Page 56 of The Abandoned Princess

He laughed. “You did mention it three times yesterday.”

“Did I?” I asked guiltily. “I didn’t even realize. I’ve just always loved birthdays.”

“I could tell.” His voice went soft. “We can’t do much for you here on the road, but it’s not just your first birthday free of the tower, it’s also your eighteenth. We couldn’t let it pass unmarked.”

“Here.” Lori pushed a small package into my hands. “The prince says this is from both of us, but we all know only one of us has the coin to be buying presents.”

“But you were the one to manage the actual purchase,” Xander said quickly, “which is not a small feat given our current state.”

“Did you go back to the market while we were in the stable loft?” I unwrapped the package, my mouth dropping open when I saw the contents. “They’re beautiful!”

It was a matching pair of hairpins, each decorated with amethysts arranged in the shape of a flower.

“This decides it.” I looked from Xander to Lori. “Please tell me one of you brought scissors. Because if you didn’t we’re using a knife.”

“To cut what exactly?” Xander asked in the voice of one who already knew the answer.

“It’s about time,” Lori said briskly. “I wasn’t going to rush you, but your hair is a most impractical length. Do you want me to cut it all off like you always said?”

“Yes,” I said, but the word came out much more hesitantly than I had intended. Looking at the new hairpins clutched in my hand, I ran my fingers over the length of my hair.

I had spent so long in the tower dreaming of chopping it all off and becoming a new person. But now that the moment had come and I was free to do whatever I wanted with it, I was uncertain. Did I actually want to become a new person? I had always had long hair, and it was suddenly a link with my past I wanted to preserve.

Since leaving the tower, I’d realized that my years of captivity hadn’t transformed me as thoroughly as I’d thought. The old me was still there, just grown and changed—as I always would have between thirteen and eighteen. I was standing on the cusp of adulthood, but I couldn’t bring myself to cut the last tie to my old self. I didn’t want to abandon my childhood self because she had led me to the tower. The way to win was not to let Eulalie completely strip her away.

“Actually, I don’t want it short. I want it how it was before. About here.” I indicated a spot three-quarters of the way down my back.

“Perfect.” Lori’s smile told me she approved of my decision.

Within minutes she had produced scissors and deposited me on a fallen tree. I sighed with relief as the weight of the extra length fell off, and when she declared herself finished, I shook my head from side to side in delight.

“It feels so light! Look how I can swish it around.”

“If you hold still for a minute, I’ll do some braiding,” Lori said, making me go motionless beneath her hands.

Within a short time, she had a braid running across the top of my head, like a makeshift crown, although she let the rest of it hang loosely down my back.

“Now you just need these.” Xander stepped in front of me, his eyes on my head as he carefully placed the pins in the braid.

I held my breath at the feeling of his fingers in my hair, only breathing again when he stood back and gave me a critical examination.

“Perfect,” he pronounced, with a wide smile.

“Thank you,” I said first to him and then to Lori. “Thank you for remembering and for making it special.”

“It’s not the eighteenth birthday you must have dreamed of back home in your palace,” Xander said regretfully.

But I beamed at him, refusing to be pulled down by thoughts of the distant past.

“Perhaps not, but it’s a great deal better than the birthday I expected alone in the tower, waiting for Eulalie’s visit.”

That made both of them smile before Lori pointed out that if we dallied too long, we’d fall far behind Eulalie.

I spent a large part of my birthday walking, but I was waited on hand and foot at each stop, and at the evening meal, Lori produced a cake from her capacious bag.

“Cake!” I pounced on it in delight. “How did you smuggle that here?”

“It’s a little squished,” Lori said with a critical examination. “But we left the town recently enough that it should still be edible.”

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