Somebody to Love
By: BourbonCowboy
Chapter Eight
When Will My Life Begin?
After lunch, Snow White dropped Merida off at her apartment with advice to take a break for a while. Snow promised to return for Merida at half past four bells to assist her getting ready for the ball. They needed to be leaving at six bells to be on time for supper with the king. Merida followed a young man in livery who was toting the trolley of clothes to the elevator. Merida thought to herself that she would never get used to the magically moving tiny room. When the doors dinged open on the eleventh floor, Merida moved towards her new apartment. As she did, one of the doors down the hall opened and a laughing female voice floated out. Merida paused, curious. "Eugene, I'm just taking this pie to Vlad! I'm coming right back and we can watch the movie." Merida heard a male voice reply, but could not make out the words. A pretty young woman stepped out into the hall holding a pie. The young woman wore a thin cotton dress, lavender in color, with no sleeves, whose hem stopped just past the young lady's knees. Merida felt her eyebrows raise as she took in her neighbor's lack of footwear. When the stranger saw Merida she gasped softly and then hurried over with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. "Hi!"
"Hello," Merida was not sure the etiquette in this precise situation. She found herself half frozen with one hand on the knob to her apartment and the sanctuary its seclusion would offer. But she was a princess and a princess is never rude. She let go the door and turned to face her neighbor fully, offering a smile of her own. "I'm Merida of DunBroch. I've only just arrived."
"I'm Rapunzel. It's so nice to meet you!" Rapunzel moved so that she was able to hold the pie in one hand and offer her free hand for Merida to shake. Snow White had explained this custom of hand shaking earlier in the day, so Merida knew to reach out and grab the other woman's hand and pump it up and down a couple of times to be polite. 'What an odd custom!' she thought, taking a moment to study Rapunzel. The other girl appeared to be the same age as Merida herself. She had short, spikey brown hair and big green eyes in a lightly freckled face that overflowed with warmth and candor.
"Cinderella had said that rooms don't stay empty long. The previous tenant only just moved out yesterday! But I am so glad to meet you. Here! I was just going to drop this pie off with one of our other neighbors. Would you like to come along and meet him?" Merida said that she would and followed Rapunzel to the door on the other side of the hall from hers. She watched Rapunzel push a small button, similar to the button that summoned the elevator. Moments later, the door in front of them opened and Merida stared up at a large man who would have fit in well at Castle Dun Broch. He had an odd mustache that connected to his bushy, graying sideburns but not, as it happened, to his goatee. The expansive facial hair only served to make his wide mouth even larger and more expressive. He wore small round spectacles that magnified warm brown eyes and sat perched atop a small bulbous nose that was red at the tip.
"I have your pie, Vladimir!" Rapunzel held the pastry aloft like an offering. Observing the man's girth, Merida felt it was probably a good idea to always bring along something to offer this neighbor to stave off any cannibalistic thoughts he may have. "Why, Rapunzel, you are an absolute angel!" Vladimir said graciously. The giant bowed low before the two young women with all the grace of a seasoned courtier. Merida found herself curtsying in reply, odd to do in her new pants! Vlad smiled warmly. "Aah! A true lady! Come in, ladies, come in. Sophie has gone out to do some shopping and I was beginning to feel a bit lonely." He chuckled as he puttered around a small kitchen similar to Merida's own. Merida was amused to note that the large man moved with the grace and dexterity of a dancer on tiny feet that did not seem to match the rest of his expansive body. Shaking her head, Merida looked around the apartment with interest. Despite the general layout being the same, the apartment was completely different from Merida's own. The walls were simple cream in color, but instead of being flat, each section of wall was covered in rectangular trim. Molding ran across the tops of the wall where it met the ceiling in intricate spirals. Large ornate gold frames holding beautiful paintings of flowers and water lilies hung on the walls. In the living room, a large red sofa dominated. It was flanked by a square wooden side table with several photographs of an imperial older woman, a handsome young couple, and a disreputably adorable gray puppy. "My children." Vladimir's voice startled the Scottish princess. He reached out a pudgy finger and gently caressed the frame with the young couple. "Children are such a blessing." Merida smiled demurely but did not reply. "Och!" he made a disgusted sound, startling Merida anew. "Where are my manners? I am Count Vladimir Vasilovich," he etched another bow. Merida dipped a curtsy, "Princess Merida of Dun Broch." Vladimir smiled, taking Merida's hand and kissing it gently. "A lovely highland rose!" he declared.
Rapunzel came over carrying a tray with the pie, plates, silverware and napkins, with three glasses of milk. She placed the tray down on the short coffee table and knelt on the floor to cut slices for everyone. "Here, Merida, have some pie. I made it myself. I made it with blueberries and blackberries." Rapunzel said proudly. Merida accepted a plate and then hesitantly lowered herself to the floor opposite the other girl. Vladimir accepted his own plate and settled into a plush armchair. "I do love when you bring over sweets," he said graciously. Rapunzel waved a hand, "It's nothing! I love to bake. When I went to see Eugene at work yesterday I walked past a field of berry bushes and stopped to pick some. Of course, I couldn't just make one pie!" she giggled and looked at Merida. "Do you bake?" Merida felt her cheeks warm as she remembered a pastry she had once given her mother and shook her head. "It's not my specialty, no."
