Then to everyone's shock, she pressed her lips full on his.
"Oh...my," said Clover.
No one seemed more surprised than Lord Teddie, who stumbled back under Bramble's assault. He staggered onto the magicked rug.In a blur of red, the rug clapped over them like a red snapdragon.
The entire package overbalanced and fell to the ground with a whumpf.
No one moved inside the rug. Everyone stared.
"Sorry," said Eve. "What just happened?"
From the rug came a muffled Mmm mmm mmfph.
"We'd better take them out," said Azalea. "Before they start to digest.
We can go without dancing and things a little longer."
"Especially since our Great Slipper Scandal quickened the undead and nearly destroyed the palace," said Bramble. "It put us off dancing for at least an hour.
His steward his here,too."
"Oh,look, the King's gone out to greet him."
"With a gun," said Bramble.
Everyone leaned forward.
"Pistols!" cried Clover. She fled the room.
"Clover-duels aren't-oh,hang," said Bramble. "She's going to do something rash. Well, at least we can see it from here."
Two seconds later, Clover streaked out the entrance hall doors, down the marble stairs, her skirts flying behind her.The gentlemen had a split moment to look up before Clover threw herself onto the King in a scatter of gravel, sobbing as she hung about his neck.
The window muffled their voices. Everyone leaned even farther forward.
Clover fell to her knees and kissed the hem of the King's coat.
"Oh,now,let's not go overboard," Bramble muttered.
Fairweller removed his coat and set it over Clover's shoulders; the King threw it off and put his own coat over her shoulders.
A young Captain Bradford is waiting for you in the ballroom.He's spent many hours filling out parliamentary paperwork,as well as a lengthy wait for parliamentary approval,before I would allow him to see you."
The full meaning of this sank into Azalea's mind, and she fairly leaped up the stairs,giddy to her center.
What's kissing like?"
"Mmm-like dancing,actually." Bramble pushed her prridge to Ivy and grinned. "You know, the part after a spin, when the room turns about you. What do you think, Clover?"
Clover shook her golden head.
"I think it more..when the gentleman catches you in his arms, that warm feeling that makes your toes sort of curl."
Bramble's face twisted. "No..that's not right. Well, dash it, if we knew more dances-
You look pretty, as always," he said.
Azalea grinned, deciding not to remind him that the last times he had seen her, she had been soaked, frozen, unconscious, and a torn mess of the undead.
Ah,Azalea," said the King. "He's not going to be the one proposing."
The springs in Azalea's feet went poioioing.
"Sorry?" she said.
"You outrank him, you know." The King shifted, uncomfortable. "It would be highly inappropriate for him to propose to you. The Delchastrian queen had to propose-"
"I will do no such thing!" said Azalea.
"Azalea," said the King in a firmer tone. "Come now, follow the rules. Besides, it is your chance to have the final say,is it not?"
"I always have the final say!" said Azalea. "How horrifically unromantic!"
"Well,do you want me to send him away?"
"No!Don't do that!
Before anything," he said as he brought her around to face him, "I want to give you this."
Fumbling in his suitcoat, he produced a small package wrapped in brown paper and string, and gave it to Azalea. Curious, she tugged at the strings of the light package until they unkonotted. The paper fell away.
It was a silver handkerchief. Supple and soft, just as Mother's had been. In the corner were the ambroidered initials A.K.W.
Azalea laughed and cried at once. She threw her arms around Mr. Bradford's neck, wanting to embrace him so deeply she could feel his soul.
"Yes," she cried, "Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"
"Well-I-never even said anything," he said.
Even so, he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her. Azalea pressed her cheek into his collar, rumpling it, and breathing into his cravat. It smelled of fresh linen. She felt Mr. Bradford's cheek pressing the top of her head. His lips touched her hair.
A muffled voice startled them both.
"When are you going to kiss her?"
They pulled away.In the ballroom windows, noses and hands pressed against te glass, were the girls. They stood among the prickly rosebushes, beaming wicked little grins. Delphinium and Eve whispered and giggled to each other;Bramble wore a magnificent grin on her face and a spark of light in her yellow-green eyes.
Another figure stood among them.This one had his arms folded across his chest, stiff and firm and formal...
...Yet he did not look displeased.
"Those rotten little spies!" said Azalea.
It is not a Christmas tree!" said the King, so firmly that all the girls stopped jumping about. "This is a house of mourning. It is nothing more than a tree. I thought it would look nice. Inside. That is all.
Heather Dixon WallworkStichwörter: christmas king humerous
The King had advertised the old magic tea set, but for some reason, no one wanted sugar teeth that could gouge their eyes out.
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