Brigitta shrugged coyly. “There is no way to be sure,” she said.
Charlotte wondered if Brigitta would leave to alert her brother as to Charlotte’s whereabouts as soon as she left for the library. She could only hope.
“I’ll do it,” she said, standing and clutching the boot to her stomach. “I’ll go right now, and we’ll see what happens.”
ChapterFour
“Abit to the left,” Petrus said as he stood at one end of the palace’s vast ballroom, directing a few of the male servants as they erected a Christmas tree. “Mmm, perhaps a bit too much. A little to the right.”
The servants adjusted the tree, looking eagerly to him for more instructions.
“Yes, I think that’s about right,” he said with a smile, then nodded to them. “Fetch the next one, and then that will be the last of them.”
“Yes, your highness,” the two young men said, bowing to him, then headed off to wherever they’d been bringing the trees in from.
Petrus took a few more steps back to survey the area at that end of the ballroom. A long dais had been set up for the orchestra that would play at the Christmas Eve ball, but it would also be the site of any and all announcements that would be made, including the crowning of the Christmas Princess.
That thought brought an unexpected frown to Petrus’s brow. The selection of the Christmas Princess was not as random as many people believed. The honor usually went to a woman who had performed great acts of kindness during the year, or to a woman who would soon marry into the royal family. It was a means of introducing the bride and giving her warm associations in the hearts of the people of Aegiria.
Petrus knew full well that Lady Jenny was expected to be the Christmas Princess this year. He knew because he was meant to propose to her before Christmas Eve so that the moment could be made perfect and magical.
The problem was that Petrus didn’t feel a lick of magic where Lady Jenny was concerned. Friendship and kindness, yes, but not magic. All his feelings of magic were reserved for Charlotte. And what he wouldn’t give to see Charlotte step onto the dais wearing the crown of candles and greenery that signaled the Christmas Princess?
“Your highness?”
Petrus jolted out of his soft imaginings of Charlotte standing before everyone, looking resplendent as she was bathed in light, to find Mr. Valentin standing behind him.
“Your highness, Princess Brigitta requested that you go to the library at once,” Mr. Valentin went on. “She said she believes the boot is about to be delivered, and she wishes you to have a chance to forfeit its current possessor.”
Petrus’s face lit into a cheery smile. “Thank you, Valentin.”
He hurried off at once, abandoning the decorating work to Fredrik and his cousins. The family’s tradition of hiding the Christmas boot was silly in the extreme, but it had also provided some of his fondest memories of Christmases past. He was especially proud of the year when he was fifteen and had caught the king himself returning the boot to the tree. He’d required his uncle to attend their family supper that night wearing his jacket the wrong way around, the buttons running down his back. Everyone had been in stitches as the king strained and pulled at the garment, which was not meant to be worn that way, just to reach his roast and potatoes.
Those thoughts were happily at the front of his mind as he stepped into the library. But instead of finding Brigitta or one of his family members attempting to rehang the hideous boot on the tree—which stood in all its decorated glory in the center of the far wall, between two tall windows that let in sparkling, afternoon light—he found Charlotte studying the tree as if searching for a place to hang the bulky boot ornament she carried.
“Oh!” Charlotte exclaimed, jumping back as though she’d been caught at something wicked, as soon as she spotted Petrus. A moment later, her face burst with joy, and she called out, “Petrus!”
She hung the boot on the nearest bough without much care, then rushed to greet Petrus. Decorum and restraint went out the window the moment Charlotte reached him.
“Charlotte, my darling,” he said on a deep sigh of relief. “At last—”
That was as far as he got before Charlotte flung herself at him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and pushing up to her tip-toes so that she could kiss him. Petrus loved that his beloved wasn’t shy or reticent about such things. He’d grown up in a palace, where dignity and sophistication were prized traits, but he adored brightness and free expression of affection.
He clasped Charlotte gratefully in his arms, and with as few qualms as it seemed Charlotte had, he kissed her back the way he’d dreamed of kissing her for months now. Their mouths seemed meant for kissing each other, and he was able to part her lips to taste the sweet warmth of her tongue as he slipped his alongside hers.
Charlotte responded with a hum of approval deep in the back of her throat. The sound sent everything stirring within Petrus, and he adjusted his arms around her to hold her in a way that would scandalize anyone who might come into the room. He wasn’t overly concerned with that, though. Almost everyone was busy decorating, which meant the library would be abandoned for most of the day. And even if he was discovered kissing Charlotte and stroking his hands along her sides, brushing one hand over her breast, well, he was a prince of Aegiria. He could get away with such things in his own home.
“I’ve missed you so much,” Charlotte said, pulling back at last, her lips pink from kisses.
“And I have missed you too, my darling,” Petrus said, cupping the side of her face and smiling at her as though his heart would burst from his chest. “I hate that we have not had time alone together yet so that I can tell you how much, or so that I can tell you how well you look and how beautiful.”
“Petrus.” Charlotte spoke his name as though it were a hymn and glanced down, her cheeks shining pink. When she peeked up at him through her long lashes, Petrus’s heart caught in his throat, and his trousers went tight. “You look so handsome and regal yourself. And Aegiria is such a beautiful place.”
That second statement seemed to fill her with energy. She took a half step back, breaking into an excited smile.
“I never knew such a place existed, but Aegiria is like some sort of dream. Everything is so lovely, and everyone seems so happy. Your family is a delight as well.”
“I am rather fond of my family,” Petrus said, dropping his hands so that he could hold Charlotte’s. “They accept me completely when they do not have to. Many families wouldn’t, given the situation.”