"What is your specialty, my dear?" Vladimir asked politely. Merida took a bite of pie, chewing slowly. Then she took a large gulp of milk. Still the question hung in the air. What was her specialty? Should she say something like embroidery or braiding? Perhaps she aught to feign interest in music. What was the appropriate response in this situation? Her mother's voice from her childhood repeated in her head in a roundelay "A princess is this, a princess is that, a princess does thus and such, a princess does not do…" Unbeknownst to Merida, her dilemma played very clearly across her pale face. Rapunzel and Vladimir shared a look. "Oh Rapunzel, Sophie wanted to know how you liked the gown she sent over?" Rapunzel's face lit up. "It's beautiful! She really is too sweet," to Merida she said, "Sophie is Vlad's wife. She grew up in one of the most fashionable courts in the world and has a very refined sense of style. While she was out last week she found a beautiful ball gown and had it sent over. I'll have to show you! Oh! But you being newly arrived, you must be having dinner with his majesty tonight?"
"Yes I am!" Merida looked down at her hands, "I am a bit nervous."
"No need to be, child." Vlad said gently, "His Majesty is very kind."
"Everything here is so…foreign."
"It can be a bit unsettling at first." Rapunzel agreed. "Vlad and Sophie really helped when Eugene and I arrived." She smiled warmly at her friend. "Maybe we can do the same for you. I know! Vlad can you show her the globe?"
Vlad levered himself out of his chair and went to a bookcase on the wall, returning with a map that was wrapped around a ball. Merida stared at it in confusion. "What is this?" As she spun the ball, she observed the different countries. Similar to the map that had appeared on the wall of her room, the countries were again labeled with names instead of places. "This is a globe," Vladimir explained, "I am from here," he spun the globe and stopped it on large land mass. "Mother Russia," he said with love. "When I was young, I was a member of the imperial court. Things got bad in my country, the ruler and his family were overthrown and the world as I knew it suddenly ended. I eventually ended up here," he spun the globe slightly and pointed to another spot nearer to Merida's own home, just across the channel and labelled with the names Belle and Adam. "Now as an educated man, I had some experience with people of other cultures than my own. France was very different from my home. The people spoke differently, dressed differently, ate different food! I remember my Anya being very overwhelmed by the culture shock, they call it now. Give it time. Don't worry about how everything is different than your home and look for how it is the same!"
"It's true, Camelot is unlike any place I had ever heard of!" Rapunzel said, "I remember Cinderella saying that while Eugene and I stayed here we would have to work. The look on Eugene's face was priceless!" she laughed at the memory. "But what King Arthur explained to us was that by working we are forced to interact with other people. We are exposed to other people's cultures, beliefs, ideologies and have a chance to share our own, without even realizing we were doing it! I don't like to wear shoes." She wiggled her toes at Merida and the red-haired princess snorted out a laugh. "That's not something specific to my culture, that's specific to me. I grew up isolated from the world, living in a tower my whole life. I never went outside so there was no reason to wear shoes. Given the option, I still don't wear shoes. But people see me, they ask where I come from and they ask 'Is that the way it is where you are from? Not wearing shoes?' Maps and globes are everywhere here, and we frequently pull them out to show others where we come from. Camelot celebrates our differences. By not wearing shoes, I inadvertently open myself up to conversations about traditional clothing styles where I am from."
"I especially enjoy when she reveals that she is a no-shoe-wearing princess!" Vlad laughed, slapping his leg.
Merida's eyes grew wide. "A princess who doesn't wear shoes! My mother would have fits!"
"Oh, my mom did too!" Rapunzel laughed, "But it's just part of what makes me, me."
"While you are still new to Camelot, a lot of your experiences will be like this," Vlad said, "People enjoy learning about new places and customs. Do not be offended if we seem to pry. It is simply curiosity."
"So, there's no etiquette? No specific rules to follow here? Is that just for royalty or is the same for everyone?" Merida felt more confused than before.
"There is of course still some etiquette to observe, and I would be happy to teach it to you." Vlad replied, "But the number one rule in Camelot is this - be true to yourself."
"So…I can slouch?" Merida slouched her shoulders. Rapunzel laughed and said yes. "I can eat with my elbow on the table? I don't have to pretend I like playing the lute and sit quietly doing embroidery?"
"Merida, this is Camelot. You do not have to pretend to like anything. You just have to be true to your heart." Rapunzel's smile was broad, "I paint. All the time. I work at one of the art museums in the center of the Western Ring and teach art classes in the evenings. I bake for myself and for my friends. Sometimes I go to one of the dress shops and help sew gowns because I love fashion! Or I'll help my friend Tiana cater an event. I go out with my friends and sing! I ride horses with my husband and picnic by the lake. I take classes at the university and talk to the rulers who came before me so that I can better lead my people. I do all this because I want to, because it makes me happy."
Back in her apartment, Merida considered all she had learned from her new neighbors as she awaited the arrival of Snow White. She stood at the window, holding back the curtain and looking out at the city. It was huge and boisterous and scary and yet now filled with possibilities. She had come here to search for love. But maybe she needed to find something else first. She thought about the question that they were too polite to ask. What makes you happy? Who are you? Resting her forehead against the glass that separated her from the outside world, Merida sighed. She thought that she had answered this question already. Who is Merida of Dun Broch?