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I added little flowers too. Golden silk sunflowers dance around my waist while matching smaller blooms decorate the sleeves. I hope Lux likes them. I hope Lux likes me! It’s so easy to talk to someone through a letter when you’re writing alone in your bedchamber, it’s another thing entirely when you know they’re just outside the door of this carriage.

The door that is creaking open far too quickly.

As I stand up, I’m immediately tickled by the early autumn breeze. My breath shudders, but not from the cool air – it’s the gorgeous manor right in front of me.

Lux’s letters didn’t do it justice. Not even close. The sand-coloured building stands tall at three storeys. Its tiled roof sits prettily under the rich blue sky. Dozens of windows are set into the bricks while tall columns guard the giant arched door.

With its backdrop of the dense forest, the manor is already stunning enough to make me want to turn it into a tapestry. But it’s made even more beautiful by the ivy and flowering plants climbing up the walls.

I gasp at all the lush greenery. Eventually my gaze reaches the gravel drive and the two men that stand only a few feet away from the carriage.

My heart flutters. The two princes – one of them walking towards me to offer his hand.

I can barely contain my smile.

“Princess Eden.” Lux’s hand feels warm against mine as he helps me out of the carriage. His familiar scent is just as sweet as it was at the ball. Like freshly baked cinnamon swirls and a field of flowers right before it rains.

“You look…” His gaze falls over my gown. “Somehow even prettier than I remember.”

I smile. “Thank you. Your home is beautiful. Thank you so much for inviting me here.”

“The pleasure is all mine.” He leads me towards the front door. Before we reach it, he stops and steers me to the side. It takes me a moment to realise that we’re standing in front of his brother. “Eden, you remember my brother, Castor?”

I glance at him, his messy hair and his creased clothing. I wonder if he rides horses?

“Princess Eden.” He dips his head. “How delightful it is to see you again.”

Ignoring his obvious sarcasm, I curtsy. “Prince Castor.” I don’t tell him it’s good to see him, even though that’s what Heather told me to say when we rehearsed this meeting with her and Fern in my bedchamber last night.

Part of me had hoped he wouldn’t be here. But Lux lives with his brother. Of course he’d be outside to greet me.

“I’ll show you to your room first.” Lux pulls my attention away. “It’s in the west wing of the house, with windows that look out onto the sunflower fields. But if you don’t like the view, we can find you a different room,” he adds. “Or if you don’t like any of the furniture, we can buy you something else⁠—”

“Why not let her repaint the entire manor while you’re at it?” Castor mumbles.

“Ignore him.” Lux leads me up the cream steps. I don’t miss the scowl he shoots Castor, or the way it disappears as he turns back to me. “How was your journey?”

Before I can reply, a third set of boots crunches against the gravel behind us. “The princess will be guarded by me while she is here. Direct orders from her father,” a low voice says.

It’s hard not to roll my eyes. Turning back, I find Phillion, the guard Father insisted on sending me here with, standing tall with his hand against his sword.

Of all the brutish guards my father has watching over him in the palace, Phillion is by far the worst. He behaves when my father is around, but the second he’s gone, he’ll make no effort to hide the perverted way he watches us in our dance gowns.

Camellia said that once he’d cornered her and offered to take her on his horse outside of the palace if only she’d let him put his hand up her skirt.

Of course when she tried to tell Father, he’d scolded her for making up stories. But since then, Phillion’s behaviour has only gotten worse. And I have an awful feeling that I’d end up with a story of my own if it weren’t for Meera.

Behind Phillion, Meera, my ‘driver’ fusses with the horses.

If Phillion were a decent guard, he would’ve noticed that Meera was not the coachman assigned to drive our carriage. He also would’ve noticed the at least a dozen daggers that she has hidden under her ill-fitting, obviously stolen palace uniform.

Meera works with Kasimir, the assassin my eldest sister now lives with.

She’d caught me while the servants were loading the carriage, whispering that Blossom had asked for her to watch over me and that I wouldn’t know she was there unless I needed her.

It settled my nerves enough for me to stomach sharing my carriage with Phillion. Thankfully, he only felt the urge to stare at my bust a few times during the two-hour journey.

“Eden will be quite safe here. We have plenty of guards within the manor,” Lux tells Phillion, his grip around my hand tightening.