The Princess's Dangerous Betrothal

Chapter 5: Steam

“This has been the most dreadful outing of my life!” Eiley said to her friends. “Please tell me something interesting happened here while I was gone!”

Annabelle grimaced. “We were counting on you to bring back some stories.”

“That’s really too bad!” Eiley said, not bothering to slow her pace. “My company today was about as interesting as a slice of stale day-old bread.”

Teresa giggled while jogging to keep up. “He really couldn’t have been that loathsome!”

Eiley rounded a corner of the stone hallways in her castle. “Not loathsome, just boring.”

“So there’s not a move in our future?” Annabelle asked eagerly, successfully hiding how invested she was in the answer.

“Almost certainly not!” Eiley exclaimed. She threw open the door to the parlor and fell onto a waiting settee. “It’s not confirmed, but after our interactions today, I can’t imagine that the Prince is eager to sweep me off my feet and whisk me away to far off exotic lands.” In truth, she felt a deep relief at the reminder that her friends would accompany her wherever she was led. Not everyone got along so well with their ladies in waiting, and Eiley considered herself lucky that she happened to love the women who were bound to her. It gave her all the more reason not to want to drag them from their home.

“Does this mean the ball is called off?” Annabelle asked.

Eiley laughed. “We may manage to get a party out of this after all.” She stared up at the ceiling. “It’s entirely unfair that such annoying activities have to be so exhausting too.”

Teresa rubbed Eiley’s shoulder sympathetically. “I’m sorry we couldn’t come with you.”

Eiley turned her eyes towards Teresa without moving her head. “No, you’re not.” Eiley laughed at Teresa's expression.

“Okay, I’m not. But I am sorry you had to go without us.”

Eiley squeezed Teresa’s hand briefly. “I know.”

“Why do all men like going on hunts so much?” Annabelle joked.

“Hunt is such a strong word to use for what they do,” said Teresa.

Eiley swung her feet down to the floor so she could sit up. “I don’t know how they get away with calling it a hunt when it involves bringing a four piece band, a feast, and an entire wing worth of furniture.”

“The men really do have strange ideas of fun!” Teresa said.

“If I never go on another hunt, it’ll be too soon!” Eiley said. She usually managed to get out of them, but her father was extremely insistent about her attendance this time. She poured herself a cup of tea from the kettle waiting for her on the table. “You know, the strange thing? For all the posturing my father did to show off for the Prince, Warren didn’t really seem to enjoy it.” She breathed in the warm tea with a sigh.

“Such a weird man!” Annabelle muttered. “Do you have to see him much more before he leaves?”

Eiley groaned. “I’ve gotten out of most of it, but we still have a private dinner together before the ball.” She looked away from her friends, unable to hide her irritation. The schedule of events had looked exhausting to start with, but spending each of the events with Warren had been its own trial. “No matter what I do or say, he’s surly and uninterested. I can make conversation with the most bland of Father’s lords. I can’t even get a rise out of Warren when I try to scandalize him.”

“You could try inviting him to the hot spring…” Teresa said with a flirtatious wink.

“Ew!” Eiley yelled. “That would require going to the hot spring with him.” She shuddered and took a sip of her tea.

“It would certainly make the whole thing more interesting,” said Annabelle.

“That’s unlikely,” said Eiley. “He’d probably tell me some sort of geological history of how hot springs are formed. I can’t risk ruining the most relaxing thing in the castle.”

All three girls laughed, and the mood lifted a little.

“We can always go out tonight?” Teresa suggested.

“It’s a requirement,” Eiley said with a laugh, and the mood lifted entirely.

Annabelle cringed. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”

“YES!” Both girls answered, without hesitation.

“Okay, okay, we’ll go!”

Eiley picked up her tea and carried it with her to the other room. “Do we have outfits?” she asked over her shoulder.

“I’m sure we will soon.” Teresa smiled mischievously.

The three girls walked into the dressing room and began looking through the dresses hanging there.

“Such a shame we can’t use anything new to go out,” Teresa said as she picked through the lace.

“Teresa! You know we’d just get caught if we did!” Annabelle reminded her.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Teresa said with a sigh. “Plus this gives us the opportunity to make our own alterations.”

Annabelle blushed, and Eiley laughed and said, “Teresa’s alterations would certainly give the courtiers something to talk about!”

“You mean, it would cause a court wide scandal,” Annabelle said timidly.

“Oh, it couldn’t be all that bad!” Teresa teased. “Nothing like when Lord Mikelson brought a concubine to a joust.”

"Are we sure she was a…" Annabelle trailed off, blushing furiously.

"Does it matter if she was? She was not fit to be in court. Particularly not dressed like that!"

Eiley laughed. "I don't know," she said. "We could have learned a thing or two from spending time with her."

"Your father would kill us!" Teresa said with a carefree laugh.

"And what about Ronan?" Annabelle added, quietly.

"Oh yes, Annabelle. What about Ronan?" Teresa elbowed her playfully, and Annabelle dove deeper into a rack of dresses.

"What about this one for tonight?" she asked, holding up a pale sage gown. She poked at the satin bodice. "Maybe replace the silk outer with black lace," she said, in a thinly veiled attempt to change the topic.

"I know what you're doing," Eiley joked, not bothering to look at them.

“And if you’ll actually wear this dress with just lace covering the corset, I’ll let you get away with it!” Teresa took a small sewing kit from the pocket of her skirts and started examining the dress Annabelle was holding.

Annabelle handed Teresa the dress with a worried look on her face.

“I doubt I could even get Warren to look at me twice, even if I decided to forgo the shoulder lace altogether!” Eiley said.

“Isn’t that exactly what you wanted from him?” Teresa asked.

“Well yes,” Eiley said, turning away from her friends.

“But?”

Eiley grimaced. “I’m not used to just being…ignored!” She sighed. “I’ve been doing everything I can to make sure father doesn’t blame me, and I can’t even get a conversation out of a guy who’s supposedly here to marry me.”

“Maybe he only likes men,” Teresa said absently.

“Ohh! And his parents sent him here to find a woman to marry, but he’s only interested in getting back to his male lover at home.” Annabelle clapped her hands excitedly.

“Maybe…”Eiley said. “It would explain his focus on any letters he’s been getting. I just, somehow doubt that’s it.”

“Well either way, he’s going to leave soon, and we’re going to go out tonight!” Annabelle said.

Teresa glanced up from her sewing, “Eiley, are you excited to see Colin tonight?”

Eiley got a dark look on her face. “I don’t think so?”

“But you were so interested in him just a few days ago.”

“I know…” Eiley said.

“So what changed?”

“I don’t know?” Eiley closed her eyes for a moment. “I just don’t have a good feeling about him anymore. But I don’t know why.”

Annabelle shrugged. “Never ignore an instinct.”

“Maybe you’ll meet someone new tonight?” Teresa said playfully.

Eiley laughed. “I think I’ve met every man in town by now. There can’t be anyone new.”

“You never know.”

Eiley groaned. “Even if I do meet someone, and he’s absolutely amazing, my father is just going to pick a new suitor to marry me off to.”

“Oh, Eiley, I’m so sorry,” Annabelle said, putt ing her around Eiley’s shoulder.

“Don’t be,” she replied. “I’ll scare off the next ones too, I just hope they won’t be as boring as Warren is.”

“Maybe they will be,” Teresa said. “But at least you know we’ll have some fun tonight!”