The Nine Princesses Revised Edition (Volume One)

Chapter 3: The Message.

"You're late," Heidel said. "I almost told them to start without you."

"Sorry. I was in the middle of something." Maelyn gave Heidel a look full of meaning and Heidel answered with a short nod. They would talk later.

"Well, sit! The bread's not getting any warmer." Heidel waved at Maelyn's chair. The rest of the princesses were already seated, four on each side of the long table. As eldest, Maelyn sat at the head. In her mother's old place.

They said a short prayer and the princesses fell back into the small conversations they had started before Maelyn's arrival. Only Arialain, the youngest, turned her large green eyes on Maelyn, questioning. Arialain knew about the message, and who it was from.

Maelyn accepted a bowl of raspberries passed by Heidel on her right corner, placed a handful on her silver plate, and handed the bowl to Briette on her left. They always sat in the same places, though with no predetermined order. Certainly not birth order, since they were all so close in age. Rather, the sisters had fallen naturally into small bonds of two or three, always sitting near the ones they felt closest to. For Maelyn, that was Heidel and Briette.

"Sorry. No milk this morning," Heidel said in a dry voice. "Ari dropped it. The whole pail."

"I didn't mean to!" Arialain cried. "I just stumbled."

"Where?" Maelyn asked.

"Outside, on the grass," Arialain said.

"How does someone trip over grass?" Heidel asked.

Maelyn waved a hand. "Let her be. I'm sure the pail was very heavy." She offered a reassuring smile to Arialain. Heidel, dissatisfied, flipped her thick red braid behind her shoulder and tore her bread roll in half.

Maelyn raised her hand, calling for her sisters' attention. No point in delaying unpleasantness. "I just want you all to know: I had a message this morning. From Uncle Jarrod."

A chorus of groans greeted this, as Maelyn had expected. Only one sister looked unperturbed: Coralina. Coralina had always liked Uncle Jarrod. Perhaps because she was the only princess that he liked.

"What's he want now?" Heidel asked, annoyance pinching her freckled face.

Maelyn sighed. "He's heard about the servants."

A long silence followed, finally broken by Lace, sitting at the far end. "Well... he was bound to find out eventually, wasn't he? Couldn't stay a secret forever."

"No," Maelyn said wearily. "But I hoped it would be longer."

"All right, so he knows." Heidel shrugged. "Why should we care?"

"He's coming," Maelyn said. More groans followed this.

"Why?" Arialain asked.

"He said he wants to look into the matter. And decide what must be done about it." That had been the worse part of his message for her. I will decide what must be done. And he would – with no consideration for anyone, least of all Maelyn.

"Tell him to mind his own mudsucking business," Heidel said.

"Heidel!" Maelyn cried, though some of the sisters giggled at her use of the crude word.

"What? Uncle Jarrod has never cared if we were dead or alive. Why should it matter to him if the servants are gone?" Heidel asked.

"We don't need them," said Briette on Maelyn's left. "We're faring perfectly well."

"Are we? Are we faring well?" Coralina asked in a challenging tone.

Maelyn was in no mood to hear Coralina's opinion. "It doesn't matter at all what we think about it. All that matters is what Uncle Jarrod thinks. He's going to see this as a sign of our incompetence."