“His brows rose. “And how is it that you have come to be such an expert on scrapes and bruises?”“I’m a governess,” she said. Because really, that ought to be explanation enough.”

“I’m done,” Bryce said, blood dribbling out of the corner of his mouth. “My bruises have bruises and those are quickly forming more bruises.”

“You ought to go now before she wakes up,” Hattie said. She handed her daughter to Pearl. I’m in the floor, she thought.”

“Were you her lover? Did she cheat on you?” He paused. Rhoswen glared at him but remained silent. He said, “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that’s a no. Did she really have to get rid of her servant just because I came along? Wait, here it comes again: no.”

“she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered;because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind thescreen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved tobecome butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or eversometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.”

“The little prince went away, to look again at the roses."You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."And the roses were very much embarassed."You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.”