“Then I’ll coordinate everything,” she said decisively.
Flurry cleared his throat again and then looked at me. “Lastly, I would like Lady Carlisle to paint a portrait of Mister Hawkins as soon as possible.”
A portrait? Of me?
“Of course, Your Highness,” Lady Carlisle said. “I can begin immediately.”
Everyone broke into smaller groups then, with Badru taking his album to Flurry, and the Lennons going over to talk with the guardsmen and Mister Wynn. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what Flurry had just asked for.
“Mister Hawkins?”
I blinked a few times and looked up at Lady Carlisle. “Oh. Hi. You can call me Milo.”
“Delyse.” She sat on a pouf at my knee. “Have you ever had your portrait painted before?”
“No,” I said on a disbelieving chuckle. “I’m confused about why he’d want one.”
She gave me a smile like she was thinkingaww, bless his heart, and I got it. Was Flurry maybe falling a little in love with me, too? I stared at him and put a hand over my heart.
“So what we’ll do is find a location that fits with you. If you’d like a suggestion, I’m rather fascinated by this fireplace at the moment. You could?—”
“Um, actually,” I said as my mind came back online, “would it be possible to have me in the snow? Maybe outside somewhere? Or if that’s too cold or unpredictable, maybe Flur— Prince Flurris could create something in a room somewhere for us.”
She smiled like she was figuring something out and nodded. “We could absolutely do that. I’m sure His Highness could create something breathtaking for your backdrop.”
“Me?” Flurry said as he appeared beside me.
“Your Highness, Milo would like a winter scene as the background for his portrait.”
Flurry’s smile grew and grew. “Okay,” he said quietly.
I knew that if a staff member caught us kissing, they’d throw a curtain around us, but what might happen if I started making out with him in front of a lady? I wasn’t even sure who else was in the roomanymore either. All I could do was put every ounce of want in my gaze and hope he could see it.
Flurry’s smile turned into a smirk.
I was vaguely aware of Delyse getting up. “Then with your permission, sir, I’ll collect my things and return in the morning to begin.”
“Yes,” he said. “Wonderful.”
As soon as I heard the door click shut, I grabbed him and hauled him onto my lap as he laughed. I kissed his neck and caressed every inch of him that I could reach until his giggles subsided.
“How do you know we’re even alone?” he asked.
“No one’s wrapped a curtain around us.”
I tried to kiss him but he started laughing all over again.
Chapter 12
For the portrait background, Flurry took over an unused ballroom and went to town on a corner of it, turning the space into a pocket of wintery forest complete with snow-covered trees and a mounted pair of rabbits. That last bit wasn’t as creepy as it sounded, but it did make me feel a little like a Disney princess with my woodland friends.
“If they end up not being to your liking,” Delyse said on a laugh, “I can cover them up. I’m just sketching now, so you’ll get an idea of what they look like from the start.”
The rabbits were sitting about a foot to the left of me. I could look over my shoulder and see them, but Delyse had asked me to stop moving. “This is only the second time I’ve been this close to a stuffed animal. I mean the dead kind, not the toy.”
“Oh? Do they not practice taxidermy in the human realm?”
“Oh, no, they do! Maybe not as much as they used to.I don’t know anyone who goes hunting, actually.” I watched her drawing me, really wanting to look over my shoulder. “There was a stuffed bird of some kind in my hotel room, and I had to throw a blanket over it because it kept staring at me. Like, I swore its eyes followed me around the room. Man, I wonder what they think happened to me.”
