What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball

by Elisabeth Aimee Brown

His touch is both strong and gentle. Warmth sparkles up my arm and lodges itself firmly in my heart. Wonderful. Now I can never wash this hand again.

Lucas bends to help, fingers grazing mine as we reach for the same one. Well, there goes that hand too.

All I’ve known—all I’ve been taught to know—is work and stubbornness and a bitterly proud self-reliance. I can’t change my whole worldview just because one man thinks he can solve any problem.

“People were meant to rely on each other. Life is more than bargains.”