Well, that wasn't what she would have done... no, that wasn't true at all, Lottie had to admit. That was exactly what she would have done. But that didn't mean it was what Harmonia should have done. She wasn't one of these people, she was their queen, and they wanted her on a pedestal, not amongst them. They wanted her close enough so they could call her theirs, but distant enough that she was a being of wonder and awe. That's how royalty worked.
But Harm wouldn't know that, she hadn't immersed herself with mortals the way that Philotes had. Very few gods did, but her duties required her to understand human beings better than most, she thought. In some ways, friendship could run much deeper than love, and though some might not believe it, she took what she did very, very seriously. So she'd seen the way people reacted to kings and queens, she'd seen the way kings and queens acted in front of people, and if she'd been asked for her advice, she would not have told Harmonia to do what she did.
It was done now, though, and honestly, any step forward was a good thing right now. Anything to get her out of her shell. If Harm was still just Harm, not Queen Harmonia, letting the little girl touch her stomach would have been exactly what Lottie would have expected of her. So she wasn't going to chide or give any indication in any way that it was the wrong move. Not now. Not later. Not unless Harm got back to truly being herself. And maybe not even then. So she just gave her friend a smile and a nod of encouragement.
“Your prince is saying thank you,” Philotes said to the child with a smile. “You should say you're welcome back so he knows you'd really like him to have the toy.”