Chapter 7: Escape
The next week was especially hard for Lucy. It seemed her masters and mistresses worked her harder than ever and she could not figure out how to tell the royal family.
It wasn't that she wanted to be a princess, she could care less. It was the fact that she was 12 years old and had never had a family.
Lucy watched all of the other servant girls go home tired and grumpy and come back high-spirited, with stories of their little siblings and bags of goodies from there parents. Lucy wanted nothing more than to experience that.
One night, Lucy arrived at her room a little after 4 a.m. Minerva had just dismissed her after forcing her to scrub the great hall, not once or twice, but three times.
Lucy's hands and knees were badly bruised and a long trail of dried blood streamed from a painful blister on her hand.
She lay down on the cold stone, but was too tired to sleep. Instead, she went over a plan to escape from her life of drudgery and become the Princess Lucille once again.
The plan was that she would run away and beg to see King Charmont. She had been thinking about this a lot lately and decided that she must do it. Now was as good a time as any.
Slipping on her shoes, she silently tiptoed into Juliet's room. As she passed Juliet's bed she froze in terror as she heard Juliet say something.
"Lucy, Lucy, get me a glass of water. No, that want do. It must be mountain water." She rolled over. "I will have you punished severely, Lucy. Charleton, do something bad to her." Lucy, let out her breath. Charleton was the crown prince. Juliet was only dreaming.
As she started to leave, she looked over for a final glance at Juliet. Lucy suddenly remembered that Juliet wore a wig. Princess Nora, Emile, and another girl, Lola, were coming to visit in the early morning. Lucy took the wig off Juliet's almost-bald head and continued on.
Something else caught Lucy's eye, however, before she was out of the room. On Juliet's breakfast table a few coins glistened in the moon light. Lucy had not planned to steal money, but not knowing what would happened, she decided to take it, promising herself to pay it back later.
Lucy quickly and quietly left the manor.
She didn't arrive to her destination until about 6 o'clock. Approaching the gates, she begged to see the king, but the guards told her to go away or they would throw her in jail. It was a command, and she had to go.
Not knowing what to do, she hung around the castle for hours, looking for a way in. Eventually she saw the youngest child of the king and queen, Princess Braelyn with a servant, who the young child called Mandy.
Lucy ran to them, calling, but a guard pushed her out of the way. She struggled, shouting at the servant. Mandy finally turned around, and saw her. Mandy must have realized who Lucy was, for she stared at her, stunned with happiness. Rudolph got to her first, though, and whisked her away in a carriage. Mandy hurried to the queen.