The Winter Ball by Laura Greenwood

Author:Laura Greenwood [Greenwood, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0BPT35ZB8
Goodreads: 123220267
Publisher: Drowlgon Press
Published: 2023-02-28T23:00:00+00:00

Ten

I push my spoon through the beautifully presented rice dish on my plate. I don't know which kingdom it comes from, only that it's completely different to anything we have at home and it's delicious. But even that can't keep me from obsessing over the worries in my head. I don't know what to do about the prophecy plaguing me and my sisters, especially when there's a clicking clock for how long we can keep any of this up.

A shadow falls over me and I look up, expecting to find Marie or one of my sisters, but instead finding Eugene there.

"Can I sit?" he asks.

I nod. "Be my guest." I gesture to the chair opposite me, though I doubt he needs the indication of where it is.

"It's rare to find you eating alone," he says as he sits.

I raise an eyebrow. "Should I be worried that you've been watching me eat?"

Alarm crosses his face. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"I know what you meant. The academy's only so big, it's impossible to miss things. My sisters arrived a few days ago, so they've been keeping me busy."

"All eleven of them?"

I laugh. "Thankfully not. I love them all dearly, but eleven is a lot to keep up with."

"I can imagine. It'll be a lot of dowries for your father too."

"Maybe he's hoping that most of us will marry for love so he doesn't have to worry about it," I say. "Or maybe he considers a potential kingdom a big enough dowry for me."

"Could it be any bigger?"

"I could be Princess Briar," I say, nodding over in the direction of the Crown Princess of Veogera.

"That's a lot of responsibility, I'm not sure I'd want to take that on," he muses.

"And yet you've been flirting with me to the point where it almost seems like you want to court me."

He blinks a few times, almost missing one of the servants bringing him his food. He murmurs his thanks.

"Unless I'm reading the situation wrong." I dig my spoon into my rice and take a bite, mostly so I can do something instead of just waiting for him to respond. The idea that I might have gotten this wrong isn't sitting well with me.

"I didn't really plan on doing that," he admits.

"Flirting? Or giving me the wrong impression?"

"Flirting," he says firmly. "It's the right impression."

My heart leaps at the admission. "So if I were to ask you to dinner with me in the village, you'd say yes?"

A boyish smile crosses over his face. "I would."

"Good. Then we should make plans." I smile at him, pleased to get one in return.

We eat in relative silence, though I keep stealing glances at him when I don't think he's looking. My gaze locks on his the third or fourth time I do it and we both end up kind of grinning.

"We have dance class tomorrow," he says.

"Ah, the one you're doing for yourself and not your father?"

"That's the one. Though part of the appeal is the dance partner I've been assigned.

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