Black water, jolting cold, clenched her whole body. Thrashing with blind panic, she broke through the surface. "Luxley!" Her shriek was broken by coughing. She twisted around, searching for the willow. Instead of Luxley, a giant man stood by the tree, watching her.

Coralina screamed like a banshee. The giant held up his hands. "Don't be frightened, Princess Coralina. You're safe."

"Maelyn! MAELYN!" Coralina splashed wildly as she paddled away from the man. He walked slowly, following her on the bank.

"STOP!" Coralina yelled. "G-go away!" Her jaw clattered and her limbs burned with the struggle to swim in her heavy ball gown. But what could she do with that monster standing there? "Luxley!"

"He's out cold." The giant pointed at the tree. A dark shape lay beneath the swing that still drifted back and forth. Coralina's eyes widened as she recognized Luxley's boots.

"It's all right, my lady," said the giant. "I'm not here to harm you. I am Gord, a carpenter of Creaklee."

Coralina's fear washed away like soap bubbles from her skin. A peasant! And she knew the name. Maelyn had mentioned him recently though she couldn't remember why. Coralina clenched her teeth. "G-get me out of here, you dumb ox!"

Gord crouched on the bank while Coralina swam toward him. He tugged her up by the elbows and stood silent while she wrung the lake from her hair and gown. "Now g-give me your c-cloak before I die out here!" The mild breeze felt like a blizzard on her wet skin.

"Yes, my lady." Gord shrugged out of his massive cloak and dropped it on her shoulders. She hadn't anticipated the weight. Beneath the cloak and sopping ball gown, she was ready to collapse.

"Take me inside," Coralina said, finally looking at Gord. Enormous. The top of her head did not reach his shoulders. A broad chest twice her width, thick arms and legs, hands the size of dinner plates. The moonlight obscured his face but she sensed nothing remarkable. Just a peasant – a big one.

"Take you?" Gord sounded confused.

"CARRY ME!" Coralina said. "My clothes are too heavy-"

"Oh." Gord scooped her up like a sack of grain and draped her over his shoulder. He walked toward the castle on heavy strides. Swaddled in the enormous cloak, Coralina felt like a sack of grain. She'd never been carried more inelegantly, facing backward, her rump higher than her head. She gazed at the dark lump of Luxley under the swing. She'd never get that proposal now....

Arialain opened the door. Gord managed to bow despite his load. "My lady, there's been a mishap. Princess Cora-"

"Where's Maelyn?" Coralina wriggled down from Gord's shoulder. "Find her at once!"

Coralina never enjoyed the sight of Maelyn on her throne. The ivory cape that shimmered on her shoulders, the sapphire crown that nestled in her hair, the elevated chair that held her above the people. All because she was first. First of the nine orphans adopted by the childless king. And though Coralina tried not to think about it, first in their father's heart.

Maelyn raised an eyebrow at Coralina's sodden state. "Did you fall in the washtub, Coco?"

"HIM!" Coralina jabbed a finger at Gord who stood beside her. "He threw me in the lake!"

Maelyn raised the other eyebrow.

"Thought the fellow was a bandit, my lady," Gord said. "Seems I guessed wrong."

"You thought Prince Luxley was a bandit?" Coralina shouted.

Maelyn held up a hand. "It's not unreasonable. The bandits are masquerading as nobles in order to lure their victims. Usually a girl of humble caste, flattered by the attention. They go for a cozy stroll in the forest... and the girl loses her hair."

"Why haven't you caught these bandits?" Coralina snapped. "You seem to know enough!"

"I don't, Coco." Maelyn rubbed her eyes. "I don't know why they're stealing hair. And I don't know who they are. That's why I asked Gord to guard the castle tonight. I told him to watch for any nobleman who tried to sneak out with a lady."

Gord stepped forward. "That's what happened – or what I thought happened. I hid in the forest, like you said, my lady. Later I see the princess come out with a fancy fellow, alone. I don't trust this fellow or his oily way of talking. So I follow them to a big willow by the lake."

"The deer!" Coralina cried. "Luxley saw you!"

Gord went on as if she hadn't spoken. "For all I know he's planning to give her a shearing right there. So I find a big stick and head for the tree. Soon as I'm close, I break through the branches and bash the fellow's head."

