I could already feel the stares on the princess and I when we stepped out of the carriage with a few guards surrounding us. It wasn’t like either of us wanted to take the guards with us, but as soon as we had gone to the castle’s main doorways, we were met with an entire carriage and a few armed men.

The Queen had ordered them to escort the princess to and from the castle, as if she didn’t have enough faith in her. This irked me but strangely, the princess behaved indifferently to it all as she silently boarded the carriage.

Which is how we got to the gardens without any problems, well, except for the multiple eyes staring down at us before and after we got down from the carriage.

The gardens weren’t fancy or regal, but they were heavily protected with stone walls separating them from the neighborhoods. There were four gates which could be used to access the gardens, and there were several keepers or gardeners, who lived on the land to look after all the trees.

Each keeper had the responsibility to care for 20 trees, and there were more than a thousand trees there.

Naja was famous for its oranges and tangerines anyway. A feat which the current King’s forefather achieved by planting several seeds he had obtained from a longtime friend of his. Oddly, he didn’t know those seeds were for various kinds of oranges since the King’s side of the family had always hated them for some reason.

All of it was fascinating yet also funny to me since the princess liked oranges while the prince didn’t which was the perfect example of continuing the male tradition of the King’s family.

But while Naja had an abundance of fruit, the only problem was that you could only sell so much fruit. There was nothing else special about the kingdom. We didn’t have the greatest army; we didn’t have any minerals; and most of all, we didn’t have any friends.

The last problem was due to the Queen herself, who would dislike anyone she met. Unsurprisingly, no one liked her after meeting her either. So, there was that.

“Your Highness.” I blinked when a man approached us from the nearest keeper house we had stopped at. He wasn’t one of the keepers who had been the ones to scream of a thief when the princess had been there before. But the man still held some hostility towards her, and I could tell from his half-hearted bow, and indifferent expression.

“May I be allowed to ask the princess’ reason for coming so far from the castle?”

A few guards came to stand near the princess in a protective manner as the keeper glanced around us subtly with his head still bowed. It felt suffocating, but thankfully, I wasn’t the one being overprotected.

“I came to help you in the pickings today.”

The man raised his head to look at the princess properly before glancing to me. “I came from my own violation since I deeply regretted causing you trouble here. It was not my intention to steal.” I would’ve rolled my eyes if I wasn’t in such a position. I represented the princess now, and it was my task to be as calm and collected as possible.

Each action required a thorough check before letting the princess go through with it.

Her reputation had to be restored, and I was going to help her do it.

“We just require baskets and proper guidance from you on which ones to pick out.” I mumbled near the princess’ ears so as not to be heard by the guards or the keeper. The blonde princess glanced in my direction before she smiled at the man and repeated my words.

Finally, the man stopped looking at the princess apprehensively as he nodded his head. “Yes, your Highness.”

While the man turned to go towards the keeper house, the princess addressed the guards suddenly. I frowned when I heard her speak. “You all are to stand by the carriage. I don’t want you to crowd around me everywhere.”

“But your Highness --”

“You included.” My frown deepened as I shook my head. There was no way I was going to let her be alone amongst these large trees. It wasn’t like I didn’t trust her (I didn’t), but I didn’t want something to actually happen to her when I wasn’t around.

“I will help you out as well.” She narrowed her eyes at me as the guards bowed their heads and immediately listened to the princess’ commands, choosing not to disobey her blatantly just like me. I stayed beside her staring right back, and that was something she didn’t appreciate at all.

“And why would you want to do that when you haven’t done anything wrong?”

The answer was on the tip of my tongue since I knew that the princess’ entire situation had been because of me. “It was because of me that you were brandished as a thief.” Yes, I made her into a thief, and it clearly wasn’t because she was stealing a bunch of fruits, she could easily afford herself!

While my sarcastic thought had been just that – a thought, my verbal answer had been greatly appreciated by the princess as she nodded her head and smiled. “Yes, you deserve as much punishment as I do.”

Going along with it now, the princess walked further inside the gardens as she looked around the trees with great interest. She looked kind of satisfied with the whole ordeal, so I went along with it as well – smiling lightly at how easy it was, to coax her.

The keeper had been quick to bring us the baskets as he pointed over to the trees which were ready to be picked. “Ignore the clementines, your Highness. They aren’t ripe yet. The clementines are--”

“The small ones.”

I stared at the princess as she remained looking around at the trees with clear knowledge. The keeper even watched her with surprise. “Yes.” He replied after a while as he backed away good-naturedly.

Seeing how there were no further instructions from the man, the princess smiled widely and immediately went to work. I frowned at her enthusiasm, unable to comprehend what had made her so excited. But then again, she had also come to pick fruits out of her own violation before. 

“I don’t see you getting to work.” My eyes widened when she looked back at me with narrowed eyes. Quickly going over to the tree she was already picking from, I picked up one of the wicker baskets from beside her and began grabbing at the ripe oranges.

The thing about tasks like this was how uninteresting they were. You just had to do one action repeatedly for whoever knew how long. There was nothing that could make this any more of a punishment than it already was. But somehow, the princess didn’t look the least bit bored.

Despite just beginning the work, the princess had already filled up a little of her basket while I just had two sad looking tangerines in mine.

