By the time the next ball arrived, however, I felt a lot more confident about decrypting riddles, so the time had been well-spent. And Sophie had loved the room. She eventually admitted it made her feel at home. Libraries were familiar environments since we had been forced by our sister-in-law, Alyssa, to spend a lot of time in the one in our own palace while growing up. Alyssa had a firm belief in the power of books and had been in charge of our daily study schedule. Unfortunately.
When we arrived at the next ball, Jon was not in sight. Eventually I spotted him already on the dance floor with Emmeline, but the haughty Eldonian princess sparked no jealousy in me. She was infuriating and unhelpful in the Tourney events, but I couldn’t imagine Jon being attracted to her. I could still feel the fire that had burned between us after the last event, and Emmeline was pure ice.
When he hurried over as soon as the dance ended, I scolded myself for the way my heart leaped. If I couldn’t improve my self-control, it was going to end up broken.
“Lily!” He bowed over my hand. “Would a heroine such as yourself deign to dance with a lowly duke-to-be like me?”
I pretended to consider. “I suppose so, since no one else is available.”
He grinned, looking significantly at the other young men standing around us before leading me into the dance. “I’ve hardly seen you the last few days,” he said more seriously once we had settled into the dance. “I had started to think you were avoiding me.”
“Avoiding you?” The suggestion startled me. “No, of course not.”
A second later it occurred to me that perhaps I should have encouraged the idea. But he already looked more cheerful again, and I couldn’t bring myself to say something cutting.
“Sophie and I have been…otherwise engaged.”
“So I heard.”
I glanced up at him. Had he been asking about me? Plenty of the servants had seen us in the library.
“I was all ready to challenge someone to a duel, until I heard it was just a bunch of books that had you so enthralled.”
He said the words lightly, but I still flushed. Why couldn’t I control my emotions around him long enough to push him away? I needed to try harder. Say something to put him off. It was for his own sake, after all. I could at least try to limit the heartbreak to myself.
The dance ended, and Jon reluctantly let me go. “I’ve promised to dance the next one with Blanche. But save me another one later?” His warm brown eyes compelled me to say yes. “Please?”
I tore my gaze away, determined not to be so easily swayed. “It’s kind of you to think of me, but I don’t anticipate having another dance available.” I said the words with as much indifference as I could manage, not meeting his eyes. When I risked a glance up, I immediately felt guilty for the combination of hurt, confusion and frustration on his face at my unexpected turn toward cold formality.
“Perhaps I will have someone to challenge to a duel, after all, then.” He kept his words light and kissed my hand again.
As he strode away, I couldn’t stop myself from watching him disappear into the crowd. My hand burned from the pressure of his lips. I suspected he had meant to match my own formal disinterest, but his lips had lingered just a second too long.
I retreated back to the edge of the room, needing to regain my composure before reentering the dance. As I lingered there, I noticed a bright flash of color behind a large potted plant. I drifted over to get a better look. Peering through the greenery, I saw Daisy, looking despondent.
“Do you mind if I join you?” I asked.
She eyed me consideringly. “I suppose you can. Since we’re friends now.”
I rounded the pot, sliding down the wall to sit beside her. “You’ve picked a good spot here. Well-hidden but with an excellent view.”
“Yes.” She sighed, a heavy world-weary sound, and I hid a smile.
“What’s the matter?”
She glanced up at me. “Do you promise not to tell? Not even Millie?”
“Not even Millie,” I assured her gravely.
She grinned up at me a little impishly. “I begged Mother and Father to let me attend all the balls. They said I was too young, but I wanted to wear a big dress and be part of the fun. I told them I should be here to support Millie, so they agreed.”
I suppressed yet another grin. I could easily imagine the tactics Daisy had employed to wear her parents down. “But now you’re hiding behind a plant.”
“Yes.” She gave an even bigger sigh. “It turns out balls are boring. But I can hardly admit that now.”
I nodded solemnly. “They can be, a little.”
“At home everyone was always too busy to notice me much during a ball. In the summer, I would sneak out for a moonlit ride on my pony. And during the winter, when it was too cold, I would go down to the kitchen. The pastry chefs at home all like me, and they let me help ice the little cakes.”
She shook her head. “I thought for sure the ball itself would be more interesting, though.”
“Perhaps you’ll find them more interesting when you’re big enough to dance?”
She looked at me doubtfully. “I suppose. But I’ve been at six of them now, and they just seem to be about dancing with princes.”’
“You don’t like princes?” I asked, struggling to keep a straight face at her accurate assessment of a royal ball.
“Princes are for ninnies! I’m an adventurer, remember?” She looked disgusted at my suggestion.
“What if you found a prince who was an adventurer too? Like Gabe. He seems daring. Doesn’t he have a younger brother?”
She flushed slightly at my mention of Gabe, and I remembered Millie saying Daisy hero-worshiped him. But then she rolled her eyes. “Gabe’s only daring because he lived with us. The rest of his family are afraid of everything, like the twins. And, anyway, Percy is old!”
I would hardly have called Prince Percival old at fifteen, but then I supposed it was all a matter of perspective. To an eight-year-old, fifteen must seem ancient.
