I fumbled with the pocket mirror that Vaughn gave me. The gold piece was very simple, it was a circle with no center. I had never seen someone waste a perfectly good center of a gold ear piece.
“What am I to do now? I have nowhere to stay…” I pulled Remmy to chest and rubbed my chin on the top of her head. I was able to sleep at the foot of a tree just fine last night due to the adrenaline but I was not a fearless person.
“Well you could always pay the ole’ king and queen a visit.” Vaughn had the best pondering face.
“Yeah! They always have important royal guest stay with them.”
I bid farewell to Vaughn and Skip late that afternoon. I had almost parted ways with Remmy but Vaughn was keen on plumping her up for dinner, so our journey together wasn’t over.
The castle wasn’t hard to find at all. Unlike my family’s castle, it was not nicely tucked away behind a forest and a wall. This one was placed in the center of everything. You couldn’t travel straight across without hitting the palace gates.
I wandered up to the guards at the east entrance and explained my story. Hopefully they knew a princess when presented with one.
“A princess you say?” I gave him my most confident nod.
“Young lady, we don’t allow peasants inside the palace unless they are here to clean.” The other guard was not as friendly.
“But I am!” I stood my ground.
“Sure, sure you are. Now go run off or come back with a letter of employment.” He rudely pointed in the direction I had come from.
“I mean it! If you don’t let me in you’ll get the king and queen in trouble for rejecting a lost princess!” I was determined to be as over the top and full of myself as I could be. That seemed to signify royalty to some people.
“For the love of God, let her in. If she isn’t who she says she is then they will have her thrown out.” I liked the other guard. I followed them in through the palaces beautiful winding gardens. My palace seemed to think a repetitive collection of shrubs was a garden. Theirs had beautiful flowers, ponds, and fountains everywhere. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
The inside of the palace was almost as beautiful as the gardens. It was more exotic then beautiful. Well, the exoticness was what made it so beautiful. There were huge arching windows that let in sunlight in every hallway we entered. The halls were adorned with huge urns overflowing with bright flowers. Marble floors winded down halls and up stair cases. Everything in the main floor was soft. The cream color that the floor and walls gave off put me at peace.
“Wait out here.” The guard snapped at me before ducking through beautifully carved solid oak doors. My parents have no taste, so every single detail was marvelous to me. I started cramming as many ideas as I could into my mind about how to re decorate the palace.
“You going in too young lady?” I jumped at the sudden company. I slowly turned my attention the voice. He appeared to be around Nanny’s age. His eyes were permanently smiling just like my fathers.
“Well?” He pushed his black hair over his shoulder. I nodded yes and followed him in. I’d never seen a man as elegant as him. I’d also never seen a guy own having longer hair then my own.
The doors led straight into the throne room. Unlike mama and papa’s throne room, the windows didn’t cast cloudy colored lights from stained glass into the room. Fresh warm sunlight seeped through the long windows here.
The thrones were grand and rose to the ceiling. Velvet and rubies covered them perfectly. Mama and Papa’s thrones were plain mahogany that meekly reached for the ceiling. No velvet, no gold. The mahogany thrones might as well have been coffins waiting to claim them. They really did look that depressing.
Now, it may seem like I was living in a dark cold dungeon. Actually no, I might as well have been. This palace was beautiful, bright, warm, and lively. My palace was practically a stone dungeon compared to this place. And I always thought it was my dead end life that made me depressed.
“Girl! Yes you, come closer!” Her voice was full of frustration. I inched closer to her. I think you could tell from her voice alone that she was queen. She was about my mother’s age, perhaps older. But she stood apart from mama, unlike mama she wore her age with confidence. Despite her collection of wrinkles her spirit was still youthful and strong. Mama should really meet this queen.
Her icy blue eyes drilled into my own green eyes. She took in every detail, from the birds nest I call hair to the pattern on my riding cape. I on the other hand willed myself to look at her face. Her dress was outrageous at best. I could look at it for hours and still not be able to correctly count how many animals sacrificed their life’s to be pinned to her skirt.
“A princess? What on earth made you believe you are a princess?” I was only adding to her frustrations.
She was my only chance at sleeping on an actual duck feather bed. I had to prove to her I was at least possibly royal.
I stood up as straight as I could, squaring off my shoulders just as Nanny had taught me. “You need me here. What of the off chance that you are wrong?”
I made sure my voice came off as confident and annoying as possible. “you could be starting the next great war here!” She chuckled a little at my bold statement. I watched very carefully as she glided around the main platform where her throne and husband sat.
She stopped and turned to me smiling. “My word, you are a very bold young lady. You just might be worth keeping around in my court.” She laughed and glided back down to me.
Her eyes reexamined me from head to toe. She reached her long slender fingers out to touch the clasp of my ridding cape. “If it interest you, there is a way I’d let you stay here for the night.”
