Page 87 of Charmless
“What the frap!” Florian’s grip on me loosened. When I opened my eyes to see what had elicited this startled exclamation, I saw Delphine streaking toward us across the garden. She spooked the horses, leaving the equerry with his hands full as he tried to calm them.
The cat closed in on Florian, hissing and arching her back.
“Be gone, mangy beast,” he snarled. He kicked out at her, but Delphine deftly avoided the blow. She bared her fangs. I half-expected her to leap at Florian and try to scratch his face. Instead, Delphine began to emit a dreadful wheezing sound. Her sides heaved in and out as she coughed up an enormous hairball, long, wet, and slimy, all over the toe of Florian’s boot.
Florian gagged and turned green. Apparently, our bold swaggering heir to the throne possessed a delicate stomach. He pressed a handkerchief to his mouth to keep from throwing up as he dragged his toe over the grass. His efforts to dislodge the hairball only succeeded in smearing it.
The prince gagged again before gasping to his equerry, “Find that miserable feline and kill it.”
I started to protest, but it was unnecessary. The equerry was too busy keeping the horses under control to obey Florian’s command and Delphine had already disappeared back into the shrubbery. I doubted that she would be easily found. Florian must have realized that as well.
Swearing and still struggling not to be sick, the prince bent down and scrubbed his boot with the handkerchief. I had to bite down upon my lip hard to keep from laughing. Delphine might not have offered me a permanent reprieve, but she certainly had succeeded in dampening the prince’s ardor. At least for the moment.
Kissing me appeared to be the last thing on Florian’s mind. He straightened, flinging the soiled linen away from him with an oath of disgust. He still looked pale as he seized my wrist and snarled, “Come on!”
Alarmed, I tried to hang back. “Wait! Where are you taking me?”
Florian paused to give me an impatient look. “To the palace. I mean to swoop you up on the front of my horse and carry you off with the entire kingdom looking on so that everyone will know you are finally mine.”
“No!”
When Florian glared and took a menacing step in my direction, I held up both hands to fend him off. “Please, Your Highness. You must allow me to go home first and— and acquaint my family with the news of our engagement.”
“They will learn the glad tidings soon enough,” he growled.
“But I need some time to prepare myself.”
“To do what? Run away?”
“You know I will not do that. Not while you have Mal chained up in your dungeon. Besides where would I go?”
When Florian continued to regard me with suspicion, I rushed on, “And this late in the day most of the kingdom will be in their homes, having afternoon tea or preparing for supper. There will be hardly anyone to watch you carry me off and you surely would not want people to see your future bride looking like this.”
Florian’s gaze swept over me, from the mud-stained hem of my old gown to the bedraggled tangles of my hair.
“True enough. You are entirely unfit to be seen in my company,” he conceded. “Very well. I shall give you a day - no, two, perhaps. I have much to arrange myself.”
His expression lightened as he added, “If I plan it well, I could combine the funeral, coronation, and wedding. ThenI would only have to outlay enough coin for one feast and celebration.”
“Er - yes,” I agreed, trying not to roll my eyes. Florian was vain, deceitful, cruel, and otherwise despicable, but at least the prince was thrifty.
Florian stalked over to his equerry, wrenched the reins from the man’s grasp. Vaulting up into the saddle, the prince gazed imperiously down at me. “I shall send word before I come to fetch you in the royal carriage, attended by heralds and all appropriate fanfare. Make sure you are ready and well groomed. Look beautiful. And adoring!”
“Yes, Your Highness.” I dipped into a curtsy of feigned meekness.
Having delivered this final command, the prince gigged his horse into motion and rode away, his equerry in close attendance. After Florian disappeared, I was finally able to release a tremulous breath. I had been half-afraid that Florian would insist upon escorting me safely home, but something like that would never have occurred to the self-absorbed prince.
Sunlight sparkled on the ring Florian had given me. I wanted to wrench the hateful thing off my finger and fling it into the Conger River. But other than giving some relief to my feelings of anger and loathing, such a gesture would solve nothing. If the prince had Mal locked up in his dungeon, Florian had me well and truly trapped. I had two days to find a way to rescue my friend, save myself and perhaps the entire kingdom. If Florian were to become king… I shuddered at the prospect.
My mind should have been working furiously. But after all that I had endured today, I felt as crushed and downtrodden as Mal’s poor herb garden. I was standing there as frozen as a statue when Delphine poked her head out of the shrubbery. She glanced around as though checking that Florian was gone before she crept out of the bushes. Sinking onto her haunches,she waved her paw at me. Then she turned back toward the shrubbery. Giving me an impatient look over her shoulder, she jerked her head.
It took my numb brain a few moments to decipher what she wanted. The witch was beckoning me to follow her. Quite naturally, I hesitated. There might have been a truce of sorts declared between us, but I would have hardly considered Delphine a friend. Yes, she had come streaking to save me from Florian’s kiss, but I had ruined the Fear Blade she had loaned me.
When I did not move, Delphine let out an impatient meow. She beckoned again, with her head, her paw and even her tail, her gestures growing more insistent. She could not compel me to do anything in her cat form, but I was afraid she might decide to transform back to her human self. And I lacked the fortitude to deal with an irritated, naked witch.
With a weary sigh of surrender, I followed the cat.
Seventeen
