Page 78 of Songs and Spun Gold
Whirling, she glared at him. “No, you absolutely may not! I’ll be—” She paused, peering up at his face before giving his shoulder a light shove. “And don’t pretend that you don’t know it. I can see in your eyes that you do.”
Abandoning his innocent expression, he chuckled andgave her one of his signature bows before turning to do as she asked. “Anything for you, Katy.”
CHAPTER 21
Katy
What had she been thinking?
She hadn’t been, obviously. The prince’s touch and his sweet words had addled her brain; there was no other explanation. Just like they had when he had been a simple actor named Gunther.
He appeared at supper that night; the physician had finally freed him from his isolation. He tried to convince her to walk with him in the garden afterward, but she refused on account of his physical condition. He said he was fine, and he looked fine, but she couldn’t bring herself to take the chance. It wasn’t worth it.
The next morning, he knocked on her door before breakfast with the same request. She refused again, for the same reason as the night before. Instead of being deterred, he asked for permission to join her in her sitting room.
She didn’t have a good reason to say no, and so, despite the nagging voice in her head that whispered that getting closer to the prince was a bad idea, she agreed. They sat on different pieces of furniture and spoke of nothing profound, but it was the best hour that Katy had spent in a long time.
Not wanting to be trapped in her room, she spent most of the day wandering about the castle and familiarizing herself with the halls. The prince crossed her path multiple times. When she asked about the duties that she had expected tooccupy him, he waved it off, claiming good fortune had put them in each other’s way as he traveled from one to the next.
The next morning, a light tapping drew her to her door. On the other side, Axel stood with his hands in his pockets. “Are you ready?”
“Ready for what?” she replied, raising a single eyebrow. “Did we have plans that I don’t remember making?”
Running his eyes over her hair and dress, he grinned before grabbing her hand and tugging her through the door. Callouses that she assumed came from weapons practice scraped against her palm. “Come on! I’ve had a great idea.”
“And that would be...?”
He winked. “I’ll tell you when we get there.”
The curious eyes of servants latched onto their joined hands as they flew through the corridors. She should have pulled away, but she didn’t. After all, his long strides might have left her behind if he weren’t dragging her along by her hand. His tight grip didn’t mean anything.
Katy tried to control her blush, but she knew she failed.
After several turns, she found herself in an unfamiliar part of the castle. Axel put his hand on a doorknob, turned to grin at her, and pulled it open with a flourish.
Beyond it was a small room with a brown upright piano, two wooden music stands, and a few unpadded chairs. The walls were mostly bare, having only a few pieces of paper tacked up. A small window on the west-facing wall let in a little early-morning light. Unlike the rooms to which Katy had become accustomed, the floor was bare stone.
She followed him in, peering around curiously while he pulled the door closed behind them. “Now will you tell me what’s going on?”
“The theater has been having some troubles lately,” he began, crossing over to the piano where two tall, thin books sat. “Part of it is a series of notes. Some have demanded that I play the lead in a production; others have insisted Gunther returned to the stage and said that I would know where to find him.”
Katy’s mouth dropped open. “Someone has betrayed your secret? But who? Who else even knows?”
“I don’t know. But to help the director out, and to prevent the note-writer from sending anything more revealing, I agreed to look for the young man Gunther and convince him to play the lead in a single performance.” He picked up one of the books on the piano and grinned. “Therefore, I have a part to learn. This is the time of day that I usually sneak off to the theater to work on such things, but I thought it would be more fun to stay here and let you help me, instead.”
Katy felt her eyebrows rising toward her hairline. “Sneak off? How do you manage that?”
“Your cousin,” he replied, waggling his eyebrows. “At first, it was slipping out through his gate. After opening night, my father insisted I take a guard with me whenever I leave the grounds in the morning. I dragged your cousin along because I knew he wouldn’t divulge my secret.”
“Why don’t all three of us go, then?”
Shaking his head, Axel said, “Most of the strange things have been small stuff, but a couple have had the opportunity to hurt someone. I would prefer to keep you away from the theater during the off hours.”
Katy strolled over to the window while she absorbed this information. Was he hiding something else from her, or was he purely concerned for her safety? “How do I help you?”
“I need to learn the music.” He gestured to the bench in front of the piano. “You play the starting note, and if I’m having trouble hearing a passage, you can play it for me.”
Running her hand along the smooth wood, she walked around the piano to join him in front of the keyboard. He hadopened the book that sat on the little ledge above it. Its many lines and dots laughed at her.
