"Are you saying I don't have his interest?"
Novena stared blankly at me. "I wasn't saying that."
The starlight flooded me. Its warmth was unmistakable. “If he doesn’t like me as I am, then?—”
"That is the wrong attitude to have when you have everything to lose for it." Her words slipped slowly from her lips. "I want for nothing, and all I have to do is appease my husband."
It was the future I was taught to want—the most luxurious riches at my fingertips, the status to never want for anything. The way she said it made my stomach clench.
"Lord Fyn," she called to him.
His gaze locked with mine when he turned around before he began to look at the dress.
"It is stunning on Princess Ashlyn, is it not?" Novena asked.
"Is that not the same dress she had on before?" He adjusted his leather belt. "I notice no difference."
I looked away from him the moment I felt his lie.
"Surely you are jesting." She smoothed her own gown.
"His duty doesn't require him to know these things." There were few things I could say to hide the crack that was slowly forming. I knew his lie, but his choice eroded my control. "I'm afraid he's hopeless.”
“Truly.” Novena flicked her hair over her shoulder.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
FYN
Icouldn’t look at Ashlyn long in that dress.
Ashlyn looked up at me when Novena slipped away. I looked everywhere but at her.
“Can I help you with something?” I swallowed every word.
“You hate it, don’t you?” There was something different in her tone.
“You don’t want my opinion, trust me.” I wasn’t talking about the dress.
I patted my hand against my pocket. The slimy liquid from the awful cucumber slid down my palm.
Ashlyn rolled her eyes. “You smell absolutely atrocious.”
“That’s what I was going for.”
“You have to get rid of the pickle.”
“Where exactly?” I would have been happy to. “I will dispose of it outside as soon as I’m able.”
“Well, it can’t be soon enough.” She pointed to the dark ring that had embedded itself near my pocket.
I pulled at the cuffs of my sleeves, feeling the sweat thicken beneath them. “Why did you ask me what you did?”
She smoothed her waves over her gown. “About the?—”
“You needn’t say it here,” I said. “I need to know why.”
“What do you know of it?”
