Page 107 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“Dimitri!”
“All right!”
She rushed off without another word. Dimitri opened the door, just a fraction, and leaned towards the kitchen. Even without his accelerated hearing, he was fairly sure he would have heard Minty shrieking, “The Prince is here. He’s early. He’s at the gates.” Followed by a string of unintelligible muttering.
“Stay calm, Mrs Minton, we’re prepared,” Hughes said sagely.
“There’s no such thing as ‘prepared’ when it comes to royalty!” Mrs Minton stammered. “And don’t tell me to calm down! Places, everyone. Assemble at the front steps. Thomas, you’ll act as stablemaster for now until we can call up one from the village. Posey, please double-check his highness’ room and start a fire for him. Henry, attend the—ah, Adeline! Hurry to the Young Lord’s and ready him immediately—”
Realising that everyone was moving, Dimitri leapt up the servants’ quarters and hurtled back to his room, arriving just before Adeline burst in.
“The Prince—”
“I heard,” he said, pulling on his waistcoat.
Adeline bolted across the room. “Saints and stars, your shirt is a crumpled mess!” she ripped off the waistcoat and tore it from his body, a burst of cold air searing against his skin. “Is that drool on the collar? Did I drool on you?”
“A little and very sweetly.”
“Oh lords, oh spirits… I drooled on the Young Lord…”
“You have my full permission to do it again, if it helps?”
“Ugh!” Adeline threw up her hands in despair, before quickly sourcing a new shirt and throwing it over his shoulders, buttoning him with such haste he didn’t have any time to savour the skim of her fingers over his flesh.
“Why are you so worked up?”
“Only a person who was used to royalty would be calm right now.”
“You know,I’mroyalty.”
“You don’t count.”
He snorted. “I’d be offended but I actually really like that about you.”
“Good,” she said tersely, now brushing down his waistcoat. He could hear the sounds of wheels over gravel, the whinnying of horses. Despite himself, despite far more pleasurable company in his room alone, his chest heated. It would be good to see Alexei again. Although they wrote often, they rarely saw one another, and before Adeline, his cousin had been the only person he could have called a friend.
“There,” said Adeline, pulling on his coat, “You look quite the part.”
“I’ve always found it frankly ridiculous to dress up to meet someone outside your own home,” Dimitri remarked.
“Eek!” said Adeline, running to the window. “I’m supposed to line up outside! Oh no, I’m going to be late—”
She spun off without another word, before Dimitri could utter anything ridiculous about her remaining by his side. There were other positions she could occupy, something more than a maid. Alexei had Algernon, his valet, guard, assistant—a companion who accompanied him everywhere. Could he elevate Adeline to such a position? Would she want it?
Then again, he wasn’t sure he could come up with any word for her which summed up what she was to him. Nothing came close to him.
Well, maybe one word. An impossible, ridiculous, fruitless one.
He took a deep breath, and went to meet his cousin at the doors.
Prince Alexei Ilya Tolstov II, crown prince of Ferdinard, was the type of prince people wrote about in stories. When he stepped out of his carriage, everyone sucked in a breath. Posey seemed ready to swoon, and even though the rational, sensible part of Adeline screamed that he was just a human, that he possessed no magical powers and that nobility was just a societal construct, she swore that she, too, felt something shift and change in the air.
It was probably just his clothes, the fine white and gold military jacket, the red silk sash, the pristine boots and the grace with which he wore them.
It helped that he was extremely handsome.
Tall, with a fine form and crisp cheekbones, he possessed a thick head of dark curls and glistening blue eyes—like Dimitri’s, she realised. Alexei had little in common with his dark blond cousin, who favoured his mother, but there was enough about his face to see they were related.
