Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

I had expected more pushback over my plan of escaping the castle, but once we left the dumbwaiter, Korth was surprisingly willing to go along with my rebellious little scheme. As we passed the laundry room, which looked empty now that night had fallen in earnest, I saw servants' clothing hung out to dry and insisted on a detour. Korth donned a servant’s black clothing and tied the mask around his face without complaint.

In the next room, I changed into the handmaiden clothing, which felt far more familiar than the regal gowns I had been wearing, then I took a moment to splash water onto my face. Keep it together, Dahlia. I merely needed Korth to trust me enough to lend his military support until the rebellion was won. Once I was inevitably discovered, I would sever all ties and leave. My heart gave an involuntary pang as I pictured Korth’s face when he realized the betrayal that was unavoidable.

We used the small passageway where deliveries were made to exit the castle. Once we were outside in the fresh air, it became easier to push away my apprehensions about the future and focus on the task at hand: to get Korth to enjoy himself and feel comfortable around me.

“You know, if we’re going in disguise, we’ll need fake names to call each other,” I told him. “Is there a name you want me to use?”

His brow, only barely visible behind his mask, furrowed slightly. “I’ve never thought about it.”

“Well then, you can be Heath, and I’ll be…Dahlia.” The name slipped out of my mouth before I could think of a better alternative.

“Dahlia,” he repeated experimentally, testing the way it felt on his tongue. Shoals , the way he said my name was far more seductive than any love potion could ever be. “That’s a beautiful name.” I felt just as hypnotized as I had been in my dream. It would be torture once he reverted to calling me Odette again.

It felt liberating to walk around in the town square, masked and in disguise. No one spared us a second glance, no crowds parted or stared as we strolled along, and there was none of the bowing and scraping that normally accompanied Korth everywhere he went. Colored lanterns hung on strings stretched between rooftops and the town’s square was ringed in glowing braziers. Cooking pits roasted three sheep and a bullock that hissed and sputtered as fats and juices fell onto the bed of red-hot coals. Long trestle tables were laden with crusty pies, braided loaves of bread, and sliced fruits. Friends sat shoulder to shoulder, laughing and raising tankards to invite others to join their merriment.

“Tess would like it here,” Korth said, watching as acrobats tumbled across the square, flipping over each other while others cartwheeled in circles.

“You really love her, don’t you?”

He grinned an embarrassed sort of smile. “Who couldn’t love her?”

Barkers called customers toward their booths, advertising flower wreaths, jewelry, different foods and beverages, and a variety of other goods. A crowd of young men were laughing and joking as they challenged each other to a knife-throwing competition. Pirates, by the look of their clothing, but they didn’t appear nearly as dangerous or as old as most of the pirates the rebellion had dealt with in the past. In fact, many looked my same age. I angled my head to the side. Were they the children of other pirates, perhaps?

“It’s a long story,” Korth told me, following my gaze and accurately guessing my thoughts.

“Which one is in charge?” My eyes flicked from one young man to the next.

Korth looked around. “I don’t see him here. He’s missing a hand; Captain Hook, they call him.”

“Is he that young, too?”

“From what I remember, he’s a little older than they are, but not by much.”

I pulled my attention away. I was here to make Korth fall in love with me, not wonder at the origins of some younger-than-average pirates. “What do you want to do first? Are you hungry?”

“I already ate supper.”

“But have you had festival food? It’s terrible for your health and tastes sinfully delicious.” I winked at him through my mask. “If I’m going to be a bad influence on you, I may as well do it properly.”

“I really shouldn’t…” Korth began as I purchased a dessert that had more sugar than a week’s worth of meals at the castle.

“Enough about what you should and shouldn’t do. What do you want to do?”

Slowly, Korth took the bite I held out to him and closed his eyes. “Wow.”

“What was that you were saying about what you shouldn’t do?” I asked as I snuck a bite of my own.

“I forgot.”

After we finished the dessert, I pulled Korth into a speed painter’s booth. “Didn’t you say you wanted a portrait in one of the recent letters before I arrived?”

“Yes, I did.”

There was another couple already being painted, and I couldn’t help but stare. The woman was stunningly beautiful, but what made her particularly noticeable were the nearly transparent wings sprouting from her back that gave off a continual mist of golden glitter. Her back was angled toward us, so her wings were clearly visible above her backless green dress. A pirate with black hair and a small golden hoop dangling from his ear had an arm that ended in a curved hook rather than a hand, which he had draped around the woman’s bare shoulders.

“That’s the pirate I was telling you about,” Korth said softly.

“The girl…who… what is she?”

“That’s Captain Hook’s wife, Tinkerbell, and she’s a pixie.”

The painter, clearly in awe of the pair, was dabbing the finishing touches onto their portrait, speckling golden flecks around the border. The pixie stood on tiptoe to whisper something into Captain Hook’s ear, who grinned and raised his eyebrows at her. She smiled mischievously and batted her eyelashes. As the painter pronounced them finished, Captain Hook leaned down to plant a kiss behind the pixie’s ear.

I couldn’t help but be slightly jealous. Korth wasn’t nearly as affectionate with me as the pirate was with his wife.

“Would you like me to pose you?” the painter asked us as the couple walked away. “Or do you have something specific in mind?”

“Just her, not me,” Korth said, hastily shying away from the stool where the models could sit.

“Come on, Heath. You can keep your mask on if you want to.” I was fairly confident that I wouldn’t be recognized but stayed masked all the same and combed my fingers through my hair. “Don’t you want to remember tonight?”

“Yes, I do.” Korth barely murmured the words, blushing scarlet as he fumbled with his coin purse to pay the painter and stand next to me.

