I Love You, My Cursed Prince

"Are you frightened, Muriel?"

"I ... Madam?"

Princess Arya seemed completely content. There was nothing negative or hateful about her features. "There's no need to be so distraught. I'm not angry. My son is a sad little introvert. It's extremely difficult for any woman to use him to skip any rungs on the social ladder, and you haven't done anything of the sort. You're proper and dignified. You may accept this gift with no shame."

The princess reached over to Muriel's box and picked up the gem. It filled up her palm. Some of light shone through the stone and onto her flesh. "You should go to a sitting room," the princess advised, "one with a big window, and watch how it plays with light."

"I ... I'm still confused, Your Highness. I don't know why he would give me such an expensive thing."

"Expensive? Hm?" The princess blinked a few times.

Then, very loudly, uncaring about it, she knocked the gem onto the table a few times. Muriel flinched at each loud noise she made. Then the princess put her eyes to the stone again. "No scratches, no dents, no cracks, nothing but smooth faces and lovely light. This is a true, natural, hard stone. It must be expensive, as you've said." She held the stone out to Muriel.

Muriel's hands were trembling as she cradled the great thing.

"Perhaps," the princess said, "when I told my son that you seemed quite meager once you first came here, he thought to give you something you could use as a dowry."

Only some of Muriel's precariousness melted away. Her fingers closed over the gem. "A pity gift?"

"It would be wise to think of it as an act of kindness."

"Yes, Madam." Muriel put the stone back in its box.

Some minutes later, Muriel was in a sitting room, watching the stone glitter in the sunlight. The princess sat beside her, reading a novel.

"Your Highness?"

"Hm?"

Muriel tapped the dull point at the smaller end of her stone with her finger. "Is someone watching me?"

"Ah ... well ... you should assume so." She almost sounded nervous.

"Is someone watching you?"

"Can you imagine that I'd be fascinating enough to watch?" Now she sounded tired.

"Well, you certainly are quite a woman."

"So are you, Muriel."

The princess didn't want to talk. Muriel knew it. If she pushed any longer she might be scolded. "My mistress is very kind," she said as she c.a.r.e.s.sed her beautiful gemstone.

But Muriel thought she had an idea of who was watching her. What she didn't understand was how nor why.