It had been half a year, but the palace hadn't changed. Some of the staff even seemed to recognize Maria, some smiling at her, some looking with disapproval.
She tried to focus on the good parts, on the smiles and on seeing Gwen again, not on the frowns, the secrets and the dangers that she was now exposed to again. And keeping it all secret from somebody Gwen now shared a bed with, Maria didn't want to think about it. She would have to soon enough.
Like on her first day as Maid in Waiting she approached the guards in front of the princesses chambers.
"Lady Maria of Heartwood, I am here to see Princess Gwenewith of Stonewall."
"She is waiting for you," said the guard and opened the door for her.
It looked the same. It felt the same. It even smelled the same, of flowers and Gwens perfume. And as Maria had barely finished this thought there was Gwen, running and jumping in her arms.
"I missed you so much!"
"I missed you more! How have you been? How are the others? How did you even manage to do all that, and how long do we have until your husband returns?"
"Oh, him?" Both of them tore away from each other as they tried to gather them selves. "It will be a while I think. He is of somewhere fooling around with his secretary."
"Oh, okay. Wait. Wait do you mean?"
"That he prefers man over women and especially over me? Yes I do." Gwen almost had to laugh and Maria couldn't stop herself from laughing to.
"But how did you even do that?"
"It was surprisingly easy. It was much harder to overthrow my father."
"What? You... I thought that was your brother?"
"Yea, he helped to. But it was mostly Charlotte, Lillian, Francesca and me. I didn't want to tell you in a letter because it was all not really secure until it had actually happened and then I didn't want to risk to blow our cover."
"But... did you do that for me?"
"Actually I would have said I did it for me. So that I could be with the girl I love."
"You are amazing, and... I think I need to sit down to process all that. So does he know about us?"
"Yes, and he is fine with it as long as we keep his secret too."
"So we don't need to hide?"
"Not more than usual."
"I... oh my god. Oh my god, Gwen!" Despite just having sat down Maria got up again to hug Gwen. "I love you. I love you I love you I love you and I never ever want to be away from you again. Do you understand?"
"I feel the same way, Maria, my dearest mot loved Maria. I love you so incredibly much that it hurts."
Still the hug needed to end, and there was an awkward silence between them.
"What do we do now?" Maria asked finally.
"I don't know. I think we never managed to have you sing to me playing piano. I still have the sheet music. What do you say?"
"You know that I never say no to you."