“I love you,” she said, and she meant it. He was kind, and he listened when she sang. “But I cannot be a porcelain doll in this house. I was a housemaid, Frederick. I know how to work. If you want me to be your Queen, let me actually help you rule. Otherwise, I’m just a different kind of prisoner than I was before.”
Frederick looked at her, truly seeing the callouses on her hands that the palace lotions couldn't quite erase. He realized that the very grit that had allowed her to survive her stepmother was what the kingdom actually needed. “I love you,” she said, and she meant it
They didn't live in a fairytale after that. They lived in a bureaucracy. There were arguments over taxes, long nights of paperwork, and the occasional public spat. But when they walked through the gardens now, they didn't just talk about the flowers—they talked about the irrigation. I was a housemaid, Frederick