The next morning, Merrigan was expecting a small squad of guardsmen to march up to the inn and follow the trail to Warden's room. Instead, a pretty servant girl in palace livery, her face swollen and red with crying, stumbled into the dining room where Merrigan, Elli, and Warden were having breakfast. Bib sat on an empty chair between Warden and Merrigan, where he could join the conversation without anyone realizing there was a talking book in the room.
"Dulci, what are you doing here?" Warden shouted, standing up from the table so quickly he nearly knocked it over.
The girl was indeed Princess Dulcibella. It showed her good sense that she snuck out of the palace in disguise. That good sense dissolved in sobs and a tidal wave of tears as she flung herself into Warden's arms. Somehow, Merrigan and Elli got the two of them into the sewing room without too much fuss. Rosa came running after them, with Bib cradled in one arm and holding a pot of soothing chamomile tea in the other. Dulcibella sobbed and sniffed and babbled disjointed sentences through the first cup, and spilled at least a third of it on herself, her hands shook so. After that, though, she managed to calm down enough to stop crying, wipe her face, blow her nose, and snuggle closer into Warden's lap before she started talking coherently.
"Of course I know how to get here, and of course I know none of our visits were dreams, you silly darling," she said, tucking her head under Warden's chin. "I might be doomed to be an utter featherhead someday, but Morton's been trying to make me smarter and I've been trying to read at least one educational book each week. Then I met you, and somehow it all seemed to stick better. Does that make any sense?" She raised her head enough to look at Merrigan, Elli and Rosa, who had had the good sense to close and lock the door so the curious couldn't intrude.
"Perfect sense," Rosa said.
"Maybe I'm a featherhead, but I'm hopelessly in love with you, and I hope you feel a little bit of fondness for me."
"Lost," Warden blurted. "Hopelessly lost. I'd do anything for you, Dulci. I wish there was an enchanter to defeat or a dragon to kill, to prove it to you."
"Idiot," Merrigan muttered. That earned a chuckle from Rosa.
"You'll get your wish," Dulcibella said. "Morton announced at breakfast that his magic mirror revealed I am kidnapped every night with the aid of three enormous, fierce dogs. He put a magic bag on my robe last night and it created a trail, and any moment now, my father's guardsmen are going to come arrest you!"
"All for show," Merrigan interrupted, when it looked like the princess was about to burst into tears again. "All to save face. Chancellor Morton knows about Warden and the nightly visits and he approves of you two being together. The only problem is that you can't simply have a soldier walk up to the gates of the palace, a soldier no one has ever met before, and announce he's going to marry the king's daughter. It just isn't done."
"What am I supposed to do after I'm arrested?" Warden said. "Or shouldn't I let them arrest me?"
"Oh, definitely let them arrest you. I'd run upstairs and get your tinderbox and change into your new clothes, so you present a fine, handsome figure when you're taken to the palace. They'll probably march you on foot through town, instead of using a carriage. That will give everyone a chance to see you. The king will have to pretend to be furious—after all, you've been kidnapping his daughter every night."
"It's not really kidnapping if I knew what was going on, is it?" Dulcibella cried.
"That's something you should only reveal to your parents." Merrigan's head hurt a little from thinking so fast. Honestly, why were people around her so helpless? "We will need some people to spread the story about how Warden has fallen in love with the princess and has been using magic to make himself worthy of her, and how terrified he is that the king will hang him for the insult to the throne. Oh, and they should talk about what a hero he has been all his life. Make him very admirable. By the time the court is convened, half the town should be banging on the gates, demanding that he be pardoned. And if we're lucky, demanding a wedding."
To Merrigan's relief, Princess Dulcibella showed some common sense by not crying out that she didn't have anything to wear.
MERRIGAN KNEW SHE SHOULD be pleased, flattered even, when the dust settled and Queen Adele insisted she be the one to create Princess Dulcibella's gown for the wedding. She fumed more than she had in moons as she and Elli and the four hired girls worked long hours to create a memorable gown in short order. Granted, they cobbled together the gown from ten gowns previous Seafoam princesses had worn, so that saved enormous time. Alterations were much simpler than creating from whole cloth.
Taking apart the heirloom bridal gowns and fitting the pieces together into something modern and fashionable was rather like working a puzzle, and Merrigan remembered she had adored puzzles when she was a child. That was the sticking point: she had loved them as a child. The adult didn't find them quite so fascinating. Maybe if her eyes didn't ache with dry weariness and her fingers hadn't been poked full of holes from
