Slim the Princess Chapter Two

         Sun shone into my eyes through the window, waking me just as someone entered the room. It was maid Sara with a steaming cup of tea. If I didn't watch out, I could get used to having a maid.

"Good morning Lady Silvina" greeted Sara cheerfully.

"Good morning Sara. Remember, you can just call me Slim, I prefer it. Stretching away the last of sleep. I took the offering of tea while Sara looked about the room.

"What happened in here last night! Intruders! Robbers! Are they still about?" Sara shrieked as she noticed the disarray of my room from the night before.

"Stay back ladies" shouted my brother Ademus, sweeping into the room, "I will take care of them." He brandished his sword and looked entirely ready to fight off an army single-handedly. It would have been sweet if it wasn't so entirely unnessesary.

"There is no one here but us." I said calmly, still sitting in bed with the covers wrapped around me, sipping my tea. "I lost something important and had to find it. I'm afraid I got a bit carried away."

"Carried away! That is the understatement of the year. What are all these things! A sword? What is this doing here? What is this mess all over the carpet. It looks like blood to me." Ademus knew me too well, he was not buying into my story for an instant. "Poor Sara will have to clean up all this mess. I hope you are proud of yourself."

"What are you doing here anyway!" I yelled at Ademus trying to distract him from the sword and the blood by sheer force of will. I flung my dressing gown about me and flew out of bed. "Get out of here and leave a lady in peace to get ready for polite company."

"When I see a lady, I will make sure to take your advice." said Ademus in a huff. "you may not want to tell me what is going on , but father will hear about this you can be sure. I was going to remind you about your promise to help me find a suitable wife, but I think I may be better of with a lady strictly of my own choice." With that and a look at Sara that somehow managed to convey "good luck with her, she's impossible" Ademus left.

"Good riddance" I said as soon as he left the room. "I'm sorry Sara, I didn't mean to leave this mess for you, I will help you clean it up."

"Do not worry about it Slim," Sara said tentatively. "I don't mind cleaning this up, but are you sure nothing happened, are you positive that you are alright? You shouldn't be quite so hard on your brother, he is only worried about you. After all, there is blood on the carpet."

There was something about Sara that made it easy to trust her. So, I told her everything that had happened the night before. Everything, except the reason that Shawn had been in my room in the first place, which then caused her to come to her own conclusions. Conclusions that I did not correct due to the fact that I had promised Shawn not to expose his secret.

"So," gushed Sara, "Prince Shawn snuck into your room in the dead of night to ask you to attend the Summer Ball with him. That is so inappropriate and so...romantic. He is so much better looking than his brother. I can see why you would rather go with him instead."

I stopped her there. "It is only to avoid going to the ball with Reginald that I said I would go with Shawn. Do not read anything into the relationship that is not there!"

"Right" said Sara, nodding, a tad too smug. "Let us get you ready for the tea party this afternoon, it is to be quite the formal affair. The King has ordered twenty musicians to play, and the famous singer Damon Allus is going to sing his latest ballad. You must be prepared to meet people and make alliances. Perhaps, you can help your brother and prove his misgivings about you wrong, or, maybe you will make a match for yourself."

"I thought I was just supposed to parade about sipping tea and looking beautiful."

"My lady you are so funny, I can never quite tell when you are joking." Sara laughed at me and started hauling a heavy looking green dress toward me.

         Music was already softly wafting over the lawn when I arrived outside. The day was only slightly overcast and this did not seem to put the least damper on the festivities. It seemed that preparations for the Summer ball were in full swing as there were many more nobles in attendance of the King and Queen than there had been the day before. Titles had always confused me so much. My father was a King, but he was not THE King. There were several lesser Kings, such as my father, who traditionally gave their allegiance to the Kings of Aunassy to strengthen the power of the region as a whole. This also meant that the Kings of Aunassy were traditionally the richest in the land as they collected a share of taxes from all parts of the Kingdoms.

