“No more of your jokes, Thompson,” came Maddox’s hard voice.
“Oh. I forget you two are siblings,” Thompson said, sounding disappointed. He lowered his words to a whisper. “Say, do you think the crown prince kissed her yet?”
Someone snorted. “Not our Prince of Propriety.”
“He’ll have to during the wedding ceremony.”
“But it won’t be more than two seconds, that’s for sure,” Thompson said, howling with laughter until there was another dull thud. “Ow!”
My face was burning by the time I finished my lunch and returned to the carriage. If that was what they thought of their future king, things were dire indeed.
Sister Scarlett’s Scandalshad a readership prone to gossip and exaggeration, but if the members of the Royal Guard went about spreading such rumors, there was no saying what effect it would have on the tour.
Maybe Ulysses was right. I had to try harder. If not to win the crown prince’s heart, then to convince everyone else that I had.
After all, deceit was my strong suit. I played the duchess’s spoiled daughter all my life. This would be no different.
18
It took another twodays to arrive at Vandil. King Maximus’s sister, Lady Marianna Median, had agreed to let us stay at her estate at the outskirts of the city. It was nowhere near as large as Huntington Abbey, but it had space enough for the guards and cargo. The building was homey, built with dark wood and creamy stones, overlooking miles of flax fields—a fraction of which Lady Marianna owned.
Vandil was known as the capital of Olderea’s textiles. Most of the land was reserved for farming—flax for linen, lavender for dye, and sheep for wool. Some corners were saved for breeding silkworms for silk, or producing luxurious velvets.
This was the place where the textile riots had happened, as most foreign merchants only wanted fabrics from a certain witch-owned store in the city. Ulysses said the shop sourced raw materials from Witch Village rather than from Vandil, despite being on Vandil land. It was no wonder the human civilians were angry.
“We must exercise caution, more so than in Delibera and Coriva,” Lord Frederick had told us the day before. He ordered four guards to follow me and the crown prince closely when we approached the city, two of whom turned out to be Maddox and Flannery. After what happened with the snake, they were decidedly not the most competent guards. But it was comforting to have familiar faces nonetheless.
Lady Marianna met us in the courtyard when we arrived. She was a short woman with a curvy figure and thick, dark brown hair. Her jovial features lit up when she caught sight of us, though it was late and blisteringly cold.
“Bennett! It’s been years since I’ve seen you, dear,” Lady Marianna said, trapping the crown prince in a tight embrace. “And look at you! Handsome as ever.”
“Aunt Marianna.” The crown prince smiled as she pulled back. Even in the dark, it transformed his face, making him look several years younger.
I stared. I had never seen him quite so happy before.
“And you must be Narcissa,” Lady Marianna said, hugging me as well. Her embrace was warm and firm and soft. I hadn’t been held like that since I was a child. “You two are going to make this old woman very happy. I haven’t had guests in ages!”