“When I’m grown up, I want to do more exciting things than make eyes across a ballroom!”
This time I suppressed a sigh. I had been all too similar as a young girl. Desperate for a long dress and to be included with the adults, dazzled by the allure of a ball. But, at the same time, wanting adventures. It hadn’t seemed at all contradictory either.
I didn’t try to explain to her that growing up, for a princess, at least, meant responsibilities, many of them boring, and sacrificing adventures for diplomacy and alliances. Except for the sort of unpleasant adventures that were thrust upon you, like this Tourney. She would find out soon enough. Right about the time she discovered just how fascinating making eyes across a ballroom could be.
I thought of Jon walking away from me with hurt and confusion in his eyes and actually sighed aloud this time.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Daisy. “I probably shouldn’t have said any of that, since you like Prince Jonathan so much.”
“Excuse me?” I twisted around to stare at her. Was I really that obvious, despite all my efforts to distance myself from him? I flushed, embarrassed and horrified. Did everyone in the palace think I was desperately pining away?
“Don’t worry,” said Daisy, patting my hand comfortingly. “He watches you even more than you watch him.”
“What?” My eyes flew to Jon, spinning around the dance floor, on the other side of our leafy green screen. In the back of my mind I realized that I knew exactly where he was.
“I’ve been at six balls now,” said Daisy. “I know all about how it works. If someone watches you all the time, it means they’re interested. You know, in dancing and stuff.” She wrinkled up her nose. “Unless they’re old. Then they watch their children and the people their children dance with.”
I didn’t dare ask her what she considered old after her comment about Gabe’s younger brother.
She seemed to take my silence as disbelief. “See.” She pointed to where the baron and baron
ess waltzed past, their heads close together in quiet conversation. “They’re always watching each other. Although they are old.” She stopped to consider. “It must be because they don’t have any children here. They watch each other all the time, when they’re not watching you and Sophie, anyway.” She pointed again. “And all those girls over there watch Prince Jonathan.”
I examined the cluster of girls and recognized some of them as local nobles. It was true that they often seemed to watch Jon and me when we danced.
“I’ve heard them talking about how handsome he is.” Daisy looked unimpressed. “And swooning over how he’s a prince. But he’s going to be a duke one day, so he won’t even stay a prince. So that’s just silly. I would much rather marry a knight on a noble quest.”
I coughed. “Do you have a lot of those in Trione?”
She looked defensive. “I only need one.”
This surprised a snorted chuckle from me, but I quickly returned my expression to solemnity. “Very true, excuse my foolishness.”
“That group of girls watch Gabe, and those ones watch Teddy.” She pointed out several more groups of courtiers. “Which is also silly, because who would want to marry Teddy?”
“Well, he is a prince. And he’s good-looking enough, when you’re not his sister.”
Daisy shook her head skeptically, but continued her rundown of the ballroom. “That girl definitely likes Prince Jonathan. She’s always watching him.”
Leaning around a large leaf, I saw that she was indicating Corinna. The Marinese girl stood to the side of the ballroom watching the dance, her brother at her side. “What about him?” I pointed at Cole. “Who does her brother watch?”
“Oh, him? That’s easy. He watches Celine. Even though she can hardly dance with her broken leg.” Daisy frowned for a moment. “I don’t like him. He has a funny look when he watches her. Kind of like the one the scullery maids get when they’re trying to steal one of the best cakes while the pastry chef’s back is turned.” She lowered her voice. “Don’t tell anyone, but I help them sometimes, and then they share the cake with me. But it’s a funny look to give a person.”
“That does sound odd,” I said.
“And he had a conversation with one of the other nobles in front of my bush at the last ball. I couldn’t exactly follow it all, but they kept talking about tributes and alliances, and they weren’t saying very nice things about the duke.” She looked over at me. “He’s my uncle, you know.”
I bit my lip. None of that sounded good. “Do you remember anything more about what they said?”
Daisy shook her head.
“What about who he was talking to. Could you point him out to me?”
Daisy scrambled up onto her knees and leaned forward through the bush. “There. It was him.” She pointed at an older man deep in conversation with a small group of nobles.
I couldn’t recall his name, but he looked familiar from the single day of meetings I had attended. Sophie? Do you remember the name of that influential baron we met at those meetings?
Ummm…no? Wait, yes! Baron Thurrgold. Why?
I quickly filled her in on my conversation with Daisy. She laughed at Daisy’s childish insight, but sobered when she heard her comments about Cole.
It’s one thing for Sir Oswald to disparage Jon and his family, but it doesn’t seem like a good sign if the most powerful nobles are joining him. And if they think they have a chance of negotiating alliances around the duke, that’s even worse. I think we need to tell Jon.
Well, I’m already dancing, she projected quickly. You’ll have to do it yourself.
I rolled my eyes, easily seeing through her, but pushed myself to my feet anyway. “Thank you for telling me, Daisy,” I said. “And for letting me join you. Could you let me know if you overhear any other strange conversations?”
“Of course I can.” Daisy’s eyes lit up. “I’m great at overhearing things. And I’m glad we decided to be friends.”
I smiled at her. “Me, too.”
