The
Twelve Stories of Christmas – Day 1 Cinder
I hurried
through the hallways of the palace. It was quiet, except for the blizzard
outside. The snow was swirling and the wind was howling, but the castle was
warm with its blazing fires and tight windows. It was a much older building
than my own home and had a tendency to be drafty and chilled in the winter, but
they always kept it livable because the large fireplaces built in every room. I
had grown use to it of course, after living here for ten years. I had been sent
here against my will, but at least I wasn’t alone.
I smiled at the
thought of my best friend. And though he had been sent here more against his
will than I had, he had been able to keep my spirits up and I in turn had tried
to do that same. Especially when the Corilish Royal family had taken such a
dislike to both of us. When that whole catastrophe had happened, we had written
the royal family back in Teresian that it had been the fault of both of us,
that way when the scolding return letter had been sent to us, it wasn’t so bad,
but truthfully it had been all him.
Apparently in
Corilan it was a huge insult to kiss a girl’s hand when introduced, which of
course was a normal practice in Teresian where both of us had been born and
raised. In fact, it had been such an insult that the eldest princess still did
not talk to either of us. The bid for the marriage contract probably should
have ended right there and then. After that, the bid for the second princess’s
hand was over. Although she had not been the one insulted directly, she would
not look at us and barely talked to us.
When I say us, I
mean us, because we were to both be educated in the same way and so we were
treated the same by all. The prince had to be educated for obvious reasons and
the servant, though less obvious, needed to know just as much as his prince.
One would be making the rulings and the other would be advising in the rulings,
so we were basically treated the same here with no distinction made between us.
Which meant the anger of the entire Corilan royal family was felt by both of us.
“I have a letter
here!” I announced when I entered our rooms.
“From home?”
“Of course! It
looks to be our Christmas letters. It is thick, which I would assume means that
it has your letters from your family and my letters.”
“Well, open it
then,” he laughed and jumped up, placing his book down. I ripped into it so
quickly that I almost ripped one of the letters as I did so. I laughed at my
clumsiness and limped over to where he stood and handed him his letters and
then took mine. I plopped down and began to read. I had just started on the
first one when a cleared throat from the open door alerted us to the presence
of someone. In the door, stood the princess that we had been sent here for and
had completely failed to gain.
To say that we
felt good will toward her was a lie. She had been rather vicious toward us,
especially when a young man at her court had caught her eye. What made it worse
was when she had heard that his family had been assured that if the marriage
contract failed he would gain her hand. After that there was absolutely no hope
for Teresian to gain her as a queen. Not that she was really worthy of it. She
was spoiled and selfish and in all honesty, had absolutely no interest in the
responsibilities of being a queen. I wondered what she could possibly be
wanting now. We were going home in less than two months, something that
everyone had been thankful for. So why she was standing here now, looking at us
almost with regret was beyond me.
“Prince Peter,”
she said bowing, “and Troy Peterson, I have come to wish you a Merry Christmas
and to give you both my deepest apology.” My eyebrows lifted and I turned to
see how he was reacting to all this. He was reacting the same way. We then
turned our attention back to the princess and waited.
“I know that I
was distant from you all ten years and in the last three I have been downright
mean at times. I just, well I was done. I was angry that I was the only sibling
that was being forced to have an arranged marriage and I really did not like
the idea of moving to another country.”
“You would have
been taken care of.”
“I know that.
Believe me, I really and truly know that I would have, but I guess I want love
in my life and you Prince Peter would never have been that for me.”
“You never
allowed me to be. You never even allowed me to get to know you and you most
certainly never allowed yourself to know me.”
This was
becoming a very awkward moment very quickly and I shifted on my feet to try and
relieve some of the anxiety.
“I know I know.
I am … sorry for that, but I cannot love you or allow myself too. Do you not
want love Prince Peter? Do you want an arranged marriage?” She asked, truly
confused.
“No, but I was
willing to for the betterment of my country.”
“Ah, well
forgive me, but my loyalty is to my country, not yours.” Her voice was stern,
but meant no insult.
“The marriage
would have strengthened our countries’ ties.”
“Why? So that
when Hiflin goes to war with you we would have been pulled in too?” There was silence
now, very little could have been said to defend the truth.
“That wasn’t the
reason we started this whole thing, not in the very beginning anyway.”
“I know,” she
said looking down, “but you know well that we are already very strong allies.
If you go war, we will help, probably not in troops but in money and supplies
perhaps.”
“Thank you.”
“Well, I hope
that you continue to have a very Merry Christmas and that when you return to
Teresian you may find someone to make you happy. As happy as I am with my
Zetler anyway.”
“Well, thank you
for the wishes, but I fear that for now I am done with marriages. I only wish
to rest and learn to be me, without the worry or the drama that comes with
securing a wife.”
The princess
looked confused and she tilted her head before asking, “Do you not want love?”
“I doubt I will
be able to have it princess. Since I cannot have you then I will be forced to
have someone of great wealth in my own court.”
“And you do not
believe that you could learn to love this person?”
“No, I have
learned to fear the woman who was raised with unlimited money.” Corilan had
great wealth and the princess was not lost on the comparison.
“And what of
you? You are a prince. You were raised with great wealth.” She bit out.
“True, but I was
treated like a pauper for the last ten years of my life and any greed that
money instilled in me has been driven out.” The princess looked down in shame
and I sensed that she was angry, but partially because she realized what had
just been said was true.
“Listen
princess, I want to leave with a good will between us. If this does not leave
us with good feelings toward one another, I at least would like to achieve indifference
with a willingness to help.”
“As do I Prince
Peter.”
“Then I suppose
that this conversation should end before anything else is said.”
“Yes, I believe
we should.”
“Well, then a
very Merry Christmas to you princess and I hope your marriage to this Zetler is
as perfect as you imagine.”
“And I hope that
though you look poorly upon love and marriage as of right now that you find it
anyway.” With that she left and we turned back and looked at each other.
“Well, let us
get back to our letters.” I said. He nodded and we sat. I was just settling in
to read my first letter when I saw that the original outer package that held
our letters was a letter itself.
“Well,” I said
picking it up, “looks like we missed one. Should I read it allowed?”
“Go ahead. After
what just happened I could use some good news.” I smoothed out the parchment
and put it back together so that I could read it.
Dear Peter and Troy,
I hope this Christmas letter finds you well. Your individual
letters are packed here and We hope that they bring you much joy. Your presents
are coming, but unfortunately we doubt that they will reach you by Christmas.
One of the presents took longer than was originally thought and so the packages
left later than we would have liked. There is only one more thing to mention
and that is this. Peter, the King’s health is failing and the doctor feels that
he needs to give up the throne within the next two years and then move to a
quiet estate. With that said, we want you to take the throne three Januaries
from now. However, the court demands that you have a queen by then, a decision
We agree with. So when you return this spring a competition for your hand will
begin. We will wait until you’re home before we give you more information, but
it has been decided that you will marry by the Lover’s Day following the
competition.
Best Wishes to you Both,
The Royal Family and the Peterson
Family
I looked up and
saw my shocked face mirrored back to me. Neither of us could believe it. Ten
years had just been wasted in a pointless marriage contract and now we were
about to be thrust into an even more humiliating situation. We just stared at
each other for what seemed liked forever and then we finally dropped down on
our seats. He left first to go lock himself in his room and I picked up the
forgotten letters before I too ran to my room, still in shock.
I did not know
what to do and I had no idea what was going to happen or how we were going to
handle this new development, but whatever the outcome, it was not going to be
the relaxing ending we had been hoping for.
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