The game of Blushing Hearts

Vivienne and Lydia scattered from Princess Madeleine, and I saw them whispering to the other nobles. No doubt they were inviting the nobles into Madeleine's game of mystery. I wish I could take that back. But Princess Madeleine kept taking my arm and pretending to be an old friend. She rattled off innocuous things to me along the way. Her dog, for example, was so bloated from eating too much meat that she beat the slave girl who cared for it. Then there's her recent acquisition of new jewelry and fancy clothes. Before I knew it, she was leading me down the long corridor until I was outside a closed room, where Princess Madeleine glanced at the guards standing outside, who immediately opened the door. Madeline took my hand and went into the room, which was already lighted with candles. Camryn Court is so large that I did not have time to know every room in the castle. The room was smaller than the hall in which the ball had been held, but the furnishings were still sumptuous, with soft