Dane's cold, hard gaze fell on the flawless skin of her chin. "Pimple?"
"Uhh... about that..." Shit, shit, shit. "Um, tea tree oil. Works wonders, you see," Cassie said sheepishly as she studied his expression, hoping to decipher his reaction.
Was he angry? Disappointed? The man had mastered his poker face, refusing to give away a speck of emotion that might indicate whether he was inclined to lock her up and throw away the key or simply execute her on the spot. He wouldn't, would he? Not in front of 'her' parents, surely?
"I told you you shouldn't have covered up that pretty face you got from me. See? Now he can't take his eyes off you," Lady Rivera commented from the sidelines. "I really don't want to say 'I told you so', my dear, but I told you so. Aren't they just so sweet, husband?"
The viscount nodded with a pleased look. "It appears we arrived just in time for their reconciliation wedding."
Whatever those two were smoking, she needed some.
"Take them to my chambers," King Poker Face said to the armoured guards on either side of him.
"Brilliant idea, son," Lord Rivera said with a clap. "Such personal matters should be discussed in private."
Oh, the irony. She'd plotted and schemed to get to his private chambers. Now she was being escorted there, it was the last place she wanted to go. At least here with the crowd, it was safe. In private... He wouldn't be lopping heads off there, would he? That shit would be messier to clean up than if he'd kept a hoard of farm animals in his room.
Lady Rivera placed a hand on her arm and tugged her along. "Come on, dear."
Cassie glanced over her shoulder to see Dane behind them, unmoving as he watched his guards escort the trio of them towards the exit.
To be fair, it wasn't just him. The entire audience in the room had stopped to look, too. She wondered what they were thinking, now that the evening's Lady in Red had been unveiled to be none other than the king's divorcee. This time, she looked forward to the creative rumours the gossipers would come up with. If she could still live another day under Dane's impending wrath, that was.
The only consolation was that at least Cassandra's parents were here to accompany her through the walk of shame, even if they didn't regard it as such. The Rivera's, bless them, nodded and waved to their peers as they headed out the ballroom with nothing but pure joy on their faces. No one waved back. They probably realised the couple was high on something.
Just before they exited the ballroom, Cassie caught a glimpse of familiar blue eyes in the crowd—eyes that pierced into her soul, set above full lips that mouthed, Go home.
Lady Rivera tugged at Cassie's wrist again, and when she blinked, the strange woman was no longer there.
Sure, go home. She was once so close and now the goalpost was impossibly far. How was she ever going to wriggle her way into Dane's bed now?
Deep in thought, she quietly followed the guards and the Rivera's through the hallways. Away from where the crowds and servants congregated, the rest of the palace was quiet and peaceful in the night. Well, it would have been had it not been for the Rivera's.
Lady Rivera, in particular, floated here and there, gliding her fingers across the marble columns, inspecting the tapestries, even reaching for the hilt of a guard's long sword, which earned her a sharp command to back away. Unfazed, she was.
"You know, my dear, I have been here countless times, but I'd always felt like a guest," she said as she tilted her head back to admire a sparkling chandelier overhead. "Now that our son-in-law is the king, and you'll soon be queen, this really feels like home. Don't you think so, husband?"
YOU ARE READING
Bride to the Cursed: a Snow White retelling
Fantasy[COMPLETED] When a king makes an order, he expects it to be followed. When King Dane divorced his wife, he expected her to get out of his sight and stay out of his sight. Not reappear three months later in his bed, spouting nonsense about being a 'l...
