Padmé once more entered her cabin to find the three handmaidens accompanying her giving each other manicures. When they noticed her presence in the room, they immediately moved to sit beside her on the double rows of narrow seating in the middle of the room.
"Well? What did he say?" Rabé asked first.
"Why did we leave so quickly?" Sabé asked just as briskly.
"When's noon meal being served?" Eirtaé asked, glancing up from her nails, seeing all three women glaring at her. "What? We haven't eaten since we left Tatooine! I'm famished!"
Padmé ignored her easily-distracted friend and turned her attention back to the other two.
"Apparently, the sith have become involved. Gunray's got a lot to answer for."
"The sith?" Rabé repeated. "I thought they were extinct!"
"Obviously not." Padmé replied, leaning further back into the cushions on the couch. "Obi-Wan said one attacked Qui-Gon outside of Mos Espa." The young queen rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. If Obi-wan ever finds out that this was all my fault…"
"Why should you care what he thinks?" Sabé asked as she winked at Rabé who sat across from her. Rabé took one glance at the young queen and knew something had happened. Padmé had begun to chew her nails and she hardly ever did that.
"Something happened between you two." She stated with a grin.
Padmé lifted her eyes as a wide grin spread across her face. "Oh Rabé! It was wonderful. He's such a good kisser."
This got Eirtaé's attention, and she laid aside her nail file and leaned forward onto her elbows. "Great!" She proclaimed. "Now we all get to stay in the palace!"
"That's a little premature, Eirtaé." Padmé scolded. "It was just one kiss."
"But you said it was good." Sabé noted with a smile.
"Better than good." Padmé corrected her with a sigh. All four girls lounged back onto the couch, propping their feet upon the glass table between them.
"So what do you think your chances are at getting a proposal out of him in the next few months?" Eirtaé persisted.
"I'm not even thinking about that right now. I don't want to pressure him into anything. I care about him too much." Padmé stated firmly.
"Are you in love with him?" Sabé asked softly.
"I don't know!" Padmé answered after a moment of contemplation. "I've never been in love before."
"What did it feel like when he kissed you?" Rabé asked seriously.
"I was shivering like I was cold," Padmé began. "But I felt hot at the same time. I felt dizzy one moment and then I was fine the next. And then his tongue touched mine and…."
"You got some tongue?" Eirtaé exclaimed excitedly.
"Yes!" Padmé giggled, hitting her friend with a pillow.
The young women once more leaned their heads back, basking in the queen's moment of glory.
"Are you hungry?" Eirtaé once more pondered aloud.
"What is it with you and food?" Rabé playfully jabbed her friend in the arm.
"Just answer the question, mi'lady." Eirtaé insisted.
Padmé thought for a minute. "No. Not at all. And I should be, shouldn't I?"
"That's it. You're in love."
Padmé looked up in shock at each of the handmaidens and was about to argue Eirtaé's point, but they were all nodding their agreement in unison.
Maybe she was. Her handmaidens knew her better than she knew herself. Padmé thought for a moment.
She was in love with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
A wide grin appeared on her face, mirrored by those around her until a single thought wiped it away.
"What's wrong?" Rabé asked.
"I have to tell him what I did." Padmé replied, once more beginning to bite her nail.
"No you don't!" Eirtaé argued, but Padmé looked to her first, Sabé, who seemed to be the most sensible and responsible of their group.
"Wait and see what develops, your highness. Let your conscience be your guide, but I wouldn't tell him unless it was absolutely necessary."
"Whatever you do, do it quickly, because you're running out of time." Rabé pointed out.
"Yeah." Eirtaé agreed. "Don't we arrive in Coruscant in a few hours? If I were you, I'd be spending my time with a certain handsome Jedi apprentice. There's no telling what will happen once we arrive in Galactic City."
For once, Eirtaé made sense, Padmé noted. What was she doing wasting her time cooped up in her own cabin?
"Thanks girls." Padmé said as she hugged each handmaiden and with a smile on her face and a bounce in her step, walked toward the exit and palmed open the door. Her spirits however, were abruptly dampened as she found herself standing face to face with a rather irritated-looking Qui-Gon Jinn.