I awoke to find Anya traipsing around the room like a fairy princess, practically singing with the dawn.

“Good morning,” she lilted.

I blinked at her. In the golden light sloping in through Yggdrasil’s leaves, she reminded me of nothing so much as a ballerina on the stage.

Anya gave a cheerful laugh at my nonresponse and forced me into an outfit nearly identical to hers—a dress, undershirt, and some wool tights—and dragged me to Valaskjálf. Heads turned from their breakfasts to follow her willowy frame and halo braid as she flitted between the tables.

“Just a minute,” I told her, glancing at the other end of the high table.

Perrault sat near one of the twins, eating fruit with a fork and a knife. Properly, of course. I made my way toward him.

“Good morning, Sir Perrault.” I planted my hands across from him on the table, still standing. His eyes slowly wandered up to meet mine.

“Good morning, Seneschal-elect. In what way can I be of service?”

I cleared my throat. “I was wondering if you’d determined my schedule for this stay.” I glanced nervously back at the boys seated around Anya.

Watching them, big and boisterous and entirely too many, I suddenly longed for the safety of an agenda. Of order. Organization. A plan.

Perrault’s brows arched sardonically. “Oh, I won’t be coordinating engagements for your time in Asgard.”

“Why not?” I drew back, feeling like someone had dumped cold water down my back. I needed a plan to survive the next thirteen days—and the days thereafter.

Perrault cocked his head. “First of all, that is not the way of this place. Second of all—it’s not as if you put much store by the schedule I appointed for you in England.”

I gaped at him. “You’re going to jeopardize my trip to punish me?”

“I’m not punishing you.” Perrault was serene, unflappable. “I’m simply not going to squander my expertise.”

“Winchester was different,” I protested. “My pretend suitor was forty years old!”

“Norge is different,” Perrault said neatly. “Make your own way, Seneschal-elect. I won’t make it for you this time.” He ran his eyes over the hall distastefully. “I’ll be fully occupied with enduring this stay. Make no mistake, I’ll be watching, but you’re on your own.”

I gaped at him, dumbstruck.

Without a fiancé, I could be forced to travel to the Imperiya. I’d be that many more weeks away from seeing Daddy, from protecting him from whatever Alessandra was planning.

If Torden didn’t propose to me, I’d be left at the mercy of boys I could not afford to love. To boys who could never come home with me to Potomac.

My stomach plummeted.