youth with a freckled face. I spotted Cedric next to Olivia, following my stepsister with his gaze. Tori, to my surprise, was twirling on the dance floor in the arms of a rather buggy-eyed young guard. From the look of it, she wasn’t too happy with the arrangement.
I wandered yet again to the wall behind the refreshments table, this time alone, sipping punch in an attempt to look occupied. I hoped that the whirling couples would obstruct me from the view of Lydia, or better yet, Prince Ash. I was sorely mistaken.
“Ever so eager for our dance, I see,” a voice came from behind me.
My heart nearly leapt out my throat. I whirled around and scrambled into a curtsy. “Your Highness.”
“You’re late,” he said, smiling. His teeth were very straight and very white.
“I...got lost.”
“Indeed? From one side of the ballroom to the other?”
My face felt like it was on fire. “Yes. Indeed. ”
“I see.” The prince leaned against the wall next to me. He smelled like evergreen trees and peppermint candy. “That’s a shame. I suppose we must wait for the next dance.”
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, wondering if he was displeased. He looked cheery enough, just like he had after the duchess scolded him. I was burning to ask what he was doing that day, but found that my voice wouldn’t work and I couldn’t tear my eyes from his profile. He looked so regal. Too regal to pass for a waiter.
His dark brown eyes met mine. “Well, ask away. We can’t very well spend the next four minutes in silence.”
I was planning on doing just that, but curiosity—and his permission—got the best of me. “What were you doing dressed as a waiter at the welcome banquet?” I said, and then realizing who I was talking to, added, “Your Highness.”
His smile widened as if he had been waiting for someone to ask all day. But instead of answering, he grabbed a puff pastry and ate it slowly. I figured he was teasing me by keeping me in suspense.
“If you must know,” he finally said, brushing off the crumbs on his pants, “I was there for research.”
I certainly didn’t expect that. “Research?”
“For choosing the next crown princess consort.”
I furrowed my brow. Was he the royal matchmaker as well as a prince? What business did he have choosing a crown princess?
“It is no easy task. She must possess honorable rank, distinguished manners, virtue, cleverness, and level-headedness to be a good queen,” he said.
“You can determine all that by spilling ice water on people’s laps?”
“Not all, but some. ”
I took it that Samantha hadn’t passed the test. Emboldened, I asked, “And Queen Cordelia allowed you to carry out such schemes?”
Prince Ash shrugged. “She ordered it.”
My eyebrows shot to my hairline. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Tomorrow, Bennett and my father will leave for royal business. I’m attending the Season on his behalf,” he said, holding up his arm. A golden ribbon was tied around his wrist with a neat bow.
“I didn’t know that,” I said.
He smiled. “No one does. But I reckon my mother will make it known soon,” he said, tucking his hands behind his back. “Besides, I must past my time with something . Father doesn’t trust me with royal affairs. I hardly know why.”
He was teasing again, but there was gravity to his light tone.
“Now I would like to ask my own question,” he said, before I could read more into it. “What was that earlier? With the apple?”
“I’m sorry,” I said. The embarrassment of the encounter rushed back over me. “I was...not myself.” I explained how our interaction at the banquet was misunderstood and how Julianna threatened me with spreading the rumors. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter now.”
Prince Ash raised his eyebrows. “Her name is Julianna Alderidge, you say?”
I nodded.
“I’ll cross her off the list, then. Gossip and threats are not fitting for a queen,” he said.
“If you’re looking for a bride for the crown prince,” I said slowly, “then the rumors that he’s betrothed to the duchess’s daughter are false. ”
“Indeed. But I’m not surprised,” the prince said with a shrug. “Narcissa is the obvious choice, solely because of wealth and position. Father certainly approves of the match.”
I bit my lip before I could tell him what I thought about Narcissa. I didn’t want to contradict the king, after all. “So, there’s no point in your list?” I asked, amused.
“Of course there is,” he said, grinning. “It gives me something to do.”
At that moment, the second dance concluded. Couples bowed and curtsied to each other and split off, some moving toward the refreshments and others elsewhere. Lydia emerged from the crowd.
“Amarante! Have you been here all this time? This is your first royal ball and you spend a quarter of it snacking like a gluttonous social pariah! Come here at once before you—” Lydia stopped abruptly when she saw Prince Ash. She trilled a nervous giggle and curtsied. “Oh. Good evening, Your Highness.”
I was too mortified to look at anything but the floor.
“This is...?” the prince asked.
“My stepmother. Madam Lydia Bonavich Flora,” I managed to say.