“Do you like picking oranges?” I leaned in to whisper to the Queen even though we were the only ones there. Jolting a little, the blonde royal glared at me from over her shoulder before she nodded. “I do this every other week.”

My eyes widened as I glanced around us, double checking if the keeper was still around or not. “You mean to say you steal every week?” The princess’ eyebrows knitted together as she looked at me for a while before speaking. “You’ve gotten quite the disrespectful tone in your voice now.”

This felt like one of the princess’ habits – bringing in respect whenever she felt uncomfortable.

Bowing my head, I apologized sincerely before going back to the task at hand. But while our conversation had ended, and I moved to another tree to maintain a respectable distance between us – the princess walked over to me. “If I said I borrowed the fruit, would that be believable?”

A chuckle escaped my lips even when I tried to control it. So, she did steal every other week. It made sense since she had disappeared so suddenly back then too. Perhaps she had a secret way out of the gardens as well.

“Did the princess sell the fruit to other people after borrowing it?”

An offensive glint flashed in her eyes before it disappeared, and she shook her head immediately. “I-I am not like that!”

Somehow, I believed her since she looked upset after her sudden outburst. Her eyes also had clear conviction in them. “You believe me, don’t you?” Despite any of the words I had prepared to speak, I nodded my head silently.

She looked down in her almost full basket as she smiled. “The castle is always boring, and this only brings me a little joy whenever I’m in low spirits.” One of my eyebrows raised in questions since I didn’t know what she was mentioning. What made her joyful?

Before I could voice out my question, she looked at me and remained smiling. “I really like children, Elena. There’s something disarming about them that has me pouring my heart out for them.”

Alright, that was an odd and surprising confession. She didn’t seem like a person to like the company of children. But while I wondered, she remained speaking with excitement in her tone, which shone in her eyes brightly. “There’s this orphanage on the way to the castle. It’s nothing spectacular but the children there are so lively and energetic! It always makes me feel better when I visit them. They never seem to expect anything, just some attention and care.”

It didn’t take me long to piece it all together as I heard her words and remembered what she had spoken at the dinner table. She mentioned an orphanage back then as well, and now she was confessing to adoring children.

It was somewhat attractive how she went to steal fruits to go distribute in an orphanage. It was endearing somehow, and it elevated her impression to me further.

“But why does the princess have to borrow when she can just buy the fruits?”

A look of resignation crossed her eyes as she shook her head. “The gardens are under my brother’s jurisdiction, and nothing escapes his eye. Well, I could escape his eyes before, but then someone told on me.”

I frowned not because of how she had mentioned my one decision which wasn’t in her favor, but because of what she had mentioned about the prince.

“But why wouldn’t the prince let you buy a basket of fruits?” It seemed a little difficult to believe since there was no harm in purchasing a basket of oranges. Fruit was cheap for the citizens either way, and her being the princess would also give her more discounts if she came here with a crown on her head instead of a hood, looking the part of a thief as well.

The princess sighed before she shook her head again. “Even when he has everything, he still wants to have more.” My frown remained in place as she placed her now full basket down and pulled on my arm, taking us further in the midst of the trees. “You might know that I don’t get an income like how my brother does from our parents.”

Seeing how she was discussing such matters with me without any reservations, I looked around once more and leaned forward so that she wouldn’t have to speak any louder.

It felt like we were two older women gossiping about a neighborhood strife, the way we were huddled up together.

“When I took up the matter, of providing free tangerines to the orphanage, to my brother, he told me that it would harm the economy of the Kingdom.” The way she rolled her eyes after finishing her sentence had me smiling, but this matter was serious since I had never heard of this before. I had to talk to Oanez about it.

The prince didn’t seem like a person to be stingy about a basket of oranges going to an orphanage once a week. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of trees in Naja’s gardens, and oranges were an ever-growing fruit. It didn’t make sense.

But while I was thinking of my own next actions for this matter, the princess shook my arm, grabbing my attention. “What are you thinking about, Elena?”

The way she said my name while we were in close proximity, had warning bells ringing in my head. Thinking of the prince was a secondary task. Putting some distance between the princess and myself was the primary objective.

Even with her eyes fixated on me, and my own name in her voice circulating in my head – I was able to think of a way to settle this matter without having to call out the prince or bring up whatever it is he had denied the princess.

But first, I had to talk to Oanez about it.

“I was thinking of a way to give us an opportunity to leave the castle every week without opposition and for you to bring over a basket or even several baskets to the orphanage.”

Her eyebrow rose in surprise as I tried not to heat up under her gaze. I had to control my growing adoration for the princess before it became self-destructive.

“How are you going to do that then?”

Shaking my head to bring myself back to the current situation, I tried to smile reassuringly. “You are going to do it, your Highness, and you’re going to make it look like you’ve never borrowed oranges before that one time.”

The princess frowned at my words but nodded her head regardless. I could see the clear hesitation in her eyes, but I knew she believed me either way.

“L-Let’s get back to our task now, your Highness.” I turned around to go back to the tree I was picking from, but a hand on my arm halted me entirely. “You can call me by my name, you know.”

My eyes widened at the permission as I looked back at her. It didn’t make anything better that her cheeks were dark while she looked away from me. “Of course, when no one is around! Don’t be disrespectful when we have people with us!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as she walked away after saying all that.

Perhaps, she wasn’t as identical to her mother as I had thought at first.