Worth Is Measured In Love

Chapter 1

As the sun rose over London, it warmed the cobblestone streets and the river that flows through the city. It shone on the rooftops of simple houses and the towers of the royal castle. By mid-morning, the sun's rays had brightened the entire city. Especially below in the town square where people were gathering to watch a puppet show on stage.

"Welcome! Welcome!" Cheered the gleeful puppeteer. "Welcome dear guests! I suppose you're all wondering why someone would set up a puppet show in the middle of the street, yes?"

None of the audience members said anything but some who were children nodded.

"Well believe it or not, there was a time when this area was once a place where a fair was held. A glorious fair where the poor, crippled, and outcasted could hide from the world's prejudice and create their own world of music, dance, and laughter."

A group of funny little puppets dropped from the curtains and began to dance for the audience. The people were amused and astounded with how this man was able to make these wooden figures move without using his hands.

"Among these outcasts were two dreamers whom fate afflicted."

The other puppets stopped dancing and cleared the way for someone.

"The first, a boy forced to hide part of his face for it was eternally disfigured by the horrors that human kind is capable of."

A boy puppet with bandages around his mouth, cheeks, and chin, stepped forward.

"The second, a girl who's eyes were made to never see the light, trapping her in a never-ending darkness."

A girl puppet with white eyes moved to stand next to the boy puppet.

"But although blind, the girl was able to see the boy for who he truly was. She loved him dearly, yet he boy believed he was too monstrous to be worthy of anyone's love."

The girl puppet moved to kiss the boy puppet, but the boy only distanced itself from the girl.

"Insecurity." The puppeteer said. "It has probably gotten in the way of true love more so than infidelity, for if you cannot see your own worth, how can you see the worth of one's love? And this does not just apply to outcasts. It can apply even to the most handsome man and most beautiful woman. As a matter of fact..."

Suddenly a solider puppet popped up from the stage.

"This dashing and heroic man of the royal army did not believe he deserved the love of his sweetheart, for she was a wealthy and grand duchess of England and he had not a penny or title to his name."

A aristocratic lady puppet popped up next to the solider and tried to kiss it, but this soldier also dodged the gesture of affection.

"Yes indeed, their inability to see their own self-worth, caused them to push away the women who loved and adored them, and that almost destroyed not only their lives, but England as well. But I'm getting ahead myself. Let's start at the beginning."

He dismissed the puppets.

"Our story begins about ten or eleven years ago, a bloody time in our nation when good King Faust." He then produced a very mean and nasty looking puppet wearing a robe and a crown who towered over all the other puppets that trembled before him in fear. "Ruled like a merciless eagle. He over taxed his people into poverty, abused his servants, not even his family was treated kindly by him. He battered his queen and was disloyal to her, having countless affairs, one of which led to the birth of his youngest daughter, an illegitimate child who he was ashamed to acknowledge. So he kept her concealed from the world. But I think no one in that castle suffered more than the king's eldest daughter by his queen."