Page 29 of Midwinter Wiles & Valerian Dreams
“Not like that. I just need to make this worth her while.”
A snuffling snort. I point a finger at him.
“Not like that either! Hugo, you’re a menace whose opinion is not required.”
Eevi giggles, her chubby cheeks round and soft. I lean over the crib to kiss her curls, letting her sweet smell calm my nerves.
I still can’t believe Talvie—Val,drown it!—actually agreed to my ridiculous proposal. Desperation is a funny thing.
“That soap fiasco was a blessing in disguise, wasn’t it? I can’t believe she used a bit of soap on Every. Single. Dish. With that pixie stuff, we’re lucky we’re not all still cleaning suds from our ears.”
But it worked out for me. After Daria left, the poor princess looked mortified while she presented me with her offer: secret lessons in basic life skills in exchange for one fake fiancée.
It’s cute how concerned she is about Daria discovering her incompetence at everyday tasks. Of course, she didn’t offer any details onwhyshe lacks such common knowledge, but I’m nice enough that I didn’t ask just to see her squirm.
After I clarified the soap instructions, she managed two uneventful nights of dish duty. I might deserve a medal. Then again, if I mess this up, I shudder to think of all the ways a Point Fae princess might ruin my life.
“This has to work,” I tell Eevi and Hugo. “But I don’t know what a low-bred outcast like me is doing anywhere near a princess.”
Hugo stares back, nose twitching.
“I know. She’s from a different world than ours. She’s beautiful, powerful, poised.”
He grunts.
I shake my head. “Okay, I assume she’s poised sometimes, when she’s not dropping things or flooding kitchens.”
No matter what disguise she wears for the rest of the world to see, Talvie being next to me is like wearing a hand-cobbled wooden clog on one foot and a designer silk slipper on the other. We don’t belong together.
Yet, she agreed.
Hugo lets out another squeak, and I sigh. “I can’t really blame her. She’s way out of her element here. But as long as we’re both desperate enough to try this, I have to make it work.”
Shadows from the swaying trees outside play across the wooden beams as wind whistles past the window. Hugo nests down in a tight ball, falling silent after one last grunt.
He still thinks I’m an idiot for not taking the reward. It’s hard to even imagine a thousand purses. A hundred would keep this roof over our heads for the rest of the year, long past Niemi’s deadline. But the princess covered for me when she didn’t have to, and riches don’t change who I am.
Money won’t be enough if CPS decides I’m unworthy to keep the kids. Just a low-born orphan, uneducated and uncivilized. No amount of coin changes that. The longer this endless winter drags on, the harder it’ll be to convince them I can support a family on odd-jobs and unreliable theatre crowds.
Niemi was clear that I need a partner, even if it’s all for show.
A knock at the front of the cottage gets me to my feet. “Watch over her, Hugo. And no flipping that water dish.”
I ease the bedroom door closed and pad on bare feet to the front door, where there’s a princess standing on my porch. This is going to take some getting used to.
Dark blue hair catches the dim afternoon light, rimmed with sparkling frost from her breath on the walk across the courtyard.
She looks as hesitant as I feel.
“You still want to do this?”
She nods, and I stand aside to let her in.
“I really appreciate this, but a betrothal, even fake—”
“Lark.”
“I would do anything to keep these kids together; you don't know what this means to me.”
