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Elizabeth risked a glance down. The distance to the ground looked bigger than she’d expected. If she had known that it wouldn’t have been as easy getting down from the tree as it was going up it, she’d have stayed on the ground.

Now she was stuck and to top it all off, she’d ripped her stocking. Her mum would be upset and she’d get scolded, but that was the last thing on her mind.

She sighed, wondering if anyone was going to come looking for her and thought about how she might have to live in the tree for the rest of her life.

Suddenly, a boy of about seven came around the corner. He was tired of being in the palace all day with his tutors. He wanted to explore a bit before it was time for the betrothal ceremony.

It didn’t take him long to see that the cream dress billowing in the afternoon wind did not belong to a bird, but to a small girl.

He paused for a moment, wondering what a girl was doing in a tree. None of the princesses he knew could climb a tree. Well, maybe except for his cousin Genevieve. She was the only girl he secretly thought was cool.

Elizabeth was so lost in thought, she almost didn’t hear the boy approach.

“What are you doing up there?”

She looked down with a blush, suddenly embarrassed to admit that she was stuck. She gave him a long complicated excuse about a bird.

He did not believe that, but nodded. If she wanted to stay in the tree, then he’d let her. He turned to leave.

Maybe he could find his older brother. He frowned, knowing that CaVaughn was probably training as usual. Would it kill him to have some fun with him once in a while? Whenever he saw him, his expression made it seem like he was in pain. His brother probably hated him.

“Wait!” Elizabeth shouted before he could go. She paused, then said softly, “Maybe I am a little bit stuck.”

“So you do need my help,” he smirked.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Forget it.”

He grinned and went back over to where she was. “Don’t worry. I’ll help you get down.”

And he did. Somehow he’d managed to talk her through the steps of getting back down to Earth.

“Thank you,” she said.

Elizabeth glanced at her wrist and gasped. She dropped down on all fours, anxiously patting down the grass. “My bracelet… It’s gone!”

The boy watched her for a moment and then got down on the ground too. She was going to get her dress dirty if she continued doing things like this.

After a minute, he found the bracelet concealed by a few fallen leaves. “Here it is,” he said, picking it up.

Elizabeth heaved a sigh of relief, took the bracelet and put it on. He mentioned that it was way bigger than her wrist and would probably fall off again. Elizabeth explained to him that it was her mum’s and that she’d lent it to her for the day. She smiled lovingly at the bracelet.

“What’s your name?” he asked, still curious about the identity of the tree climbing girl.

“Elizabeth,” she answered with a smile. “I’m from Meryllia.”

So she was not from this kingdom.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Don’t you know who I am?” he asked surprised.

Elizabeth shook her head.

“I am Prince Ashton,” he informed her proudly.

Elizabeth stared at him. So he was the prince her mum had talked about last night. Ashton stared back at her. Elizabeth from Meryllia… Perhaps this was the girl his father had told him about.

“So you’re the one I’m supposed to be betrothed to,” he grinned.

“Betrothed?” Elizabeth muttered. “What does that mean?”

“It means that when we get older, we’ll get married to each other,” he stated. “And then you’ll move into the palace and live with my family.”

Elizabeth crinkled her nose at the prince’s definition.

“Ew.”

“Ew?”

“I don’t want to marry you! Boys have cooties!”

“No, we don’t,” Ashton protested, shocked at the sudden allegation.

“Yes, you do.” Elizabeth crossed her arms.

“Well princes don’t.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded.

“But I want to be a heart doctor,” Elizabeth told him. “I need to help my mum because she says her heart hurts.”

“You can be both,” Ashton suggested. “You can be a princess who’s a doctor.”

Elizabeth considered this, but she had another pressing concern.

“I want to marry Prince Charming from Cinderella,” she explained “And you’re not Prince Charming.”

“You can’t marry him because he doesn’t exist,” Ashton sighed.

Elizabeth pouted, still wishing Prince Charming was real. “Fine,” she agreed. “I’ll marry you, but only if I get my own horse.”

“A horse?”

Elizabeth had always wanted a horse, like the ones in the bedtime stories her mum read to her every night. Ashton considered it a very strange request, but he thought she was an interesting girl. He grinned.

“Okay. I’ll make sure you get your own horse.”

“Then I’ll marry you and we’ll live happily ever after forever. I promise,” Elizabeth grinned, extending her pinkie finger to Ashton.

He linked his finger with hers. “I promise too.”

Ashton smiled at her, happy to have made a new friend. He wasn’t allowed to hang out with most of the other kids his age. Living in the palace was lonely. Now he couldn’t wait to see how lively things would get with this girl who was not afraid to climb a tree and wanted a horse.

Their fun was short lived as a plump, round woman came up to them in a hurry. Her gaze landed on Prince Ashton, who was sitting beside Elizabeth under the tree. And in that expensive suit!

“Prince Ashton, His Majesty is requesting you immediately. It is almost time to sign the betrothal contracts.”

Ashton sighed and waved goodbye to Elizabeth as he left. He would see her again in the betrothal ceremony at least.

“Elizabeth!”

“Mum!”

Elizabeth ran into the arms of her mother, Isabelle, who had been searching for her for the past fifteen minutes.

“I was so worried, Elizabeth. Why did you run off like that?”

Without waiting for a response, she turned Elizabeth around, dusting her dress off and fussing over her torn stocking. Elizabeth smiled sheepishly at her mum, who smiled back despite herself.

The woman who had ushered Ashton inside, watched them with a deepening frown.

“The royal family must be out of their minds to have a commoner from Meryllia marry the young prince,” she commented drily.

Isabelle ignored her and lifted Elizabeth up. She didn’t need this woman’s negativity around her child. She had not agreed to the betrothal. That atrocious king was forcing this on her and her daughter.

Upset that her words had received no reaction from Isabelle, the woman muttered, just loud enough for her to hear, “You can’t even keep an eye on your own daughter. But that’s to be expected of a woman who doesn’t even know who the father of her child is.”

Isabella tensed and pressed Elizabeth’s head against her chest so she couldn’t hear what the woman was saying. She had been thinking about this long and hard and in that moment, she decided to take Elizabeth far away from Crysauralia.

Surrounded by people like this, her precious daughter would grow up unhappy and unwelcome. Screw the king and his plans. She wasn’t going to let them decide Elizabeth’s future. She would take Elizabeth and escape.

Little did she know, that the king was watching her every move.

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