Princess of the Midnight Ball - Jessica Day George [58]
After dinner, Lily asked Galen to play chess with her, but he began yawning as soon as they sat down to their game. A few minutes later he forfeited, begged Lily’s pardon, and stretched out on a sofa to “take a little rest.” Rose watched him carefully, but he seemed to be fast asleep.
“Do you think he’s faking?” she asked Lily as they prepared for the Midnight Ball.
“Impossible,” Lily said. “How could he be? The enchantment is too strong for anyone to resist.”
Again Rose let Lily take the lamp and go first down the golden stairs, chivvying the other girls ahead of her into the darkness and waiting as long as possible to follow. The sofa Galen slept on faced the windows, though, so she couldn’t actually see him from her position in the middle of the floor. Her ears pricked up, a strange sensation, when she thought she heard a rustling noise. She took a step back from the stairs, craning to see over the back of the sofa.
“What are you doing?” Iris reached up out of the darkness and grabbed the hem of Rose’s gown just as Rose started toward the sofa. “Come along, or we’ll be late!”
Annoyed, Rose went down the stairs, looking over her shoulder all the way. She tripped twice and snagged her hem on the edge of a step as she went, but she didn’t care. She could have sworn that she heard booted feet crossing the room. But when the golden stair ascended behind them, there was no sign of Galen.
Goblet
Galen laughed silently to himself all the way down the golden steps. Clever Rose! She clearly suspected something. He had seen the look on her face at dinner, as though a light were dawning, and was disappointed when she didn’t pull him aside to question him. Still, it was better this way. He didn’t want to raise her hopes when he still had no idea how much help he could be.
Galen paused to study the silver gate after the princesses had passed through. He noticed that, although there was no fence connected to the gate, there was still a definite boundary running as far as he could see in either direction. On the staircase side of the gate, the ground did not feel like dirt or pavement, it simply felt … like nothing. It was neither hard nor soft, neither rough nor smooth. It was simply nothing, and then, as sharply as though someone had drawn a line with a knife, the forest began, with its sparkling black dirt and silver trees.
Nodding to himself, Galen stepped through the gate and let it swing shut behind him. Rose whirled around and squinted, but again Iris tugged at her and she had to follow.
Through the silver forest they went, to the shore of the black lake. Again Galen hopped aboard the golden boat with Rose and her suitor, and again her suitor struggled to keep up. He kept shooting glances at Rose’s figure in the bow, however, and Galen wondered if he were trying to determine if she had gained weight or not.
Galen thought Rose had never looked lovelier. Of course, he had seen her only once before her illness, and that time she had been dripping wet. But she was fully recovered now: her cheeks glowed with health rather than fever, and she no longer looked as gaunt as she had. She was wearing her red velvet gown, and over her elbows she had draped the white shawl he had made her. He thought it set off her gown and her golden-brown hair admirably.
As soon as the bottom of the boat grated on the beach, Galen jumped out, and Rose’s dark escort nearly fell as he hauled it up the sand. He had overcompensated, clearly expecting the boat to be heavier. Galen, a little disappointed that his rival hadn’t fallen into the wet sand, sighed. Rose looked around, and he held his breath. Then her suitor captured her attention, and her arm, and they led the way toward the dark palace.
Galen had to admit that they made a fine pair. Stately, attractive, beautifully dressed. Lily and Jonquil followed, then the rest in order of age. The haughty expressions and fine clothes of the suitors toward the end of the line seemed ridiculous to Galen, considering that they were squiring girls at least