Hazel Katie
A tale of the five hundred kingdoms
Prologue
King Malcom of Brucemuir, a suitable time after the death of his first wife, had sought a replacement who would "cheer us all up a wee bit." He thus dis-commoded his household and five-year-old only daughter with a woman who was unlike the late queen in almost every respect. Queen Martha was dark, buxom, and energetic, where Queen Tovelise had been pale, slender, and serene. Her abiding frivolity might have been more "cheerful" than her predecessor's thoughtful care for her people, but it had little else to recommend it.
However, as King Malcom philosophically told himself, there were far worse fates than managing a well-meaning, but silly, wife. He quietly hired a competent housekeeper to see to the domestic side of things and filled Queen Tovelise's place on the Privy Council with one of her aunts. Queen Martha had never aspired to those particular duties, and she settled down happily to enjoy wearing very fine clothes on all state occasions and attempting to make at least a few of the rooms in Castle Bruce more fashionable. She petted her husband when he was at home, and her daughter and stepdaughter when he was not. She, too, thought things could be far worse. The society was not what she had been used to in her native city of Piktenburg, but here she was Queen, while there she had been the widow of a Viscount's second son, and with no great store of character or accomplishment to make up for her mediocre rank.
As far as King Malcom's daughter Katherine was concerned, the best thing about her new situation was the arrival of a stepsister. Queen Martha's first marriage, to one Sir Benjamin MacLaird, had produced a daughter only a little older than the princess. Though this girl was, inconveniently, also named Katherine, King Malcom considered the acquisition of a suitable companion for his daughter to be one of the advantages of the match.
Some of the other courtiers had their doubts. Though they shared a name and good intentions, the two stepsisters were otherwise so unlike in appearance and temper as to make it a matter of wonder that they were related at all, even by marriage. The Princess Katherine was a sweet, shy, golden-haired beauty, a graceful dancer and a docile student, gentle with her playmates and always eager to soothe a hurt. The closest she ever came to losing her temper was uttering a bewildered, "That isnae kind," if one of her friends teased another too sharply. Her new sister Katherine MacLaird, by contrast, had her mother's dark hair and eyes, and was bold and lively. She was quick at her studies, the better to get them over with as soon as possible and do something more interesting, and her dancing might better be described as "vigorous" than graceful. She lost her temper frequently and loudly, and her most common plaint was, "That isnae fair!" If the perpetrator of the unfairness was reasonably close to her in age, she would follow this up with a pinch or a blow, for emphasis.
Nonetheless, and despite their differing natures, the two of them grew to be great friends and learned to love each other better, perhaps, than their parents did. King Malcom's Katherine thought her new sister quite the most amazing creature she had ever beheld, a source of continual wonder. In turn, Queen Martha's Katherine wished to make a pet of every creature that crossed her path, from sowbugs to oxen (the sowbugs generally did not survive her affections), and had promptly made a pet of her new five-year-old Royal Stepsister as well, even going so far as to call her "kitten," in private.
In public, the difficulty with the names took a little time to resolve. The girls could have been known by their middle names, but since the Honorable Miss MacLaird was Katherine Martha, after her mother, that would have also caused confusion. In the end, it was the late Queen Tovelise who provided a solution, at least in a manner of speaking. She had brought with her to Bruicemuir a number of her most loyal personal servants including a Nanny, and they, like she, were Dansk speakers who were unable to pronounce the "th" in "Katherine" and had always called the young Princess, "Katriner." Trina, then, she became.
Queen Martha's daughter had had nursemaids from various of the Trullney Islands, who called her "Katie." Queen Martha thought this a bit too common for the granddaughter of a Viscount, especially now that she was also the stepsister of a Princess, but Katie herself had no care for such things, especially at seven-and-a-half, so by the time either of them were expected to attend any formal occasions, they became Princess Trina and Mistress Katie, and they were all but inseparable.
By the time they were young women, Mistress Katie sang while Princess Trina played the harp. Princess Trina soothed the feelings of anyone Mistress Katie had wounded unthinkingly by her want of tact, while Katie in turn terrorized anyone who tried to bully or tease her gentle little sister. When the weather was fine enough, Trina painted the mountainous landscape from the castle balcony, accompanied by some of the castle gentlewomen, while Katie, usually accompanied by a guard but sometimes by a poacher, went rambling about that same landscape on her mule, learning whatever the crofters and the hunting masters would teach her about the wild plants and creatures that might be found in the woods and meadows nearby. Katie would bring some of those plants back to the "proper ladies" on the balcony to be immortalized in paint. When the weather was wet, as was more usually the case, the two lasses shared a fondness for exciting ballads and romantic lyrics, as well as music and dancing. All was well between them.
Until the Princess Trina turned sixteen.