Perfect picnic weather, the girl thought languidly as she gazed out the window at the noonday sun.

“Pay attention!” the tutor snapped. “Stop daydreaming; you must study now!”

“Oh, right.” She turned slowly to the agitated speaker, her eyes reluctant to leave the hillside view out the window. If she’d been startled by the outburst from her private teacher, she didn’t show it.

“Nu, we undergo this every day.” The girl recognized the forthcoming lecture, having heard it nearly every lesson day for as long as she could remember. “If you do not take note of what I’m trying to teach you, then you will not—hey!”

Nu had turned back to the window, indifferent to what her tutor was trying to tell her. His awkward speech patterns (someone needed to inform this man that contractions were truly a blessing) made him difficult to pay attention to. With a faintly embittered expression, she looked at him again.

“These maps are important!” he exclaimed, struggling to control his temper with little success. “How do you expect to govern the kingdom if you can not even understand its layout?”

The girl sighed, leaning forward out of her chair and over the table separating her from the teacher. She placed her hand on one of the maps, lifted it off the table and set it in front of her, returning slowly to her seat.

“That is the spirit. Now start memorizing the…” he trailed off as she raised the paper off the table again and tore it in half. “Damn it, what do you think you are doing?”

“These aren’t important,” she said softly, resentment burning in her eyes.

“Look, Princess, I can understand that you do not enjoy your studies,” he said furiously, slamming his hand on the table. “However, that gives you no right to destroy your lesson material! That map was one of the oldest and most valuable—listen to me!”

Nu’s gaze had once again fallen upon the hill, but the fury in her tutor’s voice alarmed her. She looked back at him, fearing that she had overstepped her boundaries.

“That is better. Nu, you’re acting severely improper. What will your parents say when I tell them?”

“Tell them what you want,” she said in the same muted voice. “You can’t make me learn this. I don’t need to know such unimportant things.”

“Of course you do! As heir to the throne, it is your obligation to—”

“I’m not going to inherit the kingdom.”

“—derstand the…what?”

“I’m not going to be the ruler,” she said timidly, staring at the ground.

“What nonsense is this?” he asked, astounded. “You are the only child of the king. Of course you are going to be the ruler.”

“Mama and Papa say they won’t force me,” she said, voice quivering. “It’ll work out somehow.” She looked up suddenly at the dial on the wall and then gave a faint smile. “My lesson time is up.” She stood up briskly and grabbed the basket at her feet, leaving the library and her stunned teacher behind in a few swift steps. Walking along a path through the palace that she knew too well, she soon found herself outside on the hill she’d been staring at for the entire morning.

“That’s better,” she murmured, kneeling on the grass and opening the basket. Taking out a hand-embroidered blanket, she spread it on the ground and proceeded to fish her lunch out from the basket and eat it. Mustard sauce on cheese and crackers was an unorthodox choice, but she enjoyed it.

“It’s a bit lonely by myself,” she said softly to no one, smoothing the folds of her dress. The food had been eaten and she clutched her hat idly on her lap. “Perhaps I should invite some of the girls from the palace next time.” Nu knew she wouldn’t, but it was a pleasant thought. When she shared her precious picnic times with someone, it had to be the special someone she would share everything else with.

Hopefully she would find him soon. The hill was really too nice to be kept to herself.