"And this servant will be thrown into prison."

I wasn't quite sure what to think of that. Yes, I, Princess Moriah of Rantolia, had been kidnapped. Such a thing was certainly very much frowned upon, to be certain. Why, if I had heard of a princess being snatched from her own land, I would sentence the abductor to torture or a very nasty form of death involving white horses and a barrel full of nails. But Jesser? Jesser had not been extremely cruel to me. Not nice, but not cruel. I had never before been kidnapped, so I did not know how I was supposed to feel.

"Prison?" I echoed. I pulled my arms away from Prince David. "Why are you throwing him into prison?"

Prince David's expression was difficult to read. If I didn't know any better, I would have almost sworn he was smiling somewhere beneath his angry exterior. "You just told me he kidnapped you. I can't let servants be kidnapping my wife every time my back is turned."

"You certainly did not do very much to protect me before!"

"I was worried about other things, Moriah!"

I sighed. That was right. Lydia. Prince David had worried more about rescuing Lydia than me. No, that was no way to think. I wanted Lydia to be safe more than he did. "He wasn't that mean to me. He didn't do anything."

Prince David rolled his eyes and tried to put his hands on my shoulders, but I just shrugged them off. "Moriah, he kidnapped you! You are my wife and the princess of our new allied kingdom as well as our princess and the future queen of Rantolia. He must be punished."

Of course, of course. I gritted my teeth and stared down at the water still dripping down my dress and legs. "I just want to go home. Do whatever you want with Jesser."

"Jesser?" Prince David repeated. "Is that his name?"

Jesser deserved whatever happened to him. And I was sure the prison guards would not be too horrible to him. I nodded. "Yes," I said. "His name is Jesser. He kidnapped me because he thinks I should come with him to rescue Princess Lydia. You do remember my sister Lydia, don't you?"

Prince David gave a dry laugh and shook his head. "The cause of all of this. Yes, Moriah, I promise you she will be rescued. You can trust me on this."

I know I should have been relieved. Prince David apparently had the ability to track me a whole ten miles, so certainly he could rescue my sister. Jesser would be punished for kidnapping me, and I would go home and wait for Lydia to return safely. Everything would be all right. I would boss around my silly ladies-in-waiting and finish a lovely tapestry. "Thank-you."

"Good," he replied. "Now let's get you to a horse and back home where we can get you cleaned up."

A bath, a real bath, sounded wonderful. Prince David put his arm around me. "Now where is this Jesser?"

Jesser was finishing off his squirrel by the time we appeared. At the sight of Prince David he leapt to his feet, face pale with shock. "Your Highness!"

I felt the muscles in Prince David's arm tighten. He was stronger than for what I had given him credit. "You dare show respect to me now? After what you have done?"

"Prince David, I only wished to help—"

"And you helped by kidnapping my wife? Your princess?"

I flinched, expecting the two men to throw themselves at each other in one of those crazy brawls Lydia always talked about. I wondered who would win.

Jesser took a deep breath that brought in the very essence of humility, and shook his head. "Well, Prince, in my defense, she was exceedingly easy to kidnap."

I gasped. "How dare you say such a thing!"

And then, as if the whole world had gone mad, both Jesser and Prince David burst into laughter.

"Jesser, I never once gave you permission to kidnap her!" Prince David said jovially. "Where on earth did you get such an idea?"

"Like I said, I truly felt she should be involved in this." Jesser tossed the grubby bone from the squirrel at Prince David's feet.

"I know, I know, we had that argument already and I told you she had no desire to go? Isn't that right, Moriah?" His round face peered down at me, questioning.

"Of course that's right!" I couldn't describe my tone to myself. I didn't know what to feel. They had tricked me! Prince David had all but known what was going on! And I still didn't! "I can't rescue my sister! I want to go home!" I wanted that more than ever at this point.

"See?" Prince David acted as if he were proving some grand point. "See? She did not want you kidnapping her, and neither did I. I don't care what you think. Jesser, I should throw you in the dungeon for this."

Jesser scoffed. "You would never throw me in the dungeon, David."

It was unbelievable. They were talking as if they were old friends. "What is going on?" I demanded.

"Moriah, please do not be mad," Prince David began.

I was already mad. I pushed myself away from him. I was mad I had married him. "You knew it was him that kidnapped me and you didn't do anything until this morning?"

"I only highly suspected it was Jesser who kidnapped you."

"And you let him do it?" I screeched. "David, I was scared! I had the worst night imaginable!"

Prince David looked pleadingly at Jesser. Pleadingly? Why? Prince David was the prince! "Jesser, you terrified her."

Jesser shrugged. "I thought it was funny. And you thought it would be funny, too."

"I never meant you to actually do it!"

"Behead him," I demanded. "Have him killed."

"Moriah," Prince David said. "I can't have him killed. He's my cousin."

Things couldn't possibly get any worse. I was standing in the woods in a wet dress learning that my husband and my kidnapper had both lied to me. I was furious. "What do you mean?"

With a grin the size of the sun Jesser bent forward in the most graceful bow I could ever imagine. "I failed to introduce myself properly. I'm actually not a servant."

"Moriah," Prince David began grandly. "May I introduce you to my cousin Prince Jesser? He is the son of my mother's brother, King Nicholas of Awsoander."

I wasn't sure how to take that in. I had never heard of the country. Then again, I had never been good at politics and maps and such things. "Then why were you pretending to be a servant?"

Jesser and Prince David both shrugged, and the expression on their faces told me that they had absolutely to real answer to that.

"It's fun," Jesser said. "And it worked. You believed I was a servant."

I wanted to kick something. I wanted to kick both of them. "You were playing games with me when my sister needs to be rescued. How dare you!" I wanted to cry, but I was too angry. "I just want to go home, and then you can both, whoever you are, go rescue Princess Lydia."

"Of course you'll go home," Prince David said. "But… since this idiot has brought it up, are you sure you want to go home now?"

I nodded. I was not made for adventures.

He glared at Jesser. "That settles it. This is not for her. She doesn't understand these pranks of yours, either. She doesn't need to be out here and she can't help find her sister. I'll take her home."

I froze. He made it sound like I was incapable of helping. I wouldn't be good at it, yes, but incapable? Was it because I was already mad? Had Jesser warped my mind too much? I hated to think my family had anything to do with it. "I can help!"

Both men turned to stare at me. I repeated myself again. "I can help. I can help find my sister. She's my sister."

Now they just stared at each other. I tried to stay firm.

Jesser smiled warmly at me and shook his head. "David is right, Princess."

Where had his confidence in me gone? It just made things worse. "I changed my mind. I don't want to go home."

Prince David actually looked sick.

"Moriah," Jesser began.

I shook my head, though part of me was screaming. Well, of course I wouldn't go the whole way. One of them could take me home tomorrow. But I could help get them started. "I want to rescue my sister. Jesser, I thought you were going to help me."

"Moriah, I really didn't mean—"

I glared up at Prince David. "You can go back to the palace and finish getting the search party or whatever you want to create organized. I shall start on this."

He shook his head. "No."

How dare he! I had never felt so stubborn. "I'm going! Jesser, let's go."

"No," Prince David repeated. "I'm coming."

I was too mad at him for him to come. "What did you say?"

"I told you, Moriah. If you felt like running off to rescue Princess Lydia, I would join you."