x
Theresa grumbled about waking up at ten o’clock the next morning, but she changed her tune when she saw my ring in daylight. It was breathtaking. The bright gold of the band and clear white of the central diamond contrasted nicely with the reddish-purple of the garnets, lighter and more vibrant in the sunshine than they were in the moonlight. A barrage of questions ensued about the proposal and the time I spent with Chevalier after we left the ball, and I answered or evaded them, depending on my level of embarrassment, until I finished breakfast and sent her to invite Elise and Camille to tea. That gave me a few minutes to recover from my incriminating blush before I went to Sariel’s office.
“Princess Ivetta,” he greeted me coolly.
“Good morning, Sariel,” I said cheerfully, wondering why he was already upset. Had I been wrong in assuming I wouldn’t have lessons today? Or was he just really busy? There were a lot of papers on his desk for this early in the day. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Yes and no,” he replied. “Sit.”
I took the seat across from him, scanning the documents on his desk and the quill in his hand. “I can always come back-”
“You’ll want to go forward with the engagement ceremony as soon as possible, correct?” he interrupted me.
I blinked in surprise. “Engagement ceremony?”
He sighed and set his quill in its inkpot. “Surely you realize by now that nothing is simple here in the palace.”
“Yes, but Nokto said the dance was as good as a proposal,” I said hesitantly.
He pushed his glasses up his nose and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk and steepling his fingertips together. “It is, but it does not negate the need for the traditional royal engagement ceremony to sanction your engagement in the eyes of the court.”
I sighed and shook my head. The dance, the ring - that was two proposals already. To have a third was just silly, but if it had to be done, then that was that. “What does the ceremony entail?”
“It takes place in the palace chapel,” he replied. “The priest and a third party witness the king’s proposal and your acceptance. You both sign an official document, he presents you to the people, and a ball follows.”
“So, it’s a wedding,” I summarized.
He sat back in his chair and massaged his temples. “It is very much like a wedding, yes, and it requires nearly as much planning and preparation on my part, so it will be some time before it occurs.”
“Of course,” I said slowly, surveying his full desk again. He was always working. Even when he gave me lessons, a constant string of servants and visitors came to his office to add more paperwork to his desk or speak with him about something. If he didn’t assign me any reading, tests, or practical lessons under another person’s supervision, there was no way he could get through his own workload. Adding another ceremony on top of that, especially so soon after the last ceremony he organized, was almost cruel.
“Well, you don’t have to start right away,” I decided, looking back at his narrow lavender eyes behind his thin glasses. “If you want to take some time to decompress from the coronation ceremony, that’s fine.”
His smile took on a weary aspect. “You are too kind, Princess Ivetta. If only I could believe the king will allow this interruption to his plans.”
“I’ll talk to him,” I said reassuringly. “Maybe you should take today off completely.”
“And watch this palace fall apart? Never.” He straightened in his seat, his thin smile back in place. “We’ll resume your lessons tomorrow, with a focus on social engagements to garner the support of the nobility. They cannot oppose your engagement, given the manner in which it was done, but they can make life miserable for you.”
“I have tea with Adèle - sorry, Duchess Latoure - later this afternoon, and Elise Belmont and Lady Lavigne may join us, too.”
He nodded approvingly. “Duchess Latoure holds significant influence, and Lord Lavigne has extensive and powerful connections, so gaining their good favor is an excellent start. Elise Belmont lacks the pedigree to assist you in that department, but having a female perspective on the intricacies of socializing with the nobility may be helpful.”
I smiled. That was a very fancy way to say I should befriend her.
“I’ll keep all that in mind, thank you, and I won’t bother you anymore today,” I said, standing up. “Oh, do you know where I might find Keith? I wanted to visit the stables with him.”
“He and Prince Licht have business there as well, so you may find them there already. And, Princess Ivetta?”
I stopped mid turn. “Yes?”
The corners of his eyes crinkled slightly with his genuine smile. “Aren’t you going to show me the ring?”
