I bit my lip, enjoying his closeness, enjoying his voice, the feel of his arm under my hand.
“Do you like it here?”
“In the palace? No.” he said simply.
“I was just thinking that I know almost nothing about you.”
He was silent for a long moment.
“Is there something you would like to know?”
“What’s your favorite color?”
He chuckled, and if I had thought he was mesmerizing before, the sound of his laugh and the warmth in his bright, brown eyes completely wiped out the last coherent thought I had.
“Did . . . I say something wrong?”
“Sorry. I just remembered something.”
I bit my lip, looking straight ahead as we entered the overgrown parts of the wilderness that was not particularly looked after. The varieties of the dark, leafy trees and thick shrubs, mixed with the waist high weeds, concealed us from the windows of the palace.
“Red.”
“Excuse me?”
“Red is my favorite color.” Kent’s eyes landed on my hair and swiftly moved back to my face.
My cheeks brightened with a fiery heat. He did not mean it that way, he was just looking at my hair. It was not, in any way, related to what he had just said.
“Do you have any family in the city?” I asked after a long pause.
“No.”
“Do you have a family?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.Did he mean that he is married with children, or he has parents and siblings?I really wanted to know, but I was too scared to ask. Instead, I fidgeted with my dress, avoiding looking at him.
“Do you...? Do you want to ask me something?” I looked up at him.
“I have many things I want to ask you, but I’m not sure you’re ready.”
“Why?”
He looked away. But his jaw clenched as if he was forcing himself to stay silent.
“Do you live in the city?” I asked.
“No. All the guards are stationed in the palace.”
“I see. How did you know that Sally... that they were giving me poison?”
“You did not look like yourself.” I could not stop staring at him. “I mean you did not look good.”
“Did we know each other before?”
“Yes.”
