But Daddy I Love Him (Tayvis Short Story)

one

The gentle stroke of lead against the page soothed me as I wrote, leaving line after line of swooping handwriting in the wake of my pencil. 

My thoughts and feelings spilled down onto the page in the form of song lyrics, little doodles to remind me of how the words were supposed to feel, little arrows to tell me how I should sing it out loud. The gentle breeze blew at my tangled hair where it rested over one shoulder, my old purple dress hanging down the side of the wall I perched on.

I hummed to myself as I wrote, listening to the call of little birds across the bright blue winter sky, the sun lighting up the castle. Through the gates and dipped down slightly off the hill where the castle was, I could peek at glimpses of the nearby town. Not much, since I was on the ground floor and the wall was too high.

"Princess Taylor, princess Taylor!" A light voice calling my name caught my attention and I looked up from my bound notebook to see a little brown-haired girl bounding across the front gardens towards me where I hung out of the huge window on the front hall. I smiled, closing my notebook and placing on the rough bricks next to me as I swung my legs to sit straight.

"Hello there Miss Cece." I greeted her with a bright smile. Cece was the young daughter of our stable hand, and at just four years old, she had a habit of running off. "Have you slipped away from your Mother again?" I inquired as Cece held up her arms to me. She was too small to climb up on the wall herself, and so I shook my head fondly and reached down to pick the little girl up. "Well have you?" I asked again as I set Cece down on the bricks to me.

"No, Mother is busy princess Taylor!" She told me. "I wanted to say hello."

"Cece I have told you to just call me Taylor." I reminded her like I always did. But Cece had been raised by one of the castle's staff members, and so she called us as they did. 

"Sorry princess Taylor, mother says we call you that." Cece insisted, and I smiled.

"Well alright." I nudged her arm.

Cece's mother - Josephine - had worked for my family since before I was born since my father had taken pity on a young girl who had no home and taken her in at merely thirteen years of age. She absolutely adored me, and I almost saw her as my mother. Josie had been the one to teach me everything a mother should, since my mother had died giving birth to me and I had no one to fill that role. But she had, so it was almost like Cece was my baby sister. I remembered the day she was born; how scared Josie had been since Cece's father had been killed in a long-ago battle before Josie even knew she was with child. But my father, like he had always done, had not let Josie worry. He had moved her from the staff dormitories to her own room with Cece, a place that had once been used for storage. They had been there ever since, and Cece was learning to one day take over the stable hand from Josie.

"Princess Taylor, what are you writing?" Cece asked.

"Songs." I told her. "You know I am always writing songs." Cece giggled and nodded, swinging her little legs back and forth off the wall. 

"Cecelia-May!" A faint voice called, and Cece and I exchanged a look.

"You have ran away from your mother again you little creature." I accused, tickling her sides. Cece exploded into laughter, wriggling as her mother came around the corner and sighed at the sight of us, raising her hands to rest on the hips of her dusty stable dress.

"I do apologize princess, she gets away from me often." Josie sighed. 

"Oh she is no bother." I shook my head. "I was simply writing."

"Your father is looking for you, he wishes to speak with you when you are able." Josie told me. "He asked me to relay the message if I saw you."

"Thank you Josie." I smiled, ruffling Cece's hair. "Go on Miss Cece, and do not give your mother any further trouble."