“You should tell Sophie to visit me sometime, too. She always treats me seriously, and I like that. Even if it makes me a bit sad.”
I had already started to step away in my urgency, but her final sentence made me pause. “What do you mean? Why does it make you sad?”
She frowned. “Princess Adelaide used to treat me like that, too. She never told me I was annoying and to go away like the others.”
I stared at her. “Princess Adelaide?” The name did sound vaguely familiar, but how could there be another princess who wasn’t here participating in the Tourney? Was she already betrothed? Or dead? That would explain Daisy’s sadness.
“She’s the Beast’s sister. But she’s nice, not like him. Or at least she used to be. No one in my family would tell me anything, they all think I’m a baby, so I had to ask the servants. Apparently she’s disappeared, along with King Nicolas and Queen Ruby. Only Prince Dominic is left, and he’s some sort of monster apparently.”
She looked down and then up at me. “You don’t think he could have killed his own sister, do you?”
I knelt down and touched her hand. “No! I’m sure he wouldn’t have. Remember, we don’t really know what’s happened in Palinar. She might be fine. Maybe her parents took her somewhere to hide her away and protect her.”
“I didn’t think of that,” said Daisy, instantly brightening. “I bet that’s what happened! I bet they all ran away from awful Dominic. He was always too important to notice anyone else. His horse trampled my favorite doll after I dropped it one day, and he didn’t even care.”
She seemed cheerful enough with this theory, so I bid her farewell and hurried away in search of Jon. I didn’t share her hopeful outlook on Princess Adelaide, but I was hardly going to say as much. I grimaced. Yet another awful mystery to add to the horror of winning the Tourney. What if the Beast had done something terrible to his family? Would his wife ‘disappear’ too?”
I paused on the edge of the dance floor to take a deep breath. I didn’t have time to worry about a princess I’d never met. I had more urgent concerns. One of which was approaching Jon after I’d just told him I had no time for him.
The current dance ended while I was still thinking about what to say. My hesitation allowed the group of admirers Daisy had pointed out to approach him first, so he was surrounded by the time I arrived.
I considered retreating and waiting for an easier opportunity, but I didn’t want to be cowardly. Not when I had such a clear sense that something was wrong in Marin. Swallowing my pride, I joined the group of girls around him.
He conversed easily with them, but I noticed the moment his eyes fell on me. He looked both surprised and something else. Only I couldn’t quite pinpoint the other emotion. Was it pleasure at seeing me again, or resentment at my earlier words? Whatever it was, something had unsettled him.
“Don’t tell me you’ve come to beg a dance, Princess Lily,” he said with a laugh. It didn’t sound as warm as his usual one. Maybe resentment, then.
The crowd around him tittered. I felt like a child again, surrounded by unfriendly faces at court. I wanted to tell him a princess of Arcadia didn’t beg before turning around and walking away. But I hadn’t come here for myself.
I forced a smile. “I would be honored, Prince Jonathan, if you have one free.”
For a second I read in his eyes that he meant to pay me back for my earlier comment by refusing me now. But as his gaze lingered on me, something changed. Perhaps he saw my desperation. Reluctantly he held out his hand. “I would be the one who is honored.”
Relief swept through me at the escape from public rejection. As his arm circled around me, a spark seemed to jump between us. Our circumstances had been nothing but complicated since we met, and yet the attraction between us persisted. I struggled to remember why I had come to find him as he pulled me close and leaned down, his face just above mine.
“You torment me, Lily,” he whispered, and I forgot to breathe.
What does he think? Sophie’s projection seemed to thunder through my head, pulling me out of the moment.
I pulled back slightly from Jon. I don’t know. I haven’t told him yet.
What are you waiting for?
I… The sound of the bell reverberated through the ballroom, saving me from coming up with an excuse, but also cutting short my dance with Jon.
Chapter 22
He looked disappointed, but I wasn’t sure if it was due to my withdrawal or to the bell.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” I said as he led me toward the small room.
He looked at me expectantly.
“No, not now, there isn’t time. Tomorrow. Come find me.”
I joined the line and entered the room without hearing his answer, but the curious look on his face assured me he would search me out the next day.
The hours of study proved to be worthwhile since we found ourselves facing the exact same challenge as in the previous event. Only the clues themselves were different.
“I guess the Tourney doesn’t approve of ties,” said Celine, her gaze fixed on her parchment. “Maybe if we can keep this up, the next ten events can all be treasure hunts. That wouldn’t be so bad.”
Ugh, I hope not, I sent to Sophie. I’m not sure my riddling is good enough for that.
We all scrambled up as soon as the bell sounded and scattered through the mirror palace. The clues were more difficult than the previous time, but Sophie seemed energized by our days of preparation. Even though I dragged out my responses to her clues, she still kept pace with me. I only hoped our teamwork, when combined with all our study, had enabled us to gain a lead on Hazel.
As the first tones of the final bell rang through the underground world, I lunged forward and managed to wrap my fingers around my treasure pouch. I exhaled and collapsed with exhaustion when it stayed solid in my hand. Another tie. Just.
Beyond the Four Kingdoms Box Set 1 Page 19
