Sunlight infiltrated Kit’s chambers as one of her ladies flung the curtains open, and the princess groaned in protest. She’d stayed up far too late the night before, dancing, drinking wine, and carrying on like a silly girl with her friends at the festival that followed her Proem Ceremony, and now that morning was here, her head ached, and she’d rather bury her face back beneath the downy pillows of her bed than acknowledge the day’s arrival.“Katrinetta,” Avinia’s voice beckoned as her shoulder was shaken, gently at first, and then a bit more violently. “Open your eyes. You need to get up!”Kit couldn’t think of a single reason in the world why she would need to get out of bed. She hadn’t slept well these past several weeks in anticipation of the ceremony, and now that it was over, she longed to make up for all of that lost time. But Avinia was insistent, so Kit opened one eye and looked at her incredul

Two weeks was an eternity of seconds but when assembled together as minutes, hours, and even days, the passage of time seemed to shuffle on at an acceptable pace to the rest of the world. Kit spent too much of that time dreaming about someone she could not have and not enough of it focusing on the task before her.The large barn always called to her in her free moments when she was too restless to sit in the garden, so one afternoon, a week after her Clearing was over, she found herself meandering from stall to stall, petting the horses on the nose and slipping loose bits of hay to those who would chomp it from her hands. The men who ran the stable and their young helpers were used to seeing her and no longer bothered with the courtesies her station demanded. Rather, they bowed slightly or nodded their heads as they passed, bid her good day, and went about their usual tasks of mucking and feeding and other such chores Kit was glad not to be tasked with.A large roan st

“Which one is he?” Avinia asked. Her head was cocked to the side as she studied Kit, her face puckered up in contemplation.“I told you. He has red hair. He’s tall, a bit lanky. Kind eyes. Green—but not the striking kind.” Kit had already given them every last detail of her encounter in the barn, and neither of her ladies had reacted the way she’d been hoping for.“Hmmm,” Isla picked up a section of Kit’s long hair and began to comb it out. “I would think if he were worth remembering, I would know which one he is.”“Yes, I was thinking exactly the same thing. There are so many attractive guards available to you, Katrinetta. You need a full grown man, not a boy child.”“I agree. You want your first pleasuring to be with someone who knows precisely what he is doing.” Isla hit a tangle, making Kit squeal, but her cousin just kept right on combing.“He

Kit and her two ladies in waiting, Avinia and Isla, walked along in silence to Kit’s chambers, and once they were inside, the cousins went about readying her for dinner with her mother. There would be music before the meal was served, which was why she was expected so early, and Kit imagined her mother would introduce her to the son of some foreign dignitary, someone meant to find his way into her chambers. She was aware that queens had been bargaining with turns in their daughters’ beds for generations, and while that was just the way of it, Kit liked the idea of choosing one of her own guard members far better than the thought she might spend the night with a prince from another land who was only there because he was seeking pleasure as well. It was almost ironic that a queendom built on the belief that women superior to men and were entitled to be pleasured by them could make such deals, but that wouldn’t be the only law of the land that seemed backward to Kit.

Kit entered the bedroom from the antechamber to see that the lantern by the bed was lit, though she was the only one in the room. She had a look around and found everything as it was the last time she’d been here except that next to the lamp there was a sheath and the lubrication Mikali had supplied her with, as if someone had come along to prepare the room for her. She wondered who might’ve done so, unless her cousins did it out of hopefulness. The linens on the bed were turned down as well.Kit hardly had a chance to stand there and quake before she heard a rapping on the outside door. Her breath caught in her throat, and the idea that she was not ready filled her head. But the sound of footsteps let her know it was too late, that she was no longer alone, and she slowly turned around, telling herself to be calm, that it would be all right.Terrowin stood in the doorway wearing only a thin white tunic and a pair of brown trousers, no shoes, no jerkin, no c