“Don’t remind me.” I grimaced and flopped on one of Rhys’s old beanbag chairs. “And I’ve only been engaged for like forty-eight hours. Everyone’s all afraid of the Vittra, but I swear, this wedding is going to be the death of me.”
“If you don’t want to marry him, don’t marry him,” Matt said. He sat down on the couch next to Willa, but he’d turned on his disapproving big-brother voice. “You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s not Tove.” I shook my head. “I’m fine with marrying Tove.”
“You’re ‘fine’ with marrying him?” Willa laughed and looped her arm through Matt’s. “How romantic.”
“You should’ve seen the proposal,” I said.
“Where is the ring, by the way?” Willa asked, looking at my hands. “Is it out getting sized?”
“I don’t know.” I held my hands out to look at them, as if I expected a ring to magically appear. “He didn’t give me one.”
“That’s horrible!” Willa rested her head on Matt’s shoulder. “We have to correct that right away. Maybe I’ll say something when we’re with Aurora tomorrow.”
“No!” I said fiercely. “Please don’t say anything to her. She’d force me to pick out something hideous.”
“How can she force you to do anything?” Duncan asked. He sat cross-legged next to me on the floor. “You’re the Princess. She’s your subordinate.”
“You know Aurora.” I sighed. “She has ways.”
“That’s weird.” Duncan looked at me as if seeing me in a new light. “I thought life would be so much different for royals. That you had total freedom.”
“Nobody’s really free.” I shook my head. “You spend like twenty hours a day with me. You know how much of my time is free.”
“That’s really depressing.” Duncan’s shoulders sagged as he thought about this. “I thought your life was like this because you were new, but it’s always gonna be like this, isn’t it? You’ll always have to answer to people.”
“So it would seem,” I agreed. “Life isn’t a fairy tale, Duncan.”
“And you know what they say,” Willa chimed in. “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”
“Well, that was embarrassing to hear you say that, so I’m good.” I stood up. “I’ve got lots of studying to do tonight. I’m going to squeeze in some training before I meet with Aurora tomorrow. Do you think you can keep her busy until I get there?”
“If I must,” Willa groaned.
“Don’t overwork yourself,” Matt said as I was leaving the room. “You’ve got to make time to be a kid. You’re still young.”
“I think my days of being a kid are over,” I said honestly.
TWENTY-SIX
overture
Willa bailed early on in the planning. She said she had to have supper with her father, but I suspected that she couldn’t take Aurora anymore.
We were in the ballroom. The skylights were finally fixed, but a layer of snow covered the top of them, making the ballroom dark and cavelike. Aurora assured me that the snow would be removed in time for my engagement party, as if I were worried about that.
She flitted about the room, mapping out where the tables and decorations would be. I helped as often as she let me, which wasn’t very often. Her poor assistant was running around like mad to do everything Aurora asked.
When she finally let her assistant go for the night, I was sitting at the grand piano, playing the opening to “Für Elise” repeatedly, since it was the only bit I knew.
“You’ll have to take piano lessons,” Aurora said. She had a thick black binder filled with all the wedding information, and she dropped it on the piano, making the instrument twang. “I can’t believe you didn’t already have them. What kind of host family did you live with?”
“You know what kind of host family I had.” I continued playing the same bars, louder now since I knew it was getting on her nerves. “You’ve met my brother.”
“About that,” Aurora said. She pulled a few bobby pins from her hair, letting her loose curls fall free. “You need to stop referring to him as your brother. It’s in poor taste.”
“I’m aware,” I said. “But it’s a hard habit to break.”
“You have many habits you need to break.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “If you weren’t the Princess, I wouldn’t bother to help you break them.”
“Well, thank you for your time and consideration,” I muttered.
“I know you’re being facetious, but you are welcome.” She opened her binder, leafing through it. “We don’t have time for Frederique Von Ellsin to make you a gown for the party, so he’s bringing over some of his best pieces tomorrow at noon so you can be fitted.”
“That sounds fun,” I said, and I wasn’t lying. Frederique had made my gown for the christening ceremony, and I enjoyed meeting him.
“Princess!” Aurora snapped. “Will you stop playing that song?”
“Of course.” I closed the piano cover. “All you had to do was ask.”
“Thank you.” Aurora smiled thinly at me. “You do need to work on your manners, Princess.”