"This place is humongous! Bigger than humongous! Moriah, can anything be bigger than humongous? Has anyone ever bothered to define humongous? Oh, well. I've never seen anything bigger than this. Anything outside of the woods, of course."

My sister Willow was not talking about the palace of the royal family of Rantolia. Her architecture phase had come and gone. What she was walking about was the gardens and grounds that stretched around the gray palace Sleeping Beauty's thorns. To her, it was a glistening fairy land, and it was all Mother could do to keep her from leaping out of the carriage. I laughed. "Willow, I have no idea about anything you just said."

"Moriah will have to invite you to stay sometime, won't she?" Mother suggested to the both of us as she once again yanked Willow back into her seat.

"But they're so beautiful!" she whined. "Mother, Father, how come we don't have gardens like these?"

"Because no one wants to take care of them," Father muttered.

I glanced at him, almost hiding a smile. He had been in a bad mood the entire journey. At first I had thought he was mad at me, but a sudden outburst three hours before had assured me that he was only upset that I was getting married and leaving him. He hadn't been so miserable when Lydia had disappeared.

"Well, we should have one," Willow said firmly. "I'll take care of it. I want to write a book on plants."

"It is lovely," Mother agreed. "Ian, you certainly chose well."

Father shrugged, not looking at any of us. "Apparently Prince David is a good person. I thought Moriah would like a garden."

I would like a garden. Gardens were pretty enough. I probably didn't want one as much as did Willow, but a family that kept so many gardens had to be kind. As for the palace itself... I had barely realized we were there. I hugged myself as Mother watched bemusedly and thought of the trousseau in the carriage following ours.

I was getting married. I was getting married.

To someone I had never met.

The carriage pulled up against a pale pink marble bridge that crossed over a delicate stream. People were already waiting, at least a dozen escorts dressed handsomely in yellow. Yellow. I never thought it could be such a welcoming color. Certainly it was a happy color... I was feeling better every second. They even blew a trumpet at my arrival.

"Presenting King Ian Stonehill, his Queen Elizabeth, and his two daughters Princess Willow and Princess Moriah!" The man making the bold announcement didn't seem to notice us at all.

Willow giggled at that.

But I had been practicing this in my mind the entire journey. It was to be remarkable. I was the bride of their prince. I had to make a good first impression.

The door swung open, and out stepped Father, Mother, me, and...

Willow apparently couldn't resist the urge to shove me out.

I fell with a scream, catching my dress on my knees as I slammed hard into the ground. At least it wasn't face-first.

"Sorry!" Willow said in her high-pitched voice.

Wonderful. Now they had a clumsy cow for their princess. It's difficult to regain a sense of dignity after a fall like that, but it was what I had to do. With Father's help, I climbed to my feet and gave the best smile I could muster at that point.

No one seemed to care. Had they even noticed?

And where was my groom? Hopefully he had missed out.

An older man in yellow approached Father. I didn't hear what they said, but a few words from Father sent the gentleman straight to me. No doubt Father had something that I could certainly be addressed as it was my wedding.

I curtsied and smiled, hoping my hair was not a mess.

I think the gentleman liked me. "Princess Moriah," he said with a bow. "Welcome to Rantolia. We are delighted you will be joining us, and let me be the first to say that your beauty was not exaggerated by your ambassador."

I blushed. Beauty? I was that beautiful? "It is a most lovely kingdom."

"I am to let you know that Prince David was not able to greet you at the gate, as would otherwise be our tradition. He had other matters of which to attend. Now I am sure that you and your family are tired from your journey. If you will kindly follow us, servants will let you freshen up and eat."

I was too excited to eat, but I couldn't very well say that.

"If you have anything else to ask," he said, "Notify me. My name is Alexander."

"Alexander," I repeated. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I wonder if they've horses," Mother mused somewhere near.

How humiliating.

Alexander and the others led us inside. The double doors swung open to reveal a lovely room. The floor was built of boards of fine wood, and tapestries lined the walls. I studied them. Gardens and hunts and I really couldn't tell what else. The usual. I was almost disappointed to no longer see a theme of yellow.

