“Alexis, dear, would you pass the butter?”

The second prince sighed under his breath and handed the butter dish to his mother. Passing butter dishes? Isn’t that what servants are for? In fact, why were there so few butter dishes that they would need to be passed in any case?

At a normal evening meal, in the grand dining hall with various nobles and palace officials present, these things would not have been problems. But here, at this family dinner, there were no servants present except when they brought in each course, and only enough butter to serve five people. Passing food was a terrible practise, one which could result in sleeves slathered with sauces, but there was no way to avoid these irritations.

It was the night before his brother’s wedding, so the princes and their parents were dining with the bride-to-be. Daisy appeared to be relaxed, but Thomas kept tapping his foot, a sure sign he was nervous. Perhaps he had nerves about the wedding. Perhaps he was worried about what the king and queen thought of Daisy. Neither parent gave away their feelings, instead politely inquiring about the girl’s life.

“I have been to the palace before, you know. My Lord and Lady didn’t like to leave me alone at home when I was a child, so they brought me to the palace when they came to the balls. ‘Course, since I’m just a servant – was a servant – I was left in the library instead of going with them to the ballroom.”

“How delightful,” the King exclaimed cheerily. “And what do you think of our library? We have the finest book collection in the kingdom, except perhaps for Duchess McDowell.” He leaned in closer to add, in a loud whisper, “She’s a hoarder.”

The girl smiled politely back. “Your library is beautiful. I only read a few of the books, ones with shorter stories – fairy-tales an’ folk tales – but I liked them a lot.”

“You’re most welcome to read all the books you desire,” the Queen chipped in. “Our library could certainly do with more use.” She cast a pointed look at her sons, who glanced guiltily at each other.

Neither read more than they were asked to by their tutors, each favouring other pursuits. Alexis liked walking through the gardens and riding horses and playing with the palace dogs (although he did the last one in secret, since the dogs were not meant to be companions, but rather hunting tools). Thomas liked to play board games, either with his manservant or, if he could convince him, with Alexis. He presumably had other hobbies as well, but Alexis did not know what they were.

One thing he did know was that Thomas had read the castle’s entire collection of fairy-tales. The Crown Prince had found out when he was younger that the girl he liked enjoyed reading these books, and had latched onto the idea so that they would have something to talk about. Whether it had worked, he didn’t know, but he had certainly captured her heart somehow.

The girl in question was allowed a reprieve from questioning so that she could eat, and he noticed that her table manners were almost perfect. Perhaps the Lord and Lady she had worked for had taught her, or perhaps his parents had assigned her a tutor to teach her proper etiquette. No, of course they had, they would never allow any member of their family to be mocked for not knowing how to eat politely. But that didn’t necessarily indicate whether she had known these things already…

He found himself thinking about what he’d do if he were to marry a commoner with no need for fancy manners or more than one kind of fork. He rather thought he’d prefer to teach her himself, and he tried to picture himself instructing some unknown girl. He didn’t spend long on it, however, because he had almost no interest in marriage, certainly not right now, and certainly not with a stranger.

Still, it was nice to see how the bride- and groom-to-be smiled brightly every time they looked at each other.

“Since you refuse to give a toast,” the Queen spoke cuttingly, looking at her second son, “how about you say a few words now.”

He had been planning to speak to the pair, without his parents present, and of his own accord give them his good wishes. Being called out like this made him seem reluctant to say anything to them, and was honestly little better than giving a speech in front of the entire wedding. He hadn’t wanted his words to be for show, and saying them at his mother’s prompting made it so much less sincere.

At this point, it would the height of rudeness to refuse again, so despite his annoyance, he took a moment to gather his thoughts and then smiled at the couple.

“Daisy, I can’t claim to know you well, but you are a kind girl. Thomas, I have known you far longer than I would wish on anyone, but it seems she enjoys your company.” Thomas chuckled, and their father smiled at this, but their mother frowned. This was why he hadn’t wanted to say it in front of her. She didn’t believe that humour excused rudeness. He ignored her and continued.

“I know that my brother cares for you, and will treat you well. I’m sure you will do the same, since Thomas is actually a pretty good judge of character. If he’s so smitten with you, I know it’s because you’re a great girl. I won’t say that I hope tomorrow is the happiest day of your lives; instead I hope that it’s the start of many happy days. I wish you both the very best.”

They both said words of thanks, but words were unnecessary. Their happiness and gratitude could be seen clearly in the smiles on their faces.