I stare out the window again. It’s already been a fortnight since I last saw Dimitri, and I am eager to find him, retrieve Mara and the changeling stone, and return home.
Unless it was all a misunderstanding—then maybe we can still be together. Say, perhaps, we were under attack, and the only way Dimitri could keep me safe was to leaveme hidden in the woods. Or, possibly, he felt so terrible for separating me from my family and home that he left me there in a noble, heart-wrenching display of chivalry—and all he took to remember me by was the changeling stone…and my dress…the necklace he gave me…and my horse.
My hands clench into fists in my lap, but I take a deep breath and release them. “Are they hiring entertainment for the feast?”
The pair eyes me. I fidget under their gaze, wondering if they will see through my ridiculous costume. At least Inger gave me fabric to sew a more modest bodice.
“Tambourine girl?” Emery asks.
I lick my lips. “I can do that.”
“I’ll introduce you to Master Draeger when we reach the palace. He arranges the music for the dinners and festivals.”
I smile, feeling both relieved and nervous. I can shake a tambourine if I must. How hard can it be?
“Watch where you are going, peasant,”a woman sneers.
I barely bumped into her.
Cringing, I apologize and attempt to right her extremely tall hat, which I have knocked askew. She bats my hand away, affronted, and harrumphs as she disappears into the crowd.
“I’m sorry,” I call after her.
From across the hall, I feel Master Draeger’sscowl. I clap my hands together, making the tambourine jingle. I attempt to swirl about the room “gracefully, beautifully, and moving as an extension of the music itself”—exactly as Draeger instructed. Instead, I crash into the arms of one of the visiting princes. The exact prince I have been avoiding all evening.
Surprise flashes across Irving’s face, and then it falls away to amusement. “Lady Anwen?”
“Shhh,” I hiss, looking around to make sure no one has overheard.
In a lower voice, he asks, “Darling, whatever are you doing?”
“I can’t tell you, Irving.”
He grins, and it’s a wicked, beautiful thing. “You must. I am your prince, and as my oh-so-lovely subject, you have no choice.”
I laugh despite myself. “Can’t you tell? I’ve run away from home to become a performer.”
“A noble choice, to be sure,” the Crown-prince of Primewood says, grinning. “But I don’t believe you.”
I raise my eyebrows and shake the tambourine for emphasis.
“No one could look at lovely you, and think you are a tambourine girl,” he whispers, his voice dripping with honey.
“I believe I have most fooled.”
He pulls me into his arms and guides me to the music. I notice he’s limping slightly, and I motion to his leg. “What happened to you?”
“Dragon.” He waves the question away. “But I believewe were speaking of you. What I meant was,despitehow lovely you are, you make a pathetic tambourine girl.”
I laugh and smack his shoulder with the instrument. He winces, and I realize he must have been injured there as well. “Oh, Irving,” I say with a cringe. “I’m sorry.”
The pain slowly leaves his face, and he smiles again. “I mean it, love. You are the worst entertainer I have ever seen. What are you really doing here?”
Draeger scowls at me, but I give him a helpless look as Irving leads me around the hall. Surely the music master wouldn’t expect a mere peasant girl to refuse a prince a dance?
“I met a man from one of the traveling troupes,” I begin, keeping my voice low so only Irving can hear. “And he asked me to run away with him.”
Irving pauses in the dance and gapes at me. “You ran away with a—”