Suddenly, Mother burst into tears.

It was rather awkward.

"Tomorrow morning!" she exclaimed between tears.

Tomorrow morning? Oh, yes. I was to be married the next morning. "Yes, Mother."

"Mother's just sad," Willow whispered.

And to think they had been happy at Lydia's disappearance.

And after the wedding festivities, they would leave. For the first time I felt a little twist of my heart. I was getting married. I was leaving my family. Willow would no longer have a sister.

Father was as gruff as ever. "Well, Moriah especially needs to clean up so..." He didn't seem too keen on giving a real sentence.

"We do have rooms ready," Alexander said. If I weren't mistaken, he was amused by us.

At least Mother and Father knew enough to behave. Willow, on the other, hand did not. We had barely gone up at staircase when she bolted in the other direction. Mother and Father didn't see.

I couldn't believe this. I was acting like her governess. She was twelve, far too old to act like this. I sighed and ran after her. It's difficult to run in skirts. "Willow! Willow!"

"Who's Willow?"

I stopped just short of crashing into a young man coming around the corner. I screamed, clapping my hands over my mouth far too late.

The man's face went red. He was older than I, at least five years, and a good head taller than I. His face was round and pleasant under pale brown hair cut short. He did not wear yellow, which was a good thing. He was rather on the plump side, not fat, but in yellow he might have looked like a butterball. "My Lady, I had no intention to startle you."

I shook my head, wondering what on earth the etiquette was for this type of situation. "No, no, sir. I... I shouldn't have been running. You see, I was only trying to find my sister and I..." Oh, this had better not be Prince David. I sounded like such a fool. But it couldn't be Prince David. He didn't look like a Prince.

"The blonde girl that tore that way?" The man gestured around the corner. "She nearly killed me."

My sister almost killed one of the Prince's servants. "I am terribly sorry."

He shrugged. "You're not the one that almost trampled me." He paused, really looking at me for the first time. "Are you by any chance Princess Moriah Katrina Stonehill?"

He had my entire name memorized. The entire palace was waiting for me. And yet I didn't like a servant saying my whole name. 'My Lady' would have been good enough.

I nodded and curtsied. "Yes, yes. I am Princess Moriah. I'm here to–"

"-- to marry Prince David," he finished for me. "Yes, I know. We're all very excited."

"I only hope Prince David is."

"He is. I should know. I am Prince David."

Oh. I had been wrong. I felt my entire face set itself on fire. "Then it is a pleasure to meet you." Good save, good save.

"Especially if we are to be married," he said. "You seem very nice, Princess."

And then we stood there, awkwardly.

This wasn't supposed to be how it worked. Prince David was supposed to be marvelous handsome and charming. But... but he was nice. Hadn't that been what I had wanted? Nice?

He gave a bow. "Well, I realize you have just arrived. If anyone sees your sister, I shall send her to you. But you must be tired. You should go rest."

I think we were both glad to get away from that meeting. I was nearly in tears by the time I caught up with Alexander and my parents. If Alexander noticed, he didn't say anything, but Mother and Father were certainly watching.

The moment I entered my room, I threw myself on the bed and let the tears pour out. Mother sat down next to me and stroked my hair. "Goodness, darling! What is the matter?"

"I met Prince David," I said. "And now I'm not..." I cut myself off just in time. I didn't want to say I didn't like him, because then Mother would suggest I run away or something. I knew she would. I took a deep breath and tried again. "I'm scared now."

"Of course you are. But is he kind?"

This was new. Why was she asking me this? Where was the command to run away?

"He's nice," I said.

She sighed deeply. "This is why I always felt it best to fall in love with someone before the wedding." Here it came. "But Moriah, your father and I always wanted you to make your own decisions. And this is what you wanted. Is it still?"

Of course it was. I had asked for this. And I didn't even know David. I nodded and sniffed. The lovely silk comforter was going to be disgusting with tears.

Suddenly I wished Lydia were there.

"You're going to be a beautiful bride," Mother whispered, caressing my hair. "I know you enough to know that you will be happy here."