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Her tone suggested anything but delight. In fact, if Petrus hadn’t known better, he would have said Lady Jenny was miserable.
“Does Aegiria have a tradition of erecting Christmas trees?” Dean Rathborne-Paxton asked from the other side of the table, his voice perhaps a bit too loud.
Samuel snorted for no apparent reason…except perhaps that his brother had emphasized the word “erecting” a bit too significantly.
It was silly and childish, well beneath the dignity of a noble family like the Rathborne-Paxtons, and the royal family, but the comment did exactly as Petrus figured it was meant to by diverting everyone’s attention from the awkward exchange around Lady Jenny.
“Aegiria has decorated for the Christmas season with pine trees long before the rest of the world, Mr. Rathborne-Paxton,” Aunt Sylvia herself answered, commanding the attention of everyone at the table. “In fact, I would venture to say that the rest of the world stole the idea from us.”
“I’m not so certain about that, Mother,” Cousin Viggo, the youngest of Petrus’s cousins and the most studious, said. “Traditions of decorating for Yule with pine trees and other greenery dates back hundreds of years.”
Petrus was so relieved that his cousin was such a stuffy fount of knowledge that he let out a breath. Lady Jenny turned her head slightly to him at that breath, eyeing him sideways with a deeply worried look. It was enough to snap Petrus straight again and to focus him on his meal.
His anxiety was not helped by the fact that he caught Oskar shifting in his chair and sending him a disapproving look around Lady Jenny. Oskar then offered to serve Lady Jenny from the platter of fish that a servant came by to offer in that moment, glaring at Petrus as if to demonstrate how one was meant to treat a lady who was intended by the family to be his bride.
Petrus felt duly scolded, but he didn’t know what to do with the feeling. His attention and his whole heart felt pulled across the table to where Charlotte sat opposite him. Charlotte was doing a much better job of politeness than he was as she smiled and laughed at the appropriate places in the conversation, and ate everything presented to her for lunch, even though Petrus was certain she’d never encountered some of the stranger Aegirian dishes before, like the pickled eel.
It was only when Charlotte sent a quick look across the table, catching his eyes with a knowing look, that Petrus was certain she was deeply aware of him, no matter where her attention appeared to be. He wished the table was narrow enough for him to reach her feet with his under it. He wished the rest of the family was off doing their own thing and that it was just him and Charlotte enjoying the meal. He wished he didn’t have a mountain of duty pressing down on his shoulders to complicate what should simply be love.
More than anything, he wished that he would get the chance to speak to Charlotte and to tell her just how much he loved her…before Charlotte heard even the slightest whisper of how he was supposed to engage himself to Lady Jenny as soon as possible.
ChapterThree
Before the end of the day, Charlotte had decided that Aegiria was a beautiful and magical place, and that she wouldn’t mind making it her home. Of course, that was putting the cart much too far ahead of the horse, but if the smiles Petrus sent her way as he accompanied the Rathborne-Paxton family on a tour of Aegiria’s capital city after lunch was any indication, that particular cart and horse might be united soon.
The royal city was even more beautiful and splendid than the first view Charlotte had of the place walking up from the dock. It was made up of buildings that managed to be both sturdy and beautiful, with quite a few gardens that the residents knew how to plant for optimal color, even though it was December.
The people were some of the friendliest Charlotte had ever encountered. As Petrus explained on his tour—which several of his cousins and his brother and sister had joined them for, along with Lady Jenny—Aegiria was prosperous for its size. The bulk of the island was taken up with farmland and a few small industries, but the wealth of the island kingdom came from their management of the sea. People were content for the most part, and while there were opportunities on the island itself, quite a large percentage of the population went to Europe or the various Scandinavian countries for their education or to work.
The rooms within the palace that Charlotte and her friends were given were splendid as well. Charlotte nearly collapsed into bed that night, after a busy day of travel and forging new friendships. The tradition in Aegiria was to sleep with the windows open at night, even in the cold, under layers of down quilts, nesting in copious amounts of pillows. Charlotte slept like a babe in arms, or perhaps a baby duckling snuggled into its mother’s feathers.
By the time Charlotte found herself engaged with various royal family members, decorating one of the parlors for Christmas the next morning, after a hearty breakfast and delightful conversation, there was only one complaint she could think to give. She had not had so much as a spare second alone with Petrus to tell him how delighted she was to see him again, and perhaps to steal the kiss she had dreamed of for so many months now.
“Should these garlands go around the windows or over the fireplace?” she asked Princess Dagmar, Petrus’s mother, who was in charge of the decorations for the room where Charlotte worked, along with Priya and Petrus’s sister, Brigitta. She held up a fresh, green garland of holly, ivy, and pine that one of the palace servants had brought in earlier.
Princess Dagmar was a handsome woman who had the look of a Viking warrioress, at least, to Charlotte’s imagination. She was tall with a strong face and bright eyes that spoke of intelligence and command. Charlotte had no idea how a woman of her obvious presence and power could have fallen for the false charms of the Marquess of Vegas.
“That one goes over the fireplace,” Princess Dagmar said with a nod. “These will go over the windows.” She crossed to a box of greens and began taking them out and handing them to her daughter and Priya.
“Has the tradition of the family doing their own decorating existed for many years?” Priya asked as she took one of the smaller garlands to a window.
Charlotte could imagine that, for a woman who had been raised to be a rani in the kingdom of Koch Bihar, it must have been strange to do something that was, arguably, servants’ work.
“Yes, indeed,” Princess Dagmar answered. “The tradition began as a yuletide gift to the servants of the palace, but it extended out to the noble families of Aegiria as well. Now, anyone who owns a household or a business hangs their own Christmas decorations for the servants and those who are employed to enjoy.”
“I think I like this Aegirian tradition,” Charlotte said, fetching the large pins they were using to fasten the garlands in place around the room. “There is something so equitable about it.”
“It has always reminded me of that carol about Good King Wenceslas,” Brigitta said, rushing over to hold the other end of Charlotte’s garland. “Any royal who serves his or her people is a good example.”
Charlotte hummed in agreement as she fastened her end of the garland to the mantel. She liked the Aegirian royals more and more with every passing moment.
“Do the men do similar work?” she asked, hoping she seemed casual when, in fact, she had a specific question in mind. She couldn’t hold that question in entirely and blurted out, “Is Petrus off in the palace somewhere, tying bows to balustrades?”
Brigitta laughed, glancing across the room to her mother. “I would imagine that Prince Petrus is in the ballroom, helping to bring in the trees that have been cut in preparation for the Christmas ball.”
There was a knowing light to Brigitta’s eyes that Charlotte wouldn’t be able to escape. Try as she might to be subtle, she suspected Brigitta already knew about her feelings for Petrus, and hopefully his for her, especially since she’d just slipped up and referred to him informally.
She was about to come right out and ask when Lady Jenny entered the room carrying a large basket of bright red bows.
