The skies opened up, and it rained all night. The thunder and lightning had just subsided when there was a knock at the front door.
“Allow me,” I said. Cinderella was pulling a loaf of our breakfast bread out of the oven, so I skipped past her to see who had come calling. Galatea’s charms on the house had disguised my face before I opened the door.
It was Prince Mather. And he was dripping wet.
He was more disheveled and harried than I had ever seen him. He looked as if he hadn’t slept. There was worry written across his handsome face. Something was very wrong. I reminded myself of my place, of my face, of my station. And I tried to do something that Lavendra had told me long ago . . . not to listen to my stupid, stupid heart. Because if I did, I wouldn’t be talking politely to that prince. I would be kissing him.
“Your Highness, what brings you to our humble door?” I asked with a bow.
Mather stepped inside. He shut and locked the door behind him.
“Your Highness?” I asked as he turned to face me.
“There isn’t time for any more lies. I know who you are. I know it was you in the alley. And it was you last night in my arms at the ball. It was always you. And I’ve come to warn you. You must run!”
He couldn’t know. We had been so careful. How could he have seen through my disguise when my own Entente sisters had not? And the Queen . . . She wasn’t supposed to hunt me down. We were hunting her.
“You’re mistaken. I could not attend the ball.”
I turned away from him, trying to push down the feelings and the fear rising to the surface. I wanted him to know me. But I couldn’t tell him the truth.
“You have a tell, Farrow. No matter what face you are wearing.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He took my right hand. “You just did it again.”
I inhaled sharply. I had been tapping my fingers together where my wand was supposed to be.
“Prince Mather, I can explain. Just not here.”
“My mother has your shoe. She has Hark going door to door with it, looking for its rightful owner. She claims it’s the Queen’s duty to find my bride. But from the look in her eye, I think she suspects that you had something to do with the Entente. She’ll be here any minute.”
Perhaps it was the mere mention of the Queen that caused Galatea to rush downstairs and through the doorway. She pushed poor Cinderella, bread and all, aside. I expected Amantha and Bari to be at her heels, but they probably were snoring through all the commotion.
“Your Highness! What a great honor it is to have you visit our humble abode. To what do we owe the pleasure?” Galatea asked.
“Love,” Prince Mather answered finally for himself, and stepped closer to me.
My heart stopped. I wanted to get him as far away from Galatea, Amantha, and Bari as possible.
Galatea approached Mather, her eyes narrowing on him. “Love?” she asked, waiting for him to elaborate.
But there was no time to answer. We could see through the window that the royal carriage was arriving at just this moment. Hark hopped out. He was holding the crystal shoe on a blue-velvet pillow. Behind him gathered the Queen’s personal guard and a half dozen of her soldiers.
Prince Mather’s eyes met mine.
Galatea stepped in front of me protectively.
“Get your sisters,” she commanded to me in a whisper.
“Madame Gray, you can’t—” Mather started.
But Galatea ignored him, opening the door, smiling, as Hark’s handsome form filled the doorframe.
“We seek the owner of this shoe, which was left on the palace steps last night. Its owner is to marry the prince. Every woman in the Queendom must try it on,” Hark explained.
In another Present, I would cross to Prince Mather, let him slip the shoe on me, and wrap my arms around him. But in this one, all I wanted to do was grab his hand and escape together.
“We need to see all the ladies of the house,” decreed Hark again.
Galatea curtsied and then let him in, along with a couple of royal footmen and a half-dozen soldiers. The rest waited outside. “But, of course. And how lucky we are to see the prince twice in as many days . . . Farrow, your manners: get your sisters!”
I didn’t turn around. I could already hear Bari’s feet on the stairs. A second later, she was by my side.
Hark looked to the prince and gave a haughty smile. “But I see the prince has beaten me to it. And I can see why—so many women under one roof . . .”
The prince didn’t answer. It was as if he were frozen in place, staring at me.
I wish she’d run, the prince thought. There’s still time. Use your magic. Please.
I wanted to grant his wish. It would be so very simple. The prince and me away from here in a single wish. But I couldn’t leave my sisters or Cinderella to face whatever wrath came after we disappeared.
“I imagine the Queen’s Right Hand already filled you in on our errand.”
“He did. I find it all so very romantic,” Galatea said.
“Isn’t it? Love at first sight is supposed to be a thing of fairy tales. But here we are,” Hark said.
“Yes, it really is quite something,” the prince said, his voice harsh, but he did not look away from me.
“Pardon our haste, but we must have every woman in the house try on the shoe, and then we must move on. As you can see, the prince is very anxious to find her too. There are so many ladies, and so little time,” Hark said cheekily.
“Well, I for one find it the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” Amantha said, pushing her way to the front of the crowd. She removed her own shoe.
“I see we have our first victim,” Hark said, making a show of putting the slipper—my slipper—in front of Amantha.
Prince Mather kept his eyes on me.
Did he really know it was me all that time? And could he really love me?
There was a yelp from the footman’s direction. He was looking down at Amantha’s foot.
The shoe fit, but through the glass you could see that all her toes had disappeared.
Amantha shrugged, feigning innocence. Galatea glared at her. She had taught her to be smarter with her magic. But Amantha had been too impulsive, too eager. And her magic may have just exposed us all.
Hark and Mather moved to get a better look. But as they did, Galatea slipped her hand into her pocket where her wand was. The crystal shoe filled with blood.
“Take it off, Hark!” the prince exclaimed.
When Hark removed the shoe, Amantha winced in pain, and we all saw what Galatea had done. Amantha’s skin was jagged, as if her toes had been removed with a serrated knife.
Amantha looked at her own foot in horror and confusion.
“I’m afraid, Your Highness, she just wanted it too much,” Galatea said, her tone somber. “I will call our family doctor.”
Amantha bowed to the prince, but I could see that she was really looking at Galatea. “I am sorry I deceived you, fair prince. Being your bride meant so much to me, to our family.”
“It is I who should apologize to you. I never wanted this for any woman in the Queendom,” the prince said.
The footman helped Amantha toward the stairs, but not before she cast another apologetic look at Galatea.
I wish I could make them see that was magic, thought the footman.
Hark blinked hard and shook his head. “You do realize that magic is outlawed in Hinter . . .”
“I believe you are mistaken, Hark,” the prince said firmly. “There is no use of magic here. Just bad judgment.”
The prince was choosing to look the other way. He was choosing to protect us. To protect magic. Just like he had done in town at the Black Glass factory.
Galatea’s hand went to her pocket again, ready to take action if need be.
“Very well, then . . . ,” Hark said with doubt. “Now, who is next?”
I wish everything were different. I wish that poor girl hadn’t hurt herself for me. I wish that I were on that dance floor again with you—anywhere with you.
The prince glanced at me as he wished it, his eyes full of knowing. It was almost as if he wanted me to hear his wish.