"Ow, dang it Chloe that hurt. Cant you watch what your doing for Christ's sake?" I bit the inside of my cheek and ran the comb through her wet hair, again. "So, what news has Charles brought me this morning?" I cleared my throat and took a hair tie from the counter, twisting her hair into a bun. "Nothing yet Ma'am. I haven't heard from Charles at all this morning. But if you like I can call for him now." She nodded and unfortunately I still had her hair in my hand. She winced and reached out to my wrist, she squeezed tight. I felt a whimper escape my lips as it began to sting, seeing the sparks dance in her eyes. "Watch it." She hissed and let go of me, and got up to walk over to the bell, summoning Charles.

Charles was the butler, apparently his parents already new the fate of their beloved baby boy. But at 6 years old his father died in a blacksmith accident he hasn't told me of, and is keeping it that way, so now his mother and him are living their own simple life. He earns enough for the both of them, but I help them as well, sowing clothes for him and his younger sister, Charlotte. Char to over his father, brown curls and gold eyes, tan skin, a good 5'4 in height. He was close to my age, (I'm 19), him at 20.

He stood here in front of Victoria, standing a few inches away from me. "What news do you have for me?" She asked, checking out her new and improved polished nails. " Your Cousin Sir. Derek will be coming for a visit soon. He sent a letter confirming of his arrival in the next day or so." She groaned and rubbed her eyes. "Must he really? I don't enjoy his presence as I do with Simons. But I suppose you already told him, am I right?" "Yes Ma'am I did. Sir. Derek said to tell Lord. Simon first." I saw Char close his eyes for a brief few seconds, he didn't like Victoria as much as any of us did. "Of Corse he would. Because he and my darling Brother have so much in common." She sneered.

"Very well, Charles you may return to your duties, take Chloe with you to, I don't want to look at her at the moment thank you." She turned back to her image in the mirror, oblivious to my glare I was shooting at the back of her head. Charles turned, grabbing my elbow and leading us out the door. As soon as it closed though, he slipped his arm in with mine. "So, I'm guessing another fight came between you two again?" He questioned, raising his eyebrows at me. "Like there needed to be one for her to slash out at me." I snickered. I felt him pat my cheek. "Now now Chloe dear, you know how unattractive that is. I would have thought you would know better, especially with Derek visiting soon." He teased, smirking at my bashful face. "Char! Come now! You know people may hear you! This isn't exactly the most quiet kingdom. Its bad enough I have to get the endless teasing from Lilith and Simon. Please don't make me deal with it from you as well." I begged, already seeing the answer clear on his face before he could even respond. "What fun would that be? We always tease them that they would make the best unnatural couple in the whole world." "And we get in trouble afterwards because he is the King to be you know. Just in case you had happened to forget." He bumped his hip with mine, and suddenly I didn't want to go back to the kitchen to fix breakfast, instead I had something else better to do. "Hey Char, can we just got to your place? I have some dresses for Charlotte. And a few skirts for your mother. Please? I just want to take a break from work already. I mean, we do it every day!" I smiled up at him sweetly, batting my eye lashes. "Ugh, Chloe you know I hate it when you do that." He whined. "So is that a yes?" "Yes, as long as we stop by the kitchen first." It was my turn to whine.

We walked into the kitchen about 20 minutes later, finding breakfast in front of Simon and him and Lilith talking up a ear full. "And that's how its done. Your Princely hands could never do it if you ask me." "Oh your so on." Char chuckled, bowing to them both. "Nice to see the love birds are doing fine. But do you think you two can be sane enough to cover for me and Chloe for a little while? We're going to my place for a bit." I saw Lilith eye us both, smirking a bit. "Oh really? Do you promise to take care of my little girl? The next thing I need is an injured Chloe." She commented, shooting glares at Charles. Did I ever mention she was a Mother Hen? If not, she is. Big time. I bumped my shoulder with hers. "Oh calm down I'll be fine." I hugged Simon and Lilith goodbye, and went up stairs to fetch the new things I had made for the Dunks, I could still hear Char behind me. "Soooo, I'm guessing I cant look till we get there huh?" "You are correct. A girl needs to have some style, and just because you're a big brother, does not mean I'm letting you chose what I make for her. I know how it feels, trust me." He rolled his eyes and plopped down on my bed, shaking his hair from his eyes. "Sure sure. I just don't want any guys checking out my little sister. She is only 7 you know. And by the way you dress sometimes, something tells me she's going to get lots of attention." I felt his stare and I turned to look over at him. "Oh hush." I packed the last of the things I needed in my spare bag, (an old one char's mother had), tying the strings together and pulling it closed tight. I hunched it over my shoulder, pulling my scarf over my head. After my first visit outside the castle everyone looked at me like I was a experiment, an outsider, and I didn't like the attention. So now I always went out in disguise.

