“One of the Swift girls,” she replied. “The younger one.”
Another girl shook her head. “What’sthis?Aggy Adeline behind on gossip? You must be very distracted these days.”
The sisters frowned, turning to each other, and shrinking the accuser well into her shoes.
“It’s just…” she explained. “Lydia and Cyrus have parted, is all.”
“What?” Aggy cried. “When?”
“Early this week?” she said. She wasn’t sure. “Maybe last? All I know is that she was absolutely wrought with tears when I saw her for my fitting. She could barely speak.”
“How horrible,”I said.
“Quite.”
“What did he do to her?” I asked.
Aster was unbothered. “Or her to him. He’s a bit nice. Not her usual type. I’m surprised it took so long, honestly. What? We’re all thinking it. She?—”
The blonde stood a little taller; something catching her eye. She smiled as sweetly as I thought possible before excusing herself from our circle.
“I’ll return shortly,”she whispered to me as her sister talked.“My father is summoning me.”
“Oh, alright,”I said.
“—a real shame. They were well-suited for each other in that way, I always thought,” I heard another conclude.
“Oh, well,” Aster said. “She’ll find someone better. Not that it’s hard.”
“You just said you’d ride the man,” her friend replied.
She dismissed it with a huff. “Ride, not marry. I need my men a little harsher, I’m afraid.”
“Look at her; you’re making Her Highness blush,” someone declared.
She clicked her tongue. “I’m sure Miss Svana understands just fine. If she knows he’s aswordmaster, she’s met him. It’s all he talks about.”
“What do I understand?” I asked.
She paused, and then they went back to Shoes.
I wondered what kind of lady could find herself engaged to a man like Mr. Evergreen. He wasn’t nice. He was a rough, proven fabricator, and a rake! Sure, he was kind to the staff, and hislips curved ever so slightly whenever I had a clever insult hurling toward him, but he-!
The girls had moved on to dissecting another man, correlating his ability to play a game with impossible knowledge of his soul.
They carried on about charm and wits; each offered twenty names I hadn’t heard, but after a while, they settled their attentionbrazenlyback to my fiancé. Sameer was at the top of every woman’s indecorous list, even if some seemed to prefer his lessmetaphysicalattributes. I stayed quiet as they giggled about his voice, his hands, his body….
“She could’ve worn it down,”I heard someone comment from the crowd. And then,
“I bet she’s hard-headed. Nothing less is to be expected from an Eisson mare. Wild things, I hear.”
I could not place the voices, and no one seemed to look too crossly at me as I searched.
“Princess?” Aster asked. “Are you alright?”
“Better than taking after her mother, poor girl.”
“Do you think she found her?”
