The one sound in the world I despise is the ringing of bells. I love the sound of church bells, and of silver bells on a sleigh, but one bell causes me to cringe. And that bell is ringing right now.

"Maleen!! Maleen get in here right now!" my mistress screams from a room off in the distance. I grimace at the high pitched voice as I was washing a serving dish. I tried to ignore it, to continue my chores, but it kept screaming. Finally Theresa came into the kitchen looking frazzled.

"Please, just tend to your mistress so she will shut that mouth of hers. I'll finish the breakfast dishes, just please, she's scaring the stable boy," Theresa begged. I sighed and dropped the dish cloth into the water and dried my hands on my apron. Theresa gave me a silent 'thank you' as I exited the kitchen to tend to the petty needs of my mistress.

Inside a large room in a drafty old castle sat my mistress on her bed, combing her ugly blonde hair. Most princesses had lovely golden hair that shone like the sun. My princess, she resembled a sheep with her almost white blonde hair. I curtsied upon entering her room to do her bidding.

"Maleen, finally. I thought you went deaf. I need you to go to market to fetch me a gown for a ball my mother is throwing in the next week. Get ribbons, thread, and what ever else I will need to look stunning. The Prince of Frell is coming, and he's looking for a bride. Just what I need, a prince charming. He'll be instantly smitten with me, obviously, but I do want to look my best," the horrible witch said as soon as seeing me, not even looking up from her feet. How conceited she was. She, by the kindest terms, was quite ugly. Her eyes bulged out a bit, like a bug's, and her chin was some what crooked. I just smiled and nodded my head to her, not that she would have seen. I guess the silence alarmed her because she looked up at me for the first time. "Mind that you don't actually touch my dress with your hands... or body. I don't want it to be messed up."

"Yes, your highness." I curtsied again. "Anything else you wish for me to do?"

"Not right now, I'll just ring the bell if I need you again, just listen for it this time," the princess responded. She turned back to her hair. I exited the room quickly and retreated back to the kitchen.

Theresa was standing at the tub of hot water when I stormed inside. I grabbed the dish cloth and started working beside her.

"I hate her. 'Maleen, brush my hair. Maleen, draw a bath. Maleen, kill that spider. Maleen, lick my boots.'" I imitated the princess. Theresea erupted into giggles, trying to hide her face with the dish cloth. "You're lucky to be a scullery maid. You don't have to deal with her personally. How is it that a girl that is the same age as I is so helpless? She ordered me to buckle her shoes. I ought to do what the queen of Trelle did to Snow-White. Just tie her corset too tight and kill her."

"Don't repeat that, they will throw you in a barrel naked with nails and run you around the world," Theresa hissed under her breath. She looked around the kitchen, as if she expected the queen herself to be standing behind us.

"I don't care. I hate it here. They treat us like dogs. Hell, they treat their dogs better than us. Some days, I just think of leaving. Just running away, but they would catch me for sure. They own me."

"Own you?"

"When I was seven years old, my father sold me to the royal family as a slave, because he wanted money and status. He gambled it all away almost immediately. So I've been with this family, waiting on the princess since I was little. Seven years next month. And that brat Natalie has been bossing me ever since, as though I were her puppet."

"You'll be free soon won't you?"

"No, even if I was, I have nothing and no where to go." I tossed the dish cloth into the water and turned away. "I have to go to the market, to pick up a gown for her highness. I'll see you tonight to prepare supper."

I went outside to the stream behind the castle to wash my face. I needed to get out of the castle walls, just to relax before I took the trek down to the marketplace. I kneeled down, and dipped my cupped hands into the cold stream. The soot from cleaning out the fireplace in the main hall came off with black water dripping down my face. I closed my eyes until I felt as though I was completely clean. When I opened, the reflection of Prince Nathaniel was in the stream. I pounced up to my feet to bow.

"Good morrow Mistress Maleen, you may go back to what you were doing," He greeted. The tall lean boy sat down near where Maleen was and slipped his shoes off. He dipped his feet into the cool water. "I take it my sister has been at your ropes end again?"

"Yes, your highness."

"Sit down, rest a bit. I heard you were going into town, so I wish to accompany you. I wish to pursue the life of a free man before this ball my mother is throwing. She wants to marry me up. As well as my horrible sister." He kicked his feet up and down.

"You are sure to find a lovely suitor."

"Well, that's not what I want though. Everyone has dreams, and our birthrights get in the way."

"I know what you mean, milord." I sat down beside him and placed my feet in the water too, for I had no shoes to take off. The prince was much kinder than his other family members. He cared for the people dearly, and didn't think twice about social status and wealth. He made weekly trips into the town and country to help his subjects. I liked him best out of everyone in the castle. He always snuck treats to me when we were younger. He tells me that I'm more of a sister to him that Natalie is.

"Well, shall we head into town?" He asked as he pushed himself off the ground. I nodded my head and he grabbed my hand to help me up. We walked back to the castle to get into the carriage. This was much better than walking to town.

"So Maleen, now that we're away from prying ears, what tricks have you played on my sister this week?" Nathaniel asked while he straightened his doublet.

"I was at my ends mean the other day when she kept insisting that her dress wasn't tight enough, so I pricked her with a pin hoping she would pop. Then I slipped a dead rat into her bed, and when she screamed for me to come get it out I commented that her smell must have killed it. But the week is still early, I still have time to play some more," I said, humorously. He laughed as I made a cynical face and pretended to beat on an invisible princess.

"Maleen, never lose your humor. When I become King, you will be my hand maid and tell me jokes all day."

I thought a gentle man like himself, would have freed me by then. No, for I will be the court jester of my great friend for the rest of my life.