“If not the wall walk or the cellars, he would hide in a donjon, where food is plentiful.”
“Your Highness,” Sir Misyur said, “two maids are circling the wall walk this very moment. Four menservants—”
I coughed. Both of them turned.
“His Majesty requests you.” I curtsied.
She let her skirt go and waved her hand. “Requests which of us? No need to bow, Ehlodie.”
I straightened. “You, Your Highness. He instructed me to bring a breakfast for you.” I held out the tray.
“But I’m not hungry, and I’m helping! We’re finding Jonty Um.” Her huge eyes filled, reminding me of blue-yolked poached eggs.
How wicked I was to have such a thought!
“I’m coming.” Her hair bounced below her cap as she leaped off the dais. “My father would not like to know I jumped.”
I smiled. “I won’t tell.”
The king’s first words were addressed to me. “Half an hour is not long for a king to wait for his command to be obeyed. How lucky I am to be a king.”
Instantly Princess Renn said, “La! I came as soon as I was told.”
I flushed. She turned to face me. Under pretense of taking the tray, she mouthed, I’m sorry.
Perhaps he did worse to her than he did to servants.
She placed the tray on the table. “I’m sure the cook was slow, Father, not Ehlodie.”
“The girl has a name? A name in three syllables?”
This made me as angry as anything else he’d done.
“Yes, Father. Ehlodie.”
“How grand of her. Come here, girl.”
I moved a little closer.
He frowned. “Has she come near, Renn? Do you believe she has approached me?”
“No, Father.” She murmured. “Perhaps she is afraid.”
“Of me? Come, girl. I won’t spit at you again.”
Not comforting, but I advanced and stopped a few inches from him.
“Most mansioners paint their faces, if I am not mistaken. Extend your face, girl.”
I put my face forward and dug my nails into my palms.
“You don’t mind my finger in your jam, do you, dear?”
“No, Father.”
He dipped his forefinger in. I closed my eyes. He might accidentally or purposely poke one of them out.
“One sister is pretty. . . .” His finger rubbed jam into my left cheek and stroked it across the left half of my lips. “And the other is not.” After a moment he smeared something warm on my right cheek and across the right half of my lips.
I licked my upper lip on the right. The brown sauce.
“Mustn’t.” He applied the sauce again. “Ah. Stand away so my daughter may see.”
I opened my eyes.
“Is she not improved?” He didn’t pause for an answer. “You would have benefitted from my assistance yesterday, girl. Now perform the piece again.”
Shamed tears flooded my eyes. Do not cry, I thought, or he will be glad. I blinked them away and reenacted the scene. I did it well, too, to spite the king and please his daughter.
She didn’t laugh until I had the prince search the floor for jewels, my nose just above the wooden planks. But then she did and kept laughing until I finished.
“I am delighted to hear your laughter.” His Highness speared a chunk of his leek pie and put it in his mouth. “All but the pie is for you. You are too thin, my love.”
She took a hard-boiled egg and picked at it with her fingers.
I backed away. If they ignored me for a few minutes, I would slip out.
“I want you at your prettiest. With the ogre vanished, you still need a husband.”
I froze.
“I have chosen a better one.”
She swallowed and blinked. “So soon?”
“The night of grieving is over. Now is the day of joy, my dear.”
“La! Only it is so soon.”
He frowned.
“Is he tall and rich, Father?”
“He is rich. He will be tall. His father, the earl of Profond, is tall.”
She swallowed again. “How old is the son?”
“He was born six months ago. Love is deep when it starts early.”
“Cruel!” The word exploded out of me. My hand flew to my mouth to snatch it back, but it seemed to fill the entire tower.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I —cruel?” the king said mildly.
I looked down at my shoes peeking out from my hem. How worn they were, water stained and grimy. What would His Highness do to me?
“Am I cruel, daughter?”
“You are never cruel. Does the son have ringlets in his hair?” Her voice lightened. “Ringlets are charming.”
“I am told he has golden ringlets.”
“Will he be handsome, do you think?”
I looked up.
She threw her arms around the king’s neck. “You are goodness itself.” She raised her head. “Ehlodie, my husband will be tall and rich, and he will never turn into a mouse. How happy I am.”
King Grenville patted her back. “I’m glad, child.”
“And how sad I was a moment ago.”
“Eat, my love. The sausages are very fine.”