“Oh, of course,” I said, my smile widening as I displayed my hand in front of him. “It’s so beautiful. I really didn’t expect him to propose so soon.”
Sariel chuckled as he surveyed the ring. “I believe he ordered it while you were still at the late Flandre’s estate.”
“Really?” I asked, my cheeks warming. I pulled my hand back and looked down at the ring rather than at Sariel.
“If I don’t miss my guess, he’s already ordered, or will order soon, your wedding rings. So, you see why I am skeptical that he will allow me to delay planning the engagement ceremony.”
“Well, he might be in a rush, but I need a little time to adjust to all these huge life changes,” I said, internally shushing the deliriously happy butterflies in my stomach. “Just leave him to me.”
I didn’t skip through the palace to the stables, but I really wanted to. Chevalier was getting a big kiss the next time we were alone. I held the joy in, walking with perfect poise through the palace to the exit closest to the stables. A handful of stuffy nobility in riding habits looked down their noses at me as I passed them. Mark, my guard, cleared his throat, and I glanced back to see him resting his hand casually on his sword hilt. The nobility paled and looked away. I faced forward again, holding in a smile. There were definite perks to having two armed guards following me around all the time.
The stables were busy. There were more horses filling up the empty guest stalls, courtesy of the local nobility who lived close enough to ride here instead of taking a carriage, which meant more traffic as the stable hands rushed about to feed, groom, and exercise the temporary residents. I had to wait for a group of saddled horses led by grooms to exit the stables before I could enter, presumably on their way up the hill to the nobility who thought saddling their own horses was beneath them. Keith and Licht weren’t in sight.
“Good morning,” I called to the first unoccupied stable hand I saw. He was just a boy, really. Maybe a little older than Jason, but not by much. And he wasn’t really unoccupied, on second glance. He was sitting on a straw bale, chewing on a piece of straw as he fiddled with a bridle.
“Good morning,” he said, glancing up at me. His eyes returned to the bridle, and then his entire body froze. He looked up at me again, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, the straw falling from his lips. “Princess Ivetta!” he exclaimed, dropping the bridle and scrambling off the straw bale to bow in front of me. “I’m so sorry! Please forgive me!”
“It’s fine,” I said, laughing. “And you can just call me Ivetta. Are Keith and Licht here?”
“Um, oh, well,” he stammered, straightening up and rubbing the back of his neck nervously as his eyes flicked from one to the other of the guards behind me. “They were at the other end of the stables, but I think they left for the exercise ring. I can go find them, if you’d like.”
“That would be nice, thank you. I’ll just wait here.”
“Yes, your highness. Right away, your highness,” he said, bobbing up and down as he bowed repeatedly, and then he took off running at full speed, giving my guards a wide berth. I covered my mouth to hide my giggling. Mark and my other guard, Eric, were hard-pressed not to smile, too. I was about to ask one of them to get the bridle the boy abandoned on the straw bale when a loud whinny caught my attention. A distinctive white stallion’s head was poking out of a stall further down the aisle with his ears pricked toward me.
“Oh, am I supposed to say hello to you, too?” I asked, walking toward Blade.
He stamped his hoof and nickered, but Mark grabbed my arm and pulled me back, and Eric stepped in front of me.
“My apologies, Princess Ivetta, but I can’t allow you to go near that horse,” Mark said, releasing my arm. “He’s dangerous.”
“But I know him,” I explained. “Chevalier introduced me to him a few nights ago. He likes me.”
They exchanged glances. “The king hasn’t communicated that with us,” Eric said. “Our highest priority is your safety, and unless he tells us otherwise, his horse is off limits.”
“What’s going on here?” Licht asked, frowning as he arrived on the scene. Keith was with him, his golden eyes lacking the softness I was used to seeing in them as he looked from Mark, standing beside and behind me, to Eric, blocking my path. I suddenly realized the princes thought my guards were giving me trouble.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” I hastened to explain. “I wanted to see Blade, but my guards are right. I shouldn’t approach him without Chevalier around.”
