Never After

“He will if I ask him to,” I said confidently.

“Well! You are quite fortunate in the men who attend you,” she said. “How will you choose between them?”

Now I scowled at her, my sudden amity evaporating. “I have already chosen.”

“So you have,” she said and settled back against the cushions. She closed her eyes, as if she was too weary to keep them open any longer, and in a few moments, she was either asleep or pretending to be.

I looked out the window and watched the autumn trees shake off their red and yellow leaves as if they were dogs shaking off water. I saw the clouds overhead grow angrier and closer to the ground, reminding me of furious taskmasters bending down to berate a clumsy servant. I wondered if anything Gisele had told me was a lie.

I wondered how I could bear it if everything was true.

5

The Dreadful Secret

We arrived in a prosperous little town just around sunset and followed Harwin to the i

“I ca

“I am glad that someone appreciates me,” Gisele returned with a smile.

“Even I appreciate you today,” I said, climbing out after the two of them. The maid clambered down behind me.

“Then I must call the journey a success,” Gisele said.

I gri

“The i

Da

“I have paid for one room, and the queen’s vouchers will cover the other two,” Harwin replied, smiling down at her. “You will have a room to yourself for a change.”

I mentally populated the remaining two rooms and instantly frowned. “Wait—you and Darius will share quarters, of course, but I should not have to sleep with Gisele,” I said.

“And here I thought you had started to hate me a little less,” Gisele remarked.

“It’s just that—I can’t sleep with other people in the room. I would so much like privacy, just for a night.”

Harwin’s frown was as heavy as mine. “Yet one of them must act as chaperone so that no one takes advantage of you in the night. If you do not want your stepmother, then Da

“Oh, let her have the room to herself,” Da

“Yes, Harwin, please, let me have the room.”

Da

Gisele and I both laughed at that, though Harwin looked embarrassed. “I am merely trying to make sure the princess is treated with the utmost care,” he said.

Now Da

Darius swept through the front door, totally drenched and unrelentingly cheerful. His boots left wet footprints all the way down the hall. “Isn’t this fit for royalty!” he exclaimed. “I’ve never stayed at a place so elegant! I like traveling with the queen.”

“Harwin chose it,” Gisele said with a laugh. “Not I.” Darius rubbed his hands together to warm them. “Then I like traveling with Harwin! Who’s hungry? I imagine the di

The meal was excellent—and Harwin paid for everyone’s di

The morning brought sunshine and clear skies and all of us smiling at one another around the breakfast table. “I want to ride with Darius today,” I said, for Gisele had been right yesterday. Sitting in the coach with her was not doing much to acquaint me with my betrothed. “Da

“I’m happy to do so, unless the queen prefers solitude.”

“The queen prefers any company that is good-natured,” Gisele retorted.

“Then Da

Scandals. Accusations in the dead of night. They must not have been crafted from cruelty, then. “Then we’re all satisfied,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Harwin was not satisfied, I could tell by his expression, but soon enough we were on our way. As before, Harwin took the lead on his bay gelding, followed by the carriage, followed by the wagon. After yesterday’s extraordinarily comfortable coach ride, travel in the wagon was even more torturous, but I was determined not to complain.

“How much farther to your grandmother’s house?” I asked as we set out.

“About a day and a half.”

“Have you sent her a note? Is she expecting us?”

He laughed. “She knows that I might drop in on her at any time, so in some sense she is always expecting me, but she will be quite astonished to see you.”

I smiled. “She didn’t think you would marry a princess?”

He rubbed the back of his hand along his jaw. “She didn’t think I would ever marry,” he said. “I have never been particularly interested in the notion.”

“Oh, with your blond curls and your handsome face, you must have had girls falling for you wherever you went,” I teased.

He laughed. “I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in women,” he corrected. “It’s all the things that belong to marriage that haven’t appealed to me.”