“You meantailoredto fit her?” Della grinned as she took the dress off its hook and held it up. “Of course, I do it all the time.” She studied the dress. “She’s built long and strong. I can take out the hem in the skirt, make the sleeves three-quart length, and add a couple panels to the lace-up bodice. That’ll make it hers.” She slipped into the Cockney she usually saved for the fair-goers. Give me ‘til the end of the day, Benjamin Blacksmith, and you’ll have a fine gown for your lady fair, won’t you?”
He’d left with a receipt and a smile.
Now the gown was in a garment bag hanging behind his workshop door, and he couldn’t decide if he’d done something brilliant or utterly stupid.
Probably both.
He drained the coffee, grabbed his phone, and hit Shane’s number before he could talk himself out of it.
Shane picked up on the second ring. “Moose. What’s up?”
“ When we went to lunch the other day, why didn’t you tell me that Vivienne Cross and Rowan McCrae were Charlie’s principals?” Ben asked without preamble.
Silence. Then Shane’s laugh came warmly through the phone. “You two bumped into each other at the Ren Faire.”
“You could say that. Rowan’s an old friend of mine. I met him the summer of my senior year when I was apprenticing for the blacksmith while the rest of you were off punishing your livers.”
Shane chuckled. “Good times.”
“So why didn’t you tell me?”
“Client confidentiality, brother. You know how it works.”
“Bullshit,” Ben growled. “You could have given me a heads-up.”
“And spoil the surprise? Where’s the fun in that?” Shane was clearly enjoying this. “Besides, I’ve gone above and beyond already, trying to give you every possible in with Charlie and you haven’t taken any of them. I’m done trying to set you two up. You’re both adults. You’ll figure it out yourselves.”
Ben scrubbed a hand over his face. “Shane?—”
“Okay, okay.” Shane’s tone softened, turned serious. “What’s really going on? Something happen at the Faire?”
Ben took a breath. “I bought her a dress.”
A beat of silence. “You…what now?”
Ben ran his hand over his stubble. “It looks like the one Princess Evelaine wore the first time Aldric professed his love in the Forest Between the Worlds in book two.”
“I’m not a nerd so you just lost me.”
“Asshole. Then you’re the only person on the planet who hasn’t watchedLegends of BattleLoreyet.”
“Yeah, don’t I know? April can’t stop talking about it. I haven’t told her Rowan McCrae’s in town because I’m afraid she’ll trample me on her way to meet Sir…Aldric Dude or whatever.”
“I shouldn’t have called you.”
“I’m exactly who you needed to call, brother. So why’d you buy this dress for King?”
Ben paused. “I saw Charlie touch it right before she went into the costume shop across from my forge. Just for a second, but...” He trailed off.
“But you saw something,” Shane said evenly.
“Yeah. Like…”
Like she wanted to be a princess. Ben didn’t dare betray Charlie and tell Shane that. He remembered Charlie swearing him to secrecy over her arachnophobia. How much worse would this be?
“…like she wanted it or something.”
“You sure about that? King’s not much into dresses.”
