“I was in love with Irving once,” I admit.
Leonora’s face lights up like the sun.
“He told me he loved me as well.”
The summer evening is etched into my mind and myheart. It was several years after the childhood marriage proposal I teased Irving about at the wedding feast.
“I was fifteen.” Unable to help myself, I sigh. “He kissed me under the stars.”
Marigold gives me a soft, regretful look.
Leonora has practically melted in the chair by the dressing table. “And?”
I wave my hand. “And nothing. We were secretly in love for exactly five weeks, and then I couldn't stand the sight of him.”
Leonora’s face falls. “What happened?”
“Irving is charming and wonderful to every single female he’s ever been in contact with. Perhaps one day he’ll find a woman that will besot him so completely he will adore and dote on her—and only her—but that woman wasn’t me.”
“That’s horrible, Anwen,” Leonora says.
“I hated him, but he finally won me over. He’s a good friend now.” I look at Marigold. “You both are.”
Marigold stirs her tea. “I still feel awful, like I’m responsible for him.”
The world knows her as King Windom’s ward, but her close friends know she is truly the king’s daughter—Irving’s half-sister. It causes her great distress when she tries to make a respectable man of the prince.
“Surely there must be someone in your life, Anwen? Secret longings? Unrequited love?”
I’ve decided I adore Leonora. She’s a horrible gossip in a perfect princess veneer. I sit on the bench and thank a handmaid when she hands me a cup of tea. “There is a man. His name is Dimitri.” I wait for their reactions.
Marigold’s eyebrows knit, and then they rise at the scandal of it. “Dimitri is a Bandolian name.”
I nod.
“You fell in love with one of the traveling performers,” Leonora says. Her voice is accusing, but I can tell she’s dying for more.
I give her a wry smile and wave to the discarded skirt on the floor. “He’s a prince of Bandolia.”
“Or he would be,” Marigold says, leaning forward. “If the kingdom still existed.”
Over two hundred years ago, the northern kingdom was besieged by Errinton and overtaken. Instead of staying to be governed by their rival king, the nobles and most of the subjects fled. Many, including the kingdom’s royalty, became nomads, traveling the kingdoms, bartering their unique goods and entertaining commoners with their stories and song to make a living.
With wide eyes, Leonora asks, “Is he handsome?”
Hiding behind her teacup, Marigold smiles.
I think of Dimitri and his dark hair and inviting eyes. “Yes.”
“Has he kissed you? Told you he loves you?” Leonora demands.
I nod again. “Oh, yes.”
“And?” Marigold asks.
“I ran away with him, and he robbed me of everything I had with me.”
Marigold’s mouth falls open. “Anwen!”
