Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
She spoke no more for the sob that tore from my throat stopped her.
True turned me into his arms.
I pressed my face into his neck.
“It was a mistake, True,” Baldrick said hurriedly. “Too soon. We’ll take it away. We’re so very—”
“No. Nonononono,” I said urgently, and huskily, pulling my face out of True’s neck and turning to them. “No. Please, no.” I reached out to the female who had shrunk back. “I will receive it. With gladness. And carry it with me always, with love for my mother and appreciation to you for this show of such profound kindness to a stranger in your land.”
With a tremulous smile, the female placed the locket in my palm.
I closed my fingers around it instantly.
“We do not have a chain long enough for your neck,” she said quietly.
“I’ll get her one,” True replied.
Of course he would.
I lifted my fist clenched around the cool glass to my chest, my eyes still on the female, tears trailing my cheeks.
“I will treasure it,” I whispered. “Thank you.”
She had wet in her eyes too as she nodded and backed away.
“I hope this is indication,” Baldrick began gently, “of how sorry we were when we heard of your loss, Your Grace.”
I looked to him and nodded.
True tucked me closer to his side.
I pressed my hand harder to my chest.
“Thank you,” I repeated to Baldrick.
He smiled a smile of deep compassion.
“She would have liked you and your people,” I told him.
“She would have been welcome here,” he replied.
I tried to swallow the sob that came from that.
And I failed.
True turned me back into his arms.
After I got some control, I stammered into his chest, “I-I’m not b-being very p-p-princess-like.”
True did not respond.
Baldrick did.
“As far as I can see, you’re exhibiting traits that suggest you’ll be the finest princess this land has ever known.”
I peeked out from True’s chest and noted Baldrick’s expression shared he meant those words.
And as such, it made me continue weeping.
Prince True
The Doors, South Center of the Great Thicket Forest
WODELL
“She’s comely.”
“That she is,” True murmured to Baldrick with a smile aimed across the clearing to where Farah sat with three female gnomes shifting about her, working at weaving late-season forest blooms in her hair, the four of them amicably chatting.
“She feels deeply,” Baldrick went on.
“This she does,” True agreed.
“For you.”
He looked to Baldrick.
“I thought she’d walk right into a tree, so intent was she in watching you with your people,” Baldrick noted.
True had noted the same.
He had also noted the look on her face, as if he was some fantastical being beyond gnomes or pixies or fairies.
Beyond anything she’d seen.
He had never had anyone gaze at him like that, and he was a prince, for the gods’ sakes.
It gave him the most extraordinary feeling.
A feeling a hard kiss on the mouth with his men and two hundred gnomes in attendance meant he could not take said kiss where it needed to go to do that feeling justice.
“I cannot tell you, True, how happy I was to see you move over our roots with that woman at your side,” Baldrick declared.
“She’s magnificent, isn’t she?” True agreed, his attention drifting back to Farah. “She’ll make an excellent queen.”
“She’ll make an excellent wife.”
True again turned to Baldrick.
“I will tell you something I have desired to tell you for many years, my prince,” Baldrick continued. “With an amendment, for before, I wished to say you should seek this. But now, you have found it. Therefore, allow it to happen. Allow someone, finally, to look after you. You will never stop worrying about every soldier, their wives, their children. Every shepherd and head of sheep in their flock. Every pixie that grazes the surface of the Dellish rivers with their wings. This all too much to bear without someone at the end of the day to take some of the weight.”
“Farah has borne enough weight,” True returned.
Baldrick tipped his head sharply in Farah’s direction. “That one could hold a mountain high, and would, if she felt it would make it easier for you to pass through.”
True stared at the male.
“Do not underestimate her, True,” Baldrick warned. “Brix and Gal told me, they followed you for some time, and witnessed the beauty of her magic. They also reported to me why it came forth. This means she shares many a trait with you, my prince. She is at her happiest when she sees the ones she loves are happy. She is at her most powerful when she’s protecting the ones she loves from something that might cause harm. Stop treating her like the substance that holds the sand of her land and the dirt of ours in her veneration. She is not made of glass. She is far less fragile than you think. And you do her a disservice by giving her too much, and not allowing her to return it. Allow her to return it, True. Let her make you happy.”