Prince Edward
"Come, Your Highness. It's time for bed," Lady Bryan said cheerfully, taking the two year old Edward by the hand and leading him from the playroom towards the sitting room, where a bath steamed by the fire, awaiting him.
"We'll just give you a nice hot bath and then you can be tucked into bed with a story."
To her astonishment, as soon as she mentioned the word, 'bath', Edward started digging his heels in, shaking his fair head.
"No! No bath!" he shrieked, pulling back against her guiding hand.
"But Your Highness, you need to be clean after your day running around in the gardens. It's time for a bath."
"No! No bath!"
"Why not?" Lady Bryan asked, hoping to distract him from his clearly rising fury with a question.
"Monster! Monster eat me!"
Edward went from the brink of fury and writhing to get away to shaking with fear and clinging to her leg in seconds. Lady Bryan gently disengaged his hold and knelt down beside him.
"Now then, Your Grace, you're a big boy now. You know there's no such thing as monsters."
"Is!" Edward insisted/
"Oh really? And what does this monster look like, then?"
"Gween! Haiwee! Big teeth!"
"Oh, that monster!" Lady Bryan chuckled, playing along with him, as she had done with both his sisters when they had gone through this stage., "Does it' have big yellow eyes too, like a cat's?"
"Edward nodded frantically, "Eat me!" he wailed.
"Oh no, Your Grace. You've got it all wrong. That monster doesn't want to eat you, he wants to play with you."
"Play?" Stunned by this new thought, Edward stopped crying. Lady Bryan nodded.
"It's a very friendly monster really. It's very shy but it loves playing with children. Ask Mary if you don't believe me."
"Mawy?"
"Mhm. He used to visit her too, when she was little. She used to call him Grassie because he was green."
"Gwassie?"
"That's right. And he didn't eat her, did he? So why don't you pop in the tub and see whether he wants to meet you too?"
"Gwassie!" Edward repeated eagerly, and Lady Bryan laughed at how easily his fear was overcome. She stripped off his shirt and hose and let him jump into the tub, spraying water everywhere.
