The tiny wood-elf looked up at me with shrewd eyes. “You not happy about that.”
“Does it matter?”
“You should be happy again. Nothing before your fault.”
“My wants and wishes are not part of the equation. She deserves to be safe, and happy. I can’t give her anything. Now, stop worrying over the marmalade and come sit with us.”
She followed me to the table, and we both listened to Bella praise her cooking while we all ate. I didn’t taste much. This had been a wonderful little interlude, and I was surprisingly comfortable with the girl who had invaded my life and surprised me in so many ways. Today was going to be the first step in letting her go again, and helping her get home safely. I was going to miss her.
Arrival at court couldn’t have been simpler. Bella repeated her bubble spell that had gotten us to my house from the door to Underhill, and we walked into the suite of rooms the Majordomo directed us to. Bella looked around the little sitting room.
“Where am I sleeping?” she asked. I could see that she was nervous, and guessed that she wanted some alone time and time to get her mask on before the presentation.
“In here, would be my guess.” I opened a door to show her a large bedroom, which I knew from experience would have an attached bath and closet. Court had lots of room, these days. The majordomo had been stone-faced, but I had detected a glimmer of relief when he had heard her name. So we had been ushered to a prepared set of rooms very promptly. I was certain that before he had even closed the doors on us, word was racing through the ancient halls that we had arrived. The game was begun.
“And you?” I thought I detected a touch of concern in her voice, and wondered if it was general nerves, or if she thought they had only given us one bedroom. I pointed across the room.
“I’ll be right over there, Princess. Knock if you need me.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear in a gesture I was learning meant she was unsettled, and I left her to unpack and settle in. I only had two formalwear outfits, and I was looking forward to appearing in one of them that evening. I recognized the old familiar rush of adrenaline, the thrill before battle. I didn’t know that we would meet the enemy tonight, but it seemed likely, that whoever it was, would be there.
I climbed into my monkey suit and checked myself in the mirror. The James Bond style tux wasn’t actually black, just a brown so dark it looked black. The sapphire blue silk shirt with the gold bow tie would look gaudy to her, I knew... right up until she saw the whole of Court. It was time to collect my princess and show her off.
She was standing in the middle of the sitting room when I opened my door, and I flashed back to the first time I had laid eyes on her. The dress she was wearing was about as far from the silk long johns as you could get, and yet, it reminded me of that. Revealing, without actually showing any skin. She was sexy enough to make my mouth water in the dark blue gown, with sparkles... I narrowed my eyes and walked closer, focussing on the fabric. Yes, I was right, it was sparkling, lighting and dimming with magic. She chuckled.
“Neat trick, yes? Ellie suggested it. The night sky, she called it.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Thought you didn’t like sparkling?”
She shrugged, a motion that did interesting things to the curves she had highlighted. “If you can’t fight it, might as well use it. If it distracts you, I know I’m onto something.”
I had to agree she was right. She was distracting, dammit. I needed to get a grip. She turned, and revealed a lot of skin. Her hair was swept up simply into a thick coil at the back of her neck, and her back was bare all the way down to... “Any lower and I’d see your butt.”
She looked over her shoulder, an expression of concern on her face. “Too much? I thought it was a nice contrast.”
“We don’t have time for you to change. Do you at least have a wrap?”
She laughed and picked up a sheet of gauze off the chair. “You’re grumpy tonight.”
I let her settle the drifts of black starry fabric over her shoulders and around her wings. I didn’t dare offer to help, and have my hands so close to all that creamy skin on display. “I’m worried, and you are playing dress-up.”
“True,” she told me calmly, sweeping toward the door in a flurry of skirts. I had to hurry to get there before her, and she smiled at me as I gave her a dirty look. “But I have my mask on, and I am ready for anything.”
The High Court, Underhill, has fallen from the glory years that were written and sung about in human history. Perhaps because we have retreated from a world above that has moved beyond us, or simply because we are so shrunken in numbers and power. Yet it still has the echoes of a past when nothing was unheard of, in these halls, and I saw it fresh through Bella’s eyes that evening, as we paced silently side by side down halls carpeted in scarlet, and decorated in more gilt and rococo than any italianate palace.
