"Is there anything in particular you are looking for, Miss?" Amelia asked.

Annalisa had opted to take Amelia with her after Cecily had declined. She said she was feeling a little under the weather, but encouraged Annalisa to go on anyway. Since Amelia did go with her, the prince had decided it would be okay to let them look around on their own while he, James, and Alex searched for something that was of interest to them. He was dressed down so not many people recognized him, he liked it that way.

"Just something nice for them," she said. They searched a little more and Annalisa spotted a beautiful crystal wind chime, it was made from different color crystals.

"These are beautiful," she said as she walked over to the cart. "How much are they?" She asked the older man.

"Thirty pieces of gold," he said gruffly.

"I only have thirteen," she told him, and that was with hers and Cecily's combined. They had both been saving to buy Thomas and Sarah a gift, and Cecily had given her money to her after she had been sick.

"Thirty pieces of gold," the man said, not giving her a chance to barter.

"Com'on Miss," Amelia said after seeing the staring match that had started between Annalisa and the man, "maybe we should go to the other end of the market."

This made Annalisa realize that they were in the end of the market meant for wealthier people. That was where they had parted with the prince and they had not thought to go down to the end where they usually purchased things. They ended up buying a few things and purchasing a similar wind chime to the one they had seen at the old man's cart. It wasn't as pretty, or as shiny, but it looked pretty similar and she knew Thomas and Sarah wouldn't mind.

Amelia quickly reminded her that they needed to get back to the other end of the market to meet up with the prince and his men in order to go back to the palace. The waited around for a few minutes, admiring all the more expensive things in the market. That was until they heard a gruff voice from behind them.

"Hey, girl," the man yelled angrily. They turned along with a few other people to see who he was talking to. "You stole that," he said as he began walking towards Annalisa.

"I did not," she said clearly offended by his accusations. "I bought it from a much nicer man at the other end of the market."

"You are a liar. You stole it from my cart, now give it back," he reached for it and she moved it from his reach.

"I did not," she repeated, "and I will not give it back."

"I said give it back," he grabbed the wind chime, but she did not let go. All the while Amelia was trying to explain to the man that they did not steal the chime from him. Luckily only a few seconds had passed before the three men the girls had came with walked up.

"What is going on here?" Gregory said as he stepped between them, prying the man's hands away from the chime that was in Annalisa's hand.

"This girl stole from me," he told him.

"I did not," she repeated, just as sternly as the old man. "I bought it from the other end of the market."

"You are a liar, and if you do not gi…,"

"Here, I'll pay for it," he offered. He just wanted things to quiet down before more people noticed him. There were already too many people staring. "How much is it?"

"Thirty pieces of gold."

"Do not pay him," she told him, putting her hand over his as he was about to hand him the money. "It isn't his."

He gave her a stern look that made her quiet down and handed the man the money. She huffed and walked over to the man's cart.

"She's stealing another one," the main exclaimed as she grabbed one of the wind chimes off of his rack.

"What are you doing?" Greg yelled at her. Both men calmed down when they saw that she had replaced the chime she had taken with the one she had already had in her hand.

"Are you insane girl, put it back," the old man yelled.

"She paid for it, she should be able to pick the one she wants," Greg told him as he quickly walked over to Annalisa.

"Let's go," he said quickly to the other three people standing behind him. He placed a hand on Annalisa's back and quickly led her through the staring crowd and out of the market.

"Would you mind telling me what was wrong with the chime you had?" he asked her through clenched teeth after they had gotten away from the crowd.

"It was not his," she told him. "If you were going to pay him for something, you might as well get something worth the coins you paid him." She knew that the chime the man was selling was more valuable than the one she had actually bought at the other end of the market. He understood her theory and that was all the confirmation he needed to know that she had not stolen the chime from the man, but he still didn't understand how she managed to cause turmoil for him.

He let out a sigh and turned to James and Alex who only shrugged their shoulders. Again he put his hand on her back preparing to lead her back to the castle.

"Don't be angry at me, " she told him, after seeing he was upset. "I did nothing wrong, and stop shoving me."

"I am not shoving you. I would just like to get back home to relax a little before dinner. Forgive me for being a little exhausted after dealing with the scene you caused today."

"Would you two knock it off already," James said. "If you do not mind, the three of us would like to have our sanity when we get back to the palace."

They both quieted down realizing that they had been arguing since they left the market.

When they got back, she and Amelia went to her room to put away the things they had bought. She then went to check on Cecily. She had started running a small fever and this made Annalisa worry. Amelia bought her a small tub of cool water and a few pieces of rags to keep the girl cool.

It was late when they heard someone coming through the door. Annalisa got up quickly from her place at Cecily's bedside and walked over to the door when she saw that it was the prince.

"How is she?" he asked.

