Meredith pulled her long, brown hair back into a knot at the base of her neck. She looked at herself in the mirror.

As opposed to her magnificent dress for the coronation ball, she was wearing the simple day dress of a servant.

A knock sounded on the door to her outer sitting room, and she ran her hands over her skirt once more, smoothing the fabric, before she crossed the room and pulled the door open.

Isabella stood there, smiling back at her, her hair done in an equally simple do, any makeup absent from her face, and in a dress as simple as Meredith's.

"You'll fit in just fine," Meredith assured her, noting a bit of apprehension in her friend's face. Isabella smiled gratefully.

"You don't think I'll make them uncomfortable, do you?"

"I'm sure they'll all like you perfectly well. Just be yourself." Meredith smiled. "We're not usually a judgmental bunch. She pushed the thought of her own judgments against the House Westerholme to the farthest corners of her mind.

"I miss Kade," said Isabella, suddenly. "I know he'd be going to this party, if he were here. Even in his position as Antony's general, he still always had time for the friends he had made in the servants and lower guard ranks. And..." She hesitated. "I know that they're simply journeying to the southern borders but...I can't help but worry that something will go wrong. It's silly of me, I suppose..."

Meredith rested a hand lightly on the demure princess's shoulder. "He's going to be fine, Isabella. Kade's strong and brave. And they're simply traveling. I'm sure there won't be any fighting."

Even as she said it, she found herself wondering, allowing Isabella's worries to play throughout her own mind over and over again and questioning whether or not her assurances to Isabella would prove true.

"Come on," she said, cheerfully, in an attempt to distract herself as much as Isabella. "Let's go to a party."

Isabella slipped her arm into Meredith's and the two of them left behind their rooms for the cheerful atmosphere of the lower wings of the palace, where, even as they made their way towards it, a roaring party was in full swing in the smallest of the palace's ballrooms.

They entered the brightly-lit room, with it's paneled walls and polished wooden floor, the gold patterened wallpaper of the upper walls seeming to glow in the light of the chandeliers.

A makeshift "orchestra" had been formed by a few servants with rudimentary fiddles, two men with battered violins, and the plump matronly cook, Ramona, bent over the room's grand piano.

Sturdy stable boys whirled around the room with plump kitchen maids and short scullery maids. Where there was a shortage of men, there was no shortage of dancing: maids paired up and spun around the floor none-the-less. There were people of all sizes and shapes, and Meredith found comfort and wonder in the fact that, here, they were all the same. It did not matter what one looked like, for the servants accepted everyone, making them all, each and every one, feel welcome.

"Meredith!"

She turned to see John coming her way, waving, his smile seeming to fill his entire face. She grinned at him.

"Hello, John!" she said. "Promised I'd come!"

"And so you did!" he said, looking thrilled, his eyes twinkling in the light. He seemed to see Isabella then, and bent into a quick bow.

"My Lady," he said. "It is an honor to have you here."

"Please," said the Princess, smiling graciously. "Just call me Isabella. I want to leave behind my title for one night."

John grinned, accepting this. "Very well, Isabella. I hope you'll find that we treat you as one of our own."

Isabella smiled. "I hope so too," she said, her eyes taking in the many servants here to participate in the festivities.

"Mer!"

She felt herself picked up from behind and twirled once in a circle. She found her feet, laughing, and turned to face her captor.

"Evan!" she exclaimed, still laughing, and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his shirt, in the scent of her brother.

She pulled back. "I'm glad to see you here, Evan," she said, smiling demurely at him.

He seemed to notice Isabella, just then, but, before he could bow, Meredith stood on tip-toe to whisper in his ear.

"She wants to leave behind all the formalities. She's just Isabella for tonight."

He looked at Isabella, considering her for a few moments, before he turned to Meredith, his forehead somewhat wrinkled in thought and his eyebrows drawn together.

"She would really want to leave all of that...privilege. Wealth. Title...all of it. Behind?"

Meredith nodded, smiling.

"She's a wonder, isn't she?"

Evan nodded dumbly, as if still trying to adjust to this information.

Meredith kissed him on the cheek, before going to Isabella's side and seizing her friends arm, pulling her to the table set out with food: small finger sandwiches, cups of punch, and small cookies and eclairs were laid out artfully by the very servants that were now fully engaged in the dancing and fun. They sampled a small bit of each of the things offered, before grabbing one another's hands and entering the dance floor to spin around with wild abandon, forgetting the sophisticated steps of a waltz for the time being.

