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The cheering died down as the front doors closed behind the last of the elite royal guard. I took a deep breath and glanced back at Julius as eyes near and far turned towards me. He was still right behind me, his gray eyes calm and steady, and I knew there were another eleven guards hidden in and around the crowd in case I had any trouble - not that I expected any trouble that would call for armed guards. But it was reassuring to know they were there, and that Silvio and Keith were treating me as an equal and a friend, so I could probably count on them for support, too. I wasn’t alone. And Chevalier, his brothers, and Sariel all thought I was ready for this. It was just like when I was a maid, when I put on a mask every day the moment I walked into the palace. The mask was different, but the concept was the same. Play the part.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen him smile,” Silvio commented. “Guess he really is nuts about you.”
My cheeks warmed, but I made myself look up at Silvio’s haughty smirk and sharp sea-blue eyes. “That isn’t exactly how I’d put it. Which ones are your parents?”
His smirk slipped into a scowl as he followed my eyes to the open throne room doors, where monarchs in colorful regalia were exiting into the already crowded main hall.
“They’re in blue,” he grumbled.
“Oh, I think I see them.” The king in sea-blue clothing who was as tall and his bearing as imperious as Silvio had to be his father, and the queen at his side was tall, too, though with a much more friendly expression. “You look like your father.”
Silvio mumbled something unintelligible. I looked back at him, wondering what I said to upset him, and his face was more sour than I’d ever seen it. Narrowed eyes, tight lips - but before I could apologize, he straightened his tall frame and spoke in a clear, cultured voice.
“Ivetta, these are my parents, the king and queen of Benitoite. Father, mother, this is Princess Ivetta Romanov.”
I fixed a smile on my face and spun back to face them. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both, your highnesses,” I said, dropping into a deep curtsey.
“So, this is the girl who stole Chevalier from our Arianna,” the king intoned in a deep, scornful voice, emphasizing the word ‘girl.’
My mouth went dry. It never occurred to me that the king of Benitoite would be upset with me for ruining his niece’s marriage proposal to Chevalier. I’d forgotten all about her until this moment.
“Don’t mind him,” said the queen, her reassuring smile and kind blue eyes a soothing balm after her husband’s sharp words. Those eyes looked familiar. They were the same shade of sea-blue as Silvio’s, but the shape wasn’t quite right. I was sure I’d seen someone with eyes just like hers before.
“He’s just in a bad mood because Arianna was complaining all the way here,” she continued. “That’s a lovely dress.”
“Oh, thank you,” I said, lifting my skirts a little and taking advantage of the opportunity to look down at my dress and break eye contact with the Ricci family. It was easier to think about how to defuse the situation surrounding Arianna if I didn’t have to meet the king’s sharp gray eyes. “Chevalier designed it,” I added, just to fill the air.
“He what?” Silvio snapped, too startled to maintain his proper speech.
“It surprised me, too,” I told him, dropping my skirts and smiling back up at the astonished faces around me. “I apologize about Princess Arianna. None of this was supposed to happen. She is a much better choice for Chevalier than I am, but it’s very difficult to make him change his mind once he’s decided upon a course of action. Fortunately, there are many princes gathered here today, and I’m sure quite a few of them would consider a marriage to her to be advantageous. Maybe even Keith?” I added, turning to look back at him, hovering silently at the edge of our group. His golden eyes widened.
“Oh, um, uh…”
Silvio laughed. “Not him. He can’t even look her in the eye. She needs someone who can stand up to her. How about you, Gilbert?”
My heart froze in my chest. One minor victory, and now another significant challenge. I steeled myself and turned back to Silvio’s parents, who were regarding me with interest and maybe a little newfound respect, and the man who had joined us. His black military uniform stood in direct contrast to the brightly colored clothing all the other guests wore, and, despite his usual charming smile, people were giving him a wide berth. I felt sick just meeting his blood-red eye.
Maybe I’d vomit when I was alone later.
“Prince Gilbert,” I said, keeping my smile in place as I offered my hand to him. “It’s a pleasure to see you again.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” he replied, taking my hand in his and placing an ice-cold kiss on the back of it that chilled me through my glove. A fleeting glint in his eye when he raised his head again told me he knew exactly how true that statement was.
“And I’m afraid I have to disagree with you,” he said in a light, pleasant tone. “You’re a much better choice than Arianna. A woman offering a single political alliance is of no consequence when compared to a woman who has already brought about a four-way alliance. But I suppose I could consider her, if she’s so hungry to gain power that she doesn’t mind losing a few other things in return.”
Great. Just what I needed. He was complimenting me and insulting her in the same breath, and the Benitoitian king’s gray eyes were becoming more stormy with every word.
“You’re not being fair, Gilbert,” I said, thinking quickly. “The day is still young, and there is still plenty of time for me to say or do something inadvertently that would harm that alliance. I would feel much more comfortable if I had an ounce of Arianna’s experience. A real princess like her deserves all the power and esteem she can get.”
The storm clouds settled in the Benitoitian king’s eyes, and there was definite respect in them now. Gilbert’s smile didn’t waver, nor did his eye on me. I hoped he wasn’t planning on testing me like that all afternoon. My racing heart couldn’t take it.
And I hoped nobody told Chevalier about this later, because he would not approve of me denigrating myself like that. It was just the first thing that came to mind, and I had no time to come up with something better.