The portrait turned out beautifully. The artist had accentuated our best features and downplayed the less flattering ones, and the result had Korth staring between the picture and me, his lips parted as he compared. We were told it would need time to dry in the artist’s station, and to collect it before we went home.

“It looks just like you,” Korth told me as we left the booth.

“That’s what artists do,” I teased, looping my arm around his elbow as he guided me through the press of people. “And now you get to have a picture of us to keep forever.”

Korth smiled. “As we will be married soon, I would like to think I get to have you forever. I’m a lucky man.”

My stomach dropped a little, and I pretended to be engrossed in watching a chef sear a cut of veal in order to avoid answering.

Korth, smiling more than I’d ever seen him smile before, led me through the crowd, a protective hand on the small of my back as we wound our way toward the performers. With each new act, he clapped, enthusiastically exclaiming over his favorite parts and beaming at me.

At the end of one particularly impressive tightrope walking act, Korth pulled out his purse and shook a few coins into his hand to toss to the performers. The jangling drew the attention of a furtive-looking man, and I saw the familiar hollow look in his eyes as his gaze flicked down to where Korth was pouring the extra coins back.

I pulled on Korth’s hand as he tossed a coin. “Let’s leave.”

“They’re about to start another?—”

“Please, Ko—Heath, now.”

After one look at my panicked face, Korth nodded and kept his hand firmly at my back.

“Are you armed?” I asked quietly, looking over my shoulder.

“No; I thought a sword would be a little conspicuous.”

“No dagger? Nothing?”

He shook his head.

“Then we need to move and find a guard.” I threw another glance at the crowd we’d just left. “I think we’re about to get robbed.”

“What did you see?” Korth asked, mimicking me and staring at the crowd. “No one is following us.”

“A smart thief won’t attack his mark right away. He would wait until he can make his move without being detected.”

“Then shouldn’t we stay with lots of other people?”

“It’s too easy for him to lift your purse when we’re always being jostled. Here, give it to me.” As Korth handed the small leather bag over as we turned around a tent, I was suddenly struck by the realization that if I wanted to, it would’ve been all too easy to lure Korth into a trap. He was far too trusting. Once concealed from the crowd, I used him as a shield and wedged the coin purse down the front of my dress. Korth hastily stared up at the sky.

“I’m not looking,” he announced to the stars. “I’m not looking.”

Nervous as I was, I couldn’t help letting out a laugh. “I think we have greater concerns right now.”

He continued to stare fixedly at the heavens until I’d finished tucking everything out of sight and tapped his shoulder. “It’s safe to look again.”

With a sigh of relief, he looked back down at me. “Warn me next time, okay?”

“Next time, we’ll be married and I won’t need to warn you.”

He ran a weary hand down his face. “You really love teasing me, don’t you?”

“I do.”

We wound our way past the booths but didn’t see any guards. Normally, we were surrounded by guards and chaperones, but then the moment we needed them, there weren’t any to be found.

“I don’t think we were followed,” Korth said eventually, slowing down.

“Maybe not. I may have just been paranoid. I wouldn’t be very useful in a fight.”

Korth stopped. “You don’t need to be. I’m here.” The sounds from the festival still floated around us and the smells from the roasted foods were so heavy on the air that they were nearly tangible, but I couldn’t see a single other person. “And there’s no one else around.”

“Why Heath, are you trying to get me all alone? Godfrey would be horrified.”

Korth smiled. “He would be, wouldn’t he? But wasn’t it you who told me that being forbidden is what makes it all the more thrilling?”

“Something like that.” I allowed my hands to drift up to Korth’s shoulders as his fingers crept around my waist.

Just as Korth inclined his head toward mine, the shadows behind him moved. With a yelp, I pulled back, my fist suddenly clenched around Korth’s shirt. He stumbled forward, just in time to evade a knife that whipped through the air.

Another shout, and a second shadowed person leapt out of the shadows, blocking the robber’s dagger with one of their own.

“Guards!” Korth bellowed.

The masked robber and the second man clashed together for a few seconds, their blades exchanging swipes while Korth blocked me from view, arms stretched wide, as he shouted again.

Our first attacker fled. The second man ran a few paces after him, then turned. The colored lanterns hanging on strings overhead cast cerulean patches over the ground, and as our savior pivoted to face us, I recognized him even though he was masked.

Curdy.

He slowly touched his lips and earlobe, but before he got any farther, there was a clatter of guards running our way, and he bolted.

“Come on,” I urged Korth, tugging him away from the sound of the approaching guards.

“Shouldn’t we stay?” he asked, but I shook my head.

“Do you want to explain to them why the crown prince is sneaking around with an unmarried woman in the dead of night?”

“Oh.” Korth picked up his pace. “You certainly know how to twist words, don’t you? First I’m protecting my fiancée in an unfamiliar city and now I’m sneaking around with an unmarried woman?”

I snickered as we ran. “Welcome to the world of women. Anything you say can and will be used against you at a later date.”

“That seems like a raw deal.”

“Ah, but you get a beautiful woman in return. Surely my affections make up for any frustrations.”

We slowed down, trying to catch our breath. Deliriously and inexplicably happy after our near robbery, each time we looked at each other, giddy laughter bubbled up. The late night and high adrenaline had erased our good sense.

“It’s…not funny,” Korth gasped, still grinning from ear to ear.

“No, this is the most serious of all matters,” I agreed, and we burst out laughing again.

“We could get into trouble.”

“Lots,” I agreed. “If Godfrey were here?—”

“We could push him into the lake over there.”

I muffled my laughter and took several deep breaths. “What lake? I don’t see one.”

“It’s more of a pond, really, and it’s in the gardens here. Want me to show you? There’s a bridge.”

“Then of course we need to go.”