         I lifted my velvet skirt up slightly to avoid tripping on a particularly uneven bit of grass as I approached the main group of courtiers. I hesitated as I could not exactly decide who I should speak with first. My father was speaking with King Reginald and his immediate entourage. My brother was off to the side surrounded by a group of young ladies, some pretty, some not so much so. It seemed that Della and Stella were right about his popularity.
Spotting the refreshment table, I made the normal choice of the socially inept and headed straight toward it. Perhaps, if I had a drink in my hand and quickly sat down in one of the chairs provided for the enjoyment of the outdoors concert I would avoid making a fool of myself.

         I was focused entirely on deciding which of the fruits on the lace decorated table looked the sweetest when an arrogant voice at my shoulder erased all hopes my escaping unnoticed through the crowd.

"Lady Silvina, your beauty far exceeds the sweetest fruit in this spread. Even though you scorned my invitation to the Summer Ball I see that your suitor has left you all alone today. You are so lucky that I have a seat next to me in the front row available for the concert."

Rolling my eyes and fixing what I hoped was a pleasant smile on my features I turned around frantically searching with my eyes for any escape. I could not find one. Prince Reginald rat-face had cornered me and there was no way out. "Yes, I must be the luckiest girl in the world" I said in a sugary voice that would have made anyone who knew me well instantly suspicious.

The concert was not as big a torture as I had anticipated. The music was so good that I momentarily forgot where I was and started thinking of home and I wished my sisters were with me to enjoy it. They would have fallen in love with Damon Allus the singer, his voice had a untangible quality to it that improved the words beyond what they were meant to be.

Immediately after the last song, Reginald, grabbed my arm and insisted that I come with him to meet his friends. Dragging me over to a corner of the lawn where a group of young nobles had gathered.

"This are the top people here" Reginald told me as we walked up. "These are the only people who are really worth knowing."

"I don't see your brothers anywhere." I noted.

"That is because they are really quite unfit for polite company most of the time. Especially Shawn, he is a lost cause. Robin on occasion can be respectable, but he is mostly a bore, always going on about the plight of the peasants or some dull point of law." Reginald puffed as if he were the most interesting person born to the world. "I like to surround myself with more sophisticated individuals."

"I see, very smart of you."

"Yes, I am very smart. I always find a way to get what I want." Reginald looked pointedly at me but I choose to ignore him.

Reginald introduced his friends, Lady Olivia, Sir Morrose, and Lord Wethers. Promptly they said hello and then ignored me in their zest to return to their conversation which consisted of insulting and making fun of all the other guests at the party. After awhile, Lady Olivia turned her sharp eyes to me.

"Prince Ademus is your brother is he not?"

"Yes."

"Now that we are friends, perhaps you could introduce me." She gestured over to where Ademus was still surrounded by a group of admirers.

Lord Wethers laughed. "You get over heartbreak quickly don't you Olivia. Just yesterday afternoon your advances were rejected by Shawn and you swore off men forever, or don't you remember?"

"I wasn't rejected, It was just that he had already promised some poor soul that he would escort her and he was too honorable to forsake her. Otherwise, he would have accepted my proposal."

"Really Olivia," said Reginald,"I thought you had better taste than to swoon after my idiot brother."

         While the others bickered with each other I was trying to process this new information in my head. If Shawn had told this haughty Olivia person yesterday afternoon that he was going to the ball with someone else then there were two possibilities. One was that he had ditched someone else to take me to the ball. The other, more likely explaination, was that he had got out of an unpleasant situation by lying just as I had lied to Reginald. Then, I had solved two problems for him at once when I said that I would keep his secret in exchange for accompaning me to the Summer Ball. No wonder he went along with my plan so easily after I stuck him with a knife...twice. This was getting ridiculous. Life at court was too complicated for the likes of me. Suddenly, it was all too much, I just needed to be alone.

