Una clambered to her feet, putting her arm in the basin of water up to her elbow in her haste. The gauntlet filled with dirty bubbles. “I’m not wearing that dress, Nurse. I don’t care if Prince Aethelbald dines with us tonight, I will not – ”
“None of your smart talk, Miss Princess.” Nurse tossed the shoes out over her shoulder and emerged herself a moment later. Her ruddy face was a shade redder than usual. “Prince Gervais of Beauclair arrived not ten minutes ago. He’s come to pay his respects!”
Una’s mouth dropped open, closed, and opened again wordlessly.
“Gervais?” she managed at last. “Prince Gervais?”
Her mind danced over a hundred different thoughts at once. None other in all the kingdoms on this side of the Continent had a reputation half so exciting as that of Prince Gervais. The kingdom of Beauclair was located just south of Parumvir and famed far and wide for its music and for the splendorous balls and entertainments hosted in Amaury Palace, whereat King Grosveneur held court. The prince, rumor had it, was the most brilliant dancer and singer in the kingdom, a great favorite with the ladies, young and old alike. His very name conjured up notions of romance wherever it was mentioned.
Una snatched off the gauntlets and the kerchief she had tied over her hair and rushed to the vanity to inspect the scratch on her nose. It was still bleeding. “Bother it all, why didn’t Father tell me he was expected?”
“Probably to prevent an entire week of the nervous tizzy you’re now working yourself into – ”
“Did you see him, Nurse?” Una dabbed her scratch with the handkerchief. “What’s he like?”
“I only just glimpsed him in the hall downstairs. Oh, he’s grand, very grand!” Nurse flung panniers and petticoats about with unprecedented abandon. “They say he rode up with a retinue of twenty, all bedecked in blue, with bells on the horses’ bridles. I do believe he winked at me.”
“Winked at you? Nurse!” Una fumbled with a petticoat, trying to do up the buttons at her waist, but her fingers, wrinkled with hot water, shook too much to manage them.
Nurse blushed like a schoolgirl. “I could be mistaken. Here, let me fasten that for you. Gracious, you’ve put it on inside out! Turn around.”
“Did he say anything?” Una asked.
“I heard him ask to be presented to His Majesty, and your father’s steward asked if he would wish to wash and rest himself first, and he just laughed. ’Twas such a musical laugh.”
“Nurse!”
“Well, it was, and I don’t mind saying it. I may be old enough to be your grandmother, but I’m not dead yet, Miss Princess. There. Now put this on.” Nurse helped Una step into the voluminous skirts of her dress, chattering all the while. “You’re to go to the receiving hall immediately and be introduced to the prince. Then the king has ordered a supper for him, a fine one, to which all his most powerful nobles will be invited – Beauclair being our strongest ally, you understand. Not even Prince Aethelbald received such a welcome as this! Sit and let me do something with your hair; you’re not half presentable. Can you not stop that bleeding?”
A quarter of an hour later, once again powdered and tweaked into the height of Parumvir fashion, Una descended the staircase, one hand trembling on the stair rail, the other desperately attempting to lift her heavy skirts so that she could walk.
“Prince Gervais,” she murmured to herself. “Now that’s a fine name, I must say. Nurse didn’t say whether or not he’s handsome. But he must be, by all accounts. I wonder if he’ll think me pretty. Oh, Monster, you goblin cat, why’d you have to nick my nose?”
She touched the developing scab and sighed ruefully just outside the receiving hall door. Taking a deep breath and lifting her chin, she nodded to the herald to announce her.
Prince Gervais was not a handsome man.
But it did not matter. He possessed an air of graciousness with perhaps the smallest hint of disdain about the corners of his mouth, which was altogether alluring. And when he smiled, one forgot any flaws in his face or figure.
He turned a glittering smile on Una as she entered the receiving hall, for he stood already before Fidel, having been presented a few moments before. Una blinked under his gaze and felt suddenly dizzy. The curious stares of all the courtiers around her withered away in the light of Prince Gervais’s brilliant grin.
“Princess Una,” Gervais said after Fidel had made the introductions and everyone who was supposed to had bowed or curtsied. His accent was thick and smooth as velvet. “I had heard rumor of your loveliness long before now, which incited my curiosity to meet you. But no rumor, however extravagant, came close to touching the true radiance of your presence!”