flour, which you know, Mars, is the finest in all the lands. It makes the best bread and pastries in Triton. And also one hundred pieces of Dellish silver-pewter, which is renown. All of this as agreed.”
“And I sent a messenger some weeks ago sharing I wanted one thousand bushels of wool and five hundred head of sheep,” King Mars returned.
“That’s outlandish,” my father muttered under his breath.
“We received no message,” my uncle said to the king.
“This is unfortunate,” the king murmured.
“We cannot go back now. The ceremonies begin four days hence. The Nadirii already ride over Firenz land. And I’d hate to see what Serena would do if she rode all the way from The Enchantments only to have to turn back,” my uncle warned.
“I care not what the copper one thinks,” the king replied, and his eyes went back to True. “Everyone knows that gold is more precious.”
I made not a noise as I shuffled closer to True seeing as that was just, well…cruel.
And thus, I stared now without awe (and perhaps there had been a wee amount of rapture) and instead gazed coldly at the king.
It would surprise me, and annoy me in that moment, that he actually wasn’t attuned to True.
He was that to me.
I knew this when his gaze fell instantly on me the moment my expression changed.
“Have I irritated you, my intended?”
I glanced but briefly at the lush beauty on cushions by his side and I spoke no words about anything, specifically about the fact that my cousin was enamored of that “gold” that was more precious.
Namely, Elena of the Nadirii.
“Does she speak?” he asked someone else, for his words stated thus but his dark eyes never left me.
“She speaks,” my father said, then turned, glowered at me and prodded, “The king asked you a question.”
I drew in breath.
And then I answered softly, “I heard him.”
“Well, answer,” my father hissed.
I held the king’s gaze.
“Silence,” my mother whispered pleadingly when I said nothing.
“This is an odd name, no?” King Mars remarked. “And it seems she took it to heart.”
“She is standing right in front of you, sir,” I said quietly. “And she tends not to say anything when she has nothing to say, or nothing to say she wishes heard.”
At that, to my stunned surprise, he threw his fearsome (but handsome) head back and the large room filled with the thunder of his laughter.
Oh faith, but he was even more easy to watch when he laughed.
That muscled throat.
What a bother!
I felt myself glaring at him and I had no idea what came over me because I had learned long ago to keep such to myself.
I could think things.
I could feel things.
I could not show things.
He was still chuckling when he caught my new expression and he leaned toward me. “Now I see I have irritated you, my little monkey.”
One could say I did not enjoy being referred to as a monkey.
I turned my gaze to the lush beauty who sat on the cushions beside him.
If it could be credited, she appeared to be sending me the message that she felt for me, such was her rueful expression.
She got to marry True, who was the finest man I knew.
I was to marry this brute, who called me a monkey.
I didn’t need her feeling sorry for me, or at least I didn’t need to witness it, so I looked to the floor.
“Piccolina,” the king called quietly, and with nothing for it (he was a king, soon to be my king), I lifted my eyes to his. “A queen does not study the floor,” he instructed, still speaking quietly. “Ever,” he whispered.
“I’m not queen yet,” I returned.
That was when his gaze took its time to traverse my face, taking in my hair, my neck.
It slid down my throat and lingered on my chest, which I had to admit, was much pronounced in the gown I wore of layers of sheer, sage-green chiffon that fell in a multitude of gathers from the off-shoulder neckline to a belt of the same material just above my natural waist. The gathers fell to a rough inside-out seam at my hips and then down in gracious folds to cover my feet. The lovely sleeves were wide and billowy and gathered just above my wrist.
It was lighter (and cooler) than my normal garments.
And I wore nothing to further adorn it but a sage satin ribbon in my hair, for I felt the simplistic wonder of that dress, and the sumptuous material, needed no accessories.
His