I Love You, My Cursed Prince

The Crown Prince's face reminded her of a painting she had admired some time ago, a painting of a young man wearing a pink outfit with a pattern of dandelions and leaves. A handsome face, angled cheeks, tanned flesh, black hair.

But here was the coldest brown eyes she had ever seen.

"Oh," the prince said down to her with an amused voice, "the rumors are true. You do have wintry sea eyes."

"Emil!!"

That was Princess Arya. She bolted up from her seat. Her skirts bounced and rustled. Her chair fell back and brattled on the wooden floor. She seized Prince Emil's wrist and tore his hand away from Muriel's face. Muriel touched her face, right where she had been gripped, still feeling the man's touch.

And the back of Princess Arya's hand whipped through the air, right against Prince Emil's cheek. The cracking, prickling noise that sang in the spring air frightened Muriel. Her free hand covered her pink lips and her eyes grew maybe twice as large as before.

Prince Emil didn't touch the spot his mother had hit. He only straightened his head, shrugged, and walked off. He went back inside the palace with an unconcerned gait.

Muriel thought she might faint. She reached back and gripped the edge of the tea table.

"Calm down, Muriel," the princess said as she gripped one of Muriel's arms. She spoke to the king. "We'll take our leave early, if it wouldn't be any trouble."

The king sounded like he wanted to take a nap. "Go on. We've finished the most important matters anyway."

Princess Arya led Muriel away then.

When Muriel was in her temporary room in the palace, alone and sitting on the edge of the bed, she wondered about the stressful events from before. When the Crown Prince took her face in his hand, he had been incredibly rude. He had no right to touch her face that way. Why did he do such a thing? It was so ... so amazingly wrong. He hadn't even been introduced to her, and he just ... touched her as if they were in a courtship.

For the next few days, the women stayed at the palace. They were able to avoid the Crown Prince. But, the day after they had returned to the townhouse, Muriel received a letter from that prince. It came with a lacquered box.

"Please accept my sincere apology for my obtrusive behavior at the Royal Palace, along with this present." That was what the letter said. It was more of a short message than a letter.

Muriel's throat filled with slime as she opened the box. Then the slime froze. The gift was a hair ornament, an aigrette of silver and diamonds shaped like a plume tied with a sparkling bow-knot.

Princess Arya lightly pressed her shiny fingernails into Muriel's shoulder as she instructed, "Send a reply accepting the Crown Prince's apology, but return the aigrette. It's not in your best interest to accept that."

Muriel was very grateful for those instructions. She wrote a polite response to the Crown Prince and had the expensive ornament sent back to him.

A few days passed, and then a new letter and box was sent to Muriel. This box was significantly larger than the last. The letter read, "My gift must not have been sufficient. Please take this new one." Inside the box, there was a massive decoration for a stomacher, a triangular arrangement of gold, diamonds, pearls, and dark blue sapphires, all shaped into sparkly flowers.

"Return that gift," Princess Arya firmly said, "and write an apology, but be strong. Let him know that you are not going to accept any gift from him."

Muriel nodded and obeyed her mistress.

They didn't hear from the Crown Prince again, or at least, not for the rest of the Capital Season.