“I’m not sure how any of them could consider this a secret.” I indicate the rows and rows of gloss pots Saber has just finished pouring, sitting on the windowsill to set. “Hundreds. Every day. I’m pretty sure even the King knows I’m selling Glitter at this point. It’s one of my biggest concerns. I’m trusting an awful lot of people. Rather less-than-sober people.”
Saber finishes wiping his hands on a towel and tosses it onto the desk beside me. “There’s a sense of…naughtiness,” he says, standing between my crisscrossed knees and placing his hands on the skin just above my lacy garters, “an appeal in the forbidden.” He dips his head closer to mine, and his hands slide smoothly upward. “There’s also”—his lips brush mine, ever so softly—“an allure in the mysterious. People might know that there’s a mystery, but they also know that solving it might force an end to the naughtiness.” He grasps my bottom lip very gently between his teeth for a moment. “And what fun would that be?”
“Mmmm, no fun at all,” I agree, kissing him fully, feeling his hands move higher still. This room has become our personal sanctuary in precisely the same way it’s been my safe place for Glitter. There’s much work to be done, that’s true, but it’s possible we’ve spent more time here than is strictly necessary these last few days.
Saber raises his hand to my neck, tipping my head to deepen his kiss, and with his sleeves rolled up I see again the dark tattoo that spans his left forearm. “Someday I’m going to find out what that means,” I say breathlessly.
“I certainly hope not,” he replies, pulling one of my legs free to wrap about his waist.
I’m floating so high on the sensations of Saber’s body against mine that I’m uncertain how I hear the warning rattle of the doorknob, but I do—and I push Saber from me with a gasp, tossing my skirts back over my legs as my mother walks in. I snap my spine straight but can’t imagine she’s fooled.
“I’ve been sent to retrieve you,” she says testily. “The King’s been trying to summon you for nearly half an hour. What, precisely, have you been doing?” She glares at me, and I can’t tell if my heart is racing or has ceased to beat altogether. “Why are you not wearing your Lens?”
“I got something in my eye,” I lie. Badly. “I took it out. It’s in Father’s bathroom.”
“You are the Queen-to-be, Dani. You cannot frolic about off the grid. Beyond being exceptionally inconvenient for His Highness, it’s not safe.” The way her eyes studiously avoid flickering over to Saber tells me exactly what sort of “danger” she has in mind.
My mother has always had a talent for making me feel like a tiny, awkward child, and to be dressed down so thoroughly in front of Saber makes everything worse. Every nerve in my body begs me to scream at her even as my ability to form actual coherent sentences flees.
“I fear ’tis my fault, my lady,” Saber says, dropping into a deep, flourishing bow. “I suggested that Her Highness rest her eye after her ordeal with the Lens. It was quite reddened.” He reaches out and turns my chin, as though I were a poodle on display, and says cheerfully, “Ah! Observe. The eye looks quite well now.”
I’m astounded. In ten seconds Saber has managed to change from himself into a subservient, fussing employee. Even his speech—though just a touch stilted—was convincing enough.
My mother, however, doesn’t appear pacified in the least. “You,” she says, turning to Saber as he slips back into his livery jacket. “Dani’s new secretary. His Majesty doesn’t like you, and neither do I. I’ve already set a meeting to discuss your termination with Human Resources. Until then, endeavor to stay out of my sight.”
“Of course, my lady,” he says with another bow. I’m ashamed at myself for not coming to his rescue the way he did for me.
Then Mother glances around the room, aware for the first time of something other than Saber and me. “What’s going on here?”
At last, something I have a prepared answer for. “I’m handcrafting some cosmetics for a few intimate friends. I’ve been doing so for weeks.”
My mother is staring at the two hundred pots, and her brow wrinkles in concentration. Before she can think about it too hard, I say, “You must be aware how much bribery it’s going to take for the right people to accept me.”
“Don’t say bribery, Dani. It’s vulgar.”
“You know what I mean, though,” I press. “In fact, I have a parcel of these being sent over to Duchess Darzi this afternoon. We spoke the other day, and she’s expecting them.” Entirely truth.
My mother stands still, her eyes glued to me. I’ve invoked the name of the highest-ranking woman in the entire court. It’s not in my mother’s nature to let such a remark pass without contemplating how it might be turned to her advantage.
I use her moment of indecision to reassert my authority. “I’ve taken great pains these last few months to become a favorite of the court. You can do all the arranging you like, but if the social hierarchy at the palace doesn’t accept me, it won’t much matter that I’m the King’s wife, will it?”