Page 118 of To Touch A Silent Fury
Her eyes widened, her pupils dilating against the fire.
Another step. I saw her neck bob as she swallowed.
Then a voice cut through, loud and curt. “May I have a dance, my lady?”
I saw the tiny flinch as she turned to the man who’d just appeared from the hall. The Wragg swaggered in from my left, his eyes moving between us.
I turned away, back to Princess Margot. Nothing had been said, nothing had been done. I had only taken a couple of steps. And yet, if I had been given ten more seconds, she might have heard those words from my lips instead.
I heard her small but strong voice, and it was a dagger in my side.
“You may.”
31
Tani
My steps were shaky as the Wragg led us to the dancefloor. Through his firm grip on my hand, I felt it all. His envy and malice, his frustration. There was victory there too, something spiteful. He was glad to have taken me away, to be the one to dance with me.
Why had I said yes? My heart pounded, remembering the intensity in Langnathin’s eyes before he had turned away. Would he have asked me to dance?
All night he had been watching me, and when he was distracted, I found myself watching him, too. And when he stood behind me, I wanted to reach for him. Only, I told myself, to understand his emotions. To read him.
“You are not wearing your ribbons,” the Wragg said as he turned to me, his tone light but his emotions much darker.
I stared at my feet to stop him from seeing the way my eyes widened. He had sent the ribbons.Hehad sent them. TheWragg. Had the maid Daffinia known her deceit when she called himmyprince? Or had she known something I did not?
Swallowing, I raised my eyes to him, placing one hand at his side as he raised the other high. “I did not know the custom of it, Your Grace, and what that might mean if I were to wear them tonight.”
He frowned, but I felt no suspicion. It was more as if he had forgotten I was a savage. “It was a symbol of my favour.”
I forced my eyes to widen with contrition. “I apologise, Your Grace. They are very beautiful.”
The maestros played, and I stumbled through the steps for the second time. Thankfully, the dances had largely just been variants on the Roundclave’sbasse danse. I remembered some from the Thread’s tutelage, and the rest I adjusted to his lead.
The Wragg was a poor dancer, but he bullied his way through the movements and pulled me along with him. “Droundhaven must be quite the change from Sellador.”
“I have no memory of Sellador, Your Grace. I lived almost all my life in Gossamir,” I responded. “But it is very different. I am used to sleeping under stars.”
Amusement spiked, edged with cruelty. “From an animal to a lady, in only a week.” He grinned down at me. “You are a lucky girl.”
I suppressed the urge to defend myself. My life depended on selling my appreciation. “Indeed. Maybe my fortune is due to my fifth span. Your people believe that to be a lucky time, no?”
A temper flared, and my hand tensed in his. “Our people.”
“I’m sorry, Your Grace?”
The temper rose to anger, and there was no escape from him as he dipped my back and spoke into my ear. “You are loyal to the Sightlands, are you not?”
“Of course,” I replied, as he pulled me back up.
He smiled, but I sensed how his feelings had not changed. His grip on my back tightened. The man was double the width of me at least. “Then you are one of us. You believe in the power of the Five.”
I smiled back. “Yes. I’m sorry for misspeaking.”
Some of his anger quelled, but it was there, one stoke away from red hot. It was probably always so. “Good.”
“Haveyouspent much time in Sellador, then?” I asked in an effort to pacify him.
