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I wanted to be alone with Chevalier so I could indulge the giddy excitement I felt now that the anxiety leading up to our engagement ceremony was gone. Barring that, I would have at least liked to dance with him right away. But he did not lead me to the center of the ballroom when the orchestra began to play, and the couples joining hands and taking their positions there weren’t waiting for us. Apparently, we didn’t have to start the ball with a solo dance at our engagement ceremony. Just his coronation ceremony. I wondered what the protocol would be at our wedding.
Marrying a king came with a lot of strange rules and traditions. And politics, of course. All things that I’d rather avoid. But judging by Chevalier’s brisk stride toward an elderly nobleman I didn’t know but recognized immediately, politics had to come first in this instance.
The Marquis de Michel. Chevalier’s grandfather and closest living relative.
He had to be in his seventies or eighties, but the similarities between him and his grandson were striking. His broad shoulders and straight back showed no evidence of stooping, and I imagined his white hair used to be the same shade of pale blonde in his youth, although it could have been any other color. His blue eyes were even the same shape as Chevalier’s, though they tended more toward a steely gray than a light crystal blue, and that sharp stare, combined with an aristocratic bearing that exuded power and wealth, made me feel immensely inferior. It didn’t help that he was nearly Chevalier’s height, too. I almost felt like an insignificant little maid who’d forgotten her place.
Almost.
Yves had told me before that looking the part of a Rhodolitian prince gave him the confidence to be a Rhodolitian prince, even when doubts and accusations about his Obsidianite blood assailed him. That was why he paid such close attention to his appearance. I took a deep breath and conjured the image of myself in the mirror after he finished my hair. The woman in that reflection looked every bit a princess. I was every bit a princess, and I had every right to be the woman on Chevalier’s arm.
“Ivetta, this is the Marquis de Michel,” Chevalier said coolly. “My grandfather.”
I already knew they weren’t close, but I wasn’t expecting an arctic chill to settle in the air between the two of them. Still, I was glad Chevalier spoke first. I hadn’t thought of how to address the Marquis. “Lord” didn’t feel like it showed him due honor, but that was the appropriate title for any nobleman below the rank of duke, and as a marquess, he was technically a step down. Even dukes regarded him as the highest ranking nobleman in Rhodolite, though, because the Michel family was old and ran deeply through Rhodolitian history, with centuries-long ties to the throne. And, of course, he possessed more money than any other person in Rhodolite, including the royal family.
He didn’t strike me as the type to appreciate me calling him “grandfather” right away. I had a feeling it was too much to hope for even a “congratulations” for our engagement.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said politely.
“Ivetta Romanov,” he said, his deep voice every bit as chilling as Chevalier’s. “A name belonging to a dead family from a country no longer in existence, an upbringing as the lowest of the lows among commoners, and no money to speak of. You’ve done well for yourself in this match.”
Chevalier’s arm tensed under my hand. I hadn’t known what to expect from his grandfather, but that wasn’t it. That was a targeted attack, insulting my background and implying I’d seduced Chevalier into making a huge political mistake by choosing me, and it would have left me reeling had I not already dealt with the same veiled accusations in one form or another since my debut into high society. But Chevalier remained uncharacteristically silent in the face of his grandfather’s blatant disrespect toward me, and that made me wonder if there was more to this. Was the Marquis testing me? Chevalier had tested me a lot when we first met, too, and they were remarkably similar.
Test or not, all that mattered was the truth. And the truth was that I didn’t care about money, influence, or power.
“I suppose you’re right,” I said sweetly, looking up at Chevalier. “I never expected to fall in love with anybody, especially not a prince.”
The hint of a smile on Chevalier’s lips told me I’d guessed correctly.
“I seem to recall you disparaging love as the most foolish of human emotions,” the Marquis continued, this time addressing his comment to Chevalier.
“I was mistaken,” Chevalier replied, the smile vanishing as he shifted his gaze to his grandfather. “If you wish to avoid the worst of the weather, you’d do well to leave now.”
