“Righty-o.”
“You should really stop running off without him,” Daffy said. “You’re disrespecting his job.”
“I’m what?” Gus sat up, chest puffed.
“You’re disrespecting his job. He’s hired to protect you, Gus. But you treat him like the annoying friend from down the road.”
“I just…” Her rebuke struck home. “Just…don’t want a shadow. Someone always on my flank, watching my every move.”
“He’s watching your back. Who wouldn’t want someone, wherever he went, on his side? Buck up, chap, and accept what he’s here to do. Stop being a child.”
Gus snapped his napkin from his lap and wadded it up. Was it too late to cancel the apple tart? He gulped from his pint.
“I’ll try to do better.”
“Don’t try. Just do.”
Another swallow of beer, rather than his pride. “So, what did you do today? I played another round of football with the young five- and six-year-olds in the Youth League this morning.”
“Got kicked in the shin, I’m sure.”
“Hard, too.” He laughed. “But they are earnest in their efforts.”
There was a little girl among the pack who’d so captured Gus’s heart that for the first time, he wondered about being a father. What would it be like? Seems Dalholm was raising all sorts of buried desires.
“Lucy and I went dress hunting. For theUnknown Bride.” Daffy launched into a story of an old shop above the quay. Shop Vintage. “When this woman with spinning eyes handed me a box—”
“Spinning eyes?”
“Yes, with light. And very vibrant. Unique.”
“The eyes are the window to the soul,” Gus said.
“She gave Lucy the creeps, but to me she was so sweet. Surreal.” Daffy lowered her voice. “She’s the same woman Princess Corina says helped her when she returned to Brighton Kingdom looking for Prince Stephen.”
“Princess Corina? How do you know?”
“The princess described her to me when she visited Perrigwynn during the History of Art tour.”
“Did this Adelaide move from Brighton Kingdom to Lauchtenland?”
“I didn’t think to ask her about her personal story. Corina said she never saw Adelaide again after she married Prince Stephen. You’d have to hear her tell the story. It’s wild. Anyway, there I am talking to this Adelaide and—”
“This magical woman handed you a box.”
“With this dress inside.” She showed him the photograph again. “I had chills all over. It was creepy yet sort of divine. Then she said Emmanuel told her to give it to me.”
“Emmanuel? The carpenter?”
“I guess. Do you know of another one lurking about in Highcrest Mountains?” She shivered and ran her hand down her arm. “The dress is for theUnknown Bridebut she kept going on about the tradition being for the next House of Blue princess. I think she was confused.”
“I wouldn’t know. Though I heard Granny once say the gown for theUnknown Bridegown was to be blue.”
“For the House of Blue?” Daffy said. “A little on the nose, but I get it.”
He laughed. “I guess so. Did you put the dress in the gallery?”
“Not yet. It needed minor tending. But oh, Gus, it’s as beautiful as I remember. As it was in this photograph of the queen.”
