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Two hours later, Eun Sook slipped back into the prince’s room.  To discover her brother and his fiancé sleeping soundly in his bed.   She smiled at them and headed for her corner of the room.  She had a new story dancing in her head.  She needed to loose it upon her parchment.

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Sook Myeong awoke to the gentle rays of the late afternoon sun streaming through the prince’s window.  She blinked.  And took a moment to orient herself.  She could see Eun Sook at the desk across from the end of the bed.  The pale woman was bent over her parchment, scratching away with her quill pen. 

Suddenly, Sook Myeong’s eyes flew wide open as she located where she was.  Her hands spread out on the sheet below her fingertips.  She was in a bed.  But not just any bed.  Jong Su’s bed!

Her eyes flew sideways.  And contacted the still form of the prince.  And she suddenly remembered crawling into his bed.  While his sister was missing.  But now the woman was sitting in this room with them.  So Sook Myeong felt completely awkward. 

Next, she realized that her left hand was brushing against his fingers.  She turned her head to look at him.  He was so gorgeous.  And when he slept, he was even more precious.  The air of a small boy seemed to cling to his countenance as he slumbered. 

She wanted to reach out and slide her fingers across his cheek.  And kiss his forehead.  And pull the covers up around his shoulders.

What on earth had gotten into her?

She’d never known such softness before.  But that wasn’t true.

Suddenly, a memory surfaced.  One she’d forgotten.  Which was odd.  Because it must have happened hundreds of times. 

She recalled her royal nurse, the woman who had taken care of her from infancy.  Until she had reached the age of seven years.  That gentle lady had tucked her into her bed each night.  She’d even spoken Sook Myeong’s name with tenderness before pulling the blankets up around her.

The princess lay staring at the prince yet seeing a completely different scene.  The kind face of that woman.  Bent over her as affection shone from her eyes.  The whisper of her voice invading her young ears with kindness.

The prince suddenly grunted in his sleep, and the memory instantly faded.  Sook Myeong blinked as she came back to the present.  But that remembrance had dented her heart.  Reminding her that life, for a few fleeting moments, had once been sweeter than she had recalled.

The memory had returned only because of Jong Su.  Had his tenderness caused greater repercussions in her heart than she could have anticipated?  Making her crave the gentle attention of another human being?  And now causing her to indulge in such sympathetic feelings towards him?

As her eyes slid along the curves of his beloved face, she had to admit that she didn’t want to live without the smile in his eyes.