Lily pulled at the hem of her dress as she watched the carriage approach. Even from where she stood she could see that it was a fine, expensive carriage, but it didn’t look like the usual kind the royal family used. Not that she was much of an expert since she had only ever really seen them from a distance. Mimi had only called him a noble, and she hadn’t exactly asked for confirmation that he was the prince. Part of her wished she had since now she didn’t know whether she should curtsy or act as if he was just another kid from the nearby town.

Mimi placed a hand on her back and rubbed it soothingly. The tension in her body faded with each circle Mimi made. If she wasn’t supposed to know he was the prince, then she would act like she didn’t. If she got it wrong, at the very least they wouldn’t be too upset with her since she was a child.

The pale blue of the carriage came ever closer, but any nerves she had felt as she watched it were gone. She noticed a few armour clad men hanging a small way back from the carriage. It made sense that he wouldn’t have made the journey alone, but what were they going to do when he was here? Surely they weren’t intending on leaving him there without any protection.

The question was distracting enough that by the time she returned to her senses, the carriage had pulled up and a maid jumped out from the carriage. She stood on her tip-toes when she realised who the maid was. It took everything she had to stop herself from running and jumping into her mother’s arms. But she knew that she shouldn’t do that, not when she was working. Not too long after her mother emerged, so did her father. His stern expression softened ever so slightly when he looked at her but soon tensed back into a scowl.

“It is rude to keep a lady waiting, young master. Your father would be disappointed in your severe lack of manners.” Her father’s tone left little room for argument. She had never been able to say no to him when he spoke so harshly, and she felt more than a little sorry for the prince.

All of the servants surrounding the carriage stood to attention as the boy begrudgingly appeared. He glanced at Lily before turning his face away, his frown deepening with every second. When he looked up at her father, he huffed and marched forward.

“Good day, young man.” Mimi offered her hand, but the boy crossed his arms in an obvious gesture of displeasure.

“Young Master, you must greet your host.”

He glared at Mimi. “Good day, Madam.” His curt tone made the smile fall from Mimi’s face for a moment, but she recovered quickly.

Lily returned his glare when he fixed it on her. The golden thread in his black satin shirt caught her attention when the sun glinted off it. It had a complex pattern…and it wasn’t suitable at all for romping around the countryside. She must have stared for a little too long as the prince crossed his arms and turned his body away slightly. His slightly pink cheeks would be easy to miss if she weren’t so drawn to his piercing eyes. They were grey upon first glance, but she could see green in them too.

It was rude to stare so much, of course, but he wasn’t exactly being polite either. Mimi had tried to greet him as kindly as she did anyone, and he had the audacity to speak to her in such a rude tone. The silence could continue on forever as far as she cared.

“Perhaps you should introduce yourself,” her mother said as she stood behind the boy. Lily wasn’t sure which of them she was talking to, but the pleading look in her eyes was enough to push her into action.

With her best fake smile, she held her hand out for him to shake. “Good day, Young Master. My name is Liliana, but please just call me Lily.”

He huffed and dismissed her gesture as if she had just offered him some manure. “If your name is Liliana, then that is what I will call you.”

“And your name is?” She tapped the heel of her boot against the bucket behind her.

“‘Young Master is fine.”

Lily looked at her father with a blank expression. He didn’t even try to hide how entertaining he found everything. When her mother sighed, he cleared his throat and gestured towards the boy.

“Lily, this is Frederick. He’ll be in your care, so be sure to treat him well.”

Lily hummed thoughtfully. “Frederick…” A nice name. A good name. A name with all too many different ways to shorten. If he wasn’t going to respect her, then she certainly wasn’t going to give him much consideration either. “I’m looking forward to spending time with you Freddy Bear.”

He sputtered as he tried to find the right words to tell her exactly what he thought of that name. That made the effort of thinking of it all that much more rewarding. He looked at her parents as if asking for their help, but none of the adults present did anything to help him. Even Mimi didn’t scold her as she usually would for being rude to a person she had only just met.

“You are going to allow her to speak to me in such an overly familiar way?”

“As your father ordered, Young Master, she is to treat you as she would any other child her age.” Her father smiled broadly as he looked at her. “And it is very much in my daughter’s nature to treat others as they treat her.”

“So if you want her to call you by your preferred name, you’ll have to do the same to her.” Her mother sighed.

