Why shouldn't she appear tired? She had eleven younger sisters all looking to her for guidance. She had taken her mother's place as the designated hostess for all social functions at the palace, and there had been a great many lately in the wake of the victory of Analousia. Just now there were three different foreign ambassadors at the palace, being wined and dined and hopefully signing lucrative trade agreements.
And almost every night there was the dancing.
There was always dancing after state dinners, and as the crown princess she was never "humiliated" by having to sit out a dance without a partner. King Gregor believed that an excess of revelry was unwholesome, however, so the dancing always ended promptly at eleven o'clock.
Which gave the twelve sisters just enough time to freshen up before they attended the Midnight Ball.(38)
Rose and her eleven younger sisters are cursed, and are not allowed to tell anyone about it. But every morning, the household discovers the girls tired from their nightly activities and all their dancing shoes worn out. The kingdom fears that the girls are cursed, especially after they all take ill and strange men come out of their mother's garden. After several princes fail to determine where the girls go, Galen the gardner's nephew vows to solve the mystery. In this reimagining of the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Jessica Day George weaves mystery and love into Princess of the Midnight Ball.
AMY
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