She laughed in delight. “I told you I’d be getting out soon. And Ididn’t escape. My husband came for me.” She sighed as if it were the most boring answer in the world.
I didn’t think I could be any more shocked. “Your husband?”
She snapped her fan closed and pointed it toward a man with wings. Heavy-set, balding, and he looked to be about thirty years her senior with sagging skin and a wrinkled forehead.
“That’s your husband?”
“Ambassador of the sky court. He’s in charge of relations with Fyriad.”
The frost court. I couldn’t believe she was wife to an important man like an ambassador.
“Is that where you’re from?” I asked.
She wiggled her fingers, frost forming over the tips.
“Where do you live? Here or in Fyriad?”
“We have two homes. One in the frost court and one in the sky court so he can attend to his duties. We were at our home in the sky court when I went to find Spirit Sky’s bolt. Of course my husband doesn’t know that. He thinks me nothing more than a simpleton who accidentally stumbled onto the sacred ground during an outing.”
I let out a laugh of disbelief. “How could anyone think you’re a simpleton?”
She leaned in like she was telling me a secret. “Oh, it’s surprisingly easy to believe what we want to about a person. I might play the part a little too well.”
“So that he won’t suspect what you’re doing?”
My gaze bounced between the man and her as I tried to work out this puzzle. “How did you ever get married?”
She waved her hand. “It’s simple, really. My parents raised me to be wed to someone with wealth and power.” She gestured toward him. “As ambassador of the sky court, Lord Growley is certainly that. It’s an arrangement, nothing more. He doesn’t know about my... hobby. I go on my expeditions when he’s out of the house and I pay the servants for their secrecy. It doesn’t hurt that they like me much better than him.” She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to get arrested. I’ve never seen him so angry when he came to collect me. He said I humiliated him.” She studied her manicured nails. “But I have my ways of... calming him.”
My stomach twisted. I had no desire to know what those ways were.
“So what’s your next venture?” I asked, still so fascinated by Emory. She’d been bred to be a wife, an important man’s wife, but she carved out the life she wanted for herself amidst it all. She just took it. Never wondered if she deserved it.
“I’m going to find that bolt,” she said. “Then I’ll have to appease my husband for a while because of my little stint in prison, and then... well, who knows?”
“But what’s your plan for it all?” I asked. “Why do any of this? You find the bolt and then what? It’s not like you can waltz into the castle with it.”
Before she could answer, a voice interrupted.
“Excuse me.” I turned to see Erasmus standing there with that crimson mask pressed against his bronze skin. He held out his hand. “I hope I’m not interrupting. I just wanted to ask Princess Arabella for a dance.”
“Well, I believe that’s my cue,” Emory said, bowing her head. “I hope we meet again, Princess.” She waltzed off toward her husband, who slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a watch attached to a long silver chain, looking for the time.
I turned to Erasmus, who had stretched out his hand. “Don’t you have a ballroom to be guarding?”
He chuckled. “My guards have it handled.” He gestured to the guards stationed around the room, their silver chest plates gleaming, eyes constantly shifting to assess for danger.
“In that case, I’d love to. Though I do have to warn you, I’m a terrible dancer. The king already found out firsthand.”
My mention of him brought our conversation back to the forefront of my mind, and suddenly, I wished I could be anywhere but here. Emory’s company had been a good distraction, but now I’d been shoved headfirst back into reality.
“That is good to know. I do need my toes intact.” His lips twitched as he took my hand and led me to the floor, right in the middle of the staring crowd.
I still wasn’t used to it. All the looks, the murmurs. After that dance with the king, I just wanted to disappear, but I also didn’t want anyone to think something amiss.
Erasmus pulled me to him so that our chests were nearly touching.
“You’re beautiful, you know,” he murmured. “Born to be a princess.”