Frederick glared at Lily. With each inch his frown deepened her smile widened. She swung her arms at her side as she faced him waiting for him to give in. Perhaps he would get so frustrated he would make them take him home and she could go back to her normal life. He was exactly as unpleasant as she had expected him to be.

“Do not call me by that ridiculous name.”

Lily shrugged. “That depends on you, doesn’t it? I told you what I like to be called.”

He grumbled and ground his teeth together, but her stubbornness was equally matched. That was fine, her name wasn’t as bad as his stupid nickname. It was rather stupid of him to commit to being called that just so he didn’t have to back down. It was rather strange, though, how his feelings didn’t match his actions. He was shocked by the silly nickname, but what she felt from him at that moment wasn’t anger or annoyance - in fact, she expected him to burst out laughing.

“Come inside now, children. Or soon the neighbours will come to see what the problem is,” Mimi chuckled as Lily and Frederick glared at one another.

“You! Carry the Young Master’s things to his room. I would like to speak with my daughter for a moment.”

One of the men in armour moved quickly to carry Frederick’s things inside, and Mimi gently guided him to his temporary room. Lily looked up at her parents, her stomach twisting at the troubled expressions on their faces.

“Was I bad?” She shrunk into herself as she considered her behaviour. Of course, the prince had been rude himself, but she didn’t really need to behave like him.

“He needs to learn that he can’t speak to people that way, but you shouldn’t deliberately antagonise him either, Lily.” Her mother’s tone was sweet but firm. But most of all her words were fair.

“Frederick is a kind boy at heart, but he struggles to let people get close to him. His father is worried, so we suggested that he come here for a time. Your grandmother was thrilled that you might finally have someone to play with.”

Lily rubbed her arm as she considered him. If she had met him in town she wouldn’t approach him. His face was constantly scrunched up into a scowl, and he clearly didn’t like having to be in the company of peasants. And now she knew that he didn’t really want to be happy, or why else would he glare at her when he actually wanted to laugh? Whatever his father wanted from her was too much.

“I don’t think we’re going to get along…”

Her father sighed. “He can be quite difficult, but so can a certain daughter of mine. I know you can show him a good time if you set your mind to it.”

“And Frederick will come out of his shell eventually. He just needs ti-”

The door burst open, cutting off her mother’s words.

“This cannot stand! Nobody told me that I would have to share a room with her!”

“Is there a problem?” Her father asked plainly.

“I cannot be expected to share a room with her. Have her sleep in the barn, or have the old woman share with her instead.”

Frederick’s eyes darted between her parents as if frantic for them to do something. It wasn’t like she wanted to share a room with a boy either, but his reaction was too extreme.

“We’re only going to sleep there,” Lily scoffed. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with the arrangement either. More than anything, she didn’t want Mimi to hurt herself by trying to accommodate such a selfish brat.

“It is a problem. The room is too small, and I don’t want a stranger watching me sleep.”

Lily eyed him curiously. His fists were clenched tightly to the point his nails must have been painfully pushing into his skin. He bit his bottom lip as soon as it started to quiver, and the desperate look in his eyes as he begged her parents to change their sleeping arrangements made her stomach churn.

It wasn’t like there wasn’t somewhere else she could sleep. Mimi’s bed was big enough for two so long as she was careful, or she could sleep on the floor. She shook her head when she realised that she was allowing Frederick’s anxiety to influence her. His fear was strong enough that she was feeling it as if it were her own.

“I can-”

“No.” Her father said plainly before she could finish. “This is what your father has ordered, Master Frederick. The sleeping arrangements are not up for negotiation.”

“But-”

Frederick swallowed his words when her father narrowed his eyebrows. She had always been weak to his disapproval, so she felt just a little sorry for Frederick at that moment. Just a little.

Still, his reaction to their sleeping arrangements had made her a little hesitant to keep up her teasing at that moment. Something about his reaction made her think that he wasn’t upset that he was sharing a room, or that he was staying with a girl. In fact, it seemed to be a ridiculous overreaction to the situation. She didn’t pretend to understand how he was feeling about it other than being anxious for some reason. Maybe to a noble, even having to share a room was an ‘affront to his dignity’ or something. If so, they were worse than she thought, but at least at night, she promised herself that she would be on her best behaviour.