Dad had gelled and combed my dark brown hair away from my forehead, and the silk baby blue handkerchief he’d let me borrow to tuck into the jacket’s front pocket made my matching eyes sparkle against the suit’s navy fabric.
Still, I felt guilty wearing it. With any luck, I’d make it through the night without a spill on the suit and we could return it — but given that my nerves had already made my hands shake, I wasn’t holding my breath.
“Thanks,” I said and smoothed out a wrinkle on my shoulder.
“Are you okay? You haven’t said much tonight.”
“Honestly, I’m a nervous wreck. Who wouldn’t be?”
“I know it’s easy for me to say, but don’t be. Just be yourself and have fun. It's no different from any other party.”
“Except it’s at a mansion and the King of Gilmouth will be there.”
Dad shrugged. “So? He’s human, just like the rest of us. And you know what? If he doesn’t like you, that’s his loss. I won't think any less of you.”
I appreciated his words of encouragement, but they didn’t make me feel better. While I scoured my reflection for even the smallest of imperfections to fix, all I could think about was how badly I wanted the night to be over with already so I could go back to my normal life and pretend none of this had ever happened.
The doorbell rang, halting my obsessive nitpicking and sending my heart rocketing into my throat.
“That’s probably the driver,” Dad said, beaming with excitement. “What I wouldn’t give to go with you. You’d better take plenty of pictures for me!”
It seemed so extravagant for the king to send a personal car and driver to escort me to the manor, but then again, what did I expect? That was probably how he and all his other rich guests traveled everywhere; they damn sure wouldn’t take the train with the rest of us.
“I’ll try, but I don’t want to look too much like a tacky tourist,” I said as I followed Dad out of his bedroom to the front door. I didn’t doubt I’d stick out like a sore thumb among the others just for being a commoner, so I didn’t want to do anything to further lower my chances.
Dad threw his arms around me and planted a kiss on my cheek. “Whatever else does or doesn’t happen tonight, I’m so proud of you. I just wanted you to know that. Now get out there and catch yourself a king,” he said and yanked the door open. A gust of frigid air and snow rushed around a tall, thin, regal-looking man wearing a full body peacoat and top hat.
The man’s eyes swept over me, and he flashed me an approving smile, which I took to mean the suit was an excellent choice. He offered me a white-gloved hand to shake. “You must be Mr. Richmond?”
“Er, yeah, that’s me,” I said and gripped his hand as confidently as I could.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Adam Wingrad, and I’ll be your driver this evening. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Very good. Then away we go,” he said and left the porch to return to a classy, sleek black luxury car that must've cost more than I'd made in my entire lifetime. Adam opened the rear door and gestured for me to enter, but I stood frozen in the doorway, unable to believe this was happening.
“Go on, Landon. I’m not paying to heat the outdoors,” Dad hissed, snapping me back into reality. He handed me my coat, and I gulped and stepped carefully down the frost-covered stairs to the street before shrugging into it. Adam offered me his hand again to help me lower into the car, but I didn’t feel right taking it, so I just clambered in on my own instead and flopped awkwardly onto the dark leather seat cushions, which were extravagantly posh; sitting on them felt like a crime.
Adam shut the door softly behind me and walked around the back of the car to the driver’s side. My window’s glass had fogged from the welcome heat in the car, so I swiped it away with my sleeve and smiled when I saw Dad standing and waving. I waved back as Adam removed his hat to climb into the car and put it in gear. We rolled away, and Dad continued to shrink until I couldn’t see him at all anymore.