Hopefully she wasn’t wrong in her conviction that Cameron was the same.
The ring accompanied her through the long hours of the coronation ceremony at the temple. Sophie tried to pay attention. After all, Eloisa wasn’t too many years older than she was. The Fairleys tended to be long-lived. So barring accidents or illness or other ill fortune, this might be the only coronation she ever got to attend. It would definitely be the only one where she was part of the queen-to-be’s retinue. By the time Eloisa’s successor was crowned, Sophie would hopefully be a contented old lady surrounded by broods of her own children and grandchildren. With people serving her, not the other way around.
The ceremony itself was a glittering spectacle, the ritual raised to a true art form, with the temple priors chanting and the Domina directing everything as smoothly as a general and the queen nearly glowing in the golden dress. It was near painful to look at Eloisa in her state of perfected beauty sitting so still on the very recently completed new Salt Throne as the Domina placed the crown on her head. Sophie knew no glamour was involved. No Illusioners had come anywhere near the queen whilst she was dressing. It was all Eloisa. Which was somewhat depressing. Sophie knew that she, too, looked as beautiful as she was ever likely to, having been fussed over by the same people who had attended the queen. Yet with Eloisa in the room, no man would take a second look at any other woman.
Still, Cameron had smiled at her and bowed slightly as she had walked through the temple ahead of the queen-to-be. She hadn’t been able to see his face as Eloisa entered, so she could pretend that he, at least, found his wife-to-be as beautiful as the queen.
And she would be able to dance with her husband-to-be at the coronation ball in the evening, and then, in just two more days, she would be married to him. Then, perhaps, life would return to some semblance of normality.
Cameron, it seemed, danced as well as he did everything else. Sophie tried not to smile too widely as he held her and swept her around the room in a circle dance. She also tried to disguise the heat that swept through her at the close contact, hoping the flush on her face would be taken to be the fault of the overheated ballroom—temporarily converted back from audience hall for the night—and not the fact that she was trying not to think about what it felt like to be even closer to Cameron. After all, they were supposed to barely know each other.
She wasn’t entirely sure the charade was working, particularly not when Cameron leaned a little closer and whispered, “We really need to get better at this,” in her ear, making her stomach curl and her nipples harden under her corset. She’d rarely been thankful for the confining structure of a court dress before, but she was glad for the protection it offered from the scrutiny of the court now.
“At dancing?” she replied, pretending to misunderstand.
Cameron smiled wickedly, the expression so unfamiliar that Sophie almost stumbled midstep. “That is exactly what I meant.”
“I think you dance very well, Lieutenant. You shouldn’t disparage yourself.” She made her tone teasing, unwilling to let this new flirtatious Cameron slip away too quickly.
“I do many things well,” he said, turning her expertly.
Sophie felt her skin flush deeper. Thankfully, the music ended then, and she let Cameron lead her out of the worst of the crush and then away from the ballroom altogether, through one of the side doors that stood open to the gardens to help cool the room. The gardens were heavily guarded and warded, of course. No one was going to leave the palace exposed. But Cameron still managed to find a dark, secluded place for them to stand. She fanned herself, enjoying the feel of the night air on her heated skin, trying to regain both her composure and some control over the need to touch him.
“Does that help?” Cameron asked, and she looked up to find him watching her. “Oh, to hell with it,” he muttered suddenly and yanked her close and kissed her.
Just for a moment or two. Just long enough for it to heat her all over again and wake the hunger she was trying to keep banked all the more as his tongue moved against hers. Then he pulled away, cursing softly.
“Only a few more days,” she said, her voice slightly shaky.
“Too many,” he said shortly, and then led her back into the ballroom before she could try to get him to kiss her again.
As they stepped back onto the dance floor, she knew she was smiling foolishly and tried to school her expression back into something more seemly. She thought she might have succeeded but then caught sight of Eloisa, seated at the high table at the end of the room, eyes narrowed as she watched Cameron put his hands on Sophie again for the next dance.
“Leave us now,” Eloisa said after Beata finished brushing her hair. Above them the hour bell started to chime two. In the morning. Which was not that late as court parties went, but the ladies-in-waiting had all been awake before dawn to prepare for the coronation. It had been a very long day, and Sophie hadn’t known that her feet could ache quite so much.
She took the hairbrush from Beata so Beata could help the queen—the queen in truth now, not just queen-to-be—into a heavy silk robe.
“Thank you, Beata,” Eloisa said with a smile. “Now go to bed. Sophie, you stay. I want to talk to you.”
Sophie almost dropped the hairbrush but just managed to keep a grip.
“Now, don’t look so annoyed, Bea,” Eloisa said as Beata frowned. “Sophie is going to be married in two days. Time for a little girl talk. After all, Lieutenant Mackenzie is one of those wild northerners. We can’t send Sophie into battle unarmed.”