Broderick knew who he was: a peasant, a commoner, a nobody, at best a stable boy. Why couldn’t everyone else see him for who he truly was? Especially her! Ever since Princess Charlotte had ordered him to ride with her to the old mill, his life had been turned upside down with no one granting him the right to choose his own future. With every new situation that befell him with the princess, Broderick only felt the chains tightening about him, the cell door in the castle dungeon looming that much closer, and the hangman’s noose appearing more and more a sure certainty to soon be draping about his neck.

And what was all this nonsense that the princess kept repeating that she herself was no different than the animals under his care, that she was only something to be bartered for, and that none of her own dreams for herself could ever be attained? Why had she chosen him of all the people in the castle to share her deepest sentiments and hopes with, continuing to intrude into what had once been a simple life, and vexing him to no end with all of her questions?

A simple life? A certain, if forgettable and humble future? Was that not what most men only hoped for? Yet, it appeared as the months and the years passed by, despite his assured unworthiness, Broderick found himself being forced into becoming someone he was not and being given responsibilities for the realm that were far beyond his humble beginnings and lesser abilities. Truly, all he had a talent for was the care of the horses and of the barns.

Yet, just as dire as these troubling circumstances were Princess Charlotte’s own words to him: “When all is done. When you have accomplished all that I ask. Come for me. Come for me for I will be waiting. Only for you, Broderick. For no other.”

How could she make such claims upon him and attest to possessing feelings for him that he had no right to? Did she not understand her lofty station in life and his own total absence of such? Yet, it was not only Princess Charlotte who would deny him his true status. There were others of royal position who had other plans for Broderick too.