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Emele started to write on her slate again, but Elle—noting Marc’s study of the pond—said for his benefit, “I am honored to meet you Marc, but please do not let us keep you from your work.”
Marc nodded once before he bowed low. He took his empty bucket and filled it with pond water. He plunged his hand in it and swirled the water before he turned to leave. He realized Elle and Emele were still present and bowed to them once each before he selected a different path and started down it.
Emele placed her slate over her heart and sighed deeply as she watched him go.
Elle smiled slyly. “You think he’s very handsome?” she teased.
Emele flushed—even her neck turned pink—and she hastily turned away from Elle. She nearly trod on Jock in her haste to start down a different path.
Elle laughed and followed her, enjoying the lightness of her dress and the warmth of the sun.
Elle was sampling her final course of dinner—dessert, which was a delicious bread pudding—when Prince Severin shocked her.
“Are you pleased with your new dresses?”
Elle swallowed her pudding wrong and coughed. She pounded her chest before sipping her tea. When she recovered she cleared her throat and said, “I beg your pardon. What did you say, Your Highness?”
“Are you pleased with your new dresses, Intruder?” the cursed prince repeated. Even though he spoke to Elle he was writing something in a book.
“I am. Thank you. I enjoy the designs, which are more aligned to my personal taste, and their simplicity has greatly increased my mobility.”
Prince Severin briefly looked up and nodded.
Elle waited for a moment before adding. “While I greatly enjoy them, let me say at the risk of sounding ungrateful that I would have been happy to have the other gowns modified to suit my needs rather than a new wardrobe.”
“Do not worry yourself. Heloise and Bernadine informed me new dresses were entirely necessary.”
“Thank you,” Elle said, at a loss of what to say.
Prince Severin grunted and shuffled papers.
Movement behind Severin caught Elle’s attention. A footman and two serving maids stood behind the illegitimate prince. All three of them were beaming and nodding to Elle.
Elle reluctantly returned her attention to her bread pudding, still surprised that the prince had deemed to ask her a question.
“Where are we going?” Elle asked, following Emele down a familiar combination of hallways. A young boy—a groom named Oliver—was at Elle’s elbow. “Emele?”
The ladies maid gave Elle a mischievous smile over her shoulder before opening a set of double doors.
It was the library, but this time the curtains were open and the windows were cracked, letting sunlight and bird songs warm the room.
“It’s beautiful,” Elle said, her eyes taking in the lightened room.
Emele soundlessly laughed and, in spite of her full skirts, ran down one of the aisles.
Amused, Elle thumped after her.
Emele plucked a book from a shelf and held it open, paging through it to show Elle the beautiful illustrations of exotic animals. There was a lion, golden eyed with a black halo of hair. A painting of a black and white stripped horse was on the next page, and a pink necked ostrich on the page after that.
Emele passed the book to Oliver and hurried on. They danced up another aisle. This time Emele selected a book that depicted beautiful fairies, pearly horned unicorns, and roaring dragons. A few aisles down was a book of dress styles and hair arrangements—which Emele naturally snatched. Oliver found a book about knights and snuck it into the pile of books that he carried.
Emele was placing a Loire history book on the growing stack when Elle found a flower book. “Look, Emele, don’t you want to read this one?” Elle smirked.
Emele’s lower face and neck blushed but she didn’t protest when Elle added her book to the pile.
Emele pulled on Elle’s crutch and the two made their way to a massive table, where Oliver gratefully set the books down.
Emele spread the books out on the table and selected the volume about dresses and fashions. She sat down in a wooden chair, growing engrossed as she turned pages.
Oliver discreetly swiped his knight book. He started reading it as he leaned against the wall, slowly sinking to the floor as he ripped through the book with the eagerness of a hooked reader.
Elle paged through the book of exotic animals, pausing and reading whenever she found a depiction of a large cat. She was looking at an image of a spotted feline, wondering if any large cats were pure black, when one of the library doors clicked open.