A Dove's Tale

Chapter 39

"Thank you, Prince Nokto," I said politely, handing him his coat as the carriage jostled to a stop. The chill in the air nipped at my toes in the few seconds between sliding them out from under the warmth of my skirt and down to my waiting shoes on the floor. They were going to get colder soon. I reached for the carriage door, and then Prince Nokto's voice stopped me.

"That's your house?" he asked disapprovingly.

I sighed and looked back at his narrowed crimson eyes. "It's not the palace, but there's nothing wrong with it, your highness."

"How badly does the roof leak?" he countered, his eyes meeting mine with a challenge.

"It doesn't. Not since I patched it after the last rainstorm," I retorted. "Goodbye, your highness."

I hopped out of the carriage, landing directly in a puddle, and was about to slam the carriage door shut when a horrible feeling of dread twisted my stomach. I swallowed what little pride I had left and turned back to look up at him.

"Please don't tell Prince Chevalier?"

Prince Nokto closed his eyes briefly and shook his head, giving a half-sigh, half-laugh.

"Do you know how pitiful you look right now?"

Standing in the rain, in a puddle, without a coat, looking up at him imploringly? Yes, I had an idea how pitiful I looked, and I was hoping it was enough to convince him.

"Please."

His lips turned up into a reluctant smile. "Fine. Just get inside."

"Thank you, Prince Nokto!"

I shut the carriage door and darted toward the little shack I called home, mud squelching beneath my feet and under the horses' hooves as they strained to get the carriage moving behind me. The smell from the bucket hit me as soon as I opened the door. I gagged and covered my mouth, closing the door gently as I scanned the little room in the dim lighting provided by the one window. Mother was asleep under a big, fluffy floral blanket, a bright blend of the colors I saw through the library window every day. Warmth flooded my chest just looking at it. Jason didn't have to buy a pretty one. I would have smiled, if not for the bucket next to the bed. If Mother could sleep with that smell, she had to feel awful. I grabbed her coat from a nail in the wall, shrugged it on, and braced myself to deal with the offending bucket. It belonged in the garbage heap. But Mother needed it today, and it was still raining, and she was only going to get weaker...

I dumped it at the outhouse, scrubbed it at the river, and brought it back for future use, dry heaving the entire time, soaking wet and chilled through well before I finished. And I still had to make dinner before I could crawl under that blanket and find out how warm it really was.

It was nice of the sky to cry for me, sometimes.

But it wasn't crying the next morning. The new day dawned bright and sunny, the air was extra clean and fresh, and the grass was already a brighter shade of green than before. It was like the whole world was smiling. I decided to go along with it. Focusing on the negatives in my life wouldn't help anything, after all, so why not smile and dwell on the positives? The new blanket was as warm as it looked, for one, and when I finally got to bed last night, Mother was nice and toasty underneath it. She was in good spirits today, too. And the weather was perfect for me to catch up on laundry. All good reasons to smile. Everybody I passed on my walk up to the palace was smiling, too, even the street sweepers busily cleaning up all the debris left behind by the storm. It had made a mess, but the damage had been minimal, all things considered.

Now, if only I could hold on to this mood in the palace.

"Good morning, Prince Chevalier!" I called at nine o'clock, pulling his drapes open and looking down into the gardens. The gardeners had been hard at work since well before I arrived, and the gardens were already looking much better from their efforts.