“Never had a season?” Lord Barrington remarked. “How doesthatwork?”
“Yes,” I said. “How indeed?” No one laughed. “I mean, Ihavebeen busy with other things. Piano. Embroidery. Reading. My horses.”
“Horses?” Miss Agatha asked. One of her brows moved. “Are you a fan of racing, Your Highness?”
“Uhm,” I stopped. “Well, no. I don’tracethem. They’re more of companions.”
“Companions?” she repeated.
Sam barely tilted his head at her. “What Aggy means to say is that’s lovely, Svana,” he said. He presented me with his glove. “Now. You may not have had a season, but surely we can make tonight special, Princess?”
“Special? How?” I asked.
“With a dance,” he said. “You do dance, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course,” I said. “I know all of them. My father hired instructors.”
He grinned. Hesitantly, I laid my hand over his, and without further warning, he pulled me into the dancing surge of lords and ladies.
Sam found my ear.“I’m happy to be your first proper partner.”
I closed my fist, collecting parts of his shirt between my fingers. He brought me into a muchcloserdance than I had anticipated, one Ididn’tknow, and with the combination of his choice of words, how deftly he had managed to swing me through the steps of a foreign routine, and how quickly my heart raced, the majority of spins and dips made me sick. I barely kept up, striving to focus on his features instead of the pattern of passing window panes that littered the back wall.
The song slowed and then picked up, and I was moving even faster.
“This is quite lively!” My head was swimming.
“The Chalke Quickstep?” he asked. “We’re spirited here, I’m afraid.”
“Yes, I have noticed.” I smiled to let him know I was notbotheredby the fact, just…unexposed. “Oreians dance much slower, I think. Our dances are–”
“Do you dance a lot out of season?” he asked. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”
I shook my head.
“Just in lessons,” I said.
“I’m surprised,” he confessed. “I thought you were the type to host as many events as you could. Every night, I imagined. Enough to drive your father mad. At least in the summer months. Assuming youhavesummers in Oreia? Is it cold year-round?”
“We have summers,” I said.
“You know what I mean,” he teased.
“I do?” I watched his eyes travel around the room as he nodded and greeted a few friends throughout our turn. “Um. Oreian summers are-”
We met eyes. Warmly, and I felt as though someone had unleashed a flock of birds behind me.
“Tell me something, Svana,” Sam said. “Something no one else in this room could ever know about you.”
That made me laugh.
“Is that funny?” he asked, grinning wide. “I just wish to know my wife.”
“Of course, but I would wager that I could tell you anything to accommodate your request.”
“Come again?”
“I meant, no one here seems particularly interested inme, sir.”