I didn’t stop to think. “Yes, whatever it is I’ll do it!” I searched her eyes but they were glued to the clasp. She ran her milky white thumb over the surface feeling the small drawing engraved on it. Perhaps she thought it was stylish in some way?
She left the clasp alone and walked away. No one had ever stopped to notice something as insignificant as the clasp on my riding cape. It may be unimportant, but picking out my riding cape was a really big deal for me. Each year my mother and Nanny would order my clothes to be made. At some point I grew to appreciate the one item of clothes I could pick out. Of course in all her wisdom, my mother only let me pick out the one item of clothes I never actually get to wear.
“If you want to stay the night you have to help my son get married.” At first her words seemed simple. In my own bout of stupidity I gladly agreed. But as the minutes following played their selves out I realized the complexity of the deal I’d just made.
How in the world was I supposed to marry off a prince? I had just become the poster child for worst royal offspring ever.
The elegant man turned out to be the Prince’s care taker, his nanny, or as the queen called him, Manny. His real name though, turned out to be Castor. Years of handling a young royal had definitely built up his patience.
It was Castor that guided me down the long brightly lit hallways until we reached the west wing. The young Prince had been given a nice apartment of sorts to live in. Something my parents would never have allowed for me. Give a young lady privacy? Now that was just plain crazy.
Despite my jealousy, we trudged through countless bolts and screws to reach his tower. It seemed that a carpenter had merely taken his tools and thrown them all over the floor. Then again why would a carpenter dump his precious tools on the ground and why wouldn’t they be picked up?
Castor seemed unfazed by all of it. He walked right up to the door and grabbed the door knob. Without warning to either party he threw the doors open letting rays of light shine in my eyes.
“Hey, it’s the thief!”
(Update complete)
I stood there amongst piles of broken toys and gears with my mouth wide open. It was him.
It was the jerk who sold me out to Vaughn and Skip. He was perched on a window seal with a smug smile I just wanted so smack off his face. Never had I met someone who could invoke such anger in me with a mere look.
“I trust you’ve met Prince Tristan… umm, Miss…..-?”
“Celia, my name is Celia.” If I was to help Tristan be married I couldn’t raise suspicion. Though many Princesses knew me well in the form of letters, no one had actually seen my face.
“Oh yes, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Prince Tristan before,” I said very carefully. Tristan let out a loud scoff.
“It did bring me pleasure seeing you hauled off by the guards.” If looks were as powerful as actions, Tristan’s head would be laying halfway across the room. I clenched my jaw to keep from saying anything in front of Castor. I think he and the Queen thought my over the top imitation of a princess matched Tristan’s rotten attitude. In her mind I would somehow be able to successfully handle being in the same room as him. Oh my was she wrong.
“Well, good luck Miss. Celia.” Castor’s eyes never faltered and with one last smile he glided out of the room.
I watched him leave until I heard the soft tap of the stair well doors shut close. I whipped my head around to glare at him.
“So… how’d you get away? You are some criminal Miss. Celia!” While he was busy laughing at me I crouched down and started swooping nuts and bolts into my arm. “Really, how stupid could you be! Eating an apple like that in plain sight!”
I chucked a bolt at his head. To my disappointment it only glazed the side of his barrette. “Hey!”
“Listen here Tristan,” I growled. “I’m here to make sure you are ready to meet the Princesses.”
“I’m not perpetuating the bids.” He said flatly.
Ignoring him paved on. “As is, no one in their right mind would take you.”
“Good.” He laughed and jumped off the window seal.
“No, not good. You need to be walking out of the palace doors tomorrow morning ready to charm your way into a marriage.” I started to clear a path on the ground with my foot. He really did have a lot of nuts and bolts on the floor. “Now the charming part is going to be really… really… really hard for you.”
“What you think I can’t be charming?” He laughed. I made my way towards the window. “Oh I know you can’t be charming.”
I felt a strong pinch on either side of my waist and I screamed. I turned around to Tristan laughing hysterically. He laughed even harder when he saw my face.
“This is really helping your ‘I can be charming’ case.” Tristan gasped for air as he tried to stand up straight. He looked away shaking his head slightly. I could feel a permanent bad feeling settling into my stomach.
“Oh I can do charming.” Tristan walked right up to me. “I’ll do this completing bids thing,” That feeling shrunk for a second. “But…” Nope, never mind, it got bigger.
“What could you possibly have to add?” I rubbed the temples of my forehead. I almost felt bad for everyone Tristan had ever met.
“I’ll do this thing…. Only…” The smug smile returned to his face before he jumped back onto the window seal.
“Only if?” I prompted him.
“You come with me Miss. Celia.” Before I could get a word in he pushed open the window and disappeared from my view.
I grabbed as many nuts and bolts as I could hold in my hand and ran to the open window. “You jerk!”
Tristan waved at me from the gardens below before bolting down the path. I threw as many nuts and bolts as I could at him before he disappeared behind the bend.
