Because he was no king’s lapdog.
He was an Alchemist King, the master of hearth fires, and his stormy steel gaze was locked on her, the curve of his sumptuous lips tilting up.For her.The people at his side—Sybil and their father—for her.
Sybil broke free first and ran to Diana’s side.“Are you surprised to see us?Temple secured invitations.Rather, the king secured invitations, I’m sure.I’m also sure everyone in attendance is incensed that we’re here.Don’t you love to rile them?”She hooked her arm through Diana’s and dragged her toward the ballroom.“Leave Temple and Papa to discuss alloys and such with Nico.”She stuck out her tongue at that man as she passed him, scooping up Jane’s arm on her other side.“I’ve not seenyousince your wedding, Jane.I hope Nico is behaving.”
“Not at all.”
Sybil sighed.“Well, then we shall have to misbehave, too.What an uproar the three of us shall cause.They will be shocked by our natural beauty.No glamours needed.”
“Temple has brought me a mighty warrior,” Diana said.
“Indeed,” Jane said from the other side of a still chattering Sybil.“No way you can fail with such confidence buoying you up.”
They paused before passing through the doorway into the ballroom.They seemed to inhale at the same time, and Diana vaguely recognized Temple’s heat at her back.No going back now.
The whispers began almost as soon as they entered.
Lapdog.
Secretly married.
Who’s that?
An alchemist infestation.
The questions and insults hummed over a deeper silence.The quartet had stopped playing.Every eye skewered them.
Temple broke Sybil’s hold on Diana’s arm and pulled her ahead of their small group.He seemed to have a goal in mind, and that goal seemed to be a short man with yellow hair.“Lord Starling.”Temple spoke loud enough for everyone to hear him.He bowed.“May I introduce my wife, Lady Knightly?”
Lord Starling gaped like a fish.Then he stuttered and sputtered.Then he gave up.“Yes.A delight.”
A direct attack, and no one could give the cut direct to the king’s lapdog.
“Lady Knightly,” Temple said, then softer, “Diana, this is the Marquess of Starling.”
“I know of you,” Diana said.Finding her voice was easier than she’d thought it might be.“You were friends with my grandfather, the Marquess of Fordham.”
Starling became a fish once more.“F-fordham?Then, are you, the young woman engaged to marry the new Fordham?”
“I was.But I walk an entirely different path now.”She smiled at Temple as if he was her world.
And the whispering returned, louder.
“Excuse me, Starling,” Temple said.“I think it’s time I took a turn about the dance floor with my wife.”
The dancers parted as Diana and Temple joined them, and after some warbling hesitancy, the quartet started back up.Diana and Temple melted into the steps as if they’d been dancing together all their lives.And soon the other dancers joined them.
“Have you survived?”Temple asked her before they parted for a turn.
“I rather think I have,” she said when they returned to one another.“The worst is yet to come, though.”
“Fordham will not be here.Relax.”
They parted again, and she tried not to notice how every new partner in the set looked at her with raw curiosity.
“Lady Knightly,” one gentleman said.“You are tonight’s entertainment.”
“I’m afraid I do not know you.”
