The Wish Granter (Ravenspire #2)(3)

When the door was firmly shut behind them, Ari swept her hair into a messy knot at the top of her head and turned her back to Cleo. “Unbutton me, but make it quick. Mama Eleni will have heart failure if she finds me undressing in her pantry.”

“She won’t have heart failure.” Cleo’s fingers flew down the row of tiny pearl buttons along the back of the dress, and golden silk, several shades lighter than Ari’s skin, sagged away from her bosom, revealing the bone-ribbed torture device her new lady’s maid had sworn Ari couldn’t do without. “Mama will make sure we have heart failure.”

Ari wiggled her shoulders, and the gown’s tiny scalloped sleeves edged down her arms. “You have to unbutton it further. The corset is tied at my waist.”

“Cleo? Ari? Where are those girls?” Mama Eleni’s voice cut through the air.

“No time to unbutton. Give me the scissors,” Cleo said as someone answered Mama Eleni. “If Mama finds us and gives me hearth-scrubbing duties again, you’re helping me. I don’t care if you’re supposed to act like a princess now.”

“Maybe as princess I can order Mama Eleni not to punish you.” Then at least there’d be a benefit for having traded her comfortable anonymity as the bastard daughter the king was happy to forget existed for the trappings of a royal life.

Ari reached for the scissors that hung from a ribbon beside the door and handed them to Cleo, who paused for a second. “This looks expensive. Are you sure you want me to—”

“I can’t breathe, my ribs feel like they’re touching my spine, and my stomach is being squished so tight, it’s leaking out over the top of this thing.” Ari turned to let Cleo see the situation.

“Stars help us, you look like you’re growing another set of breasts. Here.” She whirled Ari around and tugged hard on the laces holding the princess in place.

Ari choked. “Can’t. Breathe.”

“I can’t get any leverage. It’s laced too tight. How did Franci get you into this in the first place?” Cleo jerked the laces, and Ari began worrying that the raisin bread she’d eaten earlier was going to make a reappearance.

“There was . . . a lot . . . of pulling and . . . swearing.”

“I didn’t know Franci swore.” With a sharp snip, Cleo cut through the laces. Ari drew a deep breath as the corset loosened.

“She didn’t.” Ari tugged at the corset until she could pull it over her head. “I did.”

Cleo laughed. “You aren’t supposed to do that anymore, Ari. You’re a proper princess now.”

“Hardly.” Ari dropped the offending corset to the pantry floor, adjusted the straps of the regular undergarment she’d had the foresight to wear under it, and pulled her gown back into place. The silk was surprisingly comfortable now that she wasn’t fighting to breathe. She rubbed it between her fingers as Cleo quickly redid her buttons.

Ari wasn’t a proper princess. She was a girl who’d slept in the servants’ quarters with her mother, who’d been almost entirely ignored by her father, and who’d only been allowed to attend lessons with her brother when the king realized that Thad, his chosen heir despite the boy’s bastard status, was serious about refusing to perform to expectations unless his sister received an education too. She’d scrubbed floors, cooked feasts, bargained with merchants, translated ancient texts, and memorized the history of her kingdom—but nothing she’d done had prepared her to be acknowledged as Súndraille’s true princess and to have the eyes of the nobility watching her every move.

If the corset was any indication, she was going to be a disaster.

An ache blossomed in her chest, spreading through her veins with every heartbeat. Tears pricked her eyes, and she blinked rapidly.

“There.” Cleo turned Ari to face her, and her dark eyes filled with sympathy. “Don’t cry. You’ll ruin the mysterious golden-girl look you’ve achieved with this gown.”

Ari gave her a wobbly smile. “I’m the least mysterious girl anyone has ever met.”

Cleo smiled. “The nobility doesn’t know that. To them, you’re the princess the king kept mostly hidden from them all these years. And now you’re going out there in this gorgeous gown with your big brown eyes and your Ari attitude, and they’ll be enthralled.”

“I miss my old life.” Ari’s voice trembled, and a tear spilled down her cheek as she whispered, “I miss Mama.”

Cleo wrapped her in a tight hug. “I do too. She’d be so proud to see you like this. Now get out there before Thad starts looking for you and—”

The pantry door flew open, and Mama Eleni stood glaring at them with Thad peering over her shoulder. “What are you two doing in here?” she asked.

Ari aimed a swift kick at the corset and sent it sliding beneath the shelves of preserved cherries beside her. “Last-minute wardrobe consultation.”

“You have flour on your hands,” Thad said.

“That happens when you make pastry dough.” Ari quickly dusted her palms together and blinked the last of her tears away. Thad needed someone to stand with him tonight, and she was all he had left. It didn’t matter that she kept forgetting to behave like a real princess. It only mattered that when he faced his new subjects she was at his side.