Mark and Eric relaxed and resumed their usual positions a few feet behind me. Licht and Keith were now staring at me as if I was insane.
“You were terrified of that horse when I gave you a tour of the stables a few days ago,” Licht said.
“Yes, I was, but Chevalier took me riding on him that night, and it seems like he wants attention from me right now,” I said, gesturing down the aisle to Blade’s eager and attentive face. Licht and Keith followed my hand, and when they looked back at me again, their expressions were even more mystified.
“That horse disabled one of our best trainers,” Keith said slowly.
“Chevalier took you riding on him?” Licht asked in disbelief.
I debated telling them about the riding lesson, but decided that would be too much for them, so I just nodded. “He said he rode Blade for a few hours earlier in the afternoon to tire him out, though. But I really wanted to look at my new horse with you, Keith, and maybe you could teach me a little about horses? And of course you can come too, Licht. I think I could learn a lot from the two of you.”
Keith exhaled deeply, and his face took on its familiar gentle smile. “Of course. Do you have a name for her yet?”
The aisle was wide enough for three or four horses to walk comfortably alongside each other, so there was plenty of room for us to avoid Blade. He wasn’t happy about being ignored. The thud of his hoof hitting his stall door as we passed it made me jump.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I’ll come back later with Chevalier, okay?”
Licht shook his head. “He really does like you. I still wouldn’t trust him with you, but he does like you.”
“I’m glad,” I said happily. “And, no, Keith, I haven’t named her yet. I guess I wanted to know more about her first, because the only thing I can think of right now is Rose, which is a little obvious, since she’s red.”
“Red roan,” Keith corrected me. “The ‘roan’ refers to the white hairs in her coat. And there’s nothing wrong with naming her Rose.”
“Chevalier’s horse is a gray,” Licht volunteered. I looked at him curiously, and he explained, “Most white horses are actually grays. They’re born a different color, and their coat turns white as they age. You can tell by their skin. Grays don’t have pink skin, but true white horses do. True whites are rare, though.”
“Is a brown horse brown?” I asked jokingly.
“No,” Keith said, completely serious. “Brown horses are bay or chestnut. Chestnuts don’t have any black on them, but bays have black manes, tails, lower legs, and ear tips.”
“A liver chestnut is a dark reddish-brown, and a flaxen chestnut can be any shade of reddish-brown with a lighter mane and tail than the coat. As for the bays, a dark bay is a very dark brown, almost black, and a blood bay is a bright red,” Licht continued.
I felt like I should take notes.
“So, Marron is a…dark bay?” I guessed.
“Just a bay,” Licht said. “He’s not dark enough to be called a dark bay, but he’s darker than a blood bay.”
I asked the right princes to teach me about horses. By the time Theresa found me and told me it was lunchtime, I’d been listening to horse lingo for so long that her simple greeting sounded like a foreign language. I also knew how to groom my horse by myself, which meant I needed a clothing change before I moved on to my next social engagement.
“We’re having tea with Yves later, if you want to join us,” Keith offered.
“Thank you, but I already have tea with a few ladies this afternoon,” I replied, casting a searching look at Theresa. She nodded in confirmation.
“They’re all coming,” she said. “Is two-thirty in the gardens okay?”
“Yes, that’s fine,” I said, running through my to-do list in my head again. “Oh, but I would like to talk to Yves at some point. Maybe after that?”
“I’ll tell him,” Licht said.
“So, what are you going to do until then?” Theresa asked. Her smirk said she thought I would spend the time with Chevalier.
“Um…there’s someone else I need to meet,” I said carefully.
“I bet there is,” she teased.
I shrugged sheepishly. She laughed, and the conversation moved on without further questions. Our paths split when we reached the palace - Theresa went to the kitchens to pick up my lunch, the princes went another direction, and I had the rest of my walk back to my room to wonder how I was going to find and talk to Gilbert when my guards wouldn’t even let me pet the wrong horse.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
