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She meant, of course, the respect implied by their engagement. Emrys ran a hand over his mouth. There would be no fixing this easily while they were all handling his father. He would have to postpone that until the old man was too embroiled in politics to notice him much.
“Ah, here she is!” Eliana spotted Caitlyn entering the room, very slowly, with Heloise by her side. She remained in place, waiting for them both to reach an acceptable distance for speaking. “You are a vision, Caitlyn. Simply a vision.”
Caitlyn lifted the bulk of her skirt and smiled. “I feel like I’m about to go to a debutante ball.”
Eliana chuckled. “Just keep your chin up and smile, my dear. Your first formal presentation to the public is always the most difficult.” Eliana gave them a nod and went to speak to a guard who had just walked in.
“My first? How many balls do you plan on having while I’m here?” Caitlyn asked.
“Just the one, fortunately, unless you stay for Christmas.”
“I-I…Christmas?”
Emrys took her arm from Heloise and began to walk with her. “It is very beautiful here at Christmas time.”
“I’m sure it is, but I’ll have to get back sometime.”
“Sometime, I’m sure. But you’ve brought your work with you, haven’t you?”
“Well, yes—”
“So it should be no trouble to have an extended stay.” Emrys leaned in. “We can send you home whenever you like, of course. You only need to ask.”
They approached the large double doors that led out into the courtyard. Four festooned carriages stood in a row, waiting for the royal family to arrive. They were enclosed but had large windows so the passengers could be seen easily. Horses stamped and jingled their harnesses, eager to be moving.
“I knew it!” Caitlyn said suddenly.
“Pardon?” Emrys pressed his lips together in amusement.
“I knew there’d be carriages sooner or later.”
Emrys smiled, watching the excitement in her eyes. He’d never had someone on his arm for events like these. The king and queen were always in the lead carriage, of course. Then Imelda and her family in the second carriage, and the youngest siblings together at the end. Now, Elsa and Adora would be on their own, and an extra carriage had been prepared for Emrys and Caitlyn. It was like some kind of rite of passage for him, and he liked the feeling of finally having graduated from the children’s section.
Caitlyn watched people coming and going in the courtyard as servants uninvolved with the procession streamed in and out of the palace on business related to the ball. Adora and Elsa were reclining against their carriage until their mother came over snapping her fingers to get them both to stand up properly. The servants had solved Elsa’s short hair problem by clipping to the back of her actual hair a matching braid, which she took off at one point and fanned herself with while her mother wasn’t looking.
Then the king appeared.
Eldon Sébire walked at a fast clip, with two men scribbling notes furiously on either side of him. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with the same distinct jaw and striking eyes as his son, though his temples were streaked with gray, and his nose was bigger. It made him look hawkish and severe. It seemed that Emrys had gotten his mother’s nose, while Elsa and Imelda had gotten their father’s.
“Do not disappoint me,” Elden barked at the man next to him. “We will meet on this tomorrow, and I expect to be prepared.”
Well. He was The King. If anyone had to be on top of his game at all times, it was him. Caitlyn tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt, but the image of Emrys coming home to find himself engaged loomed in her mind. She imagined the same thing would happen to little Adora someday, even if she was his favorite. Had Imelda been given any choice in husband? Had the king told her how many children to have as well? Was four the standard obligation, or would the younger children get to choose how many to bear for the expansion of the family line?
The king strode to his carriage. He offered Eliana a hand so that she could enter first, and then climbed in himself. One of his assistants made a shooing motion toward the rest of them, and Emrys took Caitlyn’s hand to help her into the carriage.
“This is something else. Do you do this every year?” Caitlyn settled herself onto the cushioned seat, trying to keep the fluffy skirt of her gown from clumping around her.
“I’m not home every year, but when I am, yes.” Emrys leaned back as the carriage started to move slowly.
“What do I do? Do I just wave at the people? Do they want some rando waving at them? This is about fawning over the royals, after all. Not the prince’s date.”
Emrys looked at her with a strange expression. It was fond and kind and…a little conflicted. She rarely saw conflict in him. He was so decisive, usually. She put her hand on his leg and patted his knee.
“I’ll wave if you want me to,” she conceded.
“I think you should. It’s only polite.” Emrys took her hand.
It took some time for their carriage to make its way out into the streets of the city. Everything must have been shut down for the day. When Caitlyn peered out the window, she could see that there were people walking in front of them, and the parade itself was quite long, but the royal family was the highlight. They were what people were waiting to see, even if they occasionally got a glimpse of the royal family going about their business surrounded by guards.
