“I tried talking father into letting me visit you these last few days since your return, but he refused. He said it would be all the better when I did get to see you, and he was right. Only I didn’t exactly obey his command.”

“What do you mean?” She turned to look at me and the nervousness I’d first seen in her eyes on the steps was fading away.

Although I’d accepted father’s reasoning that we’d already broken with protocol in many ways where my Princess ...