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“Come.” Heloise took Caitlyn’s hand. “Let’s see if you can walk.”
Caitlyn felt slightly off balance with every step, but after a few turns around the room, Heloise seemed confident that she wouldn’t faceplant into anyone important. Caitlyn wasn’t so sure, but this didn’t seem to matter. Within moments, the women had turned her around for one last check over and spritzed her with something that smelled a bit like strawberry, a bit like violets.
And she was out the door. Heloise instructed her to fold her hands in front of her and walk slowly.
***
“Come, Emrys,” his mother called. “We’re beginning to line up for the procession.”
“Caitlyn isn’t here yet,” Emrys objected.
“Oh, I’m sure Imelda is still rounding up her children.” Eliana waved her hand. “There will be time yet for our stragglers.”
“They were still working on the gown when I left.”
Eliana gave him a stern look. “What were you doing in there anyway? You’re just going to make things difficult.”
“That’s hardly my intention. I merely wanted to be there in case she needed anything. Caitlyn has never been to a function quite this big before.”
“Ensure her fingers stay where they are meant to be, and yours as well, and we should all be fine,” Eliana instructed.
“Mother!”
“Do you think there is a single thing that occurs under this roof that escapes my attention? You must grow up, Emrys, and give her the due respect that you have offered.”
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.
