“My help?” She was feeling giddy from the exciting little game. “What have I to do with it?” she asked in mock innocence.
“I’m afraid that’s where it gets a little…sticky,” he explained, still relatively straight-faced. “You see, you were there, in my dream.”
“I?”
“Would you have me dream of another?”
“Well, but tell me more about the dream,” she insisted, keeping her lips from smiling but not quite managing to keep them from twitching.
“There was something…different about you in my dream,” he told her solemnly.
“Something different?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Something rather…remarkable.”
“I can’t think what that might be,” she lied.
“I thought not,” he said. His hand had begun slowly, excruciatingly slowly, to creep up her leg, but at the rate it was going the princess felt she might expire before his hand reached its destination. “Still,” he added nonchalantly, his hand continuing its maddeningly slow caress up her leg, “I wonder if you would be kind enough to indulge me whilst I investigate.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, trembling in anticipation. “Indulge you how?”
“By opening your legs for me,” he concluded, having nearly reached the top of her thigh with his hand.
“Well,” she said, faking contemplation, “if it would help you to resolve the matter.”
“It most certainly would,” he assured her. At this she opened her trembling legs for him. His hand lingered on her upper thigh. So far, his eyes had never left hers for a single moment throughout the questioning. But now he raised her skirt with his free hand and lowered his eyes to catch another glimpse of the perfectly trimmed little triangle between her legs. In truth, until that very moment he had not been entirely certain that the afternoon’s events hadn’t been just a dream. He took in his breath at the sight of her. “Ah,” he groaned. “So it was true!”
“Yes!” she admitted at last.
“Did you do this for me?” he queried.
“Yes, for you my darling,” she told him. “Do you like it?”
“Let me show you!”
He pulled her onto his lap on the floor.
“May I—” the serving woman had come upon them at that moment and paused midsentence in shocked surprise “—get you anything more?”
Princess Wearia had forgotten all about the hired woman. She struggled to get up but her husband held her down, laughing.
“That will be all for tonight,” he told the woman in a relaxed tone. The woman murmured a confused answer and hastily left.
“Oh, you!” the princess whispered, trying hard to stifle her giggle.
But her husband laughed heartily and the sound of it took away her breath.
“How have I managed to stay away from you all these nights?” she murmured to herself really, but her husband looked at her as if she had been asking him.
“I guess I have never been as attractive as I am today,” he joked. But they both knew that the real answer was that most nights she would have been passed out on the couch by now.
“I’m sorry,” she told him, serious now. “I think I forgot to be a wife.” And a woman, she added to herself.
He did not dwell on her confession or her apology, as some men might have been tempted to do, but instead took the more pleasant route for both of them by pushing her down on her back right there on the floor and asking her teasingly how she planned to make it up to him. And she was very delighted to show him.
But much later, after her husband was asleep, Princess Wearia stared up at the ceiling, wondering what would become of her. She did not want to die, but more importantly, she did not want to continue this living death, either. But perhaps it was not for her to decide. Perhaps she was already dying.
She sat up in bed. But of course she was dying! She always had been, hadn’t she, ever since the day she was born? No one lived forever. The time for living was in each and every moment, and the next morning, when the princess noticed that her shoes were not worn she knew that she had lived well the previous day. And she determined to do the same that day, and for however many more days that she continued to wake up.
Well, and what about you?
EPILOGUE
A ND SO IT WAS THAT THE MYSTERY OF THE TWELVE “ DANCING ” princesses, as they had come to be called, and their worn shoes was put to rest once and for all. One last great feast was arranged to celebrate the wizardess’s success, and now the question on everyone’s lips was what she would request for her reward. The king had promised her any single thing from his kingdom, and everyone wondered what that one thing would be. Would the brazen woman ask for the castle?
One day, while Harmonia was walking through the great gardens of the castle, the king walked out to join her, for they had become friends. While they were walking together the wizardess happened to ask him, “Which half of the kingdom shall be mine?”
The king stared at her, aghast. “I have dispensed with that old bargain, as you well know,” he said at length.
“Dispensed with it?” she repeated. “Since when?”
“Since the night I accepted your challenge!”
“That is ridiculous!” Harmonia stormed, instantly outraged, and immediately on the defensive. “This is because I am a woman!”
“No,” the king told her. “It is because I did not wish to put you to death if you failed.”
“But I didn’t fail!” she insisted.
And on the dispute went, round and round, until at last the king lost his temper, bellowing, “You may have any one thing from my kingdom. Take it or leave it!”
Harmonia was obliged to accept this offer, but she left the king in the garden and avoided him until the night of the feast.
When the night of the great feast arrived, which was in all respects Harmonia’s night of honor, she found that she was in very good spirits. She prepared herself with care, slightly nervous but still terribly excited. She had learned many things from the inhabitants of this kingdom, and from the princesses most of all. In each of them she had detected characteristics she herself possessed, and this had helped her to understand herself better.
When she at last left her private room to join the king in kicking off the festivities, she was glowing with serenity and beauty. She greeted the king with a cheerfulness that he had not expected, but he was quickly captured by her mood and he, too, became more jovial as the night advanced.
As part of the celebration, the princesses had arranged a ceremony of sorts, where they could each express their appreciation to the wizardess by presenting her with a gift. Harmonia was delighted and charmed by the rare and distinctive treasures the princesses bestowed upon her. In addition to their gifts, the princesses each curtsied before the wizardess, offering their heartfelt thanks in words, as well.
