Part Five

Lazily leaning against the door frame was Prince Joshua, third son of the King by his first wife. That amazing mop of curly red hair looking as soft as down and chocolate brown eyes. Tall. Broad shouldered. Gorgeous.

And he was laughing at her.

Tash silently screamed upwards in the vain hope that whoever had contrived to do this to her got a perforated eardrum.

The Princes shoulders were shaking slightly in his effort to reign in his laughter.

“This was obviously going to be one of his more amusing days”, though Josh.

Not only had a thief broken in and stolen his bitch of a stepmothers jewellery, which she was almost apocalyptic about, but now he had also found this crazy girl talking to herself in his bedroom. It was going to be an interesting day.

Tash’s eyes skimmed round the room checking for any obvious signs of her interference.

“Oh shit”, she screamed inwardly. The wash cloth had slipped from the contents of her bucket. And she still had his brush in her hand, oh gods, how embarrassing.

Other thieves are caught after long exiting chases. Not her. No. She gets caught talking to a ghost and clutching the Prince’s brush like some crazy love sick girl. Her only hope was that he hadn’t noticed the contents of the bucket yet and to get out as soon as possible.

“Gosh. Will you look at the time”, said Tash attempting to discretely cover the bucket and returned the hairbrush to the dressing table.

“I must be going. You know. Busy, busy, busy. Floors to mop. Desks to dust. Windows to clean. Sorry to disturb you, Your Highness. I’ll just be on my way.”

She continued in a bright breezy way which would have been more effective if her voice hadn’t squeaked like a prepubescent boys.

*clunk*

Her blood seemed to freeze as a necklace dislodged by the rapid movement fell to the floor. The diamonds sparkled brilliantly.

“Oh dear. Fancy that being there. I wonder where that came from?” Tash tried to look innocent, but her face seemed to be stuck on ‘Oh Shit!’

The Prince yanked the cloth away from the top of her bucket to reveal the glittering contents.

“Bugger” said Tash. Dropped the bucket on his foot. Shoved him over a conveniently positioned truck nearby and legged it.

As she raced away cries of “Guards! Guards! Catch her!” floated in her wake.

“That Freda’s a bloody jinx”, panted Tash.