That was it? A test, an answer, and a goodbye? No conversation? Not that I wanted to talk to the man, but I was joining his family in the near future. And it was already raining. The gloom outside the wall of windows made the chandeliers above glitter as brightly as they did at night, and I’d had enough of rescuing people from the rain a few nights ago.
“Why don’t you stay for the night?” I asked. “We’re visiting your estate tomorrow, anyway, and if the storm gets worse, I’d worry about you getting stranded.”
If I hadn’t been familiar with the tiny changes of expression that were all Chevalier let slip around others, I would have missed the Marquis’ steel-blue eyes widening fractionally. That gave me a small sense of satisfaction. It had taken a long time before I managed to surprise Chevalier enough for him to betray that much on his face.
“Notify a servant of your decision,” Chevalier said, effectively ending the conversation as he turned away. I followed his lead past the dance floor to a pair of glass doors opening onto a balcony. The heat and the humidity had vanished, leaving a fresh coolness in the air, and the gentle tapping and dripping of raindrops from the rooftop above and the rose vines snaking around the support posts chased the lingering tension from my body.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re just like him?” I asked, leaning against Chevalier’s arm.
“Yes.” He pulled his arm from my hand and wrapped it around my shoulder. “And I apologize for that.”
“Well, I think you’ve made up for it by now,” I said, smiling up at him.
He leaned in for a sweet kiss. I closed my eyes and sighed, wishing we could stay out here a little longer. Or leave.
“It feels like it should be evening already,” I murmured.
“Don’t tell me you wish to leave our celebration already?” he teased.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I said, opening my eyes again. “We still have to dance to at least one song, and there are people in there who actually want to congratulate us.”
“Oh, good, so I don’t have to talk sense into you,” Clavis interrupted. I sighed again and turned with Chevalier to see his younger brother in the open doorway, the golden light at his back silhouetting his midnight blue hair and casting shadows across his grinning face. “Ivetta, I overheard you telling the ol’ Marquis that you don’t want him going out in the rain, and I have to wonder why he, Chev, and Nokto get all the special attention, and I don’t?”
He was only teasing, but I still felt a pang of guilt. It was true I’d never checked on him the night he and Chevalier rode through that torrential downpour a few days ago.
“As I recall, I rescued you from the rain once,” he continued with an unconvincing frown. “I thought that would have at least earned me a kind word, but nothing - that hurts.”
“Well, I-”
“I sent the carriage,” Chevalier interrupted me. “You meant to abduct her. But if you’d like ‘special attention,’ I can arrange for you to spend the rest of the day in the rain.” He glanced down at me and took my hand. “Come.”
“Now, why did you have to tell her that?” Clavis grumbled.
“Oh, don’t worry. He told me a while ago,” I reassured him as Chevalier tugged me toward the ballroom. “Next dance?”
Clavis’ smirk was back. “Will you allow that, Chev?”
Chevalier smirked, too. “We’ll see.”
It really seemed like it was evening in that brightly lit ballroom, with strains of music lilting through the air and weaving in and out of murmured conversations and the dark, clouded sky outside the windows adding to the illusion. I suddenly felt like Cinderella, like it would all vanish when the clock struck midnight, and then I’d be back in my maid uniform, walking home through the rain to a dirt floor shack.
Maybe that was why a strange shiver of shy excitement ran through me when Chevalier and I took our positions on the dance floor.
“I touch you here every time we’re together,” Chevalier noted with amusement, his sparkling blue eyes glancing at his hand on my waist.
“We don’t dance every time we’re together,” I replied. “It’s different.”
“If you say so.”
This was what I wanted to do when we got here. Dance. Chevalier wasn’t much for parties, and I’d had little opportunity to dance with anyone since his coronation. He led me flawlessly, as he did most things, and I couldn’t even say anything about it in this instance, since dancing in and out of clotheslines on laundry days had apparently been enough to teach me how to dance in a ballroom among ballgowns and clinking glasses of champagne. I felt like I was flying. The white silk flaring out from my waist weighed nothing. I weighed nothing. Chevalier was smiling, the kind of smile he usually kept just for me, when no one else was around, and the way his crystal blue eyes drank me in was enough to make me blush, but I didn’t want him to stop. If we could stay like this all afternoon, in our own little world on the dance floor, I wouldn’t mind that at all.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I’d want to kiss him eventually.
