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Lisette tapped her forefinger against her chin. “You’re s’posed to wear a crown.”

“I am? I don’t have one.” Bekah let her shoulders slump.

The little girl grabbed Bekah’s hand. “C’mon.” She dragged Bekah to one of the classrooms and hurried to one of the toy bins.

Lisette dug through the bin, muttering to herself. Bekah couldn’t make out the words, but she took a seat on the rug next to Lisette.

“Yes!”

She could hear that.

The girl turned around with a bright pink, sparkly tiara in her hand. “Here.” She seemed quite proud of herself.

Bekah tipped her head toward Lisette. “Will you help me?”

She did her best not to wince as Lisette jammed the tiara onto Bekah’s head, the combs digging into her scalp.

Hopefully, a real tiara would be a bit more comfortable.

If Bekah ever had a chance to wear one.

Could she actually end up with that opportunity?

Technically, she was married to a prince which made her a princess. And princesses did wear tiaras at special, formal events, sometimes. Bekah wasn’t sure what the rules were, but if no one knew the truth about her marriage to Josiah and there was a formal event, it seemed like a remote possibility.

Would Angie’s birthday be formal enough for tiaras? When was it anyway?

Bekah forced herself to refocus her attention on Lisette as the little girl told a story about a prince and a princess with a magical unicorn and friendly dragon who worked together to rescue a little girl from a mean man.

As she listened, Bekah suspected the mean man might be the little girl’s father - or at least the man in her mother’s life - at least until, in the story, the little girl’s mother disappeared.

Bekah looked up at the teacher who shook her head the barest bit. She wasn’t quite sure what the head shake meant. That the story wasn’t true? Or that it was and the mother was gone?

Either way, Bekah did the only thing she could when Lisette climbed into her lap.

She hugged the little girl and didn’t let go.

CHAPTER 8

Something paternal swept over Josiah when he saw Bekah sitting on the ground with a little girl snuggled in her lap and a bright pink, sparkly tiara on her head.

Not exactly the kind of tiara his sisters generally wore.

They wore one at their twenty-first birthday celebration but not again until their wedding and later. Angie couldn’t wait. She’d been talking about it for years.

He found himself sitting on the floor next to Bekah and the little girl while someone read part of the first book of the Trilunium Chronicles for Kids series. The heir to the estate had recently been discovered in New Sargasso. The kids’ books had been in the works decades earlier, but hadn’t been published until a few months earlier.

Josiah was looking forward to visiting the parks when they opened in New Sargasso in six months or so. He’d already been notified that his whole family was on the invite list.

When the story finished, Bekah introduced him to Lisette. The little girl executed a curtsy with a kind of precision that told him she’d practiced.

“It was lovely to meet you, Lisette.”

“My pleasure, P’ince ‘Siah.”

Bekah took the tiara off her head and set it carefully on Lisette’s head. “I think you need to wear this for a bit, Princess Lisette. Thank you for sharing with me.”

The little girl hugged Bekah’s legs then turned and ran off.