“Ivetta, these are my parents, the king and queen of Jade,” Keith interrupted meekly.
“Please excuse me,” I said politely to Silvio and family before I turned away from them - and Gilbert, thank goodness - to Keith and his family. I suddenly felt like I’d gone from staring up at an ocean wave to staring up into a forest full of tall trees. Keith’s parents were tall, too, and dressed in green for Jade. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both, your highnesses,” I said, repeating my curtsey and the greeting Sariel drilled into me. Any deviation from the norm was to be avoided. I didn’t understand why, but it made introducing myself to people a little easier, anyway.
Maybe that was the only reason.
“And you as well,” the Jadean queen replied, wearing a smile as kind as Keith’s. “We’ve heard so much about you. I’m glad to see you’ve recovered from your ordeal.”
“Yes, I have, thank you,” I said, holding my smile even though her words made me squirm internally. The reminder that everybody knew what had happened to me was not a welcome one. “The doctor released me from his care two days ago.”
“I didn’t realize you were so badly injured,” Keith’s father said, raising an eyebrow over his golden eyes.
So, the details weren’t public knowledge. That was some relief, anyway.
“Well, it was an ordeal, as her majesty said,” I replied with as cheerful a tone as I could muster, not wanting to volunteer any more information. “Keith, I wonder if you would have the time to visit the stables with me during your stay? I have a new horse from Jade that I’d love to show you.”
“Ah, well, I’ve seen her already,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully. “I sent her as a gift.”
I stared at him in surprise. “You - thank you! Why didn’t anybody tell me?”
“Wait a minute,” Silvio interrupted, inserting himself between Keith and me. “You gave her a gift? Why’d you do that? Now you’re making me look bad.”
“Silvio, I don’t-”
“Well, she gave us such thoughtful gifts at the beginning of the gala, and then after everything that happened to her, and becoming a princess, it just seemed appropriate,” Keith explained. “But I had to ask Chevalier what to get her. I hope that was okay,” he said, looking back at me apologetically.
“Of course it’s okay,” I reassured him. “I just wasn’t expecting that. You really didn’t have to give me anything.”
“Alright, what do you want?” Silvio asked, his sharp sea-blue eyes completely serious. “I’m not letting him show me up. Just name it, and it’s yours.”
“I appreciate the offer, Silvio, but there’s nothing I really need. Chevalier takes care of everything for me.”
“Pfft. I could buy and sell him and the rest of Rhodolite,” he retorted. “And it’s not about what you need. You’re a princess now. If you want something, you get it. How about you, Gilbert? You getting her something?”
This was spiraling rapidly out of control. I shot a look at Keith and his sensible parents, hoping they recognized my silent cry for help.
“I hadn’t considered the idea,” Gilbert said, a chill crawling up my spine as he came along my left side. “Tell me, little dove. What do you want?”
I wanted him to not be standing next to me, looking at me with that blood-red eye, outwardly friendly and innocent with a veiled threat I recognized but didn’t fully understand, hidden within the nickname I didn’t want him using.
“Did you know you needed a horse?” Keith asked, coming to my rescue. I was happy for the excuse to look away from Gilbert and back at Keith’s warm, gentle features.
“No, I didn’t. The thought never crossed my mind.”
“So, maybe you should ask Chevalier what she needs, Silvio.”
“I’m not asking Chevalier, and I’m not getting her something she needs,” Silvio snapped. “That’s not the point. A gift is supposed to be something expensive and flashy, like - hey, I got a private island I don’t use anymore. Do you want that?” he asked, the confident smirk on his face telling him I couldn’t possibly refuse such a generous offer. It was just like the morning during the goodwill gala when he threw that coin at me to buy my exclusive services as his maid, and the effect on me was similar. I sighed in exasperation and met his sea-blue eyes evenly.
“No, I don’t want a private island, Silvio, and if you’ll excuse me, I really should greet the other guests who have been so kind as to take time from their busy schedules to come and celebrate Chevalier’s coronation today,” I said pointedly.
“If I may,” Keith’s mother interjected, “the Duchess Latoure is a dear friend of mine who has little occasion to visit the palace because of the distance from her duchy on the southern border, and I know she’s eager to meet you.”
I was glad for the offer to escape Silvio regardless, but I recognized that name from Sariel’s test, and Duchess Latoure was a person I wanted to meet. Her husband died shortly after they married, and though she never remarried, her duchy had been thriving under her management for decades now. She encouraged the trade in pharmaceutical herbs from Jade, which had increased the medicines available to doctors within Rhodolite, and she dabbled in growing herbs herself. I couldn’t imagine how rough my recovery would have been were it not for the medicines the doctor gave me, likely sourced from herbs she procured from Jade.
“I’d love to meet her,” I replied. “She has a strong interest in herbology, doesn’t she?”
“You’ve done your homework,” the Jadean queen said with a smile, leading me away from Gilbert, Silvio, and Keith to another group across the hall. The crowd was dispersing gradually, filtering into parlors, drawing rooms, and other rooms prepared for socializing, but many lingered still in the hall, casting glances in my direction. I took a deep breath and recalled Clavis and Nokto’s lessons from their mock social engagement. Now that I wasn’t among people I knew, conversation needed to be brief and shallow. Greet with a smile and a compliment, exchange meaningless pleasantries, and move on.
It promised to be a long afternoon.
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