“Her
shoes?” Robert asks.
“Yes,
her shoes,” the woman confirms, “And now the Nine Valleys have
been plunged into chaos because of them.”
“How
so?”
“When
she didn't appear at the Naming ball, the prince started to get a
little bit obsessed with them.”
“I'm
sorry,” Robert interrupts, confused, “I thought it was a Courting
Ball?”
“No,”
the woman replies, her patience starting to wear thin, “She was at
the Courting Ball. There's a second ball, held the night after the
Courting Ball, at which the prince announces which ladies he will be
courting.”
“Ladies?”
Robert asks, “He courts more than one?”
“For a
year, yes. And then after one year, there's the Betrothal Ball, at
which one lucky girl is finally selected.”
“So what
happened at the Naming Ball?”
“Nothing,”
she declares dismissively, “When she didn't show, the prince
cancelled it.”
