The tower didn't seem so bad at first.

There was plenty of sunlight, a stash of food hidden below the hatch in the floor, and of course, Scarlet looking with disapproval around the place with her hands on her stomach. Such sour faces that woman could pull.

The walls were made of stone, slated gray, and the floors of wood. Four windows circled the main room, dousing the wooded floor in yellow light. These were even curtained -- rustling lilac colored fabric hanging from sturdy metal rods.

But, these windows were barred shut, a jarring reminder that this place was not meant for our comfort. It was made for our containment.

Jade sighed. She walked away from me, into the next room. I followed, slining my knapsack back over my shoulder.

The adjoining room was, I supposed, the bedroom. Perhaps this tower wasn't so pretty as I had first thought. Our beds were inch-tall mattresses slapped onto the hardwood floor with nothing more to cover us than two flimsy sheets. Thank goodness I had thought to bring my grandmother's quilt. This room had only one window, a tiny rectangle so full of steel bars that the light had to peek shyly past them, giving the room an eerie glow.

Off the side of this room was a smaller one, a bathroom, from the looks of it. Neither of us ventured to go inside.

Jade dropped her leather suitcase on the mat closest to the wall. I claimed the remaining mattress. She then linked her arm with mine and dragged me back across the main room to explore the final province of our new home.

"You're quiet," I noted.

She hardly spared me a glance. Jade was a woman on a mission. She tore past the splintered wooden door into her kitchen.

I could practically feel the dismay seeping through her pores. Oh, poor Jade. In the face of our current circumstances, her one comfort had been the promise of plenty of food, and a kitchen to cook it in. Even in her darkest moods, cooking brought Jade solace. And she needed a kitchen. What we stood beholding now could hardly be labeled as that.

There was a fireplace, and this was the only device in the room that could be used for heating. No stove. For a sink, there was a water pump. There was no counter, no kitchen table. Just these two things and a long skinny door on broken hinges: the pantry.

Sighing, I watched Jade's face crumple. My poor, frightened princess. She'd always been so terribly sensitive. "It's alright," I promised her. "I'll build you a kitchen table, dear."

"I -- I think I will go lay down for a moment," she said. Tears peeked out from the corners of her eyes.

I wiped them away with my thumbs. "We're going to be fine," I said. I looked into her eyes, green as emeralds, and hoped she couldn't see my hands shaking. We're going to be fine, I repeated to myself. We're going to be fine.

"Thank you, Scarlett," was all she said. Jade offered a watery smile and then left me alone to gaze at this sorry new home of ours.

I brushed my fingertips over my stomach, hidden under the fabric of my patchy purple dress. If I looked in a mirror, I knew I would cry. Mama had made that dress for me on my eighteenth birthday. Perhaps the worst thing about our current predicament was missing my family -- Mama and papa and Rose, all mourning and waiting for me back home. If I looked in a mirror, I would see Papa's confused gaze in my own eyes, Mama's wobbling frown in my own lips, Rose's tears on my own cheeks.

I looked at that rusted water pump and thought, what a horrible price to pay for something as simple as being in love.

But I'd meant what I said to Jade. I would build her the best damn kitchen table she'd ever seen. It would be better than the grand ones at the palace, covered in decadent treats, delectable feasts...

If I couldn't give my princess back her castle, at least I could give her a home.

XXX

By the time Jade emerged from our new bedroom, I had raided the hatch in the floor. Below were supplies galore -- food, water, tools, firewood, medicine. How good it felt to hold a hammer in my hand again. My callouses ached from lugging heavy planks of wood up the stairs, and my eyes stung from the flying sawdust. Of all the things her majesty provided for her daughter and I, a pair of goggles wasn't one of them.

Jade stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching me work. I did not turn to look at her, but I could feel her eyes on my back. I'd hacked up two pieces of firewood so far. Two legs down, two to go. Then I would have to sand them, as well as the two by three foot tabletop I'd cut with the handsaw. Quite a lot of work it was, but nothing I couldn't handle.

Once the third leg was done, I sighed and placed my tools on the floor.

"You didn't have to," Jade said, gesturing toward the disassembled parts on the kitchen floor.

I offered her a small smile. "I wanted to."

She followed me into the main room and sat down beside me on the worn leather couch in the center of the room. Across from it was an armchair and a loveseat, these separated from the couch by a small glass coffee table. So much seating, and no one to fill it. Who, other than Jade and I, would ever inhabit these seats? They would never all be full at once.

It occurred to me that just as we hadn't a kitchen table, we also lacked kitchen chairs. Ah, well. This would be a project for another day. But for tonight, we would have a table, and that would be enough.

Jade, as always, sat with utmost posture, like the princess she was. I kicked off my dirty work boots, sighing as I sank into the soft leather. Perhaps Jade was used to plush, fluffy couches, but I knew only the hard burlap one my family had used ever since I was born. Though compared to that couch this one was heaven, I missed that scratchy fabric on the back of my neck as I sat down.

"I hate this," Jade said, her tone clipped and clean. "I wish . . ."

I closed my eyes. "What do you wish, Jade?" When she didn't answer, I opened my eyes and leaned back on the couch's arm, swinging my legs into her lap. For a moment, the princess appeared scandalized, but her lips curled into a tiny smile. "I think we've just got to make the best of what we have," I told her.

"I suppose you're right," Jade agreed.

I took her hand, that constant paranoia rising up in me for a moment. Then I remembered, the truth was already out. No need to hide our affections anymore At least there was that. "Well here's one thing we have," I thought aloud. "I can hold your hand and skip around this room and no one can tell me not to."

Jade's smile widened. "And I can kiss you whenever I want to."

"And I can look you in the eye whenever I like, and there's no one to tell me to bow down."

"And I can talk to you as much as I want to, and no one will be suspicious because they already know."

We grinned at each other. Perhaps things weren't so terrible after all.