I got up and walked over to within a few feet of Sasha, and her tail thumped against the couch as she looked up at me queasily.

“Sorry, Master, I didn’t mean to listen in… not that I really understood much of it… just, Master and her highness were having a conversation, and that’s more important….” I frowned a little at that reasoning.

Chapter 13: In Which I Stand In The Hallway With A Woman Whose Name I Don’t Know For A Very Awkward Five Minutes

It took me a moment to process that offer with a very hot and extremely naked Princess pressed up against my own naked body, but then:

“No.”

She blinked, tilted her head to one side, raising an eyebrow as she tapped my nose with her finger.

“I mean, no, sorry, your highness… anything that involves the death of Master is not something I’ll ever agree to.”

“Okay, I can respect that. What if your Master agreed to it?”

Chapter 11: In Which The Cards Hit The Table, Metaphorically That Is, I Mean Like, There Aren’t Any Literal Cards

I glanced around, nervous– how had she just disappeared like that? Valentine was huge. No, wait– why had she disappeared like that? That was probably the more important question.

Chapter 9: In Which I Share The Secret With Someone Else For The First Time, And Begin To Learn Something Even More Valuable

We stopped by another town on the way, at which Master said she had an errand– she did not elaborate, and no one asked her to.

Chapter 7: In Which Sparring, Which Seemed Harmless At The Time, Leads To A Great Quandary

I awoke in the morning the sound of a loud thwack, two objects impacting each other at an incredibly high speed. My eyes flickered fully open, body surging with adrenaline, and I rushed over to peek outside of the tent.

We stood over the fallen tiger lady… she seemed to still be breathing, at least.

Master stared off into the distance with a slight smile and a sort of vacant expression.

I blinked… I hadn’t seen that look on her since she switched places with me. “...you okay there, Master?”

“Shhh, quiet, trying to think, Master.” From her superior tone, I gathered she hadn’t meant to say ‘Master’… actually, maybe she had said my original name instead, whatever that was. Maybe I should try to read her lips next time… but how would I even know when or if there would be a next time?

“Okay, Sasha. Cast the spells you know, and tell me which ones you’re casting as you cast them.”

Master had released the control on my collar until sunset, and she sat in one of the chairs in our room, while I stood in front of her. Naked. I really didn’t get why I needed to be naked, and it was more than a little distracting.

“Mmm, I just know two spells: Fire,” I raised a finger and shaped my mana into the proper pattern, and a small gout of flame raised from my finger. I blinked a few times. That spell would usually just get a lighter-sized flame.

When I woke up, Master was gone. I sat up and looked around frantically— had she suddenly abandoned me? She wouldn’t, would she? What could I do in this world alone, powerless, and looked down upon?

I saw a note on the table. “Went out to get some info. Be a good girl.” I wondered if she was going to one of my informants, or had some I didn’t know about, and sighed a little as I realized my tail was wagging from the "be a good girl" part. Some part of me really liked being a girl, huh? ...but was that my own mind, or…?

Well, not much point in worrying about it.

The Webster and Dorman families were first brought together when the oldest son of the Dorman family rescued the oldest daughter of the Webster family. Then two years later, the then oldest son of the Webster family rescued the then oldest daughter of the Dorman family. Love developed between each couple in the ensuing months, which led to marriages when they each turned eighteen. Because the families were brought together by the first two marriages, more love interests developed between the children of the two families, which led to more marriages between the Webster and Dorman families when the children reached their eighteenth birthdays. But a little over one hundred and fifty years later, the then head of the Webster and Dorman families believed everything told of those first marriages to be lies. They were lies because no one married because of love, only opportunity and obligation. So those first two marriages had to have been forced. And it was at that point the love that had blossomed as a result of two rescues, that had brought two families together, was perverted, and a little over one hundred years of hell began for children of the two families. A hell that was Family Punishment for any Webster or Dorman child who failed to comply with The Family Obligation of marriage when they turned eighteen. And love be damned.

Seventeen-year-old Stephen William Webster and his nanny, Better Wilcox, finally blow the whistle after the murder of thirteen-year-old Rachael Dorman because she refused to be forced into a loveless marriage. Stephen and Betty must be hidden because people from the Webster and Dorman families are hunting him, thinking he is running away from a forced marriage. Betty makes contact with three of her former University sorority sisters, and together they formulate plans to hide Stephen at the one place unknown to either the Webster or Dorman families, the Winsome Girls’ School for Wayward Boys. Jane Thompson’s home.