         Leaving these self absorbed nut cases without them noticing was pretty easy. I slipped behind a nearby laurel hedge and proceeded down the garden path. Hopefully, a walk would clear my head and help me to feel like myself again. I felt like my whole personality was being consumed by the falsehoods that I seemed to utter at every turn. Where was the girl that did what she wanted, that hated dressing up and acting like a lady. By pretending to be that which I abhored was I only fooling myself? I made a promise to myself that from this point on I would not go along politely with what I was supposed to be doing regardless of the consequences. I apologised silently to my sisters,Della and Stella, for not being able to live up to the image of the perfect princess that they had wanted me to portray. Hopefully, I would not embarrass them too badly.

Lost in thought, I had wandered into a whole different area of the garden where walls of verdant hedges turned this way and that opening into hidden nooks of sprays of vibrant vines covering statued fountains. In one such alcove there was an intricately carved bench where I decided to rest for awhile before facing the formal diner that evening. For a few minutes I thought the sound of the central fountain would lull me to sleep but then I heard voices coming from the other side of the hedge and my curiosity edged me awake.

I snuck around the hedge expecting to find the owners of the voices on the other side but, there was nothing but an old well.

The voices were coming from down the well.

"I don't want to be king" a faint disagreement came from down below. "I want you to be king. You are the one that is qualified. I am just a tool to achieve that end."

"Perhaps you are right." said the other mysterious voice. And as quickly as the voices had appeared, they disappeared.

         My shoulders shivered as the warming sun of the afternoon swiftly started to weaken. "Bloody hell, I am supposed to be getting ready for dinner." I swore out loud as I ran through the garden maze back to the castle, abandoning all thought of proper decorum in my haste not to be late.

         Sara was waiting for me when I arrived in my room. "Hurry, hurry! They are going to be starting the first course any minute and you must be present! This cream coloured silk will do perfectly."

"You want me to wear white to a dinner? It won't last through the first five minutes before I spill something on it."

"There is no choice. Now, hurry, hurry, hurry!" Sara looked more frantic than I felt. In sympathy for her, as my bad behaviour reflected on her abilities, I shoved on the white silk and ran out the door.

"Wait!" yelled Sara chasing me down the stairs, "You haven't got any shoes on, your hair is a mess and your undergarments are hanging out of the back of your dress because I still need to fasten up all the corsets for you." I stopped mid step and waited for the now breathless Sara.

"Perhaps," I suggested, "I could pretend to be a bit under the weather this evening. Could you sent a messenger to my father for me?"

"I will be your messenger." said Sara, looking visibly relieved. "Your brother's room is just a corridor away, I will catch him on the way to the dining hall. Now, get back to your room before anyone sees you in that state."

I almost made it back to my room without meeting anyone, not that I was being particularily careful. I was so happy to have escaped the formal dinner that I forgot I was a bit of a mess. It was only when I put a hand on my doorknob that I realized there was someone standing behind me.

"I had thought to escort you to dinner fair lady." the smarmy tone of Reginald was the last thing I wanted to hear, but somehow, it didn't surprise me. "It does not, however, appear that you are ready."

"I am unwell. Please do not judge me by my appearance." I lied. What had happened to my promise to not disgrace myself anymore with this type of ridiculous behaviour? Well, it flew out the window as soon as I heard Reginald's voice. The man just made me want to get away from him in the easiest possible way at the earliest possible time.

"I am not going to dinner this evening please, excuse me." I turned quickly opening and smoothly closing the door behind me with no further comment.

The cool feel of the heavy oak door at my back between me and the source of my discomfort made me feel immediately at ease, as if I had escaped a lecture, or worse.

Noone bothered me further that evening and I was quite alone until the following morning.

I got up early so as to go for a walk and escape the feeling of being surrounded by so many people. The castle was quiet at that time, but there was still some activity. I had the notion that there was always some busy soul up to some business even in the dead of night.

A rusty suit of armor gave me a bit of a fright as I walked along the long corridor whose windows overlooked the courtyard. Come to think of it, what was this armor doing in the middle of the hall...

"If thy thought a person flees
this spirit in metal
thou wiltst see
do not turn and run from me
for the future I will read"

The suit spoke. I froze. Was it a ghost? or was someone playing a trick on me?



More to come soon, I promise