She smiled, seeing Isabella laughing with pleasure, her worries temporarily forgotten.

The song ended with a flourish, and Meredith and Isabella exited the floor, arm in arm, giggling and a bit dizzy from spinning haphazardly around the room.

Suddenly, Isabella gasped with pleasure.

"What?" asked Meredith.

"I just had a thought! Do you think they'd let me play with them?"

"The orchestra?" Meredith gestured to the servants who were even now preparing to play another lively song.

"Yes," said Isabella, nodding. "I'm not even close to as good as my cousin, but...I'd love to play with them!"

"Then let's give it a try," said Meredith, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the crowds of servants and up to the ballroom's orchestra stage, where she smiled to Ramona.

"Meredith! Haven't seen ya in a long while! Since your first or second day! Good to see you again! Been keeping busy?"

"I'm lucky to get any hard work from this girl!" she said, winking at Isabella.

"Princess Isabella!" gasped Ramona.

"Please," said Isabella. "Don't use my title." She smiled at Ramona, who smiled back.

"If you don't want it, child," she said simply, giving Isabella one of the motherly hugs the cook was famous for.

"Isabella wondered if she could play with you a bit?"

"What do you play?" asked Ramona, smiling companionably.

"Violin," answered Isabella.

"That's perfect! Andy there was just wanting to take a break for a few dances with his lady-friend. Why don't you offer to take his place?"

Isabella smiled and went over to talk to Andy, while Meredith and Ramona looked on. Moments later, Andy was departing, and Isabella was taking up the instrument, moving the bow through the air to acquaint herself with the notes to the music before her.

"May I have the next dance?"

Meredith didn't even have to turn to know that it was John.

"Of course," she said, happily, taking his offered arm and allowing him to lead her out to the dance floor.

As they danced, she watched Isabella, now playing a lively tune on her violin while the rest of the players looked on in admiration, grinning at her and encouraging her to keep playing, their feet tapping enthusiastically on the floor.

"You really seem to like the Princess," said John, noticing where she was looking. "To care about her."

"She's a great friend," said Meredith, meeting his gaze. "I'm glad she's having fun tonight. I was trying to distract her. Kade's gone, you see, and she's worried."

"I see," he said, gravely, his eyes twinkling. "I suppose it's true, then, that the princess is in love with the king's general."

"It is true," laughed Meredith. "She's very much infatuated."

"And who are you in love with?"

She gave him a teasing smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I would," he said, a charming grin crossing his face.

"Well..." she said. "No one."

"No one? Really? Pretty girl like you?"

She smacked him playfully. "Stop it!" she laughed. "And yes. No one. I've never had time; there's always been too much work."

"All work and no play might make for you a very dull life."

"Sometimes..." she admitted. "But I try to focus on my family, and make friends among the other servants wherever I work, and...I manage to get by."

"Glad to hear it," he said, softly, giving her a small smile. She felt herself taking note of the tenderness in his gaze when he looked at her, different from all his playful grins and charming smiles of earlier.

She smiled back, and the two of them walked over to see how Isabella was doing.

The Princess had disappeared from the stage area and, after a few moments of glancing around for her, she caught of glimpse of Isabella, holding an empty wine bottle, and declaring a game of spin the bottle, to which many of the servants, especially the younger ones, now clamored to participate in.

"Shall we?" asked John. Meredith nodded shyly and he took her hand and led her through the crowd to take a place in the circle of participants.

For this particular game of spin the bottle, Isabella was the designated spinner, due to the fact that she refused to kiss anyone but Kade, who was, of course, absent.

When it came to be Meredith's turn, she stepped forward, and Isabella spun the bottle.

Meredith looked up when it stopped, only to see John smile hesitantly at her.

She took a few steps forward, her every sense feeling heightened. She leaned forward, and he did too, but at the last minute, something made her pull back and simply give him a small peck on the cheek.

The crowd pretended disappointment, and John laughed it off, even if he looked a bit disappointed. Meredith avoided his gaze; she wasn't sure what even had made her stop short of giving him an actual kiss, and she therefore didn't want to discuss it with him.

She watched, smiling a bit, as Evan kissed on the cheek, a pretty honey-blonde servant girl, who, judging by her uniform, worked in the scullery. The girl blushed furiously, as did Evan, and Meredith heard her usually-confidant brother stuttering as he introduced himself.

As the party began to die down slightly, and the orchestra took up their instruments for one more song, she ducked from the room, hoping to avoid her conflicting feelings: those she recognized and those she couldn't quite realize a reason for.