FINDING PRINCE CHARMING

Chapter 2

For Esmeralda wintertime meant fun time. For Christmas she asked for a grand masquerade ball to last from Christmas Eve until New Year's Day. Everyone had to dress up, including the staff. The first few days she found it hilarious to see a footman in bear costume struggling to hold a tray of glasses. Then it bored her. She didn't even enjoy the dancing like she used to. Something was missing and she didn't know what. Her insults and demands became worse and worse. Nobody could do anything right, not even her father. She told him he was a useless king who could not find her a proper husband. Esmeralda really loved her father and she regretted the outburst immediately. But just as always her pride didn't allow her to apologise.

King John's advisers talked to him.

"Your Majesty, we have to do something. The tale of your daughter's bad temper has spread so far that no new suitors have come in months," said the First.

"We'll end up with an unmarried queen and not one ally if this continues, Your Majesty," said the Second.

"You will have to force her, Sire," suggested the First.

"Threaten her, Sire. Tell her she will be married of to the first man who enters the palace in the morning" suggested the Second.

"I will not!" said the king. "Just because my cousin who married king Thrushbeard was lucky enough to get the correct husband is no reason to try that one again. Who knows who will be the first to enter; probably the milkman. No, no, no, we have to come up with something else, I just don't know what."

And so nothing changed. Nobody knew what to do to either find a husband the princess would accept or make her a nicer person, and the princess was waiting for some fairy tale Prince Charming who obviously didn't exist. After the New Year party one by one the more interesting candidates returned to their own countries. The lovesick young (and not so young) men that remained to adore and admire Esmeralda did not really have what King John looked for in a future son-in-law.

Meanwhile every night the princess dreamed of her Prince Charming. He would come to her and smile at her. They would dance and laugh together. Then her dream would become a nightmare as her prince turned away from her and said, in the cold voice of King Henryk: "I don't waste my time on lost causes." She wanted to follow him but her way was blocked by rose bushes with dark velvety red roses. Dewdrops were dripping from them like tears.

ooOOoo

When spring arrived Henryk found that his sleepless nights had had one effect. He slowly started to accept that Esmeralda was lost to him. Looking after the welfare of his people kept him going. The country had been left to him by his father as a holy trust. Being worthy of this trust was hard work. It kept him busy, kept his mind occupied.

Esmeralda too tried to keep busy. She didn't want to remember being called a marble statue without feelings. When summer came anyone who even mentioned the word 'rose' had to hide from the wrath of the princess. The gardener nearly resigned the day she cut all the blooms and buds of his prize roses.

No new suitors arrived for Princess Esmeralda that summer. None appeared in autumn either. Not that she regretted this. She still had more than enough men who followed her around, all trying to be the first to fulfil her wishes. They only succeeded in irritating her and turning every day into grey dullness.

ooOOoo

While Esmeralda thought time seemed to drag its feet, to Henryk the year sped by at an alarming rate. Winter was looming like a dark and dreadful fog, waiting to envelop and suffocate him with noxious fumes. He dreaded the dark empty days.

Margaret had been made spokesperson yet again, perhaps because she was the most insistent, perhaps because she always talked until he gave way to her common sense.

"Go away from here before winter closes off the roads; go visit your school friend, he's asked often enough. Go, enjoy yourself. Forget her; give yourself the chance to find somebody new. It will be better for you and for the country. Everything is ready for winter so we can do without you for a bit. Stay away until spring and come back to us healed."

He went and had a great time. He finally accepted that the woman who'd scorned him was not the Esmeralda he'd loved. She no longer existed. He mourned her as if she had died and the wound in his heart healed

ooOOoo

In King John's palace invitations were sent for the end of year parties. The same people as usual arrived, but nobody who could elicit even a vague sign of interest from the princess. Esmeralda thought the suitors were stupid, the presents were stupid, the festivities were stupid and the lot bored her to tears. She found that there was absolutely no fun in belittling a bunch of men who treated each insult as if it was the nicest thing she could have said - a price to treasure for life.

And so springtime came round again and Esmeralda started to ride out each morning to escape her persistent beaus. To her surprise she enjoyed it that nobody was around to praise her skill in horse riding to high heaven. She even laughed when she fell of the horse and imagined how one of her followers would surely have become poetic about her unsurpassed elegance. Riding out like this she began to enjoy the beauty of nature, the blossoms, the fresh new leaves, the simple spring flowers growing everywhere. Her outings became longer and longer and sometimes she was just about back in time for the evening meal.

The day Esmeralda did not come home at dinnertime, nobody was too worried at first but it became dark en she still had not returned. King John sent out a search party with torches but they came back in the morning without the princess. By midday her horse returned, alone. Day after day the search went on but Esmeralda remained lost.

As was usual in such cases King John sent the news throughout his kingdom and to all the neighbouring kingdoms, declaring, "He, who finds my daughter and brings her back to me, will get her hand in marriage, and my kingdom."

