"What's wrong with you?"Veronica asks.
"Nothing."
She gives me a strange look."You almost turned down pastry.I don't think I've ever seen you do that before."
I let out a sigh."We made two different curd tarts for us to try together, but now I've tried this one."
Veronica stares at me."That'syour problem?"
"It's not fair."
She closes her eyes and touches her forehead."Nate understands that you're a princess and that you have duties to attend to," she says."Sometimes that's going to involve eating pie without him."
"Tart," I correct her.
"Tart, pie, what's the difference?"
"It doesn't have a lid," I respond.
"Well, that's information that's never going to be relevant to me again."
"Not if you keep calling them the wrong thing," I point out.
"Evie, we're not talking about pies and tarts."
I frown."But we are.You asked what the difference was."
Veronica takes a deep breath."Nate isn't going to be angry at you for eating a piece of curd tart.It's not as if you haven't had any before and are trying it for the first time.He knows that he's making things for us to eat with the Gaullessian delegation, it's not going to be a surprise."
"But it doesn't feel good."
"I know you're not going to want to hear this, but if it bothers you, then you need to talk to him about it," she responds.
"That's your answer to everything," I mutter.
"Itisthe answer to everything," she counters.
"That's annoying."
She shrugs."No one said that love was easy."She pats me on the shoulder."Now I'm going to go meet the Duchesse for a ride and ask her if she wants to have a glass of wine with me before dinner."
"Why not just invite her back to your bedchamber?That would be more comfortable."
She laughs."Ah, Evie, you're growing up."
"I'm older than you."
"By barely a year.Maybe if I misbehave, Mama will make me have a ball for my birthday."
"I didn't misbehave.I left dinner during dessertonce."
"That's not how Mama sees it, and you know it."
I let out a sigh and lean back in my seat."I don't want a ball."
"I know you don't."
"And I don't want suitors."
