butterflies | ✓

selcouth.

It was another two weeks before I saw the prince again.

In that time, I'd accidentally run into Maxon and Oliver (twice each) and had run into Michael once. I'd had a brief conversation with Lexona after a lesson that she taught us (our tutor had caught a stomach bug) and learned that she would soon be leaving to marry the eldest prince of France. Tatiana and Mickenna took turns sitting beside me at breakfast, and Clara and Lily had avoided me.

That time, Gabriel's idea was to show me around the palace to get me acquainted with it. He explained the history of different things with such passion that I believed he would make a better historian than a prince, if for no reason other than the fact that he told me that politics and war bored him to death and books and history were the things he was truly interested in.

He was quiet for a long while as we walked through a hall with tall, lovely windows. My heart pounding in my chest, I quietly wiped my hands on my skirts and took a deep breath. "Prince Gabriel, I heard a...selcouth story about you, if that's even the correct adjective to describe it."

He stole a glance at me. His expression was inscrutable, but I didn't miss how his hands clenched into fists behind his back. "Oh? And what story would that be, Lady Lysel?"

The breath seemed caught in my throat, but I knew that I couldn't backtrack. I was in too deep. "I heard that you had fallen in love once, before."

He tensed. "Oh?" He said once more in a tight, painfully flat tone.

I nodded slowly, carefully gauging his reaction. My mother always told me that one can learn to control his or her expressions and tone of voice, but it's impossible to hide your thoughts expressed through body language.

"I heard that you fell in love with...with a maid, that she seduced you. I heard that you found her in bed with her husband and that's when you knew. If that's true, is it why you didn't want to have a Selection?"

He was silent for a long while. Slowly, his posture relaxed a little and he shook his head. "That's preposterous." He chuckled.

"With all do respect, Your Highness," I said sedately, "your gestures and reactions say otherwise."

He shook his head. "You are mistaken, Lady Lysel."

"I can assure you that I am not," I contended in the most civil manner I could muster without seeming rude. "My mother made me study kinesics until I became an expert on the matter."

He let out a hiss of breath and the muscles in his shoulders knotted once more. "Does nothing get past you?"

"Very little," I replied. "Is the story true?"

"Very," He let out a short, aching sigh and rubbed one hand over his tired eyes. "I was stupid and young and naive, and she was beautiful and kind and I was desperate to find any shred of happiness after my brother's passing."

Once again, my heart ached for him. "She's a twisted, cruel human being."

"She was a Siren," He said bitterly. "She seemed beautiful and perfect and good at first, but then I got too close and realized too late that she was a hideous, terrifying thing that would only ever wish to do me harm."

I moved closer and rested a hand on his shoulder, unsure of how exactly to comfort him. "You deserve so much better," I murmured.

"Do I?" He laughed harshly. I knew that his anger was not directed at me, but at her, because she broke him. "What good have I done to deserve anything good and happy?"

"According to the laws of courtly love," I said, "no one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons, and that good character alone makes anyone immediately worthy of love."

He raised his head to look at me. "I don't know how that could've made me possibly feel better, Lady Lysel, but it did. Which is strange, because coming from anyone other than yourself, it would've made me question whether or not I truly am worthy of anyone's affections."

I shrugged with a smile. "Perhaps it's because you know that I will be completely blunt with you about such things and that unlike some of the others, I will not simply throw myself at your feet and shower you with compliments in hopes that that will win you over; I prefer courting to seduction, and you are very well aware of this."

He nodded, seeming to actually ponder this statement. "Yes, that does make sense."

A flash of red hair whipped around the corner towards us, and Princess Lily stormed down the hall in an evergreen gown, her hands balled into fists. She eyed her brother and I as she passed us, and when she made eye contact with me she stuck up her nose, looked away, and quickened her pace.

Once she'd passed, Gabriel let out a small sigh, this one of distaste. "Pardon Lily and her attitude. My sister is fiery and you were one of the choices that she didn't approve of."

"If she didn't approve of me, why was I chosen?" I asked.

He smiled lightly, all strain of our previous conversation gone. "You were chosen by Clara, and Lexona quickly agreed with her. It was two to one, and so Lily lost. You were the only one that they didn't all agree on-even Aurelia didn't really want you chosen, although she was a little more willing to concede than my dear sister, and by then you already had been picked."

It made me a little sick to my stomach knowing that two of the princesses didn't want me there--one of which was in France, which wasn't so terrible, though Lily made up for that absence.

Gabriel seemed to pick up on this. "She'll learn to accept you eventually." He assured me. "Especially because Mickenna and Tatiana adore you. Lily never could resist those two for very long. And if you make me happy--even if we only end up as friends--Lily will warm up to you. She isn't nearly as cold as she seems."

I gave him a grateful smile. "And if Princess Lexona can take a liking to me before she even met me, then Princess Lily can eventually learn to like me as well?"

He laughed--an actual, real laugh that made me remember that the man beside me was only nineteen. "That is quite possibly the most correct thing I have heard in a long while, Lady Lysel. Yes, if Lexona likes you, then Lily can learn to as well."

"She won't make it easy, will she?"

"Not at all. My sister will test you more than my parents or I ever could. You're the only one she didn't approve of. Be sure to remember that if she seems to treat you unfairly."