"That was unnecessary." Gwendolyn spoke, her voice thick with irritation as she was shoved into a large room. "It would have just been easier to punish me out there, instead of wasting my time—and I suppose yours as well—by dragging me to this…place."
For the most part, Eadberht didn't turn and take the bait laying right in front of him. Sure, it was tempting, but he wouldn't allow the teenager the satisfaction of seeing him angry. Obviously, that was what she was trying to do.
"Sit." Eadberht directed, his voice leaving no room for argument. Gwendolyn gave him a skeptical look, before doing as her king commanded and slowly walking towards a comfortable looking couch in the middle of the room.
Speaking of this room, there was something that was almost creepy about it. It was rather easy to point out upon first glance, but it still made the teen feel as though the king had a serious infatuation with this carrot-haired woman, whose portraits lined the walls of this room like wallpaper.
For a brief second, the thought that it perhaps that was the late queen filled her mind, before the girl banished the thought. It was a well known gossip fact that after the queen had died, the king had removed all her portraits from the palace and put them somewhere else. Therefore, besides the fact that Gwendolyn did not know what the queen looked like, she also knew that it would be rather idiotic to remove every portrait in the palace and just place it in one room.
There were portraits of this woman and a much younger king, ones of her with a young Charmond, ones of her doing all sorts of things like playing cricket or riding a horse. However, upon closer inspection, Gwendolyn realized that all of these portraits must have been done years ago. So where was this woman now, and why had no one thought to document her?
"You seem to have had some type of relationship with this woman, your majesty. I've never seen so many portraits of the same person in my lifetime."
Making herself comfortable on the couch, as she had a feeling this would take awhile, Gwendolyn let herself look vaguely interested in the portraits lining the walls. Inwardly, her curiosity was bounding to know who this person was, but outwardly she kept a calm composure. She would not get ahead of herself in front of the king.
"That 'person' is your mother." Eadberht answered, his voice clearly irritated. After all, it was obvious that Gwendolyn was simply doing this to get his goat. However, Gwendolyn only raised a brow in his direction.
"I should hope that woman is not my parent, considering that the queen has been dead for sixteen years."
Either the king had officially lost all his sense, or he'd had one too many drinks, because he was certainly not speaking correctly. He'd probably already planned on doing this beforehand, though. After all, it was obvious that the king was simply doing this to get her goat.
"Just because she died doesn't mean that she was never your mother, girl." Eadberht answered with a growl, glowering over Gwendolyn. The girl, in turn, looked as uninterested as possible as she stared at a portrait of the woman at a younger age.
"Really, your highness? Because I was under the impression that if you have never known a person, then they could not be a parent." Clearing her throat in a lazy sort of manner, the girl turned her eyes back on the king, staring them down with this pure form of anger in them. "Forgive me though. I have never had the best of examples to go on. What, with one parent dead and the other practically in the same state."
That, Eadberht felt, was like a bee sting to his very heart. He stopped pacing for a moment and looked over at the girl, who had since turned her own eyes away. Though she sounded uninterested and on the verge of being rude, Eadberht knew better than anyone, after reading through her journal, that this was simply a defense mechanism she had employed to shield him away from her. He just had to keep calm and break through that shield.
"I may not have been much of a father—"
"An astounding observation, your majesty."
"—but I will not tolerate you speaking ill of your mother. She loved you before you were born, and then felt triple that emotion when you were finally in her arms. So don't you dare speak bad about her."
Eadberht took in a deep breath, and then slowly let it out (a trick his daughter-in-law had taught him to keep from stretching himself too thin) as calm as can be. He stood still, hands behind his back, but was at least a good ten feet from where his daughter sat. He expected the teenager to say something biting as her next remark. But she caught him off guard.
"Is this your idea of a punishment, your majesty? Trying to make a teenage girl feel worse than she already does?" Giving a slightly bitter laugh, Gwendolyn punched one of the throw pillows lightly, before she looked back up with angry tears in her eyes. "Well, I can assure you, its working."
