“What worked, Princess?”
I wince again at the hateful title. “Taigan. The prince. Do you think he bought it?”
“Your overwhelming impulse to kiss strangers? No.”
I grimace. “Damn.” Then hopefully: “Do you think he thinks we’re carrying on some sort of dalliance? Oh, I should have thought of that to begin with! Maybe if I convinced him I’d fallen madly in love with one of my guards—”
“It would be difficult considering I’ve only just arrived today.”
“Love at first sight?”
“Did you actuallyseeme?”
“I mean, I sawsomeone.”
“But not enough to form an instant and irresistible passion, I trust.”
“Well…no.”
“Then not, perhaps, the best strategy.”
I narrow my eyes up at him. High up at him. In fact, my chin tilts so far back, my head hits the wall. “It doesn’t have to be real. Just convincing enough.”
“Convincing enough for what?”
“To repulse Prince Taigan, of course.”
“Ah.”
“Do you think he is though?”
“Is what?”
“Repulsed.”
The lines of his face tighten slightly as he considers. I find my gaze drawn back to that scar, which slices so neatly through his eyebrow. The roped and puckered tissue trailing across his upper cheekbone ought to be off-putting, but somehow, I can’t help wanting to reach out, to run my fingertips along its length.
I knot my fists and put them both behind my back. I’ve just kissed the poor man; if I start pawing at his face, he’ll run for the hills! Though he doesn’t strike me as the easily frightened type. Not even by hysterically affectionate young women.
“No.”
The word emerges in a deep growl. I flush. Did he just read my mind? I’ve lost track entirely of our conversation, caught up in my study of his features. “I’m sorry?”
“Prince Taigan. He will not be repulsed by your advances onme.” His gaze drops slowly, taking me in. Not a lascivious gaze, nothing to make my skin crawl. Just an easy, considering inspection. Then his black eyes lift again to meet mine. “It would take a great deal more effort to make yourself repulsive.”
My brow knits. “Was that a compliment?”
“If you like.”
“I’m not sure I do like. I’m unused to receiving compliments and can’t say I know what to do with them. Mistress Iliyani used to tell me I had more brains than one might expect from such a flibbertigibbet. And Tim, her other apprentice, once informed me my face was ‘like a flower or something.’ Which was basically poetry coming from Tim. I’m not sure if ‘you’ll have to work harder to make yourself repulsive’ is quite on par.”
The stranger raises one eyebrow. “I am not the poetic sort.”
“No. You loomers so rarely are.”
He shifts on his feet. A slight change of position, but something about it conveys an impression of tremendous power only just contained. I’m suddenly aware of how alone we are in this passage. Ordinarily there would be two or three other guardsmen within view, pretending to be alert through their yawns. But a quick scan up and down the stone passage reveals no one. Several of thescintilshave gone out as well, the flickering magelight extinguished and the small globes empty. It would be an excellent place for an assassin to swoop in and do his business entirely undetected. It’s a good thing at least one of my guards hasn’t abandoned me.
“Well,” I say, my voice cracking a little as I push away from the wall. “I suppose I ought to be—” The words don’t fully emerge before I’ve taken half a step, caught my foot in the full mass of layered skirts my newly assigned waiting woman insists on smothering me in, and tumbled headlong.
