all the props are finished and you have your ideal cast singing.”
“That won’t be before next mid-winter. But it will give me time to make it a grand occasion, with all the winter decor. Not to mention the expanded audience of all the Northland vacationers fleeing their frozen homeland.”
“Just look at you,” he said proudly. “You would have been wasted sitting in some obnoxious, overgrown brat’s castle far away. But here you are, putting on shows, and finessing money out of rich people, more efficiently than I ever managed, and putting it into the hands of the poor.”
I twisted my lips at him. “You make it sound like I’m swindling them. With what they’re getting for their money, it’s an exchange, not a robbery.”
He smiled over his glass, eyes glimmering with that humor I’d never get enough of. “It’s the thought that counts.”
“It does. But you’ll realize the wealthy will willingly pay more than you could ever steal, if they think they’re getting something coveted by their peers. It’s all a competition to them, just like my mother still mourning our not marrying another king’s offspring, despite her dissatisfaction with her own regal match.”
Robin snorted into his drink. “Poor Queen Zomoroda, you deprived her of boasting to the ladies at court with your unimpressive choices.”
I poked him lovingly. “Bonnie and you are not only impressive, you’re heroes! And she and all those courtiers won’t forget it, because I will write as many stage productions as I can, not just about you, but everyone like you.”
“Changing popular opinion through entertainment—it has been known to happen.” He looked up to the top box and waved at my family. “It’s already changed me from pest to folk hero.”
I waved, too, receiving enthusiastic and supportive gestures from Leander, Esmeralda, and Florian.
Mother’s last hope for royal marriages, our younger siblings had just become betrothed at the ripe age of twelve and ten, to the Armorican heir and princess, fourteen and eight. Their betrothed were in the box across from my family’s with their father, King Guillaume, and their ambassador.
Though Esme didn’t seem thrilled with her match, and I could see another rebellion coming Mother’s way, she and Florian were delighted with Robin. Leander was ecstatic, for my safety and happiness, and for having one of his dearest friends as his future brother-in-law. But the smugness filling him to the brim came from the doubled amount of spite dropped in our mother’s snobbish lap with our future morganatic marriages.
But my own match mortified her far more, since she’d believed I’d marry a king my whole life. Now, instead of princes and princesses, my children would be lords and ladies, children of the newly made Duke of Sherwood, and they would do whatever they wanted with their lives.
As for Robin, Father had recognized his heroics in saving Arbore’s princess by striking all charges against him from the record, raising him from earl to duke, and restoring to him his ancestral lands—what he now ran with his ears on full display. Robin was also studying under the current Minister of Internal Affairs. He’d one day take over and reform laws for the betterment of our people.
We were finding our purposes in life, and helping each other achieve them like I’d dreamed.
Robin set his hand on my lower back. “Time to join your guests, and watch the show.”
I started to protest, my need to supervise overwhelming me, but he herded me away from the stage and towards our seats.
As I passed by the audience, I noticed Bonnie’s father, Seamus Fairborn with his new wife Ivy, and stepson, Oliver, sitting beside Will, Jon, and my fairy godmothers. But I forgot them and all of existence once the orchestra launched into the first melody and the curtains parted.
All my being hung on every sound and movement as the acts progressed. I mouthed every word of the lines I’d written, and hummed every note of the musical numbers I’d composed, excitement and anxiety clashing within me. Robin let me mangle his hands in my spastic grip as I bated my breath for the audience’s reactions to this new medium, and my work.
They burst into laughter at the lines Robin had cherry-picked from his experiences, and clapped hard and sometimes cheered at the end of every act. When the show ended, a standing ovation was given to the cast and orchestra, and I melted back into a puddle of relief.
“Get up!” Robin urged.
Flushing with delight and self-consciousness, I stood and bowed, hand over