"She has a fever," she said sounding tired. The sound of her voice made him look down into her face. He could tell that she was worried and tired. "Do you mind if I stay here with her tonight, to keep an eye on her."

He searched her face and he could tell that she was more concern about Cecily getting better than about preserving herself. "Sure," he said quietly.

"Thank you," she told him. She left him at the door and returned to Cecily's bedside. A few moments later there was another knock at the door. This time it was James and another man carrying fire wood.

"The prince thought you might need these," he said before motioning for the man to put the wood in the corner next to the small fire place. The room was much smaller than his and even Annalisa's so it wouldn't take much to warm the place. Though Annalisa was trying to keep Cecily's body temperature from spiking too high, she knew that the chilled room would not help the girl's condition.

"Thank you," she said.

James knelt next to the fire place and proceeded to start a small fire.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Her temperature has not gone up in the last couple of hours," she told him. She looked at the man and smiled at him. She could see he was genuinely concerned.

"Well goodnight," he told her. "Let me know if you need anything else."

She nodded and he left.

"Who was that Lisa?" Cecily asked groggily.

Lisa climbed in the bed next to her, preparing to sleep for the night. "That was James Wilson," she told her with a smirk. "If you ask me, I think he likes you."

"Well no one asked you," Cecily said with a smile making her laugh. She was happy the girl was aware enough to make a joke. A few hours ago, she was sure she was on the brink of delirium. She felt guilty for being the reason that Cecily was out in the cold the night before.

"G'night Sissy."

"G'night Lise."

The next morning, Lisa got up and ate breakfast with Cecily and some of the other laborer's on the floor. She much rather enjoyed their company to the one she had been keeping with the other girls. After breakfast, Cecily took Lisa on a tour of the kitchen to show her what she did in her spare time. Cecily liked to cook and was really good at it.

"Anything you want, you can cook it," Cecily said beaming with pride. It wasn't too often that they had this vast variety of food at their fingertips. "So what do you want to cook?"

Annalisa thought for a while, before she settled on something that she knew would shut a certain big mouth prince up.


"The girl sai…," the man stopped mid sentence when he saw that the Queen had joined the prince since he had last left. "Excuse me your highness."

She smiled at the man letting him know that it was alright.

"Did you get her?" The prince asked after not seeing the person who he had sent the man to retrieve.

"I tried your majesty," the man told him. "She told me to tell you that she is busy right now and that if you wish to speak with her she is in the kitchen and if not, she will be up after she is finished her business."

After seeing how her son's brow had furrowed and how he had become slightly angered the queen decided to speak up.

"Who is this girl?"

"No one," he told her. He left the room before she had a chance to say anything else.

She had heard around the castle about the girl who had managed to keep her son on his heels since the moment she had arrived. She wasn't upset. She just thought that it was amusing, knowing her son as well as she did, to know that someone was getting the better of him after all these years of him terrorizing the people who worked in the castle.

He made his way down to the kitchen where the man had told him the girl was located. Everyone that passed could see that he was visibly upset so they did not think about standing in his way. When he got to the kitchen he saw the girl standing near the oven as she took out a tray filled with truffles.

"When I send for you," he said as he started to make long strides over to where she was, "I do not care what you are doing, you are to come immediately."

"I figured it must have not been that important since…,"

"Important or not," he yelled at her. He could see that same fear she had had the day she arrived coming back into her eyes. Her eyes darted from his as she surveyed the room then looked to the floor. He noticed all the workers staring at them. "What are you looking at?' he snapped.

They all quickly filed out of the room, except for Cecily. He looked back to her and he could see the tears welling in her eyes, but he did not care. She had upset him and she was pushing him too far.

"If it happens again, you will not be allowed to leave your room. That way you will be doing nothing of importance that will keep you from coming when I call."

She stared at him for a moment before pushing past him, but he grabbed her arm before she could leave.

"Am I clear?"

She glared at him as a tear fell down her cheek."Yes your majesty."

He loosened his grip on her and she pulled away from him before he could completely let her go and left the room. He watched the door through which she had disappeared, the girl would never learn.

"Do not be too upset with her your majesty," he heard a kind voice say. He turned around to find Cecily still there. "She only wanted you to try Aunt Margery's truffle recipe."

She left to go check on Annalisa. He looked at the tray of truffles that lay on the counter next to him. He picked one up and observed it before popping it into his mouth.

It actually was better than the ones made at the castle. He felt a little bad for the way he treated her, but he wouldn't let her know that, not yet anyway.

He made his way up to her room and knocked on the door, surprisingly she was in there with Cecily. The girl immediately stood and left the room. Annalisa just glared at him, before turning away, attempting to ignore his presence in the room. It didn't look like she had cried more than the two tears that she had shed in front of him. She looked as if she wanted to cry, but she just refused to.

