“This.” Perrault thrust a hanger in my direction.

The following afternoon, I was set to formally visit the village of Winchester with His Highness. We were going to patronize three shops on the high street, give me a view of the town, and introduce me to the common people all at once, said Perrault. I nearly choked on my tea at the word common.

“It feels a little ridiculous to describe other people as common when I’m not royalty,” I said, setting down my teacup.

“You are not royalty. You are nobility, in the eyes of the court.”

“I’m not. I hold a steward’s position.”

Perrault sighed dramatically. “You will inherit a position of authority from your father, not by your own merit or by election. You are, therefore, nobility, your romantic notions aside.”

“Are you saying I lack merit?” I bristled, turning the suit over in my hands, and passed it back to Perrault. “I don’t want to wear this.”

He pushed it toward me again, exhaling a sharp breath through his nose. “Everything I have chosen for you I have chosen for a reason. Yesterday, you wore silk. It was important that you look at home among the court ladies. Today, you will wear tweed and sturdy but elegant boots.”

I held up the hanger bearing a red-and-white suit skirt and jacket. “I look like a very serious picnic table.”

“You look like a respectable English lady,” Perrault corrected me sternly. “Like a member of the nobility, but sensible enough to be among the people. The red and white is also a nod to England’s flag, Saint George’s Cross.”

“You’re saying that wearing a red-and-white tweed suit skirt aligns me with the English common people and a legendary dragon slayer?”

Perrault nodded assiduously.

I pointed at the door. “Out.”

And then I put on the suit.

Perrault, Myrddin, and Bear escorted me into a foyer near the mews once I was dressed. When the prince appeared, I curtsied as best I could in my sturdy-but-elegant boots, still stiff in their newness. “Your Highness.”

“Your Grace.” Bertilak nodded approvingly.

I glanced at Perrault. “Are we waiting for Lang? Should he be joining us?”

“One would think so,” Perrault said irritably. “But Captain Lang informed me that he was occupied with other matters today.”

When we boarded a carriage, it was almost a relief to sit next to Bertilak instead of Perrault, who sat opposite me, next to Bear. Apart from the sound of the carriage wheels on cobblestones and the excited cries of the people in the streets, we rode in silence.

Dread sloshed around the pit of my stomach as I remembered a particularly terrible Potomac state dinner. I’d wanted to sit next to Daddy, but Alessandra had tasked me with entertaining a delegation from the Lakelands. The group of eight or nine middle-aged men had plied me with questions about local fishing and then ignored me for two hours.