“I’m sure it is not,” I said. “I do not blame Arcadia or you.”
Alyssa beamed at me. “That is very generous of you. Your mistress has also been most understanding, and it almost makes the whole thing worse. Such gracious guests deserve far better treatment.”
“Can I ride him? Can I ride him? Oh, please Mama!” Prince Henry’s desperate pleas interrupted us.
“Me too! Me too!” chimed in Princess Rose.
“But he doesn’t have a saddle or bridle,” Alyssa pointed out.
“But we ride Starfire without either.” Harry directed pleading eyes at his mother. “Just a short ride.”
“Unlike Starfire, this lovely creature is not ours,” Alyssa said. “It’s Elle here you must ask.” She turned to me. “I presume this is Princess Giselle’s impressive mount? I have heard of him but not had the chance to visit. I’m told he was ailing but has made a full recovery on land. Perhaps he was merely seasick, poor thing.”
She looked sympathetically at Arvin who snorted back at her.
I’ve never been seasick a day in my life.
Apparently whatever supply of goodwill the children had acquired from their initial compliments had already been exhausted.
But both turned their enormous eyes on me.
“Please Elle, may we ride him?”
“Please!”
I winced. Princess Alyssa was just as lovely as Celine had promised. She had sought me out, despite thinking me a mere goose girl, and she had even known to call me Elle and not Sierra. But she was wrong about it being my decision whether her children could ride Arvin. And one look at him told me what he thought about the matter.
“I’m so sorry,” I told the young prince and princess. “But I’m afraid he’s a rather strong-willed horse, and he isn’t safe for strangers to ride. In fact, he doesn’t let anyone but Princess Giselle ride him.”
“Not even you?” Harry asked with wide eyes.
“Oh,” I paused, momentarily thrown. “Yes, he does let me ride him, but not anyone else.” And even me only rarely, but I wasn’t going to draw further attention to his strange qualities.
Rose looked as if she was about to burst into tears, and her mother gathered her into her arms.
“You can go for a ride on your ponies later this afternoon,” she promised them. “You know that some horses don’t like children.”
Is it any wonder? Arvin asked caustically. They bounce and pull at your mane—and if you so much as turn around, they fall off. And then everyone blames you.
I shook my head, refusing to answer him while the royals were present. I had never known him to accept a child on his back, so I was highly suspicious of these apparent bad experiences with youthful riders.
“It is good of you to bring him out for exercise along with your other duties,” Alyssa said to me. “I know Giselle has preferred to borrow a mount so as not to overtax him with her daily rides, given his recent illness.”
“He’s company for me,” I told her. “And I’m glad to have him.”
“I’m so pleased you haven’t been thrown into a state of fear by this second attack,” Alyssa said in a sudden burst of enthusiasm. “I’ve been feeling terribly guilty. Max wondered if we should have written to Eldon weeks ago, suggesting you all divert your visit to Lanover, but Their Majesties were concerned such a message would be poorly received, and I was inclined to agree with…” She cut herself off. “Oh dear, listen to me rambling away. All I mean to say is that I keep thinking we might have spared you this pain, and your poor companions might now have been safe, if we’d let you know to defer your visit.”
She glanced at her children, but they had gone to investigate the geese and hadn’t heard her voice her concerns. She sighed and forced a smile.
“Princess Giselle is most understanding, as I said, but royals are trained to be that way—no matter what they’re feeling on the inside. It can be a little disconcerting at times. And I’ve wondered if perhaps, underneath, your princess isn’t quite as unperturbed as her words suggest.”
Interesting. Princess Alyssa clearly had a good instinct about people if she could sense something of Sierra’s insincerity. And when she wanted the truth of things, she came to the servants. It appeared that even twelve years as royalty weren’t enough to stamp out Alyssa’s roots. No wonder she knew to call me Elle.
Her words intrigued me, and I wished I could question her further about Sierra. I would also have liked to ask what it was that had made her husband suggest they defer our visit. Clearly something had been amiss in Arcadia before our arrival, and it threw all my assumptions about my current situation into question. But I was a goose girl now, and I couldn’t question her as an equal—even if she liked to talk to servants.
Princess Rose called a question about one of the geese, drawing us over to them, and the rest of their visit was spent answering their questions and preventing Prince Henry from attempting to forcefully capture one of the goslings.
But the whole time, I kept sneaking sideways looks at Alyssa, watching how she interacted with her children. She seemed utterly relaxed about being here, consorting with a mere goose girl. She had been born a commoner, as Sierra had been, and yet she seemed to understand what it meant to fill the role of princess in a way my old maid did not. Perhaps even in a way I, born to the position, did not.
Why was that? Had I missed something important in the years I had been bound by my kingdom’s enchantment? Or had I never been as well equipped for my role as I had always imagined myself to be?
When Alyssa gathered her children up and departed, their guards following discreetly behind them, I was left with a great deal of food for thought—and far too few answers.
Chapter 11
Over the next few nights, I pushed past the underlying feeling that I didn’t belong and stayed in the dining hall after the evening meal, talking with the servants at every opportunity. I needed more information, and Alyssa had reminded me that servants were willing to talk about things royals were not. And I hoped, in the process, I might find out more about Princess Alyssa herself.
Now that I was paying attention, I noticed an undercurrent I had missed before. Or perhaps the latest attack had brought it closer to the surface.
My position at the center of the terrifying yet exciting occurrence meant I was now welcomed into conversations despite my previous stigma as a newcomer with a reputation for a disordered mind. I retold a simple version of the story many times, focusing on my fear and confusion and Philip’s heroic rescue. The men were full of curses for the attackers and assertions that they wished they had been there to help fight them off, while the girls giggled and declared it romantic.
The first time they said it with Philip in earshot, he grinned and winked at me, and I had to fight down a flush. He often lingered close to my conversations after that. Perhaps he liked the sighs and giggles of the girls and hearing their praise of him.
I, however, was interested in the conversation that followed. I learned that there had been peace and prosperity in Arcadia for twelve years—ever since Alyssa married their prince—but that strange things had been happening of late. I had assumed everything had its origin in Sierra and the islanders among my guards, but something bigger was going on here.