The Rumor MillSophia's POV

The morning after the ball, the castle woke up talking.

I heard it first from Elara, who heard it from the head laundress, who had it from one of the kitchen girls who had been serving wine in the ballroom and seen everything with her own two eyes. By the time the story reached me over my morning tea, it had already been told in no fewer than four variations, each one slightly more embellished than the last.

In the most popular version, the King had danced with his ...