Her statement was followed by a stretched-thin quiet, before Mary Ann turned her head and gave Cath’s hand a gentle squeeze. ‘It may be true that you can’t be a baker and a lady, or a baker and a queen . . . but there is no rule that you can’t be a baker and a wife. If you truly are fond of the Joker, perhaps it isn’t so hopeless after all.’ Her brows furrowed. ‘That is . . . if he would still want you, if you were no longer the heir to Rock Turtle Cove.’

‘For shame, Mary Ann! Do you mean to say that his interest could lie more in my dowry and title, when I’m so utterly charming?’ Cath said it as a joke, though there was also a sting of naïveté in the back of her thoughts. How had it not occurred to her that her family’s wealth could, indeed, be his motivation?

No, she couldn’t believe it. He seemed to like her. Truly, honestly like her. He had even implied that she could be reason enough for him to stay in Hearts . . . but he also knew she was being courted by His Majesty. He knew there were people who believed she was going to be the next Queen of Hearts.

And still he had dared to ask to see her again.

Did he want her, or did he want something from her?

She shook her head, shoving the thoughts away. Jest had shared a great secret with her. What reason did she have to doubt him?

‘I mean to say,’ amended Mary Ann, ‘that I do not know him. And despite how willingly you’ve gone gallivanting about with him after dark, I am not convinced that you know him, either.’

Cath hummed, thinking of the dream. His dimpled smile, receding further and further away. The hollowness in her chest. Her hands reaching after him, trying to take back what he had stolen, but he was always out of reach.

‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I suppose I don’t know him very well at

all.’

A Joker. A Rook. A mystery.

Perhaps she didn’t know him, but she was more certain than ever that she desperately wanted to.

CHAPTER 23

THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED were among the most torturous Cath had ever known.

It became habit to check her window for white roses and peer into the tree boughs for black ravens, but there was no sign of Jest or his companion. Jest did not try to steal her away for another midnight rendezvous. Nor did he come to her door and ask to speak to her father and make a case for why he should be allowed to court her.

Which was, of course, a good thing – practically speaking. And yet she couldn’t stopper the fantasies of him doing just that, and her father somehow, miraculously, impossibly agreeing to it.

The King’s courtship, on the other hand, had begun in earnest, and the courtship meant constant nagging from her mother. Why hadn’t His Majesty invited Catherine to another gathering? Why wasn’t Catherine doing more to put herself in his path? When was he going to propose? What flowers should they choose for the bridal bouquet? On and on and on.

‘Another delivery for Lady Catherine,’ said Mr Penguin. Their butler was dwarfed by a humongous flower arrangement, with only his webbed feet and black coat-tails visible beneath.

Cath sighed and set down the book she’d been reading. A week ago she would have looked at the flowers with hope – were they from Jest? Was he thinking about her half as much as she was thinking about him?

But the gifts never were from Jest, and one look at the bouquet of red roses, red carnations, and red dahlias confirmed that this was another gift from her doting suitor.

Their courtship, thus far, had been undemanding, though mostly because Cath was avoiding him. She had dismissed a number of requests for chaperoned walks through the palace gardens, trips to the opera, and invitations to tea. As far as the King knew, she had been afflicted with a week-long headache, and she was hoping he would soon deem her too sickly to pursue further.

Her beau (as her mother called him) had made up for their lack of companionship through a constant stream of gifts. Each one filled Catherine with dread, knowing the King could not have bestowed such generosity on anyone less grateful. Her mother, on the other hand, was delighted with each delivery.

She received cakes and pies and tarts from the palace pastry chefs, and Cath did her best not to be too critical of them . . . on the rare occasions when her mother actually let her sample the desserts at all. She received diamond earrings and ruby brooches and golden pendants, all decorated with the crown’s signature hearts, as if the King’s intentions weren’t obvious enough. She received fine silk gloves and music boxes and even a curled lock of prickly white hair tied with a red velvet ribbon. That particularly appalling gift had even come with a poem:

Roses are red, violets are blue,

I would even trim my moustache for you!

She had memorized the short stanza against her will and the words had nauseated her on multiple occasions since.

Worst of all were the gifts beneath which she could envision Jest’s involvement. The occasional poem that warmed her soul. The letters that touched her on a deeper level. The words that she could imagine uttered in Jest’s voice, perhaps even penned by his hand . . . yet always, at their end, signed by the King.

She knew the King was seeking Jest’s advice on this courtship and each of these cards was a needle in her heart. She found herself poring over those words, imagining Jest crafting them with her in mind, and pretended that he meant every word.

A painful, bittersweet reality. Jest was wooing her, but only in the name of the King.

‘Our house is beginning to smell like a florist,’ she muttered, taking the linen card out of the newest bouquet.