The Decoy Princess Read Free Page B

at him, her stubby fingers sending the jewelry about her neck clattering. “That’s your problem, not mine. And you’ve made a mistake. She has no defensive reactions at all. Her thoughts revolve around men and buying things.”
    Kavenlow’s shoulders were tense with anger. The smoke seemed to fill my bones. I couldn’t move. I heard my pulse slow, and I forced my eyes to remain open. “Just recognize her so we can leave,” he said tightly.
    My lassitude deepened with every breath, and I wondered how I could still be standing.
    Concentrating fiercely, I shifted my head to see my finger and the drop of blood there. My knees felt shaky. The gray smoke pooled in my head. “Kavenlow?” I whispered, hearing nothing.
    “Pick my table up,” the gypsy woman commanded, and Kavenlow obediently righted it, replacing the candle and the shawl covering it. The rock and feather were sullenly placed in the center along with the bowl.
    Grumbling in complaint, the gypsy settled herself in her chair and relit the candle from another. “Do you dream, woman-child?” she said, fixing a sharp gaze on me.
    I blinked, dizzy. “How dare you address me like… that…” I whispered, my voice trailing off to nothing.
    “Answer her, Tess,” Kavenlow said as he pulled me from my corner.
    “You want a fortune, dearie?” the gypsy woman said in a mocking falsetto. “I can give you a fortune to make your hair turn white.” She leaned forward, running her eyes over my dusty clothes. “Tell me if you dream.”
    I swallowed hard. “Yes, of course,” I said, hearing my voice as if it came from across the room. The smoke was turning my head, making my mouth work when my mind said to be quiet.
    “Any of them come true?” she asked.
    “No,” I said, then hesitated. “No, of course not.” What an odd thing to ask .
    “Animals,” the old woman said. “Do they do what you want?”
    My brow furrowed, and a distant part of me wondered at the absurdity of the question. “I can ride a horse.” I took a deep breath to dispel the fog in my head, but it only made it worse.
    The gypsy shook her head in disgust. “Can you walk unnoticed?”
    “I’m a princess. Walking unnoticed is pretty much”—I took a breath, willing myself out of the fog—“impossible.” My finger throbbed as I gripped the bone knife. I wondered if the fox had run away, and my attention wandered until I found a pair of black, unblinking eyes watching me from under the dresser. It was panting, afraid. My water had spilled, and I wished I could find enough stamina to coax it out to drink from the puddle.
    The gypsy followed my eyes to the fox. She made a rude sound I and leaned forward. I made no protest as she reached out and plucked a loose hair from the shoulder of my dress. Holding it over the candle, she made a show of smelling the smoke when it flashed into light and was gone. “She can do little for the amount of venom you’ve subjected her to,” she said sourly. “She’ll hate you if you haven’t told her the cost, which I’d wager six horses you haven’t. What is she, eighteen?”
    “She’s twenty, and I chose that risk.”
    The woman harrumphed. “Breach the confidence, and you’ll be ripped to shreds. The Costenopolie playing field will be destroyed to keep any disturbing ideas from taking root.”
    “I’m aware of that.” His stance was stiff with no show of repentance. A part of me wondered who this woman was who thought she could treat Kavenlow as a drudge.
    “She’s weak-minded. I pulled her here easier than if she were a starveling child.”
    Kavenlow gritted his teeth. “She would have come without your summons. She likes gypsies.”
    “So do I,” the woman said sharply. “But I don’t go traipsing into their vans with no thought to my safety.”
    A spark of anger finally broke through my fog. “Kavenlow sees to my safety,” I said hotly. “I don’t need to think about it. And you will not address him in such a tone.”
    The