Hitching up my skirt with my free hand, I watch my steps and trust Jaccomo to lead us accident-free out of the ballroom. Only when he slows down, and I hear him say, “Phil… nice party!” do I lift my head.
We pass a group of seven. Avalyn and Sebastian are the first ones I recognize, standing between Phillip and a man that I think is Prince Thomas. It should be him because he’s holding Princess Rapunzel’s hand, and she isn’t hard to recognize. The mile-long golden braids wrapped into multiple coils and pinned to the back of her head are a dead giveaway.
The other two individuals with them are women I’ve never seen before. Their voile and wrap-around-style dress costumes in all shades of green and orange are a striking contrast to their flawless caramel skin. And standing between them, with the hand of the younger-looking exotic girl looped around his arm, is Prince Jacob.
“Casanova,” Phillip acknowledges my escort with amusement in his voice. “Taking my runaway dance partner for a walk, I see.”
Jaccomo laughs. “Too crowded in here.”
I have the feeling I should apologize to Phillip for leaving him in the middle of our opening waltz. Only I can’t bring myself to look at him as the fair prince with the silver mask holds every ounce of my attention captive. I don’t even know how he’s doing it because he doesn’t speak a single word, nor does he move even one muscle. He just stands across from me, rigid and with his hands casually in his pockets as if he couldn’t care less which beauty holds on to him.
I open my mouth to say something, to react in some way to the blue-eyed stare he freezes me with. But his silence is so loud, it overrides every thought in my mind. And then a firm tug on my hand makes me move. With my head turned over my shoulder, I find Jacob’s gaze following us until the very moment we round the corner. A little shiver trails down my body.
I shake it off as Jaccomo guides me out onto the beautifully decorated patio. Light from the ballroom falls through the French doors and tints half of the paved area in warm shades of gold. The rest sleeps in warm shadows. A thick marble railing surrounds the semi-circular terrace, opening up to the side where a pebbled path leads away from the castle, deeper into the garden.
The few guests out here are mostly gathered close to the door. Jaccomo salutes them with a nod, and I tell them quietly, “Good evening.” In the next second, I free my hand from his grip and run across the patio of the dreamy place. Lovely Chinese lanterns are strewn about the entire garden, glinting like fen fire in the dark. With my palms braced on the marble railing, I tilt back my head and close my eyes. A smile slips across my face. For one infinitesimal moment, it’s only me in this amazing fairy tale. The crown is mine, the people in the ballroom are my guests, and the entire garden lies at my feet to explore if I want to.
I’m the princess of this castle.
A hand appears before me, holding a beautiful pink rose. “I hope you like flowers, my lady.”
And my prince has just come to me…
Bewitched by the magic of the evening, I swirl around to Jaccomo and beam. “I love them.”
But he doesn’t give it to me. Instead, he breaks the stem, tosses it aside, and sticks the lovely blossom into my hair. “Just beautiful.”
I lower my gaze. “Thank you, Lord Jaccomo.”
“Will you wait here for me?” He strokes a wisp of hair behind my ear. “I’ll run in and get us something to drink.”
I nod. My first hour at the ball has been quite busy. I haven’t had anything to drink since I came, and all the excitement has really dried me out.
For a moment, I gaze after him as he heads toward the ballroom again, then I turn back to the banister and study the night sky above the garden. So many lights up there, so many stars to wish upon. And yet there’s only one thing I really want for myself. To find true love tonight.
“They say all the stars up there are really the tears of the moon which he cried at every happy ending of a fairy tale in the world.”
The soft caress of the voice behind me makes me close my eyes for a moment. “It is a lovely thought, isn’t it?” I whisper. “Did the moon cry over your happy ending, too…”—I look over my shoulder—“…Jacob?”
He leans against a nearby apple tree, both hands in his pockets, and his sapphire eyes fixed on me, completely ignoring the glory of the stars above us.
“If he cries, they are tears of laughter, I’m afraid.” With an almost sad chuckle, he casts a brief glance to the ground and then looks at me again. “Every story needs a villain. And they never win in the end.”
Gripped by the sentiment of his words, I turn around and face him, clasping the edges of the marble banister behind my hips. “So you aren’t a nice guy?”
Head tilted to one side, he thinks for a moment before he pushes away from the tree and ambles closer. Beside me, he stops and leans forward, bracing his forearms on the banister. “I’m still trying to figure that out,” he says, his gaze wandering out to the garden.
Forehead creasing, I study him from the side. “How can you not know?”
“Sometimes, things aren’t that easy, Riley.”
I don’t know what to say to that, but he has me more intrigued than ever. Jacob must sense my confusion because, after a moment, he straightens and turns around so we’re both standing with our backs to the railing. A deep sigh leaves him as he glances down at me. “Let’s take your new friend Casanova for instance. If I tell you that you’ll be waiting in vain for the drink he probably offered to get you because he got…distracted inside, would that make me a good guy or a bad one?”
“What…?” The information takes a second to sink in. Then my entire body stiffens, and my gaze snaps past him to the French doors.
And there, by the sparkling pyramid of champagne glasses inside the ballroom, I find a striking orange shirt. Jaccomo holds a flute in his hand. A girl in green veils and a wrap-around dress in front of him does, too. Even from here, I can see how he cocks his head and smiles as he swipes a strand of her black hair behind her shoulder. And as he strokes her bare neck with his fingertips, he leans in and…
In that single moment, the ball loses all its magic for me. It just seeps out of my body like the color certainly seeps from my face. I swallow so hard, it hurts my throat, but it does little to give my voice more strength. “She was on your arm earlier.” The words come out dry and flat.
Jacob glances at the couple near the champagne pyramid, clearly seeing what I do. “She was trying to get me to dance with her.”
I sniff. “Why didn’t you?”
His head turns my way, his fervent gaze burning the side of my face. “Because it’s you I wanted to dance with.”
Chapter 16
Riley
Like a stone gargoyle belonging to the castle, my fingers digging into the marble balustrade behind me where I stand out on the patio, I watch the scene unfold inside the ballroom. Jaccomo Casanova is not a gentleman. He’s a heartbreaker.
“Riley?”
I feel a tender caress on my bare upper arm.
“It won’t get easier if you continue watching this.”
Jacob’s soft voice finally rips me out of my stupor. My gaze skates across the place, frantically looking for an escape. Because going back inside is definitely not an option after seeing the prince who I thought might play a role in my new ever after kissing another girl. I swing around to Jacob. “You’re right. It’s just that I…” Don’t know where to go or what to do now.
He searches my eyes for a moment. As if reading my thoughts, he offers me his elbow and a caring, soft smile along with it. “Would you like to take a walk through the garden?”
Walking sounds good. Garden sounds good. Away from this cursed stage of misery sounds awesome.
Straightening my spine and inhaling deeply, I slip my hand into the crook of his arm. When he starts walking, I hold him back, though. “Wait.” I rip the rose out of my hair and bang it on the banister right where Jaccomo Casanova left me standing. “Okay, now we can go.”