John sprawled on the couch in the royal quarters and watched the princess pace. The king and queen had gone out for a ride leaving the pair of them alone. If she didn’t calm down she was going to wear a hole in an expensive rug.

He’d been in the capital for over a month now and all he’d accomplished was healing the occasional overzealous guard injured in training. Most of his time seemed to be spent listening to Karrie plot how to get Damien to marry her. She’d considered dozens of plans, each more farfetched than the last. John was so thoroughly sick of it he was tempted to ask for a transfer back to his old post where he could do something useful. At least holed up in the royal apartment he hadn’t run into anyone looking for favors.

Finally she stopped and rounded on him in a swirl of blue skirts. “You’re his best friend. Don’t you have any ideas how I can convince him that loving a sword is stupid?”

John scrubbed his hand over his face. How many times was he going to have to explain this? “It’s not the sword, it’s the spirit bound to the sword. And I can guarantee you the one thing that would make Damien never speak to you again is telling him loving Lizzy is stupid. You know, instead of trying to trick, seduce, or otherwise force him to like you, you might try doing something nice for him without expecting anything in return.”

She frowned as though the idea had never crossed her mind. Knowing Karrie it probably hadn’t. “Like what?”

“Damien’s name day was a couple days ago. You could throw him a late party after he finishes his mission. Get Jen and Fredric to come. Fix a nice dinner, maybe a cake. Hell, I don’t know. If nothing else we’ll have a good meal.”

The princess started pacing again. “A name day party. That might work. It’ll show him I care. That I can do things for him that some stupid sword can’t. John, it’s brilliant. But how will I know when to plan for?”

“Can’t help you there. It’s not like a mission has an end day. You should probably ask Jen and Fredric to come now, that way whenever Damien gets back you could have the party the next day.”

Karrie smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “This might be just the thing to convince him to consider me. Things are finally looking up.”