‘Because apparently you don’t know how a young lady such as yourself ought to interact with her bodyguard, you won’t be seeing the squire again. In seven days, you will marry your fiancé and that is it!’

The king’s words still haunted Tiffany. Her father’s guard had escorted her to her room and locked the door behind her. They wanted her to calm down, but if anything, that only angered the princess more. This was why she took the chair from her vanity and stuck it under the doorknob. If she came back out of her room, it would be on her own terms. Not on the terms of some random guard, and definitely not on the terms of the king and queen.

Snowball yapped from where she sat on the foot end of Tiffany’s bed. The small dog had found her way back to Tiffany’s room for the night.

“Stupid parents, stupid Eugene… Stupid me…” the princess mumbled. She dragged her feet towards her bed and let herself fall face first onto the mattress. She laid her cheek against the covers and looked at Snowball. “I just kissed Noah, you know,” she told her dog. “It was pretty amazing. There was just something about it that was right. She’s always so kind and sweet and attentive. And I know it’s her job, kind of, but somehow it’s different when Noah does it compared to when Sir Lance does it.” She sighed as she came to a realization. “Maybe it’s because she’s in love with me…” Her voice trembled around a lump in her throat. “But maybe it’s because I’m in love with her.” Tiffany sobbed. “But now mother saw us kiss and now I’m not allowed to see her anymore and I have to marry Eugene next week and I don’t want that! I trusted him and he betrayed me and you don’t marry traitors!”

Snowball huffed.

“What was I supposed to do then? Betray him? Pot, meet kettle. Who knows what they’d do to him and James in Supricia if they found out. I don’t want to be part of that.” Tiffany tried to smile as the dog whined and placed her paw on Tiffany’s hand as if to reassure her, but her face wouldn’t cooperate. “Perhaps it’s better like this. I wouldn’t have been allowed to be involved with Noah anyway and now she can just move on without me.”

A furry ear perked into the air and Snowball sat up stock-still, glaring at the balcony doors. Not much later, there was a loud thud, followed by a pained groan. Snowball ran out through the curtains. Slowly and carefully, Tiffany followed her outside to investigate.

“Noah, are you out of your mind?!” Tiffany shouted as she tore the curtains open. There, on the balcony, she found Noah kneeling next to Snowball, who demanded to be pet. Or else.

“My parents will have someone kill you if they find out you were here!”

“Then don’t shout like that,” Noah hissed. Despite the circumstances, she seemed to be keeping a slightly more level head than Tiffany.

“Right. Yes. Exactly. Of course.” The princess took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself, but immediately started pacing back and forth on the balcony. “How are you this calm? Doesn’t all of this upset you? What if you have to leave the country?”

Noah frowned and her sad gaze turned to the ground. Her hand disappeared from Snowball’s furry coat before she stood up and looked Tiffany in the eye with her own blue, teary eyes.

“Slightly disappointed. Not upset,” she mumbled. She shook her head slowly. “From the second Lance introduced us to each other, I knew this was coming. This couldn’t last forever, Tiffany.”

“I knew it couldn’t last forever… it just didn’t last nearly long enough.”

Knocking sounded at Tiffany’s bedroom door. The princess turned around to answer, but Noah was too quick. She took her hand, pulled the princess in close and desperately pressed their lips together. It was small, short and loving, and yet the two of them were gasping for air by the end of it.