“Ahem. As you know, the staff talks sometimes and…I know it’s very silly to care, butishe as handsome as they say?”
Elías frowned. “That, I cannot advise.”
“You’vemethim.”
“Aye, but I subscribe to a different preference, Princess.”
“Well, then, wager a guessbased uponmypreference! WouldIlike him?” I asked.
“I’ve...yet to see a person upset by his appearance.”
I looked at Willoughby, whose single brow peaked in a way that confirmed Elías statement.
“Fine,”I said. I drifted toward the rolling hillside.
“Handsome or not, you’ll do well to like the Prince, especially as a person. That’s how marriages work,” Elías said.
“You said marriages worked on respect,” I said.
“Aye.” He nodded. “But admiration and respect are not mutually exclusive thoughts. Liking your partner makes the hardships worth the pain.”
“Hardships? Boy, marriage sounds lovely. What, with all the pain.”
Elías shrugged. “Love is far more powerful than any pain, Princess.”
I tsked.“If you say so.”
Chalke was as confusing as it was liberating from the seven days it’d taken. I stood in the middle of Rothingham’s bazaar. Everything was bewildering and new. Oreian markets were less crowded, or the stalls were further apart or fewer in between, with banners half as bright around the square. Even the Chalke architecture was free and inviting, but in a way that made my chest feel tight.
Impulsively, I grabbed the nearest hint of fabric, hooking some poor soul. “I must be lost,” I said mindlessly. “Might you help me?”
The man was fiendishly well-dressed, with dark wavy hair that fluttered about as he drew his shoulder back from the intrusion. “Oi!” he cried.
Then I stumbled, and he did a double take, catching and righting my stance.
“Excuse me?”he said. “What?”
I looked around. “I…” But I could not help but flush at the sudden realization that he was simply the most incredibly beautiful person I had ever laid eyes upon. “I…Hello.”
We stared at each other. Stupidly, I combed a chunk of invisible hair behind my ear.
“You’relost?”he asked.
“I, uh, yes. I’m looking at the trinkets I saw,” I said. “Do you know where they are?”
He knit his brows. “Trinkets?”
“Oh, well, of course, you couldn’t-wouldn’t, I… It was a larger table. With frogs and… I … No, I… Hold on. There are the frogs, but….Where’s the fruit man?”
“Fruit man?” he asked. He followed my eyes to the next table with hats and belts but no apples.
“He was right here,” I said.
“Sorry.Whoare you looking for?”
“I’m not— I don’t knowhis name.He…I do knowI’ve seen those frogs, though. So where is he?”
“Frogs?” the man said plainly. His confusion intensified.
