As usual, the palace staff had outdone themselves. Tiered plates of sandwiches, savories, delicate iced cakes, and a variety of other sweets had been tucked amidst artfully arranged flowers and greenery, giving the impression of nature offering up a bounty of delectable treats. Autumn snatched up a plate and began to help herself to the goodies.
Gabriella glanced around the terrace, but apart from two guards and a servant standing off at a discreet distance, the three Seasons were alone. “Where’s Storm and Wynter? I thought they were joining us.”
“Khamsin took ill again right after lunch.”
“Ah. Poor thing.” Their youngest sister, Khamsin, hadn’t had the most uneventful pregnancy, that was for sure. Even eight months into it, bouts of queasiness would still take her unawares at any time of day or night, a fact that had left her husband, Wynter, hovering over his beloved wife until she threatened to shoot a lightning bolt up his unmentionables if he didn’t leave her in peace. “I hope Tildy brewed up something to help her feel better.”
“She did, and it must have worked. We haven’t seen Kham or Wynter for almost two hours.” Spring winked and they both laughed. “So how was school today?” Spring asked. “Did the little sprouts learn heaps and heaps?”
“Heaps and heaps,” Summer confirmed. She glanced past Spring to the tea table and tried to hide a smile as she watched Autumn pile her plate high with three savory meat pies, eight tiny sandwiches, four small iced cakes layered with fruit filling, and two small pastry cornucopias filled with sugared fruits.
Seeing the smile, Spring turned, then scowled. “Sweet Halla, Autumn! Could you leave some for everyone else?”
Autumn arched a haughty auburn brown and sniffed. “Oh, hush. There’s enough here to feed an army. No one’s going to be shorted because I chose to indulge myself. Which I’m going to do more of, now, just to irritate you.” Blowing Spring a kiss, she added another meat pie and three large sugar cookies frosted with cream-cheese icing to the tottering pile on her plate. “So there.”
Spring scowled. “You are incorrigible.”
Autumn popped a tiny iced teacake in her mouth, grinned, and executed a wildly extravagant bow, complete with waving flourishes of her free arm. It was a credit to Autumn’s natural grace that not a single item toppled from her teetering, overfull plate.
For the first time since her earlier lapse in control, Gabriella’s fear evaporated completely, and genuine laughter bubbled up inside her over Autumn’s antics. She tried to stifle a giggle because she knew Spring wouldn’t approve, but succeeded only in giving an unladylike snort of amusement. That earned her a grin from Autumn and a dark look from Spring.
“Honestly, Gabi, must you encourage her?”
Gabrielle’s smothered giggle turned into an outright laugh. “I can’t help it. She’s funny.”
“She’s ridiculous.” Spring planted her hands on her slender hips. Her spine was rigid, her green eyes snapping. The long sheath of stick-straight black hair that feel to her hips didn’t so much as twitch. “I hope you will be better behaved tomorrow with the Calbernans, Aleta Seraphina Helena Rosalie Violet Coruscate.”
Autumn rolled her eyes, plopped into a chair at the table, then attacked her food with the ferocious focus of a general commanding the invasion of a small country.
“She’s nervous about tomorrow,” Summer murmured as she and Spring turned back to the tea table to fill their own plates with less than a fourth of what Autumn had taken. “You know how she gets when she’s nervous.”
Even on a normal day, most people who saw the amount of food Autumn put away were shocked, and when she was nervous, she ate at least twice what she usually did. By all rights, the sheer quantity of what she consumed should have left her as fat as a farmer’s prize porker, but instead she maintained a perfect figure, slender of waist and limb but generously curved in all the right places. There was something about holding the sun in your soul that tended to burn calories like kindling.
Still, if Summer ate the way Autumn did, her curves would be so generous they’d be popping the seams on all her clothes!
“I’m nervous, too,” Spring muttered, “but you don’t see me trying to stuff the whole palace larder down my gullet!”
“No,” Gabriella agreed. “But I do see you trying to control something you know you can’t. And maybe obsessing just a little? How many more times did you read that report on the Calbernans last night?”
Spring flushed. “Summer the Sweet, sometimes you’re a little tart.”
Proving she was still listening even from her spot at the table, Autumn turned in her chair to crow, “Vivi! You made a pun!” She gave Spring two thumbs up. “I’m so proud of you!”
Spring rolled her eyes. Gabriella smothered a laugh, then said, “And since you didn’t answer my question, I take it to mean you read the report at least—what?—two more times?”
“Four,” Spring admitted grudgingly, “but only because I couldn’t sleep!” They returned to the table and took their seats next to Autumn. “Of course, as usual, Gabriella, you don’t look even the slightest bit nervous about tomorrow.”
“Why would I be?” Gabriella reached for the silver teapot. “It’s not like Sealord Merimydion is going to be paying me much attention when you and Autumn are here.”
“Gabriella...”
Summer laughed with genuine amusement. “It’s true and you know it. And I honestly don’t mind. Quite the opposite, in fact. I don’t have to worry about whether I’m making a good impression, or twist myself in knots when my potential husband turns out to be a loathsome toad or an intolerable gas bag. Instead, I get to just sit back and enjoy the show.”
That comment pulled Autumn away from her food. “Hah,” she said. “You weren’t enjoying the show last week with that Vermese ambassador. He really took a shine to you. All the Vermese do. They think you’re their type. All soft and sweet and accommodating.”
Summer blinked big, innocent blue eyes and gave her sister a beatific smile. “Iamsoft and sweet and accommodating.”
Autumn laughed. “And sneaky. And stubborn. And subversive.”
