I sank down onto the hard wooden chair.

The paper was heavy in my hands as I lifted it up, trying to figure out what it meant. Especially my name connected to Andrey's - I should like to know why Gavrila thought he had business concerning Andrey and I. There was something deeply unsettling about Gavrila thinking about me - especially in connection to another man.

None of it made any sense anyway. Ottilie and Howard...didn't Ganechka say last year that he needed to save Ottilie from Howard?

As my eyes strained at the paper, a hand clapped down on my shoulder.

I froze, tensing up completely, cursing my ears for being so useless in alerting me.

The hand tapped my shoulder twice more.

With a shaky breath to compose myself, I cautiously stood and turned.

It was Henrietta. Her arms were folded over her baby bump. Her eyebrows were lowered in confusion.

In the infuriating trait I had seemed to adopt, I found myself speechless.

Slowly, the princess's lips curved up into a grin, she laughed a little and took my hand, pulling me through the main door into a sitting room which was just as brutally neat. From the corner, Gavrila's white hunting dog woke up and stalked over to us. I felt the vibrations as it growled, bearing teeth even though it was too old to do any real damage. Henrietta reached into a pocket of her dress and gave the dog a biscuit. After that, he followed her as she sat down on the large couch, jumping up to lay across her.

He's too old to accompany them on a big hunt, She signed, as though that was the reason why I looked so confused. Warily, I sat down across from the princess, still pinching the paper between my fingers. And I'm a little too pregnant aren't I? Find anything interesting? She nodded to the paper, which I blindly passed over.

"But you're... I thought... You and Gavrila don't share the room do you?" My voice finally came in thick stutters. This sitting room, his bedroom, it was a soldier's room, devoid of any of the Princess's character.

I jumped as a book flew past my head.

Sorry, couldn't get your attention. Henrietta signed, grinning. I'm next door - of course we don't share the room. Her eyes rolled as she signed, her hands were moving heavily as though she was still displeased with it. I heard someone in here, thought that I might get a word with him if he'd managed to get out of the hunt.

"Sorry it's just me." I spoke quietly. Whilst I wanted the Princess to be happy, I did not like the fact that she was subjecting herself to Gavrila.

Henrietta jumped up to sit with me instead, she seemed to be dissuading my apology.

As the princess continued to intently frown and occasionally smirk at the paper, I tried to figure out what it was.

Eventually I caved, having to ask her. "What do you think the dots and dashes mean?"

The princess only looked up for a minute, her eyes rolling again as she did.

I think Gavrila is plotting who will end up with who. She passed the sheet back to me, her hands now more animated.

I frowned, running my fingers over the ink again. "But what's the difference between dots and dashes?"

Henrietta's eyes danced playfully. She tapped the dashed line between Amber and Eric. Marriage.

Then she fell quiet.

"Well?" I probed. "What do the dots mean?"

Henrietta brushed some of her gorgeous, long hair over her shoulder and quirked both of her eyebrows until I got the gist.

"Wait but people don't actually...do that do they?" I felt like such a naive simpleton as my eyes widened. The idea of people sleeping around, let alone in the palace, set a rush of blood to my cheeks.

I didn't know you'd be so innocent. The princess elbowed me and I laughed.

"Well I preferred to stay away from most other human beings before I was forced up here." I explained, standing to pace my thoughts out. Gavrila had suggested it to me once before, in the forest, but I had still assumed he was joking.

Bless you she smiled sweetly, folding her hands on her lap. He's a little far fetched with some of these though - as if I would go with Bastien!

"Which one is he?" I stretched my arms out and inhaled, coughing at Gavrila's Cologne which lingered in the air.

The princess stood up and puffed her shoulders out, pulling her blonde hair back into a tail. She strutted past me with a decided flick, reminding me of one of the more irritating Baracosian courtiers. He seemed to make a habit of saying how stupid highborn ladies were, so I made a habit of staying away from him.

Eventually I gave the princess a hand to sit back down, before doing so myself, taking up the list again. "Why does Gavrila think you're sleeping with Bastien?" My question was timid, to be perfectly honest, I was timid about this. "Wait...are you sleeping with Bastien?"

Henrietta made a face and shook her head. Her eyes strayed back to the list. She picked it up, examining it again.

As I let my mind wander, the realisation that I was in Gavrila's actual room began to press down on me. What would he think if he found me here?

What would Andrey think?

If it was true that people were forming illicit relationships, God only knew what they might say upon finding out that I was in the Prince's room. I wouldn't even be able to hear their whispers to call them out on it.

Suddenly I jumped up. "I shouldn't be here. I should go." My fingers clenched into the back of the couch as I waited for the princess to rise.

We've got plenty of time before he gets back. She signed airily.

My head shook itself. He couldn't know that I was here. I shouldn't be in his bedroom.

Rising panic had me walking backwards into his bedroom, ignoring the crown princess.

I ran all the way back to my room and found myself panting on the floor before long.