We walked off the stage together towards the palace—I was practically skipping. We entered through the glass doors, and Queen Klara turned around sharply to face us (King Collin turned as well).

"Well," she started. "You two may do whatever you please for the next two hours. I will see you both at the banquet tonight." She whipped back around, but Prince Nikolas interrupted her.

"Queen Klara?" He began.

Her shoulders heaved with a deep breath before she turned again. "Yes, Nikolas?"

I was sure that her future son-in-law's presence was the only thing saving me from her wrath.

"Well, as you know, I have never done this before. Coleman has always been the Prince for the day. What is it exactly that we should do?" He queried.

"Whatever you want, dear. You can explore the grounds, play the piano, ride horses. Whatever you can think of," she answered.

"Okay. Thank you," he said.

"Of course. Now have fun you two," she said with no real meaning behind the words. She took her husband's arm and walked down the hall away from us until they turned the corner. As I stood there holding Prince Nikolas's arm, I suddenly remembered why I had wanted to choose Prince Coleman.

Prince Nikolas was freaking boring! I just wanted to annoy Coleman—I didn't want to have to be stuck with his royal stick-in-the-mud all day! Maybe I should have chosen someone else. Maybe Mercucio? He seemed like a fun dude.

What was I supposed to do with Prince Nikolas for two hours?

I thought back to Monday when I was a sort-of-translator for the Prince for the first day of the festival. I mean, we just mostly walked around in silence and it was super boring, but I did survive.

"Cassie?" Prince Nikolas's thick accent brought me back to the uncomfortable present.

"Yes?" I asked.

He started leading me down the hall as he spoke. "What did Coleman look like when you chose me to be your Prince for the day?"

I grinned. "I'm not going to lie, his face was priceless."

"I am sure it was," he said, turning the corner. "I suppose a reenactment will have to suffice. I am quite intrigued to know what he looked like."

"You want me to reenact his face?" I laughed.

"When we get to the piano room, you can show me. We can talk more on the matter at that point in time."

As we walked silently, the first maid I passed was none other than Sherry who was carrying a bundle of silk spools that she promptly dropped along with her jaw as soon as she saw me on Prince Nikolas's arm. I smiled at her and waved with my free hand as we passed by.

The servants we passed all had similar reactions. No one else dropped anything but their mouths, but they all had huge eyes and confused stares. Eventually we arrived in a room with white walls and gold carpet with a large white grand piano standing centerfold in the room with various white couches on the sides of the room. Next to the piano was a piano bench and a white cushioned chair. Prince Nikolas led me to the seat by the piano, and I plopped myself down. He sat on the bench and looked at me with a small smile.

"Well," he started. "If you wanted to annoy Prince Coleman, I think that I was the best choice you could have made."

I smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, well, I figured why not, you know? Besides, you gave the smack down to Prince Alejandro which I appreciated," I said.

"Well, I was irritated about his behavior towards you," he admitted.

"You were?" I asked, surprised.

"Indeed." He shifted his gaze towards the piano keys. "I have attended the Autumn Festival for many years now. Ever since I was sixteen I've been a part of that banquet.  People are supposed to be kind to the Queen Maiden. She is Queen Klara's honored guest—that is how it works. So I found it annoying that everybody thought that they could break conventions because you are a servant." He looked at me again. "But it does not matter where you come from. The Queen chose you to be her Queen Maiden, and they should respect that."

His answer was very logical, very rule oriented, and it made sense to me.

"So I guess everyone ignoring me is not the norm?"

"Not at all. It was very inappropriate behavior," Prince Nikolas said. "But Alejandro took it very far—it is unfortunate that he came to the Banquet and not his brother Rafael. It is one thing to ignore the Queen Maiden—but to belittle her? It was very childish and it should have been beneath him. Even if you were not the Queen Maiden, it was very immature to pick on you when you had not provoked him. He was born in a different social class, why would he stoop so low?"

"I guess he's just really insecure," I said.

"Indeed he is. He is quite pathetic," Prince Nikolas sniffed.

"And meanwhile I don't think Prince Coleman has ever felt insecure in his entire life," I mused.

Prince Nikolas rose an eyebrow. "Well, that is not true," he said. He again turned to the piano, but this time he placed his pale fingers on the keys and played a simple arpeggio. "He is only human, after all."

"I guess you're right."

He played another arpeggio. "I think you make him a little insecure," he told me.

I rose my eyebrows. "Me?"

"I must apologize, Cassie. I was not entirely upfront with you earlier this week when you attended me at the Autumn Festival," Prince Nikolas started. "I was interested in your non-Russian accent, but really I wanted to take you to the Autumn Festival opening ceremonies with Prince Coleman. I wanted to see how he would react. I do think you have some sort of hold on him, Cassie."

I bit my lip and thought for a few seconds. "Well, yeah, I thought so," I said. "I thought he liked me. But then it seems like he doesn't."

Prince Nikolas began playing some classical song. "How so?"