“My family is too poor to afford new shoes.” It feels like betraying them to admit it. “Why do you need me to win?”
Step, slide, step.
“My father’s life’s work depends on it. Is that what you bargained for? Something to help your family financially?”
I step on his toes.
He winces. “Try to keep your steps the same length every time.”
“I didn’t make a bargain,” I say. “What was your bargain?” He’s been eighteen for months, surely he’s made one by now.
He shakes his head almost imperceptibly. “I’ll never make abargain,” he murmurs. “Why didn’tyoumake one?”
I don’t know how to explain succinctly. “I tried. I asked her to undo my sister’s bargain, but she said it couldn’t be done. There was nothing else I wanted.”
“Nothing?”
I shake my head. “It’s not your turn.”
“You didn’t ask me anything, I figured I’d take my chances.” There’s a hint of a grin playing at the edge of his mouth.
“What is your father’s work?” I ask. “Why does it depend on me winning?”
“Now it’s time to attempt turning.” He guides us in a wide circle. “Stop trying to lead.”
“I’m not trying to lead! You’re deflecting again.”
“My father wishes to build a world better than this one. I share his wish.”
I’m getting frustrated. “But what on earth does that have to do with me?” There’s a storm raging behind Emmett’s eyes. There’s so much he’s not telling me, so I decide to lay my own cards on the table.
“You want the truth? My sister’s disappearance ruined not only her, but our whole family. We’re sullied. Notorious. A laughingstock. I stood no chance of any invitations this season without this competition. My sister can’t remember her bargain, nor anything from the weeks she disappeared, and I can’t shake the feeling that they’re linked. I thought if I could get the queen to reverse it, give my sister her memory back, she might begin to heal. But then the queen announced the competition for Bram’s hand, and I saw, for the first time in months, an opportunity to help my family get back into society’s good graces. We’re going to lose our house. My father’stenant farms are failing. His business associates wouldn’t speak to him before, but they might now. He could get a loan. I could make things right. My mother might stop crying so often.”
Emmett’s steps have slowed. We’ve stopped dancing, but he’s still holding me in his arms.
“She wouldn’t undo your sister’s bargain?” Emmett whispers.
“She said the bargain cannot be undone, it doesn’t work like that. And I hate her for it. I hate the things she’s done to my family and to everyone else. I hate her. I’d be a terrible princess because of it. Bram won’t pick me. He shouldn’t.”
Emmett’s eye narrow. “You hate her?”
“As much as I’ve ever hated anything.”
“And you want to undo your sister’s bargain?”
“That’s what I just said, isn’t it?”
“We need each other, you and I.”
My heart quickens. “What do you mean?”
“My father’s bargain was this.” He gestures vaguely to the palace walls around him. “My mother died in childbirth. For the first eight years of my life, it was just my father and me. He read books to me. We played in the garden, fought with little wooden swords. Sometimes I don’t even know which memories are real and which ones I made up. It’s all bathed in this hazy light. He was all I had. And then he married Queen Mor and bargained to legitimize me as a prince. The cost was that he could never speak to me again. Suddenly I was alone, in big, drafty palace rooms, with only toy soldiers and a governess to keep me company. I didn’t understand. I still don’t completely. I had a lonely childhood and then a lonely adolescence. It wasn’t until Bram showed up that I remembered what it was like to have a family.”
“You have my sympathy, but I’m not sure what that has to do with me,” I say, confused.
Emmett rolls his eyes. “Are you always this impatient?”
“No.”Yes.
