"Your highness, your face has been grazed by a branch," said Meili. "Sit down and let me treat it."
The prince slid down and sat beside the stele and Meili fetched some packed snow. She knelt down beside him and pulled a handkerchief from her décolletage. It was wet through so there was no need to dampen it, but its hiding place on her body was not lost on the prince, and he reddened as she gently wiped his face with it.
She wondered why he was embarrassed. Was it because she was so close to him? Well, it couldn't be helped. She must clean the wound and she needed to be able to see it; it simply couldn't be done from a distance.
She leant in closely and applied the handkerchief filled with ice to the graze, cleaning and soothing it. He stared closely at her face, surrounded by a fur-lined hood, mere inches from his.
She was too damnably beautiful for her own good. No wonder her parents had locked her up in the inner courtyards.
