Suddenly she sprang to her feet, rushed to her window, thrust her head out, and immediately came face to face with knight who was, at that moment, clearly more preoccupied with the dangers of ladder climbing rather than the unforeseen, but equally important dangers of socially anxious damsels rushing you while you climb said ladder.

“No thank you!” she said in a voice much more shrill and much, much louder than she intended.

“Ahh!” he said back. And with that, he went tumbling down the ladder while she ducked back down to her original position below the window.

After her heart had slowed to a pace that didn't threaten to break open her chest, she relaxed enough to gather her thoughts. The man had taken quite a tumble off the ladder. If he had injured or perhaps even killed himself, she realized with guilty hopefulness, she might not have to talk with him (almost certainly in the latter, though strange things do happen).

She risked another peak over the window. To her chagrin, the man did not appear to be injured, dead, or undead. In fact, he was already back on his, cursing in a dark tone, while his two squires beat the grass from his garments.

She ducked back down. Well, you don’t know…perhaps he-

But she had not time to think of another half-hearted excuse, when a voice called out in a strangely soothing tone

“Hello! Hello! Is this the heavenly estate of the 9th Princess of the Lord Commander of Waterlandia and other Waterpark Activities? ”

This was indeed her estate, and she was indeed the 9th princess of the Lord Commander of Waterlandia and other Waterpark Activities. She briefly considered not answering his challenge. But then, another idea came to her. One that struck her as being, pretty kinda good, actually.

She stuck her head above the window and began to splutter.

“No, I’m not here- I mean I’m not her- she isn’t here. This isn’t her castle. Sorry about that!”

Then she ducked back down beneath the window and held her breath.

“This isn’t her castle?”

“Nope!” she called out, not bothering to get up.

“Tell me” the voice said, and a bit of an attitude crept into it, so that the princess began suspect there was a flaw in her plan “tell me, do you know what the sigil of the 9th Princess of the Lord Commander of Waterlandia is?”

“Nope” she lied.

“It is a ferret lying on its back, curled in a circle, biting its own testicles.”

That was indeed her sigil. She was quite nervous now, and chose not to reply further. She had a feeling he was setting a trap, she might as well let him spring it.

After several moments passed the voice resumed, more haughty than before.

“Do you know which sigil currently occupies the space above your front gate?”

Damn, she thought, why have I never thought to take that down. I could have replaced it a long time ago with a sign that says “very sick, very contagious maidens within, definitely not suitable for marriage” or something.

It was too late for that. She had better think of something. She wracked her brain desperately and came up with nothing. She tried again desperately, and came up with nothing good. Still, she gave it a shot.

“Well I-

“It is a ferret lying on its back, curled in a circle, biting its own testicles!” the voice roared in mixture of savage vindication and somewhat forced indignation. The princess could hear the voices of the squires now.

“No, no sire, not like that-”

“-The hurricane breaks on the mountainside, sire, but the gentle wind carves canyons with time-”

They continued on like this for sometime. The princess waited in silence, terrified. Finally, the voice called out again, much more silky this time, but with just the tiniest hint of menace.

“Well, well have you nothing to say dear?”

When she spoke again, her voice was shaky.

“I-I was saying that, yes, that is her sigil and it is on this castle, but this isn’t her castle. Technically, this castle belongs to her father-”

–someone below made a “hmph” sound-

“-and anyways, she isn’t here right now.”

“Well, when does she come back?”

“Never?” the princess tried hopefully, though by now she knew they wouldn’t be leaving so easily. She heard them muttering amongst themselves. After a few moments, the voice called out again

“Could you come out where we could see you? I only had a cursory glance at you, my dear.”