I removed the rug from the middle of the room, blowing some dust out of the way, lifting the hatch to make the under ground passage appear. "I still can't believe you actually did that." Char stated, coming from behind me to climb down the latter first. I followed close behind. "Well at first I did it for safety you know, now it just comes in handy for a lot more stuff." I could picture him shaking his head at me as we jumped the final few steps to land onto the dirt. We walked on forward, him leading in the front me in the back, walking in a comfortable silence. This is how it was with me and Char, it was a simple friendship but a very sweet one. He was a good friend to have. The tunnel hadn't been here when I first started working for Victoria, I had built it myself, with some help from Lilith to. What, just because we're girls doesn't mean we don't have a back bone. It took maybe a few weeks to make sure it wouldn't come down on us, we were lucky to even find extra to make it. Only me, Lilith, and Char know about it. At least for right now, we can't have everybody knowing about it yet.

We finally saw the door that led to the village, the light peaking through the cracks.

The final light has been caught in my palm

But could it be slipping through my fingers?

I hold it close to my heart

Begging for it to keep my hopes alive

The words popped up into my head, and I made a mental note to remember it and write it down in my journal when we get back. I smiled brightly as I ran up to push open the door, we were a few feet from the town square and we weren't noticed. Yay! "After you then Ma'am." Char grinned down at me and we walked close together, playing our roll as brother and sister. The stone towers was the last thing you could see of the beloved castle, and only the town's buildings visible to the eye. The gravel road beneath our feet was walk on, drove on by the carriages passing by, you could reach your hand out to pet a few horses if you felt up to it. Person after person had their own task in mind for each individual. But ours was lead away from the pastry shelves, away from the bidding of goods, away from the street gambling with dice in one hand and money in the other. But this was my home, and I loved every part of it. We walked down a few more streets, till the buildings started to turn into cottages. Wood cottages, brick, stone. The wood was always my favorite. It reminded me of the woods, and the woods were my favorite place to be.

I craned my neck up to see the full length of the cottage that was Chars. It was a light brown shade of wood, only had five windows, porch steps, a table and a few rocking chairs. Smoke was coming from the chimney, which meant they started the fire already. We walked up the stairs and walked in, we were pretty much the only one's who did that at this hour, and the familiar sent of cinnamon and apples filled the air. I felt myself relax into of the chairs before I was pounced on, only being able to see a head full of red hair. "Chloe! Yay! You came to see me! I missed you!" Charlotte nuzzled my neck and wrapped her legs and arms around me. Her hair was in curls that went to her shoulders, gold eyes just as Char, and pale skin, she went up to my waist. "Hey Hal, what's new?" She giggled and moved off me and Carol came to sit next to me. Her kind and gentle yellow eyes smiled at me, her silver and red hair waved around her face, she reached her hand up to caress my cheek. "Nothin much, Momma's just tryin to make me some new dresses. It ain't workin out so well." Carol's hand moved away and held it in mine, as did Hal to my other hand, finally sitting down on my other side. Hal's accent made my smile bloom even bigger, it reminded me of Lilith's, like I had a piece of her everywhere. "I had to clean today sweet heart, you know Mommy would love to make you something if she wasn't so busy." She replied, her sweet voice sounded like a child's melody. I want to be a Momma just like her. "I had hoped you'd say that. Cause I brought you both something." I got to stand up and pull out all the skirts and dresses I had made for the both of them, Carol smiling while taking them, Hal jumping up and hers were gone a second latter, her door shut.

"I swear you make that little girls day all the time Chloe Dear." Carol said, her eyes closed, sitting back against the couch with me. "I try my best, I want to make sure she has everything she needs. Plus, I don't need that fancy clothes." "Hard to believe with you being such an important-" "Maid." I finished for her. I wasn't that important, at least I didn't think so. I just babied the royal highness. Big deal. "So, I hear this Derek fellow is coming over for a visit tomorrow, you finally going to meet the man of your dreams?" "Maybe."

Ok, I haven't been completely honest. I haven't actually met Derek. But goddess I've wanted to. All the stories I've heard from Simon tells me he's a funny guy, a great brother. Another secret I haven't told anyone, not even Lilith, is that I've been sending my own letters to Sir. Derek Souza. I told him how I want to live my own life as a woman with rights, who can make the worlds first successful moving image. How I write poetry, he even requested to read some. He's sweet and gentle. He may scare some people, so what I've heard, but he isn't all that bad. He doesn't even want to be a prince, he rather just be a simple blacksmith then the King of Swivle. I admire how he continues to be a prince, how he keeps walking forward through any tough situation. I love him. Have I told him that? Of Corse not. That'd be wrong. Out of place. But aren't rules made to be broken? That's what we both agreed on. He knows my name, my age, my mother's death, my father's place and everything about me. And I know just about all there is about him to. The only problem is that we've never once met each other. I really, really, really want to. And so does he. That is what makes me get up in the morning. He understands I'm the maid of his cousin Victoria. He doesn't care, he still wants to meet the woman with a tough soul. I wouldn't care if you was poor, I wouldn't care if he was ugly, as long I got to meet him once. Be held by him. Maybe even kiss him. Share a glance. My life would be complete. My mystery man.

A door opened and Hal came running toward us. With both laughed and started clapping as she went through the motions of showing off one of the new dresses I brought for her. It was a thin strap with a wide skirt, baby blue with silver butterfly's sewn on the bottom skirt. She had one of my silver butterfly clips in her hair, pinning back her hair from the top but leaving her bangs out. Silver flats to go with it. "beautiful Hal." "Thank you Chloe!" "Your welcome." I hugged her once more, and was glad that one of us got our princess story.

~ 3 ~

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