“In any case, I will have to go when we wake her. She will not stay if I'm here,” Helen said.
That made Pandora like the idea even less. “Where will you go?” she asked, embarrassed that her voice quaked.
Helen gave Pandora another squeeze, never completely letting her go from the last hug. “I will look for other princesses. I think I heard about one that had been abandoned in King Jonathon's realm. His father certainly had enough bastards to make it plausible.”
Pandora hid her face in her mother's shoulder. Off to find another girl to mother.
With a third squeeze, Helen kissed her daughter's head. “Not soon,” she reminded her. “I will stay at least a month, maybe a whole season.”That would be a start, but a season? After a decade of not seeing her, it seemed small consolation. “I understand,” she said with a sigh. And she did. The Prince had certainly shown her just how women were treated. Carol was self-sufficient in her age, but all the other ladies of the village were cooped up in their homes, guarded and isolated by their husbands. She didn't wish that on anyone. “Now,” Helen continued, pulling Pandora a little way from herself. “Why don't you show me what Tabitha has taught you.”
With a grin, Pandora dropped the wall holding in her magic.
