Something about the woman seemed familiar.  He felt he should know her.  An acquaintance of the baroness, or…  He felt his face drain of heat.

            He shook his head, positive this latest thought must be wrong.  Without thinking, he stepped closer to the gazebo, his gaze locked on the figure sitting there.

            The somewhat plump form, the soft curve of her chin, the full lips.  Could it be her?  Could this person be the emperor’s daughter?  The woman who had so mercilessly doomed him to his present position?

            Her dark eyes rose from the book as she sensed his presence.   She looked pale, the lines at her eyes showing strain.  But he recognized those eyes – the deep brown eyes with flecks of gold that had stood out so prominently surrounded by the pink and white mask.  It was her.

            And he’d thought he would never lay eyes on her again.  Fool.  She was supposedly the emperor’s daughter, was she not?  Why wouldn’t she be found at the imperial palace?  Yet the idea had never crossed his mind.  He supposed he’d thought her station too lofty for her ever to be seen by a mere messenger.  But this was her home, her family lived here, why would she be locked away?

            Home—family—the two things he would never have, the two things forever denied him…because of her.

            Anger welled inside him, the heat of it suffusing him to the core, gurgling with seething emotions the total opposite of the coolness splashing down from the fountain nearby.  Before he realized what he was doing, Jarrin stepped inside the gazebo. 

            “Good morning.”  She gave him a slightly frayed smile.  “Do you have a message for me?”

            His heart slammed inside his chest.  It was her voice.  There was no doubt.  She was the one who’d dubbed him a traitor.

            “Are you well?”

            Her false concern made him want to scream.  “You don’t know me.”  He was amazed again at how calm he could sound.  The emperor’s daughter—a person of such height, such importance, such power.  At any other time he would have felt cowed by her lineage and position.  But not today.  The heat inside him cared nothing for such considerations.

            Her brow furrowed for a moment.  “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound rude, but should I?”