"OH!" Maelyn's hand flew to her mouth. Coralina smiled. Attacking a prince would have dire consequences.

"But then it went wrong," Gord said. "I looked around for the princess. But something big and dark came rushing down on me. I didn't know there was a swing, didn't know it was her in it. Thought something was attacking me and shoved it away hard as I could."

"I swung high as the tree, Maelyn!" Coralina yelled. "Then I fell off, right into the lake!"

Maelyn cleared her throat. She looked at her lap and cleared her throat again, lips folded tightly.

She wants to laugh, Coralina realized. How typical! When the visiting Twin Queens of Kurzha had both slipped and fell on the same spot, Maelyn was anything but amused, though most of the princesses turned blue with smothered laughter. But when a muckwit peasant tries to drown a royal princess, well that's uproarious!

Maelyn looked at Arialain who hovered behind Coralina.. "Ari... please ask Heidel to warm some milk for Prince Luxley and see if she can rouse him. I'm sure she'll know what to do."

"Yes, Maelyn." Arialain, also smiling, pattered over the marble floor to an archway in the wall. Coralina bristled. "I suspect Luxley's father, King of Bella Reino, will not be so amused by this." She looked at Gord, hoping to scare him.

Instead it was her heart that shriveled.

In the candlelit brilliance, Gord looked nothing less than powerful. Halfway between six and seven feet, she guessed. Older than twenty but younger than thirty. A squarish face with blunt features. Light brown hair, curling gently on his brow. Dark eyes that drooped with a tender sort of sadness. Not actually handsome... but commanding respect.

Maelyn smiled. "I doubt Luxley will even mention this to his father. His vanity won't let him admit he was clobbered by a peasant."

Gord bowed his head. "I ask your pardon for attacking the fellow, my lady. I should have been more careful."

"Oh yes, apologize to Maelyn," Coralina said. "Perhaps you've forgotten who nearly drowned!"

Gord turned to her, and though their eyes met for barely a moment, she felt as if a horsewhip had been cracked across her shoulders. Something in his expression made her cheeks burn. Suddenly she couldn't speak.

"I'm not angry, Gord," Maelyn said. "It was foolish of Coralina to wander out after dark - especially when I told her not to. Your actions were a bit reckless, but your eagerness to protect a princess of the realm shows a generous nature. I believe you deserve a reward."

Coralina's temper flared. Maelyn was trying to teach her a "lesson."

Gord shook his head. "No reward, my lady. I have money enough."

"Nothing?" Maelyn looked stunned. "A cut of meat? Cloth for a new tunic, perhaps?"

Gord frowned. "Have you got a soft doll?"

"A... a soft doll?"

"For Pipsy - my daughter. All she's got are hard dolls I carved from wood. I think she'd like something soft."

Coralina rolled her eyes. Now she remembered. Maelyn had spoken about a carpenter who was raising his daughter alone. He'd come to Maelyn for help in finding a nurse for the child.

Maelyn's smile softened. "I'm sure we can find something for Pipsy." She looked at Coralina.

Still soaked, still shivering, and still squelched by the look in Gord's eyes, Coralina slunk out of the throne room. She'd rather cut off her curls than fetch the doll, but she knew it was her punishment for going out. If she refused, Maelyn would devise something more creatively cruel.

A soft doll.... Didn't Arialain keep some old toys in her trunk? Coralina heaved her sodden gown up miles of staircases to Arialain's chamber. She flicked open the scarlet trunk by the bed and grabbed the first doll on top.

A cloth rabbit, missing an ear. Coralina tossed it aside. Better find something nice or Maelyn would send her climbing back up here. She dug until she found that silly frog doll Ari carried around too much. Well, she had to let go of it sometime.

She plodded down the stairs with the doll, deliberately sluggish. Her blood sizzled when she thought of Gord waiting to claim his prize.

He had pushed her in a freezing pond. Deprived her of a prince's kiss. Ruined her silk gown. Carried her like an old sack. Humiliated her before Maelyn. And for that he'd walk away a hero?

Oh no, no, no....

The fairest princess of a hundred realms did not tolerate such an insult. The man deserved a punishment.

And she knew how to punish a man.