The Luna Choosing Game

My whole heart shattered. “No, no, that’s not true. Prince Nicholas likes you a lot.”

Elva pulled away to look up at me with large, watery eyes. “But she said Nick–lass is mad at me. She said

I was naughty.”

“We can’t listen to her, okay?”

Her cupped her face with my hands and wiped away her tears. New ones just kept falling. My anger for Lena renewed, and I half wanted to chase her down the hall to give her a piece of my mind.

No one makes my little girl cry like this!

“She’s just a mean lady who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Nicholas likes you. He’s not mad. He waved at you, didn’t he?”

The words seemed to placate Elva somewhat. Her tears lessened, though her sniffling remained. Her brows furrowed like she was thinking it through.

“He did wave…

“Because he likes you.”

“…Okay.” Her voice was small. It didn’t seem like I had fully convinced her, but I doubted I could say anything that would.

She would have to hear it from Nicholas himself.

Maybe if I could talk to him alone, I could convince him to spend some time with Elva.

Lena would hate it, and so would the other girls. I’d have to make sure it happened at a time that didn’t conflict with any of his other obligations.

Surely he would meet with her though? If I told him she thought he didn’t like her?

Surely he hadn’t become totally heartless in the past three years?

No, I knew he hadn’t. I had seen the soft–hearted way he’d interacted with Elva before

He might hate me, but he liked her. He would be willing to do this, I was sure.

I just had to get him alone to ask.

The next morning at breakfast, Lilliana was the most popular girl in the room. Every other girl wanted to know every detail of her solo–date with Nicholas.

attention seemed to go straight to her head, and she calmly and smugly answered every question she

was asked, albeit with a haughty attitude.

I

“Prince Nicholas lifted me into the saddle like the princess I am soon to be,” she said. “The horse

have been tamer, however. Something

poor horse had reason to be afraid of Lillianna when it had

had a sixth sense about

of the property,” Lilliana said. “I felt as if the prince was showing

soon belong to

spoke, I noticed she talked of the property and the palace and what she would fix as

qualities of the prince himself, like his beautiful golden

of Nicholas’s qualities in how much it could

money. The power.

fury collected inside of me. Nicholas deserved someone who

him as a person.

was all wrong for him. Hopefully he would realize that sooner

the other girls were sharing sharp looks toward each other,

in the room thickened

Ball

it seemed as if Lilliana was

I too wanted to

wasn’t jealous. It was just pure

wasn’t worthy of

Chapter 0046

and I

my brown hair into a

me, though her dress came up to her neck. It

giggling as she spun

she looked like the physical embodiment

her into a quick

door, the strange maid stopped me. “Don’t forget your gloves.” She handed them

me

1

their length. It would have been a faux pas

thank the quiet maid as well, but she was further back in

thank her later

I took her hand. “Let’s go to

a toothy grin.

other girls in the parlor room, where we waited for the results for the dress contest. The princes‘ preferences for our dresses would soon determine the order of

way. They were a rainbow of colors and

so putty, I wondered how she intended to dance. Though she moved with such ease, she must have been used to it. Others were similar, carefully sidestepping their trains or lifting their long

seemed confident the own gown and

at the girls hushed themselves We waited with bated breath as Nathan

First, he said. “Divis