~~~
She rushed down the hallway, ran into her room, and slammed the door, startling the ghost maid into invisibility. She then leaned against the door, breathing hard.
"Ma'am?"
The Princess opened her eyes wide. The young chambermaid ghost was standing across the room, a pile of dirt in her left hand.
"What are you doing?!"
The maid looked frightened and faded a little. "Dusting the furniture...?" she said in a small voice.
"Out. Now!"
The maid faded slightly, and the Princess felt a cold wind as she rushed through the door. The handful of dust scattered onto the Princess' dress, but the Princess was in no shape to be fussy. She sighed heavily and slipped to the floor in a dead faint.
She woke up, her face pressed into a brick. A ghost ant was looking at her. She sat up with revulsion and pounded the floor. "I'm sick, sick, sick of ghosts," she yelled.
As she pounded the floor, she noticed quite incidentally that she was smashing a small ant hill, crushing quite a number of ants. After it trickled up to her brain how many ghost ants she was making, she stopped with alarm, whimpered a bit, scrambled up, and jumped onto her bed. Shedding her dress and numerous undergarments, she crept into the large old bed with the musty sheets and bawled. She was so loud that even the servants thought she was an evil spirit and peered into the room to find the problem. When she noticed, she threw a pillow at them and they politely left.
She woke up slowly the next morning. The birds were singing and a ray of sunshine shone across the room. She smiled sleepily. Gradually she noticed her huge headache. The birds weren't singing so sweetly now. Then she realized that her eyes were as big as chicken eggs and were lined on the inside with road gravel. She opened her eyes blearily and looked at the birds. They were ravens.
She remembered where she was and covered her eyes. A few tears leaked out. Since the only good crying did was to make her eyes feel better, she quit in short order. Then she sighed, got up, washed (the water was dirty), and inspected an everyday gown someone had thoughtfully hung up. It was a good material, sturdy, but old. It was a nice shade of pink. And it was only a tiny bit musty-smelling. Since she didn't want to wear her traveling dress yet another day, she put this one on. After all, two weeks were quite enough for one dress.
Just as she was trying to primp herself into something presentable, the butler brought an appetizer tray in. Without turning around, she looked at the food in the old yellowed mirror. The pastries and fruits looked delicious, if a little jaundiced. Then she noticed the butler.
Turning around, she said shakily, "Is there something different about you this morning, John?"
"Why, no, madam, I don't think..." He thought a moment. "Oh, yes, that's right. I passed away last night."
The Princess sat down suddenly. Since she was not anywhere near a chair, she got quite a jolt. "Ah," she said. She rubbed her posterior, not trusting herself to stand up. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, Madame," the butler said with a broad smile. "I'm feeling ever so much better this morning." He did a little jig. "I may even dance at your wedding, Madame!"
It was a good thing she was sitting down, because she sank lower. The more she knew about Aarach and his family, the less she thought about marriage to her -- her hero. Hero, huh! A stupid, irresponsible mama's boy, who was going to reach 500 pounds before he turned forty. And the ghosts!
She shivered. Suddenly she realized John was looking at her with concern.
"May I help you up?"
"No! Thank you." She scrambled up. "I'm fine. You may go now."
"Yes, Madame." He left reluctantly, reached to open the door, then shook his head, grinned and walked right through it. She averted her head.
She paced around the spacious room quickly, taking only a couple minutes to make a complete circuit. It was a nice room -- with a new tapestry here and some fresh flowers there, it might even be livable. Anything was an improvement over the dried flower arrangements liberally dumped around the room.
Ghosts. Ghosts gave her the chills, the heebie-jeebies, the ne'er get overs, the screamin' willie's, and sometimes even the runs, all in one. Even the nice ghosts scared her. What was she going to do?
Aarach walked in. The Princess whirled, enraged, and threw a vase of dried flowers at him. Automatically, he pulled his sword and chopped the vase in two. Dried flowers rained on his feet. Blushing slightly, he sheathed his sword. "Want to go to breakfast?" he said mildly.
She turned her back to him. "You walked in without knocking. I could've been undressed!"
"I had the chambermaid peek." Aarach grinned smugly. "Besides, I've seen undressed ladies before."
The Princess stared at him, eyebrows raised. Then she shook her head and said, "It's customary for a gentleman to knock and ask permission to enter a lady's room."
He stood, thinking about this revelation, then hit his head. "Oh! I forgot! You see, those other ladies weren't ladies." He got a big goofy grin on his face. "Especially one. Marguerite. I like Marguerite." He thought a moment. "Marguerite is your chambermaid. She's dead now." He caught a glimpse of her face, then turned on his heels, exited rapidly, and shut the door.
Immediately after the door latched, she heard a pounding. She stared at the door in amazement. Then she shrugged and said, "Come in." The pounding continued. "Come in!" She still got no response. "COME IN!"
"Yes?" she sighed as he peeked in the door.
"Are you ready for breakfast?"
"I'm not hungry," she said -- which was a lie. She was ravenous. Crying took a lot of energy.
"Good. More strawberry pancakes for me." He stopped and turned red. "I wasn't supposed to say that, was I?"
"No," she said haughtily. "And I believe I will join you for breakfast, after all." She said the last a bit loudly so that Aarach wouldn't notice her stomach growling. Besides, strawberry pancakes were her favorite!
Second-Hand Princess Page 4
