Leave Merl to his work

"Thank you, Merl. I’ll take good care of your creation. Now I’ll leave you to your work."

"You are welcome to visit me any time you want, my dear girl." Merl told her without looking up from the book he was currently reading.

The princess left the old wizard’s lab and started slowly climbing down the stairs. As she did so she started thinking about what to do with the item inside the small velvet-colored box. A few possibilities came to her mind.

I could leave the pearl alone… but that would be a waste, especially considering all the effort Merl put into making it.

Or she could go back to her room and get one of her handmaidens to… put the pearl inside her (just thinking about it caused the princess’ face to turn bright red again). Earlier Patrice had mentioned something about errands before leaving so she likely would not be available for a while, but Lilly had enough other handmaidens she could ask for help, she just needed to be careful to pick one that would be discreet, lest some unwanted rumors began to spread. Or she could wait for Patrice to come back and ask her.

Maybe I should go visit mom and ask for her help. Surely her mother the Queen would be happy to help her and would be more discreet than any of the servants…

Maybe there was another possibility she was overlooking…

Finally Lilly reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped there as she tried to decide where to go next.