The Golden Princess (#4 in the GOLDEN series) ✔

•E L E V E N•

The longer Prudence stayed in hiding, the faster her tears spiraled out of her eyes. A dusty scent coated her nostrils and darkness weighed on her soul. She had no notion of where she'd ended up, but she prayed no one would come after her. She prayed her mother hadn't seen her enter this office or apartment, and would leave her to lick her wounds in peace.

There she was, concealed by obscurity, no inkling of what she was doing in this castle, in this city, in this country.

Giroma.

All her choices of late had come to smack her in the face. She'd abandoned the only place she'd ever known to voyage to a foreign land she'd recently learned was her true home. A place where'd she'd be a Princess by blood, not by marriage, as she would have been had she married Antoine. She'd sit by her brother, the King, and watch over Giroma. From now on, she'd be surrounded by overwhelming riches and dishes she was unfamiliar with and customs she had no clue of and people she wasn't sure she wished to meet.

She couldn't erase the vision of her mother from her mind. It had been like glancing into a mirror; Pauline was the spitting image of Prudence, with a few more wrinkles but the same eyes, the same figure, the same porcelain skin. She was beautiful, more beautiful than Prudence had anticipated. But her contagious warmth, her soothing tone, her comforting presence had all been too much to stomach.

Four days ago, Prudence was a Totresian mistress; now she had a brother, a mother, a dead father, and an entire staff dedicated to her and her well-being.

Wiping her dampened cheeks, she tried to squint across the area. Had she stepped into a closet? She sniffled, and as the sound echoed out ahead of her, she realized that this room was wide. Vast. A bedroom, perhaps? Another study?

She hunched over, peering through the obscurity, desperate to figure out where she was.

Clicking heels in the hallway roused her from her crumbled posture, and she arched her back against the wall, listening closely. She viewed a tiny light passing the door to her left, but it stopped, illuminating under the threshold.

No, please, do not come in.

"Prudence?" Pauline's voice, choked but soft, accompanied the torchlight. "Are you in here?"

Before Prudence could scream or slither off to find something to hide behind, the door creaked open. The royal woman crept in, clutching a candle in one hand, holding an edge of her dress in the other. She glimpsed straight ahead first, then swirled right, finding Prudence shivering against the wall, sucking in her belly as if to mold into the surface.

"Oh!" Pauline approached slowly, her heeled slippers cracking on the wooden floors. She lifted her torch to scan Prudence's face. "Why did you run?"

"Where... where am I?" Prudence's lower lip trembled, and she lowered her chin, hoping her mother hadn't noticed the wetness on her cheeks.