“I want to look nice, that’s all.”
“You always look nice.”
She harrumphed and took another drink. I sank onto the bed, leaning back against a mound of frilly throw pillows. “I take it you’ve recovered from yesterday’s excitement?”
She paused her search long enough to sigh up at the ceiling. “Yesterday was a dream.”
“A dream? Lowri, you spent most of the evening in tears.” And she’d insisted on taking dinner in her room.
The scalloped hem of her navy skirts swayed along the carpet as she came toward me only to collapse onto the mattress. “I was only crying because I was so torn over—” She cut herself off, biting her lip.
“Over what?”
“It’s just . . .” She sighed again, rising to her elbows to look at me, lavender hair spilling over her shoulders. “Did you see the way Prince Caiman swooped in and rescued me from that terrible man? He was so gallant.”
First, he’d “rescued” both of us. Second, as far as I was concerned, there had been no swooping. Only Lowri losing her composure and Caiman offering comfort as if he weren’t an evil wretch for once.
“One small act of kindness does not a hero make.” Although if he truly hated the fae, surely he shouldn’t have cared a whit about what anyone said about us. Perhaps it wasn’t all fae he hated. Perhaps it was just me.
I found that harder to swallow than the alternative. What had I done to deserve his disdain? I thought back to the day we met. We’d escaped to the gardens, and I’d shown him a trick I’d learned from my father. We’d talked for hours and then he'd kissed me.
All right. Perhaps I’d kissed him. Not that it mattered since he didn’t even remember. Either way, none of what had occurred that day had warranted what I’d overheard him saying to Alrec that same night.
She is a monster.
“I’m not so sure,” Lowri said with a small, secret sort of smile.
I knew that smile. It was the same one she wore when she first met Lord Kerrington. “You cannot be serious. He’s infuriating. Besides, I thought you were in love with Kerrington.”
Lowri rolled off the bed, tore another gown from the armoire, wrinkled her freckled nose, and stuffed it back inside. “I told you, Kerrington was a mere distraction.” She withdrew another gown, this one the color of a buttercup, but discarded it as well. “Besides, why should you be the only one with a prince on your arm?”
Surely she wasn’t suggesting—
“Just think, if I married Alrec’s brother, you and I would be sisters! Wouldn’t that be a treat?”
For some reason, the idea of Lowri marrying Caiman sounded about as appealing as fish heads for supper. “The two of you wouldn’t suit.” She would drive him mad with her endless chatter, and he would reveal himself to be entirely heartless, breaking hers before nightfall.
“He may be all darkness and brooding now, but I am confident in my abilities to woo him into the light.”
“Yes, but he is wretched.”
“He is handsome,” she countered, as if a nice face could excuse all manner of sins. “I have dreams too, you know. As much as I love being your lady-in-waiting, I would like a life of my own.”
When she put it that way, who was I to deny her happiness? I’d found my prince. Didn’t she deserve a chance to find hers?
Lowri yanked out a gorgeous black gown with a low-cut neckline that would enhance her curves. “This is it! This is the one.” She spun in a circle, lavender curls bouncing.
I agreed that she would be a vision in the dress but couldn’t find my smile.
6
ROISIN
I explainedto Lowri my concerns over the throne and she told me I was overreacting. That we should all be so lucky to have a prince who bought us gifts and gave us golden thrones. I felt so low by the time I left her chambers, the knots in my stomach had gotten worse.
I hadn’t meant to sound ungrateful. I just . . . I don’t know. None of it felt right.
When being indoors with my thoughts became too confining, I sought fresh air to clear my muddled mind. I passed through the solar and out onto the warm stone patio leading to the gardens.