In no time the palace was emptied of the suitors, all ready to win Princess Esmeralda, but they all came back empty handed. How could they find her? How could anybody find her? Nobody knew where to look for her until a young shepherd came to the palace. He was escorted to the throne room where King John, his advisors and the rest of the court, including the suitors were waiting for news of the princess.

Shaking in fear the shepherd said, "I saw Her Highness, Princess Esmeralda being taken by the devil." He crossed himself. "He had this big ugly scar on his face. He rode up to her like the devil, for sure. Then he grabbed the reins of her horse and sped off. It was so fast. I just saw them disappear into the Dark Forest."

King John thanked the young shepherd.

"At least now we know where to search", he said.

The news of the possible whereabouts of Princess Esmeralda sent every unmarried man of to the Dark Forest. They all hoped to find her and become the husband of the most beautiful princess in the world and receive a kingdom to boot. For most the latter was the more important thing.

Privately King John wasn't too happy with the way things were going. The shepherd's description left no doubt that the princess was kidnapped by the ugly suitor. Of course only two people outside his country had seen King Henryk since the accident, one of whom was King John. The other one was Henryk's friend who was happily married and not interested in finding Esmeralda, especially since Henryk had confided in him. It was very unlikely anybody else had recognised King Henryk, and even if they had, his country wasn't the easiest to find or gain access to.

"Let them search," the king thought. "Hopefully they won't find him. It's a pity I had to make that promise though. Unfortunately it would have seemed strange if I hadn't, and now I can't retract it."

ooOOoo

King John's strange thoughts about his daughter's kidnapping had a reason. That reason was Henryk, or more precisely the chance encounter Henryk had on the day he returned from his friend's place.

When spring came Henryk ached to be home again. The quickest road to his country passed close to King John's palace so he decided to travel early in the morning, shortly after daybreak, when nobody would be around. Suddenly he saw the princess. He was surprised she was out riding on her own and at that time of the morning. Then Esmeralda fell off her horse. Something had startled it. He wondered whether he should risk one of her foul moods and offer assistance. To his amazement he heard her laugh. She got up, called the horse; she patted it, talked to it friendly, reassuringly. He followed her all day, surprised at seeing the Esmeralda of their childhood again. Nobody expected him home already so he stayed, sleeping rough in a shepherd's hut. He followed her again the next day and the next, saw her enjoying springtime and the wild flowers. Inevitable he fell in love with her all over again and decided that perhaps she wasn't a lost cause; that perhaps he should 'bring the statue to life'.

He went home, surprised them all with his arrival; surprised them even more when he said what he had planned. This time even Margaret couldn't dissuade him.

"Do you realise you're risking a war?" she said.

He hesitated only a moment.

"There won't be a war. King John is not the warring kind. And I have to try this. I know she's a lovely woman."

"Oh, Henryk. She was only ever nice to YOU, the dashing, handsome, obviously rich young prince. It flattered her vanity that you paid attention to her."

"How would you know that? You've never even met her."

His shouting didn't upset Margaret. She calmly answered him:

"Your mother often talked to me about her. She worried that your father's friendship with King John might end in you marrying Princess Esmeralda."

Henryk's anger had melted away at the mention of his mother.

"What did my mother say about Esmeralda?"

Margaret told him all she'd heard about the princess from the queen. Henryk listened in silence to the unflattering picture of the woman he loved. All the while he was wondering how he could bring out the side of her he knew.

"That's how most people see her," Margaret ended. "How in heaven's name are you going to make her a better person? It just can't be done."

Henryk had made up his mind.

"I'm going to give her what she's never had in her life before: some tough love. I'll tell her how ugly this behaviour makes her."

Margaret laughed.

"You're in love with her. You'll read her wishes from her eyes before she even utters them and she won't change."

"I'm bringing her here, Margaret. I'll work something out afterwards. You won't make me change my mind."

When Margaret saw Henryk was determined to go ahead with his plan, she decided to help.

"You have to get permission of King John first," she said. "You are right, he is a nice man and not the kind to go to war, but this is his daughter you're trying to kidnap. You're too young to imagine what that would feel like, but … well, imagine someone took your precious rose away to grow it in his own garden. How would that make you feel? Multiply that by a few hundred to know what King John will feel."

Henryk only had to think for a moment.

"You're right, Margaret, as always. It would mean war." He sighed. "I'll just have to risk it and hope for the best. I can't give up on Esmeralda."

"Perhaps you won't have to, but you need to talk to King John. In secret."

Margaret was deep in thought for a moment, then she said, "I'm going on a visit to my cousin, Suzanna, and you'll come with me. She works at the palace and could possibly give the king a letter without anyone noticing. In the letter you invite King John to a top-secret meeting at my cousin's place. Then we'll explain the plan to him."

ooOOoo