I am sorry to all my readers that this chapter is so late. I've had a little trouble because of school and then just general writer's block. I hope it'll go a little faster after this chapter. Thank you so much to all of the reviewers!!! I loved hearing what you had to say. Sorry if this chapter is a little messy it's been a while. I might fix it up later. I had a lot of trouble with this one so if you don't like this chapter I'm sorry but I do know how I want the story to go. This is just a connecting point, just wait for the next one!

By Danielle's third week in the castle she'd already gotten a pretty good handle on how things ran. The work load was tough but she'd been through worse and this time she had a fiancée who supposedly loved her around.

Unfortunately Danielle did not get to see Henry as often as she'd like. Although they tried frequently, their meetings were impossible to plan and pretty much always spontaneous. It unnerved Danielle that although she rarely got to see her husband-to-be, the prince, she spent more than enough time waiting on her future -in- laws and guests. She prayed when the time would come they would not recognize her. Henry refused to call on her or have her serve him, though she told him many times she'd rather serve him than do other jobs in the palace.

But during those long stretches of time when Henry was nowhere to be seen, Danielle was pleasantly surprised she was never lonely. Abby had proved herself to be great company and a great friend throughout Danielle's time there, especially because Mme DeMaurier had decided to use Danielle as her own personal test dummy for new punishments and the most grueling jobs. She never seemed to get over the embarrassment Danielle had caused with the prince. Danielle would never tell Henry this though, because as she looked at it the fool would blame himself and this wasn't his fault in the least. This was her idea and she'd take these consequences any day if this was all it would take for her to be with Henry.

Abby though stuck by Danielle and would often even join her and help her with the jobs. For the first time in her life Danielle had not only a girl friend but a best friend. Gustave was a great friend and she loved him like a brother, but he was not a girlfriend. She never had a friend to cry to or that she wanted to tell all her secrets to. The irony is that before Abby she never had a friend she couldn't tell her secrets to either. It wasn't that she couldn't trust her with the relationship of her and Henry's but rather that Abby hated him so much she didn't exactly know or want to know for that matter how Abby would take the news. But this new friendship was definitely the highlight of her time working at the castle. All the stories Danielle told Henry seemed to revolve around her new best friend. Henry listened dutifully to every word.

One night in the stable though during one of her stories…

"Oh Henry, you won't believe what happened next! Abby literally took that bowl of porridge and threw it out the window! No one ever learned she had sneaked it in the first place!" Danielle said excitedly. Henry laughed. He loved watching her when she got so enthusiastic.

"The best part is later that day I heard a rumor that the porridge hit Lord Dansworth 's horse right in the head. Abby and I could not stop laughing, it was so great." Danielle continued.

"I'm happy you made such a great friend. Abby sounds like quite a character." Henry said "Love, Just so you know if you want to tell Abby our secret I wouldn't protest. I think she's earned our trust and it might be nice for someone else to know. Besides I would like to meet her… if she felt comfortable with that. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine. It's funny I've probably seen her dozens of times and just hadn't known it."

"Ummm probably not…."Danielle started uncomfortably as Henry looked a little confused. "You see there is actually something I wanted to bring up with you about Abby….well I guess it's more of a question..l mean it's a little awk-"

"Danielle," Henry interrupted "you can ask me anything. What's wrong?" Henry asked.

"Ummm… well the truth is the reason you've probably not seen Abby around is that she pretty much avoids you like the plague…" Danielle said awkwardly.

"Does she have something against royalty?" Henry asked wondering if maybe he did not like this girl as much as he thought. "Because you know as well as I do that once she gets to know a little more about us than what she hears she will feel differently." Henry said in his most convincing voice.

"No, I wish it was like that. But it's not the royal family she has anything against… it's just you. And well I was sort of wondering if you might have some type of idea why that is…" Danielle said.

"I'm sorry darling but I really have no clue. I don't even know who she is. Are you sure she feels this way? Maybe she's just intimidated by me?" Henry said in a way more trying to convince himself than Danielle.

"No. I'm positive she positively hates you."Danielle blurted out bluntly. " I just can't imagine what you could have done to make her so hostile towards you…"

"Umm… Danielle, I'm so sorry. The truth is as you know I haven't always been as sensitive as I am now to the feelings of the palace staff… I wouldn't be so surprised if I had done something that would have made her so upset." Henry looked down ashamed as he said this. Before Danielle came into his life he didn't care at all about anyone in the castle besides for him and his family. Danielle changed everything for him.

"Don't feel guilty Henry. I love you and I know that you've changed. You could have done anything to me. You could have turned me into a mistress or worse… but you asked me to be your wife. I don't care about what you did then, it's the person you are now that matters to me."

Henry wrapped one arm tightly around her waist and kissed her tracing the path of her arms from her fingertips to her lips. She could never understand how much her love meant to him. That she loved him solely based on who he was on a person and not based on what he could do for her.

They continued to kiss for several minutes until they realized there was light coming through the suddenly opened stable door and standing there was Abby her eyes filled with betrayal.