A Game of Hearts

I. Croquet and Catastrophes

Playing croquet with Dinah was worse than playing cards with a knave.

Madeleine glanced back and caught her friend cheating yet again, this time using bits of chestnut pastry to coax her hedgehog back onto the center of the field. It wasn't even working, with all the snow making it impossible for the creature to travel far on its little feet.

"Goddammit!" Madeleine kicked snow at Dinah, who dissolved into giggles. "Stop cheating!"

"But what is croquet if not a game of trickery and wits?" Dinah sang, brushing snow off her skirts. She squinted at her hedgehog, which had somehow squirmed onto the edge of the lawn. "Spades, if only if it was a bit more to the right..."

Rolling her eyes, Madeleine made her way to her own hedgehog, Bandy (named after the fabled Bandersnatch for his wondrous little fangs that once chomped down on her mother's thumb).

Bandy lay neatly in front of the last few wickets. An easy swing—she could do it with her eyes closed.

In a final attempt to distract her, Dinah threw snow and hollered in the most unladylike manner that would have made their parents keel over if they'd been there. Madeleine glared at her, but failed to keep her expression straight when Dinah lost her footing and nearly fell onto the snow.

Shaking out her flamingo again, Madeleine pulled it back and trained her eye on the hedgehog. "Aaand another stunning victory for m—"

"Prince Luka!" Dinah abruptly dipped into a curtsy. "Hello!"

Madeleine's swing went wide. Bandy bounced off the edge of the hoop and rolled into the rose hedges bordering the lawn.

She scanned the courtyard for auburn hair and pale green eyes. Nearby, royal gardeners tended to the rose hedges and servants hurried through the snow with baskets of bread and silk. In the distance, the White Rabbit scampered about, no doubt on an errand from Mother.

No Luka.

When she turned back, Dinah's hedgehog had miraculously made its way through all of the remaining wickets. Her friend stood triumphantly on the other side, twirling her flamingo with a cheeky grin.

Oh, hang them all.

"You knave!" Madeleine yelled, her cheeks heating. Dinah laughed and Madeleine cursed herself for being so gullible.

Smugly, Dinah scooped up her hedgehog. "Care for another round? So you can redeem yourself?"

"I refuse to accept your false victory."

The snow fell harder now, blanketing their tracks in powdery white fluff. After luring Bandy out from the roses, they huddled together on the side of the lawn as a group of Cards reset the course.

Madeleine shivered and shook snow from her hair. Her thick velvet shawl felt like a scrap of paper against the cold. "I hope they have pepper soup at dinner."

"Pepper soup?" Dinah wrinkled her nose. "I can never get used to Hearts' cuisine."

"That's funny coming from the girl who had three helpings of breakfast."

"I swear the serving sizes are different here!"

Madeleine laughed and polished off the remainder of the chestnut pastry sitting in the picnic basket beside them. It had cooled, but still tasted like flaky, buttery heaven.

"So tell me," Dinah said abruptly. "How's Princey?"

Madeleine choked. Luka. She gave Dinah a dirty look and coughed out, her mouth still full of pastry, "I tol' you not to ca' him that!"