Ariane rolled her eyes. “Your Highness!” she shouted loud enough for the princess to hear.
“Ah-ah! It’s Elle! And no matter what you do with your days, I shall expect to see you for tea and all meals!” Elle chortled her way down the hallway, soon fading from hearing range.
Ariane shook her head and leaned against the settee. “Chanceux Chateau really is a strange place.”
“Farewell—thank you again for hosting us!” Gabrielle—the beautiful princess from Arcainia, smiled as she embraced Elle. The Arcainian representatives—who were among the last remaining attendees—were finally setting out for their homeland.
“Thank you for coming! You must return sometime if Nick and Mikk are coming to speak to Severin,” Elle said.
Ariane smiled fondly as she watched the exchange. Elle got along well with many of the women who had attended the meeting, but she and Crown Princess Gabrielle seemed to have a special understanding. (Perhaps it was their commoner birth or their background in fighting?)
Gabrielle had always been the most excited to attend tea when—in the last few days of the Summit—Elle and Severin had split the guests, and Elle brought the ladies to her private salon for refreshments. (Ariane attended the teas as well, mostly because Elle’s lady’s maid followed her endlessly until she agreed to.)
“And you, Mademoiselle Ariane. Take care—it was a pleasure getting to know you!” The Arcainian beauty swept Ariane up in an unexpected embrace, squeezing her tightly.
“Thank you?” Ariane didn’t really know quite what to say, but she returned the embrace and was rewarded when Gabrielle stepped back and bestowed a beautiful smile on her as well.
“If the two of you ever wish to visit Arcainia, please come! If you don’t want to hang about Castle Brandis, I would gladly spirit you away to Carabas—my march,” Gabrielle added.
Elise, the less-talkative foster daughter of King Henrik, affectionately squeezed Elle’s hands and then Ariane’s. “Indeed, if you wish to see Gabi again, you might very well have to come to Arcainia. I don’t think Steffen is inclined to let her leave Arcainia without him.”
The sparkle in Gabrielle’s eyes dimmed slightly. “He took Clotilde’s brief rule over Arcainia very poorly. Perhaps almost as bad as King Henrik.”
Elise looped her arm through Gabrielle’s. “But all is well now—and the carriage awaits. We need to return home to begin putting our plans into action. Thank you again, Your Highness, Mademoiselle, for your hospitality.”
Ariane opened her mouth to object—for she really had no part in hosting them—but was forestalled by Gerhart, Elise’s younger brother, when he strolled up to the ladies. “You cannot fool me, Elise,” he said. “You are merely anxious to return home because you yearn for your lover boy.”
Elise blushed. “Gerhart!”
Gabrielle brushed a tendril of her honey-crème hair out of her face. “I would guess he is awaiting even more anxiously for you. Very well, let’s go. Puss!”
Puss—who had been sitting with Prince Nickolas and Mikkael as they said their farewells—turned around and narrowed his cat eyes at her. “I know my ears must have deceived me, for you would never whistle at me like some sort of hoyden farmer’s brat, Gabrielle.”
Gabrielle laughed as she approached her horse and swung up on its back. “Come, Puss. We’re leaving—unless you want to tarry for a few weeks?”
“You are so ungrateful!” the cat complained as he picked his way across the courtyard. “It’s rather disappointing—I did not raise you to have the manners of a street urchin.”
“You didn’t raise me at all.”
“Silence! Your impudence has grown beyond what I will tolerate. Now pick me up.” Puss sat down by the horse’s hooves and looked up at Gabrielle, his half mustache twitching.
“Safe travels,” Ariane ventured to say to Elise.
The brown-haired princess smiled. “Thank you. I wish you luck in all your endeavors until we meet again.” Elise nodded to both Elle and Ariane before she climbed into the nice-looking but rather unembellished carriage.
Gerhart performed a sweeping bow. “Your Highness, Mademoiselle.” He winked, then joined his foster sister in the carriage.
Ariane watched Prince Mikk pick up Puss—who had, up until that moment, been locked in a staring match with Crown Princess Gabrielle—and plop him into a saddlebag on Gabrielle’s horse. Do they know about Lucien and me? Why else would they be so…friendly? She stood a little straighter and smiled to try to fight off a slight blush. Now that I think of it, our story is the stuff of songs and ballads—disdain turned to love and all that…. But does that mean everyone who attended the Summit knows? Or at least has guessed? Gads, that would be embarrassing.
A week had passed since Ariane had turned Lucien into a man again and challenged him to find the source of the darkness. She barely saw snatches of him, for he didn’t come to any of the formal meals. Instead, he pounced on her usually when she was on her way to meet Elle and the other royal ladies. Often, he grumbled incoherently into her shoulder as he leaned against her, then went tearing off to the library or Severin’s study for another book.
I hope he does not drive himself mad over this…maybe I should speak to him about it.
Though she was touched he was taking the matter so seriously, it occurred to Ariane that perhaps this showed no one knew how brilliant Lucien was—including himself—as Ariane had never expected this kind of single-minded determination.
“We’ll be in touch,” Crown Prince Steffen said to Prince Severin. “Mikk and Nick will most certainly serve as our main military contacts, but when we settle on more, we’ll send word.”
Colonel Friedrich nodded. He was the last remaining representative; the King of Torrens and Rider Nareena had left the day after the Ringsted Representatives, and Princess Astra of Baris and Queen Linnea of Verglas had made their departure not two days ago. “We’ll prepare as much as we can until we know for sure what we’re up against.”
Prince Nickolas vaulted on top of his horse’s back. “If we even knew what sort of evil we faced, it would make preparations easier. But until we get some new intelligence, this is the best we can do, I reckon.”
“Thank you.” Prince Mikkael shook Severin’s hand before he also mounted his horse.
“I’m grateful you’re willing to organize us all, Severin.” Crown Prince Steffen took the reins to his mount when a servant brought the horse to him. “Thank you. And I apologize for our…misunderstandings in the past.”
Severin bowed his head. “I am just as thankful you are willing to overlook said misunderstandings as well.”
The crown prince of Arcainia gave Severin a quick grin. “You’re a great man. We’ll be in touch!” He swiftly mounted his horse, patting it on the neck when it tossed its head and pranced over to his wife and brothers who were arranged around the carriage. “Farewell!”