Universals

I'd like to share a short quote from Gale Sears's Jade Dragon Box :

"This was written a thousand years ago?"
Her uncle went back to his cooking.  "A little more than a thousand years."
Wen-shan silently read the final lines again.  "How did he know our hearts?"
"Do you think hearts have changed so much?"

Ah.  Just think about that for a minute.

This is the very point of Shakespeare's genius.  His stories hit on universal feelings - the kind that are the same today as they were a thousand years ago. 

Therefore, the prompt for this weeks is to choose a universal:
Love
Hatred
Revenge
Star-crossed lovers
Unrequited love

(This list is not all-inclusive, please feel free to use any universal you like.)

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My response:

(I wanted to pick something meaty, so I chose revenge.)

The locket burned against my skin, scalding with the punishment I'd receive if they found it in my hands.  It lodged just beneath my right breast, catching on the ribbing of my corset and pressing into my tender flesh. 

I ignored the discomfort.  I was lucky to have it at all.  Even Ladies in Waiting had to attend the Queen in pairs, to prevent this very possibility.  Lady Eve's complaints about her stomach led Queen Jalla to send her to the couch to lie down.  Then the cleaning servants came early, before Jalla had abandoned her sleeping chamber, and Jalla turned to scold them.  I slipped the gem-encrusted necklace from the table as if to lay out with Jalla's wardrobe, then slipped it down my own bodice as I straighted the Queen's waiting gown. 

If I was caught, it was the noose.  Not even my father could save me from a second offense against the crown.  The injustice grated against my nerves.  A second offense meant death.  But what if you never committed the first offense?

Lady Beal didn't even have the decency to admit she'd been the one who'd stolen the ruby earrings.  I'd seen her trying them on in the Lady's room.  When the King's Chief of Security threatened to search our chambers and belongings, she must have realized she wasn't going to get away with it, and returned them.  Just because I was the one who noticed they were back in their usual place in the Queen's drawer, I was accused of thievery.  I could still see the sly smile Lady Beal gave me as I was marched out of our chambers by a pair of the King's guards.

But Lady Beal could not hide what she didn't know she had.

I smiled to myself when I slipped away after breakfast.  Lady Beal had ten pairs of shoes, including a pair of riding boots she never wore.  The necklace thudded softly, then slid down the sole into the toe.

I'd been punished for a first offense I'd never committed.  Now it was her turn.