“A bit overdone, I know,” I told her out of the side of my mouth.
Her mouth quirked at the corners. “Just a bit, yes.”
“The old halls are better.” I was rather fond of the oldest part of the tor, myself. I went there when I was tasked to the Court for any length of time, to get away from the Folke and have some peace.
Right now, though, we had arrived. Two liveried footmen opened the doors for us, and I could read Bella’s very straight face as mingled amusement at having fallen into a BBC production and horror at the idea of her being here. Inside the doors, the majordomo stood at attention. He rapped his staff of office on the hardwood flooring twice, and boomed out our names.
“The illustrious Princess Belladonna Maline ys Lavendar of Flora. Her escort, Learoyd Ortheris Mulvaney.”
I winced. I hated when they did that, but no amount of bribery or cajoling would persuade them to forget my full name and simply use Lom. Beside me, Bella was struggling to contain her giggles and losing. As a result, when she met my mother she was smiling and sparkling vividly.
The dowager Mulvaney was a force to be reckoned with, in Court. Bella was, simply, an elemental force.
“Mother, this is Princess Bella.” I turned to look at Bella, “And this is my mother, the Dowager Lucia Mulvaney.”
“So pleased to meet you,” Bella held out her hand, “Your son has taken very good care of me.”
Mother sniffed, but I could tell from her face softening a little she was pleased. “He does his duty,” she allowed, taking Bella’s hand briefly. “You had a safe journey?”
“It had it’s moments, but we are here finally.” Bella looked around the room full of people. “I do feel a bit out of my depth.”
My mother smiled, shocking me, but the artless confidence had been just the thing. She took Bella under her wing, metaphorically, and tucked her hand into her own elbow and then led her off, murmuring, “let me introduce you...”
Chapter 19 - The Other Princesses
I trailed behind them, feeling much relieved. If mother was going to like her, then she would be cushioned from the usual Court snobbery. That made it possible for me to focus on watching for malice in the eyes of the glittering crowd. It was like a never-ending costume party. The denizens of Court saw no reason to limit themselves to just one era of dress. Some of them had been here, in this hall, while Elizabeth was crowned, and I don’t mean the second one.
Most of them looked bored, in spite of the variety in their dress. Near immortality meant nothing changed quickly, and any excitement was savored slowly. Bella was something new, however, and many eyes followed her progress through the long ballroom. None of them, however, seemed to be unhappy with this interruption in their routine. Casually, seeming almost uninterested, they gravitated in our direction. I started looking for the other princesses.
It seemed logical to me that one of them was the instigator. Well, not the girl herself, although I had been cautious with Bella to begin with. No, this was an old mind, one that wanted power, which meant they were planning to be the voice in a princess’s ear wh
en she was crowned Queen. So I was looking at the people standing next to the princesses.
Five princesses besides mine, and each of them with a much larger entourage. We met the first one obliquely, my mother beckoning to another matron who was standing over a girl seated near the wall.
“Lady Herbale, please make the acquaintance of Belladonna ys Lavendar.”
The matron, dressed in a mode I identified as late Victorian, touched fingertips with Bella, who was looking nervously amused.
“Chahmed, I am sure. Dill,” she turned and gave the girl in the chair the hairy eyeball. “Come heah, deah.”
The little thing couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen, a mere wisp of a girl in a very modern chartreuse dress that made me wince. “Hello, I am Dill ys Parsley.” She essayed a curtsey, this time making Bella wince as she wobbled dangerously on the downdip.
“Princess Dill.” The matron made sure her charge’s status was known. “And you are the princess Belladonna?”
“I am. Very nice to meet you both.”
The girl flicked an anxious glance at the older woman. “Pleased to meet you,” she offered, along with a limp hand, which Bella took in both of hers.
