I shake my head. “Suit yourself.”
“Don’t I always,” he says, and it’s not a question.
The girls come downstairs at sunset. “Do you think he’s going to come today?” Sasha asks, a little anxiously. “Mom is pretty strict about dinnertime. I could send her a note?”
“I’m sure they’ll be along by the end of the day.” I pause. “Night. Before midnight, in any event.”
“Apparently they’re formal,” Bash adds.
Amaritha and Sasha exchange a look, one which expresses far more than words ever could. “I could just risk it,” Sasha says, musingly. “Get grounded for a week if I’m home late.”
I pull out my stationery and dash off a quick note, and hand it to her. “Run this home, will you? If Astebaen shows up before you’re back, I’ll delay him. It’ll take quite a while before the actual kiss anyway, once they’re here. Do you need a note?” I ask Amaritha, as Sasha grabs the letter and takes off running.
“Nah, my parents are like,We totally trust you; just don’t stay out all night. I’m fine.”
“Lucky.” I smile.
She smiles, affectionately. “They’re such weird old hippies, honestly.”
Sasha’s back in less than a quarter of an hour, out of breath and grinning. “Mom says it’s a good experience for me and she’d be here herself but that, uh, from everything she’s ever heard about the Astebani…I don’t know; she was like, you go and tell me all about it.” She pauses, thoughtfully. “Hey, why are you dressed like that?”
“Like what?” I say.
“You know, kind of more…princessy than usual.”
I pat my hair self-consciously. “I don’t look that odd, surely.”
“You look more formal,” Amaritha says. She turns to Bash. “Right?”
He shrugs.
“Don’t ask him,” I sigh. “He already told me I lookdifferent.”
“Not, like,baddifferent,” Sasha says. “More like you looked when you first came here. You know, stiffer.”
“Less relaxed,” Amaritha adds. “Did you dress this way because of this prince?”
“Oh my gooooooddddsss, I am dying to meet this guy,” Sasha says.
“I heard Astebanis sleep standing up!” Amaritha says.
“I’ll just go make some tea,” I say, rising.
“What if you’re downstairs when he shows up?” Sasha says.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “It’ll be fine.”
Between the four of us we’ve drunk ten cups of tea by the time someone finally knocks on the door. I am something approaching a nervous wreck by this time, and the sound makes me jump. Before I can do anything more than stand, Sasha is on her feet and running to the door to pull it open.
“Uh, hi?” she says, and steps aside as a tall elf in high-necked formal clothes steps inside. He glances at her, then looks up and spots me, and sweeps into a long, elegant bow.
“Princess Tanadelle. I am Garain, high steward of the house of Astebani, speaking on behalf of Astebaen, prince of the palatinate of Astebal, greatest and most bountiful of the eight kingdoms of the Shining Realm.”
I curtsy, my lowest and most courtly, the one that requires a plié nearly to the floor. It took me months to master it.
“I welcome you, Garain, high steward of the greatest and most bountiful kingdom of Astebal.”
He stands and looks about. “I must make arrangements before His Serene Highness may set foot in…your…abode,” he says a little doubtfully.
