messy bun, dancing in the middle of the gazebo, under the moonlight, like a muse from Virgil’s Aeneid. She held up her arm and watched her steps carefully as she practiced. I could hear the faint sound of “Awaken Dreams” by Benedictus von Heinrich, but I didn’t know where it came from until she missed a step—well, a few steps and stopped, clearly frustrated. She inhaled deeply before going to the gazebo’s edge, lifting her phone and restarting the music. Odette moved back to the middle and raised her hands.
I could not stand by and watch, so I ran up the gazebo’s steps and appeared in front of her, lifting her hand with my right and putting my left on the small of her back.
“Gale?”
“Odette.” I smiled, leading with my right foot first, and immediately she followed.
“When did you get back?”
“Just now,” I replied, helping her shoulders relax a bit. “How long have you been practicing?”
“Since Lady de Marissonne said I looked like a scared turtle when I waltzed.”
“Ha! I can see it!”
“Shut up!” she snapped, trying to break away, but I held her closer.
“I am only joking. You look as breathtaking as always. Tonight, you look a vision of myths and legends.”
Her eyes narrowed on me. “Laying it on a bit thick?”
“You haven’t gotten used to it yet?” I shot back, turning us both.
She had a reply, but the moment she stepped on my foot, she forgot all about it and looked down, frowning.
“Whatever it is, don’t worry about it,” I said to her.
“But I have to worry about it! They told me about the Queen’s State Dinner. It’s going to be my first. They even said I had to wear a crown. Sorry, I mean a tiara—there is a difference. So, not only do I have to dance but also do it with like a million dollars on my head, and under no circumstance is it allowed to fall. But before I can worry about all of that, I have to get through my speech. I’m complaining a lot, aren’t I?”
“No. Well, yes, but I’m glad you are,” I said because, honestly, I was. “It is better than when you first came and said nothing to me at all about what was going on. Instead, you kept just saying, ‘I’m fine’ until you exploded.”
“I did not.”
I gave her a look, and her face bunched up in response.
“Fine, I might have exploded a little.”
“Like a tiny nuclear bomb.”
“It was not that bad.”
“Had me trembling in fear.”
“You are so dramatic.”
I chuckled and nodded. But I was seriously glad we were getting to see each other day by day. “You share your complaints with me, and I shall share mine with you. God knows I’d like to explode too.”
“What happened?” Her whole expression was now serious.
I did not want to say, but I did not what her to think I was hiding it, either. Truthfully, I knew I really couldn’t hide it anyway. “Well, this morning, I embarrassed myself in front of the Solar Energy Coalition by mixing up a photovoltaic cell and a photoelectron chemical cell.”
“A what and what?”
“Thank you!” I exclaimed. “My thoughts exactly. It is not as if I am an engineering student, but I still wished to understand, so I studied the basic terms of what they would be showing me. A simple slip of the tongue, and they were all chuckling as if I did not even finish primary school. And I thought that was going to be the worst of the day, only to be invited to dinner at the prime minister's—no, not invited, entrapped.”
“Entrapped?”
I sighed, looking into her eyes. “Sabina was there.”
Just like that, her smile dropped. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh, so I’m sure we can both look forward to whatever headline will come in the morning.”
“I’m doing my best not to look, but it’s hard when...”
“The whole palace knows and is pretending it’s not?”
She nodded. “What happened with Sabina?”
“Nothing happened with Sabina,” I whispered back. “I ate dinner, restrained myself from causing a national crisis by punching the prime minister, and when I left, I told Sabina to stop.”
“To stop?”
“Getting in the way, appearing in our faces, basking in the press’s attention.”
“I do not know if she will give up that easily. If she was bold enough to tell me she was going to be your mistress—”
“Oh God, how I hate that word. No, I hate this conversation,” I replied quickly. “Do not worry about her.”