Chapter 1
"HERE!" I jolt upwards as the door bursts open. The head cook, a big woman with welts on her face as big as the rest of her, barrels into the kitchen and dumps a plentiful sack of potatoes on the table. The wooden legs creak under the weight. "Make yourself useful and peel these." She pauses and looks around the room carefully, making sure no one important is around, and then drops her voice to a whisper. "There are special guests coming to the castle tomorrow." A warning.
"Guests?" I frown. "But I didn't hear of anyone visiting the palace this week." And then add 'Ms. Gretchen' at the end as to not to sound rude. Though it really doesn't change the fact that she looks at me as if I was some blob of month old cheese she found behind one of the stoves.
"Yeah well, these invited themselves. Think they are all that just because their daughter is engaged to the prince. Ha! What a spoiled brat she is."
The image of long blonde hair and light blue eyes form in my mind making my heart beat painfully hard against my chest. "He proposed?" I bite my lip hard. The disappointment in my voice is embarrassingly obvious.
"He might as well have. He didn't seem annoyed by the arrangement."
"…to Diaspro?"
"Who else has had their eyes on him for so long?"
I keep my eyes cast down as I pull a white cloth from one of the pockets of my long skirts and use it to tie my long, red hair back. The potatoes are full of dirt and grime, obviously recently picked. I wipe the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand.
From the corner of my eye I notice that Ms. Gretchen is staring at me, and at that moment I know that she knows that I know, because, obviously, fate is against me. "Don't tell me you expected for the Prince to swoon over you."
My eyes widen.
Oh no…
Ms. Gretchen starts laughing hard and I instantly feel my face heating up. "Get over yourself girl and get back to work. It's not your place."
My face burns with shame as I grab another potato.
As if it wasn't enough to know I stood no chance.
As if it wasn't enough to know he doesn't even know I exist.
I try to keep as much distance as I can from M. Gretchen, which isn't that hard considering that the kitchen is huge.
Thank goodness for that.