David was always composed in public, attempting to seem unaffected even when anyone who knew him could tell he was weary. He was not yet thirty, with eyes the same warm color as trees in the fall, and charming dimples that appeared whenever he smiled. He did not wear a crown tonight, which had delighted Tu’s very foolish heart. Tu hadn’t been sure he’d have been able to stand another reminder of who and what David was.
Tu should not even be here, would not be here if the Lady Stephanie had not given him her invitation. She had no desire to marry David, and not only because everyone knew that Prince David had no interest in bringing any woman to his bed. She was a close enough friend to the Prince that she might even be aware of the true motivation for this flurry of parties, introductions, and courtships. But if she did, she was not saying.
Until this, the young prince had avoided all talk of marriage and been content to stay at University, furthering his studies. The entire country had been shocked by the announcement that Prince David would begin a search for a spouse. Even more intriguing was the declaration that the search would begin with three masked balls. Quite out of character for the famously studious prince.
Rumors were rampant. Truthfully, Tu was not certain how many at this ball had come to try to catch the Prince’s eye, and how many had come to observe and speculate. He hoped those after a royal marriage were also interested in David himself. He supposed princes did not usually get love matches, but someone kind and agreeable would suit David well, make an ideal partner for a life of duty and good works.
The thought sent a pain through Tu’s chest, which he ignored with the ease of familiarity. Tu had been lovesick fool for a long time, but he had known from the start that a political marriage was in David’s future. It was not Tu’s place to comment on anyone David might consider. If anything, he should entrust that duty to David’s best friend, the ever-outspoken Flor de Maga.
But months had passed since David had left the University, or at least, had vanished from the circles where Tu might have seen him. Tu had never been able to shake his worry over the Prince, even when the Prince had been trying hard to just be David, a student at the University and frequent visitor to bothMr. Tulip, Bookseller, and the salon of Lord Hyacinth, where Tu was also often found.
David was capable of being one of the greatest rulers their country would ever have, but he was sensitive, prone to overwork himself, and almost too bravely willing to put his heart on the line. He needed someone who knew him, who was strong enough to supporthimand not just the Prince through all the responsibilities that would be placed on him.
For whatever reason, Prince David had decided that such a spouse would be found in the lavish spectacle tonight, or perhaps at one of the following parties, although only the first three were to be masked.
David looked tired, his smiles a little stiff. Tu studied him hungrily before glancing away when he thought David might turn and see him.
Ridiculous. Tu was masked. But David would not want to see him here. Whatever David might have felt for Tu, friendship with some fondness, some lust, he would be over it now, surely. Tu had not been David’s first lover and would not be the last. That was what tonight was about, after all, in one way or another.
Lady Stephanie did not think so. Lord Hyacinth had barely stopped short of calling Tu a fool.
Tu knew he was. But the wise sort of fool in a tragedy. He could not help falling in love with a sweet, earnest, insightful prince, but princes did not marry booksellers, and, in any event, Tu was not the consort David needed.
Dull, with gray in his hair and softness to his body that spoke of a life at a desk. Tu’s chestnut brown eyes would need spectacles within a year or two, and he was fond of early nights in front of warm hearths. His hair had been his prettiest feature in his youth, but that was mostly because the rest of him was so ordinary.
The young man talking with David now was nearly lovely enough to rival the nervous beauty continuing to hold up the wall by himself.
Tu forced himself to look away. He had done what he came to do; observe the Prince and satisfy the ache that had not let him sleep well for months. Keeping himself turned away from the dais, he slipped from the ballroom, stopping only to grab the elbow of someone in the shining scales of a crocodile and steer them away from the trembling dragonfly.
“Someone was looking for you,” Tu lied with a smile, and only let the smile drop once he was in a corridor occupied by far fewer people.
If the ballroom was for romance and gossip, the corridor seemed to be for more serious political discussions. Politics would factor into David’s marriage as well.
Tu hurried past those engaged in conversation, vaguely aware he was headed in the opposite direction he needed to go if he wanted to leave. Guards were positioned outside several doors, but none of them stopped him when he turned toward another, smaller, dimly lit hallway that must have been for servants. He had no idea where he was, but he was alone, with only a few flickering candles to disturb him. He could close his eyes and wait for the sickness to pass.
If there was one advantage to being older and more experienced, it was knowing that most things were bearable with enough time. He would stay a fool, stay in love, but David would be happy, and someday, a good king.
“Are you all right?” The question echoed down the hall in an achingly familiar voice.
Tu opened his eyes. Prince David closed a curtain behind him, giving Tu a glimpse of several guards and the rest of the royal family, minus the young Princess, on the dais in the bright ballroom. Then the hallway was again dark.
Tu pulled in a breath but was otherwise frozen. He did not deserve David’s kindness now, though it should not surprise him. He did not know what to say, except to ask forgiveness before fleeing.
“I’m sorry.” The words came from David, startling Tu into even more flustered silence. “I needed a moment away, and you seem to have had the same idea. I’ve spoiled your hiding spot.”
“Never,” Tu whispered, the heart in his throat making his voice husky. “You couldn’t spoil anything.”
David held still, his head tilted in question, but finally glanced away. “Because I am the Prince,” he said, with something heavy in his tone. He stopped a few feet from Tu, and though David was not considered short, Tu would have been slightly taller if he had been standing straight. Which Tu abruptly did, since they were not friends anymore, but instead a prince and his subject.
Tu bowed his head, uncertain what court manners required. “Are you well?” He couldn’t help but ask though David would hardly want to speak with him. “I… it is only that you seem tired, Your Royal Highness.” Perhaps that was disrespectful, but Tu could not pretend he did not know what David looked like when wearing himself thin. His voice dropped to a pained whisper. “It must be a lot of pressure, a night like tonight.”
“The life of a king is almost all pressure.” David’s voice was level. Nonetheless, Tu felt chastened. “That is, the life of a good king, who works for his people,” David added, no less serious. He had always been inclined to be earnest, but this felt different. As close to David ever got to being openly bitter. Tu was about to apologize when David continued. “If you say that, you must be one of those here to watch, not to enter the chase.”
Tu frowned as he raised his head, trying to discern David’s meaning although the distant candlelight did not allow him to read David’s expression as he otherwise might have.
Then he realized, and had to look away again in order to breathe. Tu wondered if he had been forgotten so quickly, or if the costume, dim lighting, and the preposterous idea of a bookseller at a royal ball were enough to disguise him even from David’s eyes.
Tu tugged his mask to keep it in place and could do nothing to ease the strain keeping his voice low. “I am too old for His Royal Highness,” he said when it became clear an answer was expected because David did not know who he was. “And too insignificant.” Tu waved a hand toward the direction of the ballroom, wanting to distract David, wishing this moment would not end. “Naturally, they watch. It is their future tied to yours, even without being chosen.”