Damn him, Gwendolyn cursed in her mind. A public humiliation would have been better than this. Heck, being quartered and drawn through the streets would have even been nicer! But this? This…this talking, this thing where he brought up lies about the woman who gave birth to her…well, this was insanity! He wasn't allowed to make her angry; he wasn't allowed to make her rethink about her set opinions. He'd never taken a single interest in her, and now? Now is when he decided to do so?
"What are you talking about? What punishment?" Worried now, Eadberht took a step forward, anxiety filling his hazel eyes. Gwendolyn gave a hard laugh.
"Oh, don't act so innocent, your majesty. I know you think I killed your wife, and I know these lies you're spouting off are simply a part of your little punishment game. I may be young, sire, but I'm not an idiot."
Gwendolyn felt her bitter voice crack just slightly on the last word, but she remained firm and did not let a single tear fall from her eyes. She simply looked back up at the king, a look of fierce resentment meeting one of hurt and pity. Hang his pity, the girl swore in her mind. She didn't need him to feel sorry after he was the one who had put her in this position.
Eadberht simply shook his head.
"I never intended for things to go so bad. I suppose I should blame myself for this."
"Oh ho, you think?" The look Eadberht gave the girl immediately quieted her. The king had something to say, and she'd be a fool to try and talk over him.
"I never thought, not for one second, that you were the cause of your mother's death, girl. It wasn't your fault that we were all underprepared that night." Giving a sigh at the very thought of his dear Cassandra, Eadberht continued.
"And as for this 'punishment game' you believe I'm playing, well, I'm not. If anything, I should be the one being punished for never treating you the way you deserved. For that, I truly apologize." Bowing his head in a deep sorry, and keeping it that way for a few second, the man suddenly realized something.
"Speaking of deserving…"
Gwendolyn watched as the king walked off to a small desk in the room, and easily opened up one of its drawers. She wasn't able to see what he took out, but then, she didn't really need to because in the next second he was handing it to her. Looking down at the worn book in her hands, Gwendolyn felt her breath momentarily taken away from her.
"My journal?" The girl managed to finally say, eyes wide and heart pumping. Looking back up at the king, she watched him give a slight nod to her, as though saying it was okay to press it against her and never let it go.
"I should apologize again here, because I spent a week going through your journal and then the last two weeks referring back to it when I was about to lose my mind." Gwendolyn stared dumbly at the journal back in her hands, her mouth going dry in the process.
"You went through it?"
Horror seemed to be the only thing the girl could feel at the moment. No one, absolutely no one, was supposed to see her journal. This was her lifeline; it was her companion through days when she could barely make it. The things she had written in there…the things the king had seen…
"I did." Eadberht admitted, looking away in slight shame. "I never realized you were so intelligent." Perhaps a compliment would ease the pain the girl must have been feeling at the very thought of someone going through her personal things.
"You never wanted to know, sire." Gwendolyn answered, keeping the journal safely tucked into her arms. Her voice was back to being as careful as it usually was when it concerned the king. She was now, officially, on her guard.
"Well…erm…" Unable to come up with a response for that, Eadberht tried a different approach. "I had all the books on chemistry and poetry picked out for you in the library." Desperate to get something more in, Eadberht felt himself grasping at thin air. Perhaps his attempt at taking an interest in her hobbies would resonate?
"I finished off all three of them by the age of ten, your majesty." Gwendolyn answered back, watching Eadberht's face fall a mile at just that. Well, good, the girl reasoned. At least now he knew how it felt.
A silence desended upon the duo, each one not willing to move forward, but unable to move back just the same. Eadberht was at a loss for what to do next; Gwendolyn was afraid of what would come next.
That last experiment was more dangerous than this!
Sighing finally, Gwendolyn took a leap of faith. Clearing her throat, she started to speak.
"Your majesty—"
"Eadberht, please." The king interjected quickly, tiring of the girl using his official title. After all, she was family. Family shouldn't have to be so formal…should it? Urgh! Why was this so frustratingly difficult!
"—your majesty, if I may, what exactly do you think you're going to accomplish by doing all," gesturing around her, Gwendolyn raised her brows "this?"
Eadberht felt his mouth go dry and his heart start to beat like a drum. Something inside of him said that this was not a good idea, not at all.
"Pardon?"
