Alexander had trusted me with many details of all that. I had to trust that everything would turn out well, on every level.
“Do you feel like running away?” he asked me, joking.
“I don’t think I could get very far running,” I answered in the same tone, pointing at the window and the snow outside.
“Han…”
“It’s nothing.” I turned to look at him with a smile and searched blindly for a change of underwear in a drawer of the dressing room. “Isn’t it normal to be nervous? I’m going to stand before royalty and let them examine me, practically… I think I have the right to feel a few butterflies in my stomach. Don’t worry. Just don’t leave me alone with them, and it’ll be fine.”
“I’m not going to leave you alone,” he promised, and stepped closer to me. I let myself be hugged; the cold of the d
