Chapter21:

The next morning, her mother arranged a large meal for every Representative to join them in breaking the fast and celebrating the ban on interaction—speech anyway—between the princess and her suitors. While Kit thought sitting out among the men would’ve been more fitting for such a situation, she was positioned up on a dais in the middle of the room where she could see all of them but not speak to a single one very easily. Still, she’d had the opportunity to greet each of them again, and it was nice to chat with the men as they came in and found their assigned seats in the dining hall. Her mother had spared no amount of trouble in having fancy name plates created that showed the crest from each of the provinces, and the gentlemen were impressed at the lengths the queen had gone to make them feel at home. She sat next to her mother and Duchess Zora on the riser, more interested in the men before her than the fare on the table. Some of them seemed nervous, hardly eating a bite, while oth