Gwendolyn stifled the urge to roll her eyes. As if the man had not heard her.
"Just because you think one conversation with me will fix years of being ignored does not make it so, sire. After all, seventeen governesses is a rather large—"
"Twenty-four, actually."
Gwendolyn felt herself suddenly come to a halt, and stare at the king with deep confusion in her eyes. What was the man talking about now?
"Excuse me?"
"You had, exactly, twenty-four governesses." Eadberht filled in without missing beat. Still though, the expression that Gwendolyn was giving him made the man raise an eyebrow. "Check the records, if you don't believe me."
"You have records?"
"Do you really think I didn't record the most important things in my children's lives?" Feeling a bit offended by that, Eadberht stared at the girl until he realized that she was utterly confused. That felt like a slap in the face. Well, a slap in the face that he probably deserved.
"I'm not understanding." Gwendolyn swallowed deeply, trying to take away the tightness in her throat. What on earth was this man speaking on about now? He'd hardly even looked at her in her entire lifetime!
Eadberht only gave another sigh.
"You have a serious allergy to shellfish, you have a horrible ear for music, you have never been much of an early-riser, I daresay that sports are not your area, there have been no boys in your life as of yet (thank goodness for that), and you like the crusts cut off on all your sandwiches, else you will not touch them."
Eadberht, with an ease befitting someone who knew someone else well, spouted off a few random facts about the girl that made her eyes grow wide.
While it would just be simple to say that he could have read all that in her journal…the problem was that it was impossible too. Gwendolyn's journal was strictly that; a journal, not a diary. She did not document her every move; rather, she documented experiments, poems depicting abstract themes, and worked through math problems that were high above her age level. She did not state the little nitpick things about herself, for she felt it an extreme waste of time. So either someone was feeding this information to the king (doubtful, considering that most people had to think twice to remember she existed) or…or the man had really been paying attention to her in ways she'd never known.
"Well," Gwendolyn started, clearing out her throat and throwing her shoulders back. "The fact still remains that apologies are merely words, while actions have much stronger implications. Your actions, sire, have lead me to believe that you don't feel obligated to love your child. Actually, to be quite honest, you've never even liked me."
Feeling herself grow in anger, Gwendolyn continued in a stronger voice than before, eyes burning holes in the king.
"How do you explain your way out of that one, hm? How can you explain away all the nights I spent hating the queen for giving me life? How can you explain away all the hurt, and the anger, and the frustration I felt every time I wanted just a bit of acknowledgement for something I'd done? How, your majesty, please, explain to me how!"
Standing up now, Gwendolyn realized that she was a good deal taller than her father. No matter. She didn't have time to think about that, now that resentment and anger that had been built up inside her for years was steadily pouring out in rapid succession. She was furious, she was hurt, she was ready to stand on her own two feet and never be pushed down again.
"I can only say that I wasn't strong enough." Eadberht quietly admitted, shame filling his tone as he looked away from his daughter. The girl jerked in surprise at that, not expecting such an answer.
"I'd already lost my wife, your mother…and you looked so much like her…I blamed myself for her death, you know, and…I just wasn't strong enough to take that risk of being the father you deserved and one day possibly losing you as well."
There was pain behind Eadberht's words, a pain that startled Gwendolyn to no degree. Was he…was this man serious? He had to be, his mannerisms attributed to that fact. However, his past history spoke so much against him…she couldn't trust him, not after what he'd done to her. Not after all the pain, confusion, frustration, and everything in between he'd made her go through. She couldn't just allow him to weasel his way in here and—
"I…I know you're a smart girl, and I know you don't want anything to do with me, not after the way I've treated you for so long. But at least understand how damn sorry I am for never being there for you."
Eadberht felt it, he felt the tears sliding down his cheeks, and he felt his heart practically ripping apart from the inside. He could feel all of it happening at once, and he was practically on a cliff's edge, holding onto a rock and almost slipping down. The only thing that could keep him up would be the girl's words. But one look at Gwendolyn's face made him feel as though he should just let go now.
"Sorry is just another pathetic excuse. In the real world, your majesty, the world I've lived in for the past weeks, sorry doesn't account for anything."