“The feeling is mutual.”
“If you’re going to read my mind, just be careful about what you say when others can hear you,” I said, unable to stop smiling even long enough to fake a frown. “There are some thoughts I don’t want announced to the public.”
“I’m aware,” he said, smugly arrogant and annoyingly handsome.
“You’re impossible.”
“What’s this? Fighting already?” Clavis asked, winging past us with a woman who looked rather confused. Clavis’ dance style was as unique as everything else about him.
“That’s not them fighting,” Leon contributed from a few feet away on our other side. “If they were fighting, they would clear the room, easy.”
“We’re not that bad,” I protested, my cheeks warming even more from embarrassment.
“Elite knights armed with swords and protected by full suits of armor keep their distance when you two fight,” Leon said, a broad grin on his face.
“Those were my guards, and they were just giving us space.”
“Something you two could stand to learn,” Chevalier interjected.
It seemed like everybody was in a good mood, even with the rain. I’d expected to hear murmurings of complaints about that, or someone muttering about it being a bad omen, but nothing. Rivulets of water traced across the glass, catching and reflecting the flames flickering in the polished gold chandeliers above while Chevalier and I danced to a few songs, and then Clavis cut in, and Chevalier disappeared in the mass of bodies on the dance floor. Probably to hold court on the sidelines, I guessed. He wouldn’t dance with anyone except me, and it was rare for him to stop working.
“Get ready for a dip,” Clavis announced.
“A dip? There’s no-”
I interrupted myself with a gasp when he bent me backwards toward the floor. He pulled me upright before I could say anything else.
“So, about you leaving me to die like a drowned rat,” he said lightly.
“Well, if you’d beaten Chevalier in getting to me, I would have made sure that didn’t happen,” I replied, struggling to regain my composure when his feet weren’t following any step I knew. At least he was good at leading. “But once Chevalier got me in his room, he wasn’t letting me go anywhere. And don’t even think that,” I added when I saw the mischievous gleam in his golden eyes. “You know very well I was only there for extra protection.”
“Ah, yes, because you’re a cruel little thing, aren’t you? Making Chev and Nokto behave when you spend the night with them.”
Was he trying to set my face on fire? Because it felt like that might happen at any moment. My face had to be beet red.
“I didn’t spend the night with Nokto. I spent an hour, maybe two, and only because he was sick.”
“Hey, Clavis, lay off,” Jin said, appearing next to us with a busty noblewoman whose dress was far too low-cut to wear in public. “Just ‘cause Chevalier gave us permission to dance with her doesn’t mean he’ll let you get away with that.”
“‘Permission to dance with me?’” I repeated curiously.
“Well, you know, insane jealousy, brush with death and all that, he isn’t ready to let just anyone dance with you,” Clavis explained. “So, you’re stuck with me and the rest of my brothers. Except Luke. I don’t think he’s changing dance partners.”
He nodded away from Jin, and I followed his gaze to see Luke and Arianna dancing together. Luke looked every bit the prince in his crisp white royal regalia as he danced flawlessly with the Benitoitian princess, and I barely recognized her. Gone was the angry blonde who accused me of stealing Chevalier with underhanded methods. She wore a pale pink dress that matched the blush in her cheeks, and tendrils of golden curls framed her soft smile as she stared with rapt attention into Luke’s eyes. He was smiling, too, that wide, boyish grin I knew so well, but it had an air of maturity about it today.
“They’re really cute,” I said. “She must not be so bad if he likes her.”
“Or his judgment is impaired,” Clavis commented. “Speaking of which, have you had any champagne?”
“And this is where I cut in,” Nokto said, his voice as smooth as his sudden displacement of Clavis. “You’re welcome.”
“Oh, um, thank you,” I said, the memory of the last time Nokto and I danced together flashing through my mind. Or, more specifically, his kiss afterward. “I didn’t think-”
“He would ever stop talking. I know the feeling,” he replied, a smile on his lips. “It’s fine, Ivetta. Just enjoy the party."32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1023xBcqb
