He flinched, gasped, and took a step backward as the liquid ran down his shirt.
“Oh! So sorry,” I said. “I’m horribly clumsy.” To Prince Edmond I added, “It’s one of those personality deficits you’re going to have to overlook.” 362/431
Edmond waved to a passing kitchen girl, but smiled at me. “It’s already forgotten.”
Tristan held his tunic away from his chest and sent me a dark look. “I haven’t forgotten it.” I looked at Margaret to see if her facial expression showed any frustration. Had I just spoiled her plan to poison Tristan?
She took a linen napkin from the kitchen girl and dabbed at Tristan’s chest without showing any emotion at all.
Edmond looked between his sister and me. “I’ve forgotten my manners. Have you met my sister, Princess Margaret?”
I curtsied awkwardly.
She turned from Tristan long enough to cast me a disdainful look. “We’ve met. Or at least I’ve met one of you.
I hadn’t realized before that you came in a pair.”
“A pair?” Edmond asked.
Tristan said, “I think Princess Margaret is referring to her sister, Jane. They look very much alike.” Edmond’s brows lifted in surprise and he scanned the room. “Two such beauties? It’s impossible.” Princess Margaret finished dabbing at Tristan’s shirt.
“The other one is in the far corner in that horribly plain red dress.”
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We all looked in that direction except for Tristan. He took the cloth from Margaret and tried to absorb some of the liquid still dripping down his shirt.
Edmond narrowed his eyes in on Jane. “That’s odd. I could have sworn Queen Neferia told me that damsel was her stepdaughter.” He considered her for a moment longer, then shrugged. “But I should have known I misunderstood. If the queen had thought she was her kin she most certainly would have gone over to speak to her.” He took a sip of his drink as though he’d already dismissed the matter, but I clutched my glass as one thought and then another crowded in on me. Just as this ball proved that the Cinderella wish was still in effect, Edmond’s comment had shown me the Snow White wish was going on too.
Queen Neferia was here somewhere and she wanted to kill Snow White.
I looked around the room, searching, even though I didn’t know what Neferia looked like.
It had been eight months since I’d been in the dwarfs’
home and longer than that since Snow White had left Neferia’s court. Neferia hadn’t seen Snow White since then, but Jane, wearing her dress, looked enough like me to be mistaken for her.
Which meant Jane was in danger.
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“Where is Queen Neferia?” I asked. “What does she look like?”
Princess Margaret twisted her goblet between her fingers. “Why the interest?”
I didn’t have time to come up with a reason. “What color is her gown?”
Edmond nodded to the left corner of the room.
“Black.”
I turned and saw her. She stood tall and regal, with stunning, cold features. Her hair lay against her skin, shiny and dark as crows’ wings. It matched her black velvet dress perfectly. She stood not far from Jane and Hunter, watching them.
Thank goodness for Hunter. At least Neferia wouldn’t try to hurt Jane when he stood by with a sword hanging at his hip.
I shoved my goblet back into Edmond’s hand.
“Tristan, we’ve got to—” I didn’t finish my sentence. As I spoke I saw Neferia take a spiced apple from her hand and place it onto a serving girl’s tray. She bent over and whispered something into the serving girl’s ear, then pointed toward Jane. “No!” I gasped, and headed toward her.
The music stopped, signaling a break for the musicians. Which meant that all the people left the dance floor and congregated directly in my way. I tried to 365/431
weave my way around them, pushing past noblemen and ladies. “Pardon me. Pardon me.” I said the words like a panicked mantra. Behind me, I could hear Prince Edmond calling my name, but I didn’t turn around.
Jane and Hunter came into view again. The serving girl was already there, dipping into a curtsy and handing the apple to Jane. “I’ve been asked to tell your ladyship that the kitchen prepared this delicacy just for you, m’lady, in honor of your beauty.” Jane blushed and took the apple. “That’s so kind. Tell the kitchen thank you for me.”
“No!” I called, but she either didn’t hear me or didn’t realize I was calling to her.
She brought the apple to her lips.
I dashed the last few steps to her and grabbed hold of her hand. “Don’t!”
Jane tried to pull her arm out of my grip. “Savannah, what are you doing?”
I didn’t let go of her arm. “It’s poisonous.” Jane looked at me and then at the serving girl, who stared back at us with startled disbelief. Jane lowered her voice but didn’t let go of the apple. “Why would someone want to poison me?”
“Because you look like Snow White.”
“No, I don’t.”
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Instead of arguing about it, I snatched the apple from her hand, dropped it on the ground, then lifted my skirt and stomped on it with my foot. “Why. Don’t. You. Ever.
Listen. To. Me?” Little pieces of apple splattered onto the hem of my gown and my slippers, but at least I knew no one would eat it.
With a nearly emotionless voice, Princess Margaret said, “I take it the refreshments were not to your liking?” I looked up and saw not only her but Tristan and Prince Edmond staring at me. Tristan’s brows were drawn together in question.
Edmond looked at the smashed apples by my feet, then said, “Of course there may be some things in your personality that are harder to overlook than others.” I’d still been clutching my skirt, and now I let go and it fell back into place like a curtain coming down at the end of a play. “I’m sorry,” I said, “but that apple was poisonous.”
“Poisonous?” Princess Margaret took a sharp breath inward. “You accuse us of poisoning our guests?”
“Not you; Queen Neferia. She told the serving girl to give my sister that apple.”
The serving girl nodded, her face white as though she knew however this turned out, she was going to get in trouble.
Edmond held out a hand, prompting me. “And?” 367/431
They were all staring at me, even Hunter, Jane, and Tristan. But how could I tell Prince Edmond that I knew what was going to happen because of a fairy tale?
“She’s already tried to poison Snow White three times.”
Tristan exchanged a look with Hunter and Jane. They, at least, now understood the situation. Hunter took a step toward Jane and put one hand on the hilt of his sword. Then each of them scanned the crowd.
Edmond and Margaret still gazed at me with skepticism though. I said, “You can ask Prince Hubert. He knows. The dwarfs Snow White lives with told him about it.”
Prince Edmond nodded, as though finally able to make sense of my distress. He snapped his fingers in the serving girl’s direction. “Go fetch Prince Hubert—I believe he’s in the barn.” Then Prince Edmond stepped over to me and took hold of my arm. When he spoke, his voice was firm—the way one talks to a child. “You can’t believe the things Prince Hubert says. His mind, sadly, is filled with nothing but whimsy.” He squeezed my arm.
“Queen Neferia, however, is our closest ally. It will not do to have you insult her.”
Edmond tried to propel me away, but I didn’t move.
“Queen Neferia is evil. Is that really the type of person you should have as your closest ally?” 368/431
Prince Edmond looked at me with surprise, although I had a feeling this was because I refused to move and not because of my accusation. “You needn’t worry about politics,” he said. “The wisest men in the land are my ad-visors. Your task is to do only what you have so well accomplished already; to stand by my side, a vision of beauty.” He didn’t wait for a response from me. Instead he snapped his fingers at a passing serving girl and pointed at the smashed apple near my feet. “Wench, clean up this mess.”