“I have been curious,” she told her, “About the other princesses. I’ve never met a princess, and I only found out I am one a little while ago.”
Dill’s eyes widened. “Really?” she squeaked, putting her other hand over Bella’s, so they were holding hands like chums. “But you’re very old.”
Bella laughed. “I didn’t grow up Underhill.”
“Oh, I know. We talked about you.”
“I am sure you did.” Bella let go of her hands. “I am looking forward to talking soon, and I will try to answer your questions.”
“Gee!” Dill at this point caught sight of the death glare her aunt was giving her, and subsided. “It was very nice to meet you,” she mumbled, retreating to her chair.
Mother gave me a speaking glance, and propelled Bella onward. I watched the look on Lady Herbale’s face as we left. Shock, and a touch of fear. She knew Dill had no chance to be chosen, and she was trying to calculate what Bella’s motives were. I smiled to myself, knowing that Bella had just taken pity on the child. My mother continued on inexorably, but at this point I could see that her progress was not random, and I drifted behind them as mother smiled and nodded, and Bella just smiled.
The next group we intercepted was much larger, as it contained two of the other princesses. Both of them wore pastel, high-waisted gowns that were in a fashion a hundred and fifty years out of date in human lands. They were of an age, and similar in appearance, both being dumpy blondes of no great height. Bella found herself looking them in the eye, while I loomed over all four women. Their entourage had melted back a little as we approached. There was no dragon dowagers here, the oldest in the group I recognized, and gave him a slight nod in greeting. One of the knight escorts, Beaumont just looked slightly constipated. Then again, he always looked that way.
My mother gestured, her skin papery white over her thin bones. I reflected that she wasn’t getting any younger, and I had been a very late child, after years of trying for an heir. My sister predated me by two decades.
“The princesses Apple ys Mulberry and Rowan ys Willow, may I present to you Belladonna ys Lavendar?”
The young women gave identical cool smiles, and shook hands lightly with Bella.
“Very nice to meet you,” she offered.
“Likewise,” smirked Apple. The expression on her aptly apple-shaped face was not pleasant, but I detected no deeper malice than jealousy there. Rowan just looked remote.
My mother returned the polite smiles and snipped at them, “I shall return you to your flirtations, girls, we must be on.”
I hid my smile, doing my best to keep a professional aloofness as Apple tried to catch my eye. I knew her, and she had been hunting me for a long time. My mother evidently shared my feeling about the sour little thing, who’d I’d nick-named Crab as a girl just presented at Court.
We slowly progressed around the dance floor, mother greeting old friends and making introductions to people I had known most of my life. Bella was looking overwhelmed, but she was a trooper, smiling and making small talk when required. We were almost on the opposite side of the room from Dill, when we were stopped by a tall fairy hurrying towards us. The blonde with the very ruffly yellow dress was all smiles, her hands outstretched.
“You must be Belladonna,” she cooed, leaning in for an air kiss.
“Oh, please, Bella.” My princess looked like she wanted to bolt, because this princess was very much in her personal space.
My mother had glided closer to me, and now she whispered in my ear, “this one is the most likely.”
I nodded to acknowledge I’d heard her, and paid more attention to the Folke in the vicinity.
“I am Princess Buttercup ys Peaseblossom, but you must call me Bea,” she effused, her hand to her chest dramatically. “We shall be friends. Do come and tell me all about the human realm,” she shuddered for effect. “How barbaric a place it must be to live!”
Bella gave me a wide-eyed, pleading look. For the umpteenth time that evening, I suppressed a laugh. I looked at my mother, who nodded with a very unladylike smirk, and came to her rescue.
“I’m afraid we really must meet everyone, dear. But I am sure that Bella will have time for you tomorrow, and you girls can all get together for a lovely gossip.”
Bea ruffled her golden wings in an artful way and glimmered at my mother. “Oh, Lady Mulvaney, you are so right. I’m afraid I let my enthusiasm carry me away.”
My mother smiled indulgently. “Quite all right. Now, if you will excuse us...”