He dipped his head graciously. “Madam.”
Lydia giggled again and sidled up to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “I was giving dear Amarante a little motherly advice, Your Highness. She’s quite shy, really. Never too good at balls.”
“Perhaps a dance will remedy that.” He offered me his hand just as the orchestra began playing a waltz. I took it. Lydia looked as if she had seen the gates of heaven.
Prince Ash led me to the center of the ballroom where other couples had positioned themselves for the dance .
“I apologize for my stepmother,” I said as he led me through the steps of the waltz.
“I reckon you’re not usually ‘dear Amarante’?”
I shook my head. “She gets overexcited when I’m not disappointing her.”
“Are you in the habit of disappointing her?” the prince said.
I thought back to the Great Tea Scandal. “Absolutely,” I said. “In fact, this is my punishment for doing so.”
He gave me a wounded look. “You injure me, Miss Amarante! I must say your chances of becoming crown princess are not very high.”
“No, I didn’t mean—I mean—” I sputtered and stopped, realizing that he was teasing. My cheeks colored. “What I mean is,” I said, choosing my words carefully, “attending the Season is my punishment. I really have no desire to be crown princess, or marry anyone.”
“Let me guess. Your stepmother thinks surrounding yourself with well-mannered peers will improve you? Even better if a nice young chap decides to ask for your hand in marriage?”
“How did you know?” I said, surprised. He had stolen the words right out of Lydia’s mouth.
“Your stepmother and my father are quite similar,” Prince Ash said, chuckling. “But I’m afraid he has given up by now.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “What kind of havoc did you wreak?”
“Most recently? I accidentally set a hedge on fire. The head gardener was furious. But don’t tell anyone,” he said. “What about you?”
“I put dirt in Julianna’s tea,” I said. I looked over the prince’s shoulder and spotted Julianna’s bright magenta dress. Incidentally, she was glaring at me. I ducked back down and pointed her out to him.
“I’m sure she deserved it,” he said, letting me go for a spin. “I once put dirt in the Aquatian ambassador’s tea, but I mixed it in so well he didn’t notice. Afterward, he said he liked the earthy flavor.”
The orchestra ended their song. Prince Ash and I stepped back. I gave the customary curtsy and he a bow. He was smiling when he straightened. He smiled a lot.
“Thank you for the dance, Miss Amarante. I hope we will see more of each other.”
“I reckon we will.”
“I’m crossing you off the list as well,” Prince Ash said. “My brother has the sense of humor of a dead fish. You’re far too fun for him.”
With another bow, he was off, no doubt to find another debutante to cross off.
I was back at the refreshments table when the next song began. My mouth was dry from talking and Lydia seemed pleased enough to leave me alone for a few minutes, so I took some punch and sat on a bench along the wall where other guests were resting their feet. Relishing the respite, I leaned back and watched the ballroom.
My peace was disrupted at the appearance of Julianna. I raised an eyebrow.
“Well?” I said.
Julianna scowled heavily. “Don’t think you’re safe because you danced with a prince. If I can’t punish you, Narcissa will,” she said. “She hasn’t forgotten that you tripped over her cat.”
With that, she went off. I sat back with a grin. To think I spent so many sleepless nights dreading this ball.
Narcissa’s ruby gown swirled past. She was dancing with Crown Prince Bennett, though to my amusement, he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. Behind them, Duchess Wilhelmina was chatting with the queen. I took a sip of punch. Someone approached them with two jewel-encrusted goblets on a silver platter. The duchess offered one to the queen and took the other. Her Majesty smiled and brought the goblet to her lips. Scarlet red smoke billowed out from the rim.
I started, nearly spilling my punch.
But the smoke had disappeared. The queen was still smiling. Had I hallucinated?
Eventually, Lydia found me squinting at the dais and scolded me for gaping like an ape. The ball went on with no more visions of red smoke. Cedric managed to ask Genevieve for a waltz after escaping Julianna’s claws for the third time that night. I danced with some of Lydia’s friends’ sons, who danced more awkwardly than they looked.
By the end of the night, all thoughts of the queen’s goblet were gone. My feet were sore and I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep.
The carriage ride back was blissful for my aching limbs, but not quite so for my ears. My stepmother prattled on about young men and feathered fans and Lady Hortensia’s horrid gown. I was so exhausted that I only grunted when she asked me about my dance with Prince Ash. Seeing that she might as well interrogate a dead turtle, Lydia allowed me and Genevieve to stumble to our rooms without another comment.