would like to apologize for using your library uninvited and for treating it disrespectfully. I got carried away with my enthusiasm for some of the books I found there, and I lost track of my manners. It won’t happen again.”
She performed another of her little half curtsies—Marie really needed to impress upon her that she didn’t need to do that—and turned to Leo, who nodded very slightly, as if signing off on the statement of remorse.
Her father remained silent, staring at Gabby.
“Miss Ricci,” Mr. Benz said, “if you would be so kind as to inform me what sorts of books you like, I will see to it that—”
The king held up a hand, silencing his equerry, and Marie suppressed a sigh. This was exactly why she’d invited Mr. Benz. He had a talent for smoothing things over, especially where her father was concerned. But if her father wasn’t even going to let him speak, he might as well go home.
“I accept your apology, and I offer you one of my own,” her father said, and Marie was certain that hers was not the only jaw in the room that dropped. “My reaction to your presence in the library was out of proportion.”
She could see that Gabby, who had so clearly rehearsed her apology with Leo, had not covered what to do when presented with one of her own. The correct response, of course, was to murmur her acceptance. Instead, her eyes went wide and she spent a long moment looking like a fox at the culmination of a hunt before blurting, “No biggie!”
Marie had to stifle laughter. She would bet her kingdom—her literal kingdom—that no one had ever said “No biggie” to her father before.
The king, to his credit, did not react. He turned to Mr. Benz. “Miss Ricci is a devotee of fairy tales and yesterday she encountered a volume that contained some stories that had, heretofore, been unfamiliar to her.”
“Ah.” Mr. Benz nodded. “Miss Ricci, are you aware that His Majesty is himself the author of an English translation of a collection of traditional Eldovian fairy tales?”
“You are?” Gabby exclaimed.
“Mr. Benz exaggerates the situation. I studied comparative literature in my undergraduate days. I undertook a project collecting some of the traditional tales of these mountains, mostly passed down orally in German. Since I was doing it anyway, I thought I might as well translate them into the languages I already spoke. They aren’t formally published.”
Marie could see that this news both astounded and delighted Gabby. The girl remained silent, though, probably afraid of saying the wrong thing.
“My father used to tell me fairy stories when I was a girl,” Marie said to Gabby. She turned to her father. “Remember? I never wanted to go to sleep. Maman would insist, but sometimes you’d wink at me, and then you’d sneak back into my room later and tell me another.”
He smiled. A real one. “I’d forgotten that.” His expression became quizzical. “I think of your mother as the rebellious one, but we did deceive her from time to time with our bedtime stories, didn’t we?”
“Yes!” Marie agreed. “She was the rebellious one. But not when it came to bedtime, for some reason. I never could puzzle that out.”
“She was strict about your bedtime because she and I watched TV together after you went to sleep.” Father smiled in a way Marie might have characterized as dreamy, though dreamy didn’t seem like a word that should ever describe her father.
As if to prove her point, he shook his head and cleared his throat as the smile disappeared. “Miss Ricci, perhaps we can strike a bargain. I do much of my work in the library.”
What work? Marie was tempted to ask, but she knew better than to disturb this rare moment of goodwill.
“Therefore, I prefer not to be interrupted,” he went on. “Perhaps we can agree that you may borrow whichever volumes you like, but you’ll need to find another place to read them.”
Marie was amazed. She hadn’t seen her father give way to anyone in years. She wasn’t sure if the fact that this someone was an eleven-year-old and not, say, a member of parliament who held an opposing view, made it more or less remarkable.
Either way, dinner was less fraught than last night’s.
And the best part of it was when it was over. They parted ways with good-night greetings, but when she said hers to Leo, he licked his lips and said, “Yes, I think it is going to be