With Froglip back at the dining table with the rest of the goblins, Irenie had a second to breathe.

"Well, at least you won't have to worry about him coming back," Curdie said.

Irenie looked up to see Froglip had joined the other goblins, stuffing small shrimp into his mouth, twenty at a time. She looked back at Curdie and they laughed together, before a servant came rushing past with a silver serving tray.

Hesitantly, the servant placed more shrimp on the table as Froglip retrieved a small shining pebble from his minions. 

"Ex'thelent, thun thervant."

The Prince threw pebble at the servant and Irenie's mouth dropped open when the servant rushed passed with it.

A diamond.

Curdie's eyes were even wider and his mouth dropped in fury. "Did you see that slimy bastard? He gave you a rock and threw a diamond the size of a walnut at the head of a footman?"

Curdie's eyes were blazing with rage as he clenched Prince Froglip's gift, which, to Irenie, looked like he was going to chuck at the goblin's head.

Word travelled impossibly quickly over the hall as Froglip continued to hurl more diamonds at the heads of more servants who rushed to get whatever it was he had shouted at them.

The whispering continued as Lady Ophelia walked toward the princess and her knight, a perplexed look on her face. Instead of blue sapphires, she was now dressed in extravagant pale-gold silk that glittered coldly against her sun-kissed skin. A tiara was embedded in the blonde curls that had been piled on top of her head and glinted when she shook it. "You would not believe the strangest piece of gossip I just heard..."

"Did it sound like someone was throwing diamonds in the great hall?" Curdie asked Ophelia, only affording her a side glance as he continued to frown at the goblin prince.

"So it isn't just gossip then! Do tell, Irenie, whose this new arrival?" Ophelia asked interestedly fanning herself with decorative fan the same colour as her dress. "I rather like their style."

Curdie's frown turned up into a snobbish smirk and he slid himself beside Ophelia before he gently maneuvered her shoulders. This way she could see first hand the goblins who had gone unnoticed in the background.

"Ophelia, meet Froglip, Prince of the goblins." Ophelia's brown eyes widened as Curdie continued to smirk. "Oh, he's the one bent over the table devouring all the food. Pink hair, broken nose, you can't miss him."

Ophelia's mouth opened and closed quickly, gasping like a fish.

However, when Irenie saw the opportunity to finally encourage some mingling between the humans and goblins, she leapt at it.

"Well, I imagine he's only half as boorish as Sir Cadence was, Olly," the princess said with a laugh as she nudged her friend.

"And certainly no uglier than Prince Bertram of Balter and yet I still managed to hold his arm through his sister's coronation." Ophelia snickered back. 

It earned an unhappy frown from Curdie.

"I bet you won't be able to stand the goblin's presence for more than a second." Curdie sniffed in Froglip's direction with narrow eyes before they went back to Ophelia. "But you want to go over there and hold his arm, go right ahead, he is a prince after all. He's got so much in common with all the other men you like. I'm sure you'll get along swell."

Ophelia Estrild looked back at the goblin party, tucked her chin down and batted her dark eye lashes. "You know, you're right Curdie Peterson, and this is just the challenge I was looking for."

She wrinkled her nose with one last silent laugh and with the flick of her blond curls, marched right over to the goblins as the rest of the hall watched in astonishment.

The Lady Ophelia never backed down from a challenge. And it was good for Irenie's party. If one of the Estrilds was talking to a goblin, it would soon become a fashion statement and the rest would follow suit.

Irenie clapped her friend's shoulder to console him and watched the interaction.