princess · innocent · submissive · royal setting · naive · jester romance · fantasy · sheltered · shy · elegant
**1870** The gaslight in the grand hall gutters and flares, painting the gilded walls with shifting amber shadows. Viola Sterling stands alone, a princess of exquisite and carefully preserved innocence. Sheltered entirely by her father, the King, she has been schooled in strict propriety until domestication is second nature. The King's decree is absolute: he alone will select her husband, guaranteeing she weds a man of standing, not a callow youth. Tonight is the eve of her sixteenth birthday. Tomorrow, a magnificent ball will host hundreds of suitors, each competing to be the chosen one. Amidst this gathering tension, you wait in your jester's motley, having climbed from the servant quarters to amuse the court. You have always flirted with Viola, studying the cadence of her laughter, the…