“To Lady Raewyn, aka Lady Wyn, aka Wildcat…
You are cordially invited to attend a gathering for two in the grand ballroom of Castle Seaspire at seven o’clock sharp. A gownwill be arriving at your suite, along with your ladies maid Kem to help you prepare for the evening.”
“Kem’s coming here?” Stellon asked with a surprising amount of interest.
I nodded. “Tomorrow morning. Along with Raewyn’s father and sisters. I want everyone here to celebrate with us… assuming there’s something to celebrate and she doesn’t turn me down.”
Mareth squealed, jumping up and down. “You’re going to propose tomorrow?”
I shrugged, patting the ring in my pocket. “I promised her a better proposal, if I ever got the chance to make one.”
“And you’re all right with this?” she asked Stellon, though he’d already told her about the love spell as soon as we’d arrived at Seaspire.
“I’m all right with it,” he assured her. “I have my eye on someone else.”
Mareth laughed and looked down to finish reading the royal invitation I planned to have delivered to Raewyn’s room in the morning.
My sister looked up at me again with a quizzical expression. “It’s signed only with a P.”
“Inside joke,” I said. “Raewyn will get it.”
Chapter 33
Flashbacks
Raewyn
Just before seven, I left my suite to head downstairs.
“Wish me luck,” I said to Kem.
She giggled and waved from the doorway. “Good luck, my lady! I’ll see you soon.”
“Please. Just call me Raewyn. I’m not a noble, I’m your friend.”
“Good luck, Raewyn,” she said warmly.
I had a sneaking suspicion Kem wouldn’t be a ladies maid much longer but the wife of a prince. One very kind, very charming prince who had been through far too much because of me and had definitely earned a happy ending.
As for my own, I could hardly stand the wait as the lift took me to the mezzanine where the ballroom entrance was located. That was where the new King’s clever invitation had instructed me to meet him, and I was pretty sure I knew why.
Sure enough, before I reached the ballroom doors, Pharis stepped through them and offered me a dazzling smile.
Just as it had the first time I’d seen him, that beautiful, scandalous smile stole my breath and set my heart dancing.
“There you are, darling,” he said.
Though there was no one else present, he repeated the words he’d spoken to that haughty butler the night we’d met.
“I’ve been waiting on this one’s arrival.”
Tucking my hand into the crook of his arm, Pharis escorted me onto the viewing platform that looked out over the empty ballroom and down the curved staircase to the dance floor.
Sea creatures swam beneath the transparent floor, seemingly in time to the music being played by a full orchestra on one side of the room.
Overhead, candles blazed in the crystal chandeliers illuminating the ballroom as if this were a spectacular full-Court occasion.
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “All this just for us?”
