Page 38 of Betraying Korth

“You’re amazing,” I whispered.

Korth shrugged modestly. “Tess is the one to thank. She came up with the game. I’m just glad I can pass it to someone else.”

As I entered my bedroom, the rainclouds had cleared, and from my balcony, I saw that the darkening town was alive with activity, bustling to string up the new colored lanterns for the Night of Masks Festival, the old ones likely ruined in the rainstorm. Music drifted toward me, and the itch to vacate the castle grew unbearable. If Godfrey wouldn’t leave us alone, I needed to find another way to sneak time with my fiancé.

CHAPTER 17

Ieased myself into the dumbwaiter’s cart after night had truly fallen, gingerly testing the cables to ensure that it would support my weight while I worked the ropes from the inside. Cautiously, I worked the pulley system so that the platform lowered.

I counted theopenings that slowly moved past as I worked my way down, finally pulling the lever that clamped the brake into place and peering out of the lighted crack in the panel.

The floors had been counted correctly. A sliver of Korth’s profile was barely visible, poring over a dusty tome laid out on his desk. I pressed my ear to the crack, listening to see if any servants were tidying up or if any of Korth’s advisors were speaking. There was no noise; it seemed as though Korth was done for the evening.

Korththoughthe was done for the evening, that was. I knocked against the panel so softly that Korth either didn’t hear or dismissed the noise as unimportant.

I knocked again, a little louder. This time, Korth glanced up from his book, looking in the opposite direction at the door to his chamber. “Enter,” he called. I grinned to myself.

Korth waited almost a full minute before shaking his head and returning to his book. I knocked a third time, even louder, and added in a stage whisper, “Korth.” His eyebrows rose at the wall that concealed the dumbwaiter, a puzzled smile quirking his mouth.

“You can’t hide from me,” I continued in a loud whisper.

The wooden chair creaked as Korth got up and approached the panels in the wall. Just before he opened the doors, I flung them apart and popped my head out. “Surprise!”

He jumped ever so slightly and smiled. “Odette, what are you doing here?”

“I figured that since you already walked on grass, you’re a wild man now. How adventurous are you feeling?”

I clambered out of the dumbwaiter and onto the rug. Korth stuck his head into the opening, looking up at the pulleys that stretched up as high as he could see. “What are you doing here?” he repeated.

“I’m coming to steal you away for an adventure,” I told him. “We’re going to that masquerade.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Why not?” I crossed his richly furnished room to where the balcony doors were flung wide to tempt in a breeze. “It’s a perfect night for it.”

“We would be recognized. I would end up talking to my subjects about their problems instead of spending time with you.”

I pulled out two masks I’d fashioned myself before coming down to see him. “The benefit of amasquerade.”

“What if someone came into our rooms and saw that we were missing?”

I pulled some of the pillows off Korth’s enormous bed and shoved them under the downy quilt, patting them into the roughshape of a human. “Such a shame that the crown prince isn’t feeling well tonight and went to bed early.”

“They might check on me.”

“Will they?” After padding across several plush rugs, I turned the key in the door’s lock. As the bolt slid over with a satisfyingly loudclack, I became acutely aware that I had just locked myself into a room with a man. The bed in the center of his chamber suddenly looked much larger, a tangible reminder that we were two very unmarried people, alone and locked in a bedroom together. Korth seemed to share my thoughts.

“We can’t be together without a chaperone. It isn’t appropriate.”

I nodded in mock thoughtfulness. “So you’re telling me that you’d rather comfortably lie in bed with the knowledge that you’re intentionally allowing an unprotected woman,your future wife, to roam the unfamiliar streets of a foreign land without an escort? And I thought you had honor.”

Korth blinked. “Well, when you put it that way…”

“Any more excuses as to why you’re avoiding spending time with your fiancée? I’m starting to think that you don’t like me.”

“I assure you, that isn’t the issue.” Korth’s voice was so sincere that I felt a pang of guilt.

“Oh? Do you like me too much, then?” I held one of the masks up to his face to see how it would appear, wishing my palms would stop sweating.

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