"Yes, I rode in it once." Her eyes were still down. She wasn't ever inclined to speak of her childhood, her home, or what ruling was like, they weren't topics she ever let others broach. "I suppose that is why you like it very much then. It must seem safe to you." But it was still modern, and this place she was sure, would never feel completely right to her.
"At court... after... after my mother..." She didn't need to explain what she meant by that. "I was often not looked on well, so I rode. To be away from it, for as long and as much as I could. It is a different thing, to be the child of a King, and to be a child in disfavor for an action that can never be fixed is something else again. And court... you have no notion of it, so I find. It is a thousand people living inside a palace." She laughed a little, but it was mostly mocking. "People say my staff here is impressive. But Hampton in the summer was a place that teemed with life. I have twice this number in my stables let alone an entire household. But..." her fingers were still tightly holding the material, because the tension didn't slip out of here. "You cannot dress or eat without the help of someone. You're never alone, and you're never at peace either. They watch, they whisper and so often they conspire -- and royals are harsher to their family than anyone, because family poses a threat, not a comfort when leaders are decided through bloodlines." Her fingers scrunched up in her skirt. "So for awhile, I could ride away. To empty fields, and I could not care about what things were said of me in the dark. It was empty, and it was quiet."