Page 46 of Of Brides Of Queens

The princess froze.

I drew back my hand. “Goodness, I apologize. Was it my touch?”

The princess wobbled upright. “No, not at all.”

“Princess, are you sure? You are not yourself. I apologize sincerely if I have caused distress.”

“All is well! I—I must go. I?—”

She blinked away, and I shot to my feet. “Princess Bring, wait!”

My, but she could blink quickly. She was blocks away in the space of twenty seconds.

“I’m… sorry,” I whispered, lowering my hand that hung outstretched.

I sat heavily. “Drat.”

A simple touch had caused her to flee. I’d done so instinctively without a care about how she might have felt. If I hadstopped to think, then I might’ve considered that a long, long time had likely passed since anyone had touched Princess Bring, even in a friendly way. Princes would not take such liberties with their princess. King Bring did not. Who else remained to touch a princess?

My simple touch might have felt large and foreign indeed.

“Bother.” I pulled a face that I felt in every stitch of my face. “Bother, bother, bother. I have crossed a boundary this evening.”

I must send her a letter of explanation.

I rushed for the stairs but wrenched to a halt at a twinkle in thyme. Bending, I picked up the twinkle in my conservatory entrance.

A necklace.

Slime covered the jewelry and spoke of its ownership. This necklace must have ripped off the princess as she hastened to be gone from my company.

The pearls were black and gray and shimmering and…

“Wonder has me in itsclaws,” I said breathlessly.

I could not move my sights from the necklace. The pearls were exquisite and untold, and I was different and changed for seeing and holding them. These prized pearls.

This one-of-a-kind necklace for a princess.

Not mine.

Mine.

My, but the sight of them pounded my heart in a strong, loud, and altogether bizarre way. And why should I feel so poundingly affected by these black pearls?

I inhaled as though bursting through water’s surface for life-giving breath. I had been many things in my life, but a thief never. A thief I would become tonight because I would never,neverbe parted from this necklace. I clutched the slimy pearls tight in my hand as though they might save me from a terrible fate.

I couldn’t speak for the nonsense and surety of the shift in my character and ideals.

Princess Bring was my friend, or on the way to be if she could forgive a thoughtless touch. I should not steal from her. I should return these pearls because if she wore this under her cloak to visit a queen, then the necklace must mean a great deal to her.

I should, I should, I should. I should do any number of things.

But I would not.

I would not.

Ever.

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