Isahn grunted, his newly tanned face looking a bit red. Beside him, Hildy tipped her head from side to side as if considering the viability of the arrangement.
“No,” George replied curtly.
“Why not?” Wynnie ignored the obvious command. “All of you will be stuck in the palace. Isn’t myinsulaein the capital safer than putting Isahn at risk of being pulled into the king’s misdeeds?”
George nearly bit through her tongue. She’d found him in Sorhaven, she’d uncovered his goodness, and he washerfriend first. Not Wynnie’s.
Dunstan or Burke, she wasn’t sure who, hummed like they were considering it.
“I’ll take excellent care of him,” Wynnie purred.
Isahn’s foot whacked against the wall behind him as he jerked to the side.
Hildy gave him an odd look, Wynnie giggled demurely, and George saw red. She gritted her teeth so harshly it sent a shockwave through her jaw.
She’d suspected her friend was sending Isahn unsolicited images. She half thought she was imagining it, but his odd reactions at the table just about confirmed it. George wasn’t sure whether he was receptive to Wynnie’s advances. He hadn’t acted on them yet, that was for sure. Wynnieneverkept quiet about a conquest.
Forget what she thought before; there was no way George was letting Wynnie have this one. Even if Isahn wasn’t interested in George, even if hewasinterested in Wynn... She couldn’t watch it happen. Life was too difficult, and she wasalwaysprotecting those around her. It was time to put her foot down, to stake her claim, to protect herself.
Chest hot and voice holding no room for argument, she proclaimed, “I said no, Wynnflaed Doukas. He’ll stay with me.”
“What about your father and his uncle?” Burke asked, gesturing with his chin at Isahn.
George glowered, and Burke tossed his hands up in surrender.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it!” he tacked on.
“My father hasn’t entered my wingoncein the past decade. Why would he start now? Isahn stays with me.”
Everyone nodded, except the earl, who chewed on a piece of bread as he watched the exchange.
Keeping her expression indifferent, George urged her racing heart to slow. She wanted to look away, to avoid his blue-eyed gaze as he turned toward her, but she braved his face and found him smiling softly.
Lostinthought,tryingto decipher exactly what had just happened, the end of the midday meal snuck up on Isahn. Wynnie excused herself to finish packing her belongings, and as she flounced out, she sent Isahn what he assumed was one final mirage. In this vision, Wynnie was clothed and waggling her fingers in farewell as she batted her lashes. The real woman had already disappeared down the hall.
Hildy left soon after, followed by Dunstan and Burke—deep in conversation about horses.
George lay frozen on herlectus, her gaze intent on the doorway as she twisted her rings. She didn’t feelembarrassedfor all but claiming him before everyone, did she? Was she worried he felt differently? Regretting her choice to have him stay in her apartment?
More uncertain than he’d felt around her in a long time—since she’d shown up as a man, in fact—he decided to break the silence. “Shall we?” Rising from his seat, Isahn offered her a hand.
Her smile was small, and her fingers lay tentatively against his large palm, but Isahn was fairly sure it wasn’t regret in her expression.
Wordlessly, he stayed by her side as they walked along the deserted, open-air corridor. Sunlight danced on the courtyard’s stones, filtering through the olive tree.
George pushed open the door to her chamber, and he froze. The desire to enter was overwhelming, but it was debatably inappropriate. She’d come into his room earlier, but she was the bloody princess.
A touch whispered over his lower back, urging him to step into thecubiculum.
Desperation claimed it was her magic beckoning him in, but the pressure was featherlight and could easily have been his imagination. Isahn would’ve kept questioning himself if he didn’t feel it again, more insistent the second time. Invisible fingers wrapped around his wrist while a palm pressed flat between his shoulder blades and shoved.
He stepped forward, hovering just inside the door. Typically quite forward with women, “princess” was new, palm-dampening territory.
George removed her shawl and flitted about, wrapping a pair of earrings in a bit of fabric before stuffing them inside a pouch.
The door thunked shut behind him, and he glanced over, surprised. “What?”
“Magic,” she replied.
