“I think she was quite young when it happened, if I recall?”
“She’s quite young now.”
“But didn’t the King find her?”
“Y-Yes,” I said, trying to maintain my sense. “I’m fine. …I think. Actually, I think I might benefit from some air. I’m not used to this many people in one room.”
She nodded, ignorant of the ache so few words had awakened. The girls were as indifferent to my departure as they’d been with Agatha’s. I left and cut across the floor.
Things were less confusing in the corridor, but I still passed a few nosy,‘where is she goings’on my path. Once I was alone, I could breathe. Outside the ball, no one worried about my hair or my mother, but my silence was cut short by a bubbly giggle.
It half-startled me, half-enticed my curiosity, but it was definitely a woman’s laugh. A crazed naïvety wanted to discover whose, despite the following of a man’s low chuckle or the intense awareness that I should not disrupt whatever they were doing.
But Mr. Evergreen came to the forefront of my suspicion, and I was sure the laugh was his. Possessed by a need to out him for what he was and to rescue whichever poor lady he had lured into ruin, I ventured down the hall and through the study’s open door to find it.
The man held an apple to the woman’s lips, and her hands were flat against the built-in shelves he’d pressed her into.
Miss Agatha.
She snickered past the skin of a red fruit as its juice drizzled across the crest of her cleavage. Then the shadowy rogue passed through the light, and it wasn’t Mr. Evergreen at all. It was my prince.
The room was dim, but he was too easyto recognize, though still facing Agatha. Mr. Evergreen did not have black hair, nor did he likely own the same gaudy shade of teal Sameer wore. I watched him maneuver the apple and inspect her reaction to his offer.
I cleared my throat, unsure of what else to do, which sent both of them into a frenzy. Sam dropped the sphere to reseat his trousers to his hips, and then tie his belt.
“Svana!” he fumbled.
“Oh, I-” Agatha’s eyes widened, but she flew by me and out of the office before I knew what to scream at her. Then it was just me. Me and my prince. Alone.
“Svana.” He straightened, smoothing the bunched-up seamed of his pants. “This is not-”
“What it looks like?” I asked. “Save your breath if that is your excuse.” I was stiff; inside, I was mush.
“I can explain,” he said. His face became sad as I analyzed it for truth— for morelies,like the ones my father used to justify the whores to me.
“The explanation is that…” I paused. “You and Miss Agatha have a relationship. Is it just the effects of tonight’s excitement, or is this an ongoing transaction?” I asked.
“No,” he said, reaching for my arm; I stepped back. “Aggy and-”
“Aggy,”I said. I hadn’t caught or cared for the pet name before. “So ongoing, I see.”
I turned to leave, but he followed after, hushed with his defense. In the hallway, he tugged at the back of my skirt and pulled me toward him so hard, that he unraveled one of my ribbons and slacked the dress. I gasped, crudely smacking his face.
“Do not touch me!” I hissed.
Sam retracted, and he apologized; his chest heaved with regret. “Please. Talk to me, my love. Let’s discuss this.”
“What is there to discuss?” I asked.
“...Us?”
“Us?”I asked. “Whatus?We share asingledance and trade compliments. You think you’ve won me over? That I’m what? Madly in love with you? That seeing you withAggyinjures me?”
“Yes,” he said. “You look injured.”
“You are mistaken. This isduty,Prince,” I spat. But I was. Iwasinjured. I just didn’t want him to know. “I’m appalled by your disrespect to duty!”
I begged my body to formulate a movement that kept me safely at a distance. I would not admit it, I swore. I promised to not ever admit that Sam had said all the right things. That it had only taken aweekto convince me I was special.