"I was looking for you to ask you if you wanted to come out to play bowls with us?" he asked her.

"No thank you," she replied, not even turning around to look at him.

He took a step towards her, then decided against it, turning to leave to room.


"…and we had so much fun," Annalisa heard Mary bragging as she walked into the dinning hall.

She didn't say anything. She didn't even look at the girl as she made her way over to what had become her seat at the table. She could feel Mary glaring at her, but didn't say anything as she proceeded to eat her food.

"I bet you thought you were going to take my place didn't you?" the girl said.

Annalisa just shot her a mean glare before returning her attention back to her food.

"Well you were wrong. You are nothing but a piece of trash off of the streets. The prince would never choose you over me. After he took you, I knew it wouldn't be long before he invited me to go out with him."

Annalisa knew she wasn't going to get any piece at dinner so she decided to go and eat with Cecily on the laborers' floor. But she decided to strike back before she left.

"He invited me first," she said. "I turned him down. You were his back up."

The girl's mouth fell open and Giselle giggled as Annalisa waltzed out of the dinning hall, satisfied with herself for finally answering the loud mouth Mary. She could here the girl causing uproar as she walked down the hall. It only caused her to smile to herself. She could not wait to tell Cecily what had happened.


He stopped in front of her room and stood in thoughtful silence. He knew that she was still upset with him and opted not to go in. He decided to go to Mary's room instead. He had heard that she was upset with him and decided it would be best to try and fix that before tackling the situation with Annalisa. He walked two doors down and entered the room. The girl glared at him before turning her back to him. He smiled, knowing that this would be an easy fix.

He walked over to her and kissed her on her shoulder before he started kissing and sucking on her neck. She shrugged him off and he backed off.

"What is the matter?" the asked.

"You should know," she told him. "The little farm girl, she embarrassed me today, and you helped her."

His eyes grew wide .He had known she was upset with him, but he had not known that Annalisa had anything to do with it. He knew who Mary was talking about, but found it funny, since she too had come from a farm.

"How so?" he asked her.

"I know you asked her to go with you before you asked me," she told him. "She was bragging about it at dinner. She said that I was your second choice and she was your first. I don't know why you let that little tramp in here. What do you see in her anyway?"

Mary turned to see that a small smile had come across his face. He found it amusing that Annalisa had bragged about him asking her out to the fields. He knew it was probably just to get back at Mary, but he still did not think the girl was fond enough of him yet to use his invitation as a weapon.

"What are you smiling about?" Mary asked, obviously a little upset.

"Nothing," he said, snapping out of his day dream. He stepped closer to her and put his hands on her shoulder. "You know you come first, always have."

She smiled as he moved his hands to her neck and leaned in pressing his lips to hers. Mary had been his first concubine, a gift from his father. She had been around the longest out of all of the girls and he had grown a little fonder of her. She was also extremely good at her job.

After they had finished, he had stayed and talked to Mary for a while. Although most of their time spent talking was him trying to convince her that she had nothing to worry about when it came to Annalisa, he could not help but to stop by her room as he passed it leaving from Mary's room.

He entered the room as quietly as he could, knowing the girl was probably asleep. However, when he closed the door, it woke her and she quickly turned to look at him. He smiled at her as she quickly sat up on the bed, prepared to fight with him again.

"Did you have fun taunting Mary tonight?" he asked her.

"I don't know what you are talking about?" she lied.

"Did you or did you not tell her that she was only second best to you?" he asked her. She just stared at him, but didn't offer an answer, partly because she was still half asleep and also because she didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"Because I find it a little weird," he continued, "that you declined my offer, but yet you found it useful to tell Mary about it.

"Had she not said anything to me, she would have not found out about it," she replied.

"If you do not want to do your job, do not discourage other girls from doing theirs. I like to keep my affairs between the girls private, so I do no…,"

"Well maybe you should tell them to do a better job of keeping them private. I have no affairs with you to keep private so I am not the one you should be talking to. I would rather not hear about your bedroom affairs with the other girls over dinner, but it is clear you have not shared this privacy rule with them yet. "

"It would be nice if you'd stop interrupting me every time I try to talk to you."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "It would be nice if you'd say something useful when you speak."

He bit down on his tongue before speaking. "Have you noticed that I am a man and you are a woman."

"Yes, I've noticed that I am a woman."

He could not help the smile that came to his face. She was messing with him. She turned away from him to hide the smile that came across her face. She was good, he thought, but he was better. He had just been holding back, trying to spare her.

"Goodnight," he told her.

"Goodnight."

"And thank you for the truffles," he said as he opened to door.

"You are welcome."

He was gone.


A/N: I've already written the next part. Any ideas on what you guys want to happen. I have some of my own, but I'd like tohear your ideas too...and please review