As the story ended, the musicians’ instruments were nearly drowned out by the shriek of boots and bench legs on the floor. Torden and I remained seated after our table had emptied.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out.

Torden’s eyes sought mine. “Do not apologize,” he said steadily. “I would not compel you, not even to something so minor.”

I bit my lip at the earnestness in his voice. “You surprised me, that’s all. And . . .” I trailed off.

The books. The fire. The rain. The kiss.

The thought of my naïveté paraded in front of England curdled in my stomach.

Bear had lied to me, and for good reason. He’d been wry and sulky and difficult, and that had made him all the more charming.

His kiss had been perfect.

Even now, I had to force myself to close the book on those memories, warm to the touch, searingly painful, too tangled to sort out.

Torden wasn’t forbidden fruit, appealing because I couldn’t have him. Torden could save Daddy and me. He was necessary to a degree that tore me in two.

I needed him, and I needed to want him, and I needed him to want me. I felt the pressure like a bruise on my heart.

Perhaps Bear had made things easier for both of us by disguising himself all that time.

Perhaps, when I thought of all the things I would do because I had to do them, I understood Bear better than I’d thought I did.

“What is it?” Torden asked.

I slumped a little in my chair and stared hard at the table, running my fingernail over a rough spot in the wood. “How much did you hear about my last visit?”

He hesitated. “Not much.”

“And?”

“The rumor is that it ended poorly,” he said.

“The rumor?”

Torden nodded at two men I didn’t recognize standing near the edge of the dance floor. One was wispy and white-haired, the other younger, his features unremarkable but for bright, intelligent eyes. Both wore black cloaks that flapped and waved like massive ravens’ wings with their every gesture. “Huginn and Muninn—Muninn is the older one, and Huginn is the younger—are my father’s advisers. They know everything that happens in Asgard, and probably everywhere else.” Torden paused. “They told him the prince proposed and you declined because of a misunderstanding.”

“That’s a fairly misleading version of the story,” I said flatly.

“What happened?”

“They tricked me.”

Torden’s brow furrowed, and I slid deeper into my chair, shaking my head.

“It’s a mess to explain. My suitor’s father pretended to be my suitor; my suitor pretended to be my guard.”

He drew back slightly. “Why?”

I leaned forward, watching the dancers, unable to meet his eyes. “They distrusted Potomac,” I said. “I don’t think it was personal.”

Neither of us spoke for a long moment.