“No.” There wasn’t any use in lying, not with Ivan not so far off . “I just…I was enjoying myself. I wasn’t thinking about comporting myself. It was just nice to be out of the palace.” All of which was true. She just wouldn’t bring Nikolai into the picture.
“I didn’t expect to be caught.” Also true. “I thought I would have time before dinner to bathe and change. But the horse ride…it was a reward. I’ve been studying hard.” She hadn’t been lying either when she told Fedyor that she’d been working to control three balls of light. Now was the chance to redirect the conversation away from her appearance.
One hand rose, three balls of light appearing and circling one another. With a bit of concentration, she could send each moving independently around the room until she finally let her control drop, the light disappearing as she looked to Kirigan. It was all too easy to falll back into the pattern of looking for his approval. But she had a part to play, after all.