Calmly speaking, and ignoring the tears running down the king's face, the girl felt oddly sturdy for once in her life. Turning on her heel, Gwendolyn started to walk in the opposite direction, out of the room with the portraits of the woman she'd never known, out of the king's life, out of…everything that had to do with this nonsense. She was strong, she was important, and she was nobody's doormat anymore.
"Wait!" Eadberht felt himself cry out, wiping away those dratted tears with his sleeve, just like a child would do. Gwendolyn, however, did not seem to even want to stop as she headed straight towards the doors.
"Wait! Please! Gwendolyn, I love you!"
Those three words, those three most dangerous words that anyone could ever utter to another soul. Those three tiny words that were backed with so much meaning. Those words that would make anyone feel as though they'd never been forgotten before. Those three words were finally said.
Gwendolyn felt herself halt, just at the door to exit this room. Her shoulders dropped, she bit her lip, and slowly, she felt herself turn around. The king was just standing there, a look torn between sheer hope and sheer failure sliding across his desperate features. The girl gave a sigh.
Perhaps it was that she couldn't stand to dole out the cruelty that had been pushed onto her throughout the years. Perhaps it was that she'd always wished for the family experience. Perhaps it was that she could feel as though this was her ticket to no longer being ignored. Or perhaps, yes, perhaps it was because there was a voice whispering for her to go forward, a voice she knew well, a voice that had started this entire thing.
"You're…you're being honest with me, right? No tricks?"
The polite bravado suddenly fell, and left standing there in its place was a young girl, biting her bottom lip. She was worried, she was terrified…she was more hopeful than she'd ever been.
"A man knows when he's done wrong, Gwendolyn, and a true father knows when it's time to live up to his child's expectations." Eadberht answered, his own features mirroring those of Gwendolyn. He was scared to his death, he was more anxious than he should be at this age…and he was staring into her hazel eyes, so much like his own, and wishing he could put his hope for the future in words.
"Okay." Gwendolyn breathed, unable to form any other coherent words.
"Okay?" Eadberht felt himself repeating, not really questioning, more like he was clarifying.
"Okay." Gwendolyn said for the final time, wrapping her arms around herself in a hug. "We can't start over, your highness, but we can start a new chapter." The teenager took in a deep breath, steadying herself as she took a few steps forward to really stare down the king.
"Do not mistake my kindness for weakness, sire. In two years I will make a decision on whether or not I am staying. And while I don't exactly hate you, your majesty, I still have a strong dislike for you. A very strong dislike."
Having made herself clear, Gwendolyn raised herself up to her full height, momentarily wincing as she felt the small gown tug at her in a way it shouldn't have, and then politely extended her hand towards the king. In the town, hardly anyone curtsied to each other. No, no one would bow or curtsey to their neighbor. Instead, they gave a polite handshake to their equal as a sign of camaraderie.
Slowly, Eadberht reached his own hand up to shake that of his daughter's. He still felt as though he was in a daze, and the girl's words were echoing loudly in his mind. It took Gwendolyn grasping his hand for him to realize how wrong this was.
And so, Eadberht broke his vow. He'd said that he would never again hold his daughter, not after the day her mother had died and he'd been left there with a newborn baby. But heck, stupid vows are meant to be broken. That is why Eadberht grasped Gwendolyn's hand just as firmly and pulled her into a large hug, something he'd been meaning to do for a very, very, very long time.
"Happy birthday, Gwendolyn."
Eadberht finally said, his voice muffled by the hug. In her shock, the girl didn't even try to struggle at the foreign contact. She simply allowed it, and then slowly and awkwardly, wrapped her arms around her father and hugged him back just as tight.
From her position at the door, peeking inside and listening in on the entire conversation, Cinderella felt her smile grow wide. Her heart warmed, her stomach fluttered with butterflies, and she felt a certain amount of pride.
For when it is all said and done, the story does not end. Characters beloved and cherished will go on to spur new adventures in others lives, and though these challenges may not always be welcome, the reward is always wonderfully amazing. And while the story of Cinderella and the Glass Slipper will always remain in our hearts, the story of The Forgotten Princess will forever resonate within our souls.
THE END