There were also a few remaining questions for the wizardess to answer. Princess Wearia approached her first, to see what more she could learn of her precarious life expectancy. The wizardess bit her lip guiltily when she saw her, quickly explaining that she may have misread her hand. And sure enough, under reexamination, they discovered that the princess’s life line, which was actually located in an entirely different place than where they were searching for it, was actually remarkably long. The princess found no reason to be upset with the wizardess over this mishap, and all other matters brought forth before her were settled equally satisfactorily.
At last the king motioned for everyone to be silent. He was impatient to hear what Harmonia would ask of him.
“I have inspected my daughters’ shoes this very morning,” he began. “And I am fully satisfied that the wizardess has indeed solved the mystery once and for all.”
There rose a loud cheer to this declaration, and the king waited for the crowd to settle down before continuing. “The time has come to give Harmonia her reward.”
There was complete silence throughout the feasting hall now as the
king turned toward the wizardess. “Well?” he asked. “What will you have from my kingdom?”
Harmonia stood up and looked at the king a moment before speaking. At length she said in a clear but slightly trembling voice, “I will have…you!”
Everyone spoke at once. Women gasped, others cried out, some even had the presence of mind to deny their own hearing and ask, “What did she say?” The noise level rose to record proportions as the guests came to terms with the wizardess’s announcement. But at length the crowd quieted, curious now to know how the king would respond.
The king was speechless. His first reaction to Harmonia’s shocking declaration had very nearly been delight. He found that in the short time he had known her he had come to not only admire, but also to adore her. However, the thoughts that followed were much less pleasant, for he quickly realized that she must have devised this clever plan in order to obtain half of his kingdom in spite of their earlier conversation. He felt trapped—for what could he do? He had declared in front of his daughters and his entire kingdom that she could choose any single thing that she wished.
Everyone held their breath as they waited for the king to answer. He noticed that Harmonia’s lips were turned upward on one side as she, too, watched him keenly. It was as if she were challenging him.
“So it shall be,” he said at last, but it sounded more menacing than he had intended, almost like a threat. He noticed that his answer had caused the smile to fade from Harmonia’s lips.
And now it was the king who avoided Harmonia while preparations were made for their wedding—for in those days that was what such a declaration denoted. In the meantime, the king thought a great deal about Harmonia. There was much he admired about her and he felt that she would indeed make a fine and clever queen. As for her person, he admitted to himself that he found her quite attractive and delightful on many different levels. It was, however, the way in which it had been done that angered him and damaged his pride. Furthermore, he feared that her inconsiderate behavior had tainted their marriage before it had even begun. It would not bode well for the future.
In spite of these reservations, the king appeared on his wedding day looking handsome and calm. Harmonia was beautifully dignified, and the king grudgingly admired her poise. He knew that he wanted her in spite of his doubts, yet they were no longer children to be ruled by passion.
When the priest asked him, “Do you take this woman?” he answered truthfully, meeting her eyes as he spoke the words, “I do.”
But when her turn came Harmonia answered in a mere whisper, seemingly spellbound by the king’s stare as she said, “I do.”
“Then you may kiss the bride.”
Harmonia raised her face to the king, now her husband, as he approached her. Her eyes were locked with his. With his fingers the king gently lifted her chin and held her face as he kissed her. Her lips were soft and inviting and his kiss was tender and lingering. It seemed to convey a promise of something to come—or perhaps it was only the possibility of something that could have been.
But all at once a cheer rose up and then there followed feasting and dancing for hours, until the moment when the king took Harmonia’s hand and led her away.
At last the newly married couple was alone in their bedchamber and Harmonia’s poise finally left her. She struggled to control her trembling. The king faced her with a mixture of feelings ranging from anger to desire. This made him belligerent.
“So Harmonia, my wife,” he said, once again lifting her face and holding her chin so that she was obliged to look at him. “Now that you have gained half my kingdom, what have you for me?”
At his words her own anger flared, but with effort she forced it back down. As her eyes met his she mused that time was short, and they were both too old to play games. If she learned nothing else from the princesses, she had certainly learned that a lack of communication could rob a couple of happiness. She knew she must try to open the doors of communication between them, by empathizing with him and by being absolutely honest.
Queen Harmonia took her husband’s hand in hers. “Please sit beside me,” she said in her warm voice. He was once again taken aback by her demeanor and calm, and he obediently sat on the bed beside her. Her eyes met his.
“I realize now that you were speaking the truth about the night that I accepted the challenge,” she admitted. Her voice was soft and her tone was kindly. “At the time, I thought you were generously adding another wish to the existing gift of one half of your kingdom. I guess I did not understand at the time because I did not want to. Anyway, I want you to know that when I thought I could have half your kingdom plus one additional thing, the additional thing I wanted…I wanted…” She paused, becoming more uncomfortable. A blush rose up over her cheeks. “I wanted…you…then, too.”
She rushed on, now that the difficult words were out. “I had planned to mention it to you in private first, to make sure that you wanted me, too, but then…well, I decided to take a chance. Perhaps I was wrong to do so. But I still want more than anything to be here with you and if we could just begin anew I will try to be a good wife to you.” At this last there were tears in her eyes.
The king was shocked by her candor, honesty and above all, her humility. He was deeply touched. Her behavior was truly queenly, and he believed every word she said. There were tears in his eyes, too, as he assured her, “We will indeed begin anew.” Their earlier attraction to one another was now joined with a newfound respect and trust. And from there they both realized something truly wonderful could develop.
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