Five Magic Spindles: A Collection of Sleeping Beauty Stories
Page 43
The junior footman, who desperately wanted to get into the good graces of a formidable under-butler, told him the story only an hour later in an effort to curry favor. The under-butler told him that footmen of this household do not waste their superiors’ time with unverified country legends. But not fifteen minutes later the under-butler found himself telling the housekeeper, who in turn whispered a few words to the queen.
“Straw into gold?” said the queen, fanning her face quickly to cool the sudden flush. “You don’t say . . .”
Minutes later she burst into King Hendry’s office, waving away protesting secretaries and councilmen with an imperious hand. “Hendry!” she declared. “I have something you must hear.”
With that, she poured out the whole story. King Hendry, seated behind his big desk with lists and legers depicting his kingdom’s debt spread before him, his chin resting heavily in his hand, listened. As he listened he sat more and more upright, dropping his hand to the table, lifting his chin so that his beard stuck out almost straight before him.
“Whole rooms full of straw turned to gold—overnight!” said the queen, leaning over the desk, drawing her face as near to her husband’s as she could. “Can you even imagine it?”
“It . . . it can’t be true,” said King Hendry, though his quivering voice betrayed just how much he wanted to believe the tale.
“And why can’t it be?” demanded his wife. “Stranger things happen all the time! Would you have believed that beanstalks could grow up into the realm of giants, and that peasant boys could carry off bags of jewels and gold, not to mention rescue princesses out from under giant noses? Yet our own Lord Kester has journeyed to Greer and seen the beanstalk for himself, not to mention the gold coins the size of serving platters!”
King Hendry chewed thoughtfully on the edge of his mustache. Why should Greer have all the luck? Why should an extraordinarily large beanstalk happen to grow on that side of the border and not this? This kingdom had brave peasant boys aplenty, if they were only given a chance!
But then, who needs brave peasant boys when talented country lasses might produce even more impressive results?
“Whole rooms full of straw, you say?” He spoke in an eager whisper.
“Into gold!” his wife whispered back. Some things are too important to be spoken out loud.
King Hendry’s hand formed into a fist, and he struck the desk before him, pounding right in the center of the most impressive ledger full of debts. “Let’s send for her!” he declared. “Let’s send for her and see what she can do! If she’s as good as her word, she’ll marry our boy Ellis and be princess . . . and all she produces will go to the support of her kingdom.”
The queen smiled at this, delighted in the prospect of such a bride for her son. A gold-spinning country lass was ever so much better than a beanstalk-climbing peasant boy!
One thought marred her delight, however, and a cloud crept over her brow. “What if,” she said, most unwilling to speak the thought aloud but knowing she must, “what if the girl cannot do what is claimed? What if she has misled us all?”
The lines of King Hendry’s face deepened into a terrible scowl. “In that case, her life is forfeit,” he said. “She’ll hang at dawn.”
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