Steffi.Labbeagle wrote:
I was inside the carriage with my parents on the way back from the lunch with Princess Parsnip- Paisley! Her name is Princess Paisley! It went all right, the lunch I mean. I sat beside the princess, and she was… interesting I guess… Who am I kidding; she was horrible. All she did all afternoon was complain and whine and be annoying. Whenever I talked to her about anything, she would change the subject to herself. What she did the day before. What her favourite things are. How much she hated the food her chef made. How her parents could never satisfy her.
I’m seriously rethinking marrying her, no matter how much my parents want me to. They won’t have to live with her whining and whinging and cater to her every need for the next who-knows-how-many years. She’s a total brat, and I’m not sure how long I could survive her.
“So Lukas, did you like Princess Paisley?” my mother asked hopefully. My father pretended not to care, but I could tell he was listening. I thought about my answer, and finally decided to just be honest.
“No, not at all. To be frank, I found her rather irritating.” My mother was taken aback, but raised an eyebrow when I sighed. “But I’ll marry her eventually, if that’s what you want me to do-”
“Oh, that’s wonderful dear!” my mother squealed. My father smiled, but tried to play it off. I knew they would react that way. No matter how much I hated her, they didn’t care as long as I agreed to marry her eventually. Marriage had nothing to do with love. I was pretty sure that they didn’t even love each other.
I just sat and stared sadly out the window, wondering how I was going to spend the rest of my life with such an awful person.
As we got closer to our castle, I happened to see Micah outside. He was carrying a bucket of horse feed, using both hands because it was too heavy. I smiled at the sight. He saw the horses, which made him smile, then he saw the carriage they were pulling, which included me looking out the window. His smile dropped again when he saw me smiling at him. I waved at him, still beaming. He gave me a small smile and let go of the feed bucket to wave back, but it was too heavy for one hand and he immediately fell over with the weight of the bucket. If I’d been outside, I probably would have heard his cute little gasp, but I was satisfied with the adorable expression on his face as he fell onto the ground. I laughed as the stable boy whipped his head up towards me. I continued to beam at him as he smiled again sheepishly.
“Who was that?” my mother asked. I had half a mind not to tell her; I already felt as though Micah was my secret. I didn’t want to share him with her. But I also knew better than to ignore or lie to my mother.
“Micah. He’s a stable boy.” I said, watching his figure fade away in the distance. My mother huffed, and I looked over at her. She was giving me a look that clearly screamed ‘I disapprove’.
“Why are you interacting with a stable boy?” she demanded. I shrugged indifferently.
“He’s nice. I like him.” I stated simply. My mother shook her head.
“No. You can’t speak with stable boys. We have dukes and duchesses and princesses and other important people to talk with. You don’t need dirty horse boys,” she sniffed.
I couldn’t help but think that he actually appeared extremely clean, and that even without speaking to him much he was probably ten times more stimulating than any of the dukes or duchesses or important people, and especially the princesses. But I just smiled at my mother and nodded, knowing better than to argue with her.
Later that evening, before supper, I was sitting on my windowsill, watching Micah ride around the same brown horse that he’d been hiding behind earlier that day. He looked stunning, galloping around on the chestnut horse in the late-day sun. Despite what my mother said, I wanted nothing more than to be out there with the beautiful boy.
I heard my chamber room door open, and I turned to see Emerald, my maid, walking in. She noticed me and gasped softly.
“Oh, Prince Lukas! I didn’t realize you were in here! I’m terribly sorry, I’ll go now-”
“No, wait,” I said. The maid stopped and turned back to face me.
“Yes, Your Majesty?” she said, curious clear in her voice. I turned back to the window to watch the boy again.
“I think I would like to start taking riding lessons,” I said simply.
Emerald walked over to the closest window, pulling back the curtains. When she saw the boy riding around on the big brown creature, she smiled to herself.
“I’ll make sure it happens, Your Majesty.”
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