Her Every Wish Read Free

proposals she had seen. She supposed that Mr. Diggle would be the last one chosen. Stupid or no, his proposal had been the most sound out of everyone remaining.
    The fifth judge came to the front. He didn’t look at any of the candidates. He just looked out over the audience. He wouldn’t choose her. Daisy knew it, the way she knew that snow was cold and winter turnips were bitter. She knew it in her chilled, numbing hands and her growling belly.
    She’d reached. They’d slapped her down. It had happened to her often enough that she was almost used to it by now. One day, she’d learn to stop wasting effort chasing foolish dreams. One day. Just…not yet.
    The final judge faced the crowd and said one word. “Whitlaw.”
    Daisy jumped. A well of hope started up inside her. There was a moment of utter silence from the crowd. Maybe the strain had finally driven her mad.
    Maybe he hadn’t said it. It couldn’t be true.
    But Mr. Flisk turned to look at her with venomous eyes. The crowd murmured more loudly.
    â€œWell,” the grocer managed after a meaningful pause. “We’ll see you all next Saturday. And it looks like we have our entertainment in order. After all, we’ve just lined up the jester.” He gave Daisy an exaggerated waggle of his eyebrows and let out a great, braying laugh, one that explained precisely why she’d been chosen.

Chapter Two
    D aisy tried to sneak away .
    It should have been easy; nobody would look at her, let alone talk to her. Yet somehow, the crowd seemed to have more elbows on the way out. People stepped in her way as if she were not present. Feet stamped on her own. And no apologies were made.
    After she had the wind knocked out of her a third time by an “accidental” blow that nobody else seemed to notice, she gave up on fighting her way out of the square with the crowd. She simply waited, stamping her feet to keep them from freezing, until everyone had left.
    Almost everyone. A small knot of women remained on the street corner, clustered in the growing darkness under an unlit lamp.
    She didn’t want to go past them. She knew who was at the center of that knot, knew it before she could see him. Before she heard his voice.
    â€œI was wondering,” one of the women was saying. “I have always so wanted to ask you…”
    â€œYes?” Daisy recognized Crash’s voice, even though she couldn’t see him through the crowd around him. It felt like a shock to hear him even after all these months apart.
    A flush of heat—shame and excitement all mixed together—filled her. Speak of wishes gone awry.
    â€œBy all means,” Crash said, “ask me anything you like.”
    The woman giggled, and Daisy felt a kind of sorry kinship for her fellow sufferer. She did her best to slink past the little gathering. That poor woman might have been a flirt, but Crash was an incorrigible charmer. He flirted with anyone and everyone who gave him the opportunity, men and women alike. Everyone had to learn not to play with fire in her own way, and Crash had been as good a place for Daisy to learn that lesson as any.
    Enjoy the ride, Daisy wished the girl as she slipped past. I hope your heart can withstand what comes after.
    â€œIt’s this,” the woman said, wide-eyed. “What are you?”
    Ah. Daisy felt a little less sorry for her. That had to be the worst way to flirt with Crash.
    She caught a glimpse of him through the ring of women.
    Crash took off his rounded hat and smoothed back black, lightly curled hair. Daisy had spent long enough staring at him to know that he looked like nobody she’d ever seen. In those heady months when she’d thought of nobody else, she’d spent a great deal of time looking at him, and then at the rest of the world. Sailors, woodcuts of foreign delegations—it hadn’t mattered. She’d searched for his features everywhere and found them only in