"Where did all of these people come from?" Essie whispered.

Essie only just beat Cinderella's same question as she followed her down stone steps where some twenty carriages were being loaded with young women in a rainbow of pastel hues, attended by a myriad of gentlemen all dressed in their finest coats. Pricilla, whose usual quick tongue, seemed stuck to the top of her mouth. An unexpected mystification.

Prince met them at the bottom of the steps, with an elegant bow. "Ladies, an excellent afternoon, non?" He looked so regal and noble, Cinderella wondered how she would ever make it through the day without spilling her secrets. A black ribbon held his dark hair in a fashionable queue and firm lips curved in a small smile. "May I present Signore Alessandro de Lecce, Conte de Lecce's eldest son? The family arrived from Torino just yesterday."

"Il piacere é tutti miniera. The pleasure is all mine." The heels of his boots clicked smartly together coinciding with a gallant incline.

Cinderella hadn't noticed him before he spoke. He was younger than Prince, though not by much she guessed. Signore de Lecce had not bothered with a queue. Black silken hair hung loose, touching his collar. The signore expressed all that was gracious and courtly. His lips touched Essie's hand. She clamped her eyes shut, head down, murmuring, "Sir," sketching a curtsy.

Pricilla smiled widely with her deep curtsy.

When he moved to Cinderella, the heat flooded her cheeks. Would she never become accustomed to such attention? He was very dashing.

"You are very lovely, Signorina," he said in a deep, resonant tone.

Embarrassed, she tugged at her hand but the signore's hold tightened. She coveted a glance beneath her lashes, certain no one had heard, but Prince frowned. Panic had her grasping for an escape, but none presented itself with any sort of grace. A tightening about Pricilla's mouth worried her, but much of that might have been attributed to Prince placing Essie's hand on his arm in that same instant.

Cinderella lifted her face to an unmistakable shift in the wind, and met Pricilla's eyes. What amounted to profound camaraderie manifested in a twitch of Pricilla's lips. Cinderella was trapped, however, with no other option but to allow Signore de Lecce's guide into the open carriage behind Pricilla then Essie. Her fears fell away when Pricilla looped an arm through hers.

Pricilla, her champion?

*****

Biting back an oath, Prince offered his arm to Erzsebet…Es.mer.al.da and escorted her to the carriage. What choice had he when Alessandro claimed Cinderella? A band of iron constricted his lungs. He wanted no one touching her. And why were the de Lecce's invited anyway? There was no need. Between Prince and Arnald...oh, all right. So it evened things out with the young ladies, but Prince didn't like it one bit.




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