As we were moving away, I caught the sulk of a spoiled child on Bea’s face, and a very odd expression on the face of the elderly man whose arm she had retreated to. That would be a lead for following up, I thought. Her father, or uncle, someone who would have little access to the throne but through her. And she was a bubblehead.
We had circled back to the doors, and no sign of the fifth princess, which was not making Mother happy. My feet were starting to hurt, and Bella was likely wishing she were elsewhere. The majordomo approached on silent feet, and I raised an eyebrow at him, which he acknowledged with a slight hand gesture. Nothing urgent, then. I went back to my endless scanning of the crowd. He cleared his throat, catching my mother’s attention.
With a bow, he offered a small white envelope, and then disappeared as quietly as he’d come. I’d spent some time practicing that silent walk of his, and it had come in handy at times. Mother slid the notecard embossed with a crown out and looked at it, then handed it to Bella, who made a surprised face.
“Is this customary?” She asked, and I wasn’t sure if she was directing the question at me or Mother, who answered her before I could.
“Not at all, my dear, this is a signal honor.”
I held out my hand and Bella gave me the note. When I read it, I understood her surprise. The King was requesting a formal presentation, tomorrow at ten o’clock am, to be followed by a private luncheon for her and her escort with him. This was something new. Normally if he wanted to see me, I made my way through secret passages to his private chamber and we talked like men, something I had come to understand over the years was a rare treat for a man who was surrounded by sycophants and intrigue.
“I think early to bed, then, so that we may have you fresh and bright for this.” My mother decreed, then went on, “I would like you to meet my daughter before you go, however. And I do wonder where that girl has gone off to.”
I understood she did not mean my sister, who was hardly a girl, but the missing princess. I caught the eye of one of the hovering footmen and gestured him over. The drinks from his tray for mother and Bella were appreciated, but the quiet word I dropped in his ear was my real reason. He nodded and headed toward the service doors, handing off the half-full tray to yet another man in livery. Then I ca
ught up with my mother, who was headed single-mindedly across the room to my sister, who was fluttering her lashes at a man with his back to us.
“Margot,” my mother caroled. “Meet Princess Belladonna.”
My sister is a little bit of fluff, who lives to flirt and gossip, but she hasn’t a mean bone in her body. Or, some days, a brain in her head.
“Oh, hello! It is so nice to meet you!” She stood and kissed Bella on the cheek. “You must meet Ivan, Count of Muscovy.”
The dark man with curly mustachios rose and kissed her hand gallantly. “Enchanted,” he informed her in a heavy accent. “You are one of the princesses, yes?”
“Um, yes, I am. And you are?”
“Oh, I am no-one. I am simply a fairy from Europe who visits the very charming Margot when I have business in Court.”
Bella blinked at this. My sister laughed and patted the seat beside her. “Come, tell me all about your trip. Was it very exciting? When we found out family duty called an Escort, well, Lom had to be found who-knows where, and my poor son almost had to go and get you. He’s far too young to leave Underhill, you know.”
Bella sat next to her and let all this flow over her with a bewildered smile on her face. My mother sank into a spindly chair, leaving me to stand over all of them and look like the muscle, which I was. Bella finally sorted out what Margot had asked her, and answered, “I’m glad your son did not come, there were complications, and Lom’s skills were invaluable.”
Margot squeaked and clutched her hands. “I knew it! Such terrible rumors, but I have not been listening to a one of them.”
I was having trouble keeping a straight face. Knowing her, she had made some of them up. Bella shot me a glance, and I shook my head just a little.
“Oh, what have you heard?” my clever girl asked, a look of calm curiosity on her face. Good, she wasn’t going to give details to the greedy Margot.
“Well, did you know that eight princesses were called in, and only six arrived? They say you are the last one, but no one, simply no-one, knows what happened to the other two. And the Knight Forestall was sorely injured, and may not survive. Simply terrible, darling, and I was worried sick about you, because I do feel you are family. Such an old connection between our families, you know.”
Pixie Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 1) Page 15