A Peasant and A Princess

Chapter Fifteen: Cristmas

Winter came slowly in my father's kingdom. The cold came in October, but the first snowflakes waited until late November to show themselves. Even so, you could hardly say there was snow on the ground for another few weeks.

The garden was dead, and the statues all wore little hats made from snow. Nobody walked in the garden in the winter.

I could faintly hear the violins from the string band warming up downstairs.

My mother was throwing her annual Christmas party that was well known throughout the kingdom, and I was finally old enough to be included. Louisa told me impossible tales of things people had said and done there.

"Will you be dressing in black as usual?" Jane asked.

I turned from the window to face her.

"Let me look at my wardrobe."

Jane nodded and opened the door to my closet. I stepped inside, and began to look around. My few black dresses had been pushed to the front. I walked around, pushing around some dresses to look at others.

At the back of the closet, a lonely victorian dress hung without a petticoat for it to keep it's shape. It had a large, white ruffled skirt, and a blueish overdress with some sort of floral pattern on it. It seemed weirdly familiar, although I didn't remember wearing it anytime recently.

And then it struck me. Mallory. I had been wearing that dress when I first went to see Mallory. I remembered all sorts of things at once about the girl I had been trying to forget since summer. Mallory giving me a coat through the palace gates. Drinking tea with her family. Horribly losing at a game of blackjack. Coming to see her at night for the first time. Running down the path to a little spot in that forest. Mallory kissing me. Me kissing Mallory. Green. Her eyes that were so green. Emeralds, and perfect lawns, and forests.

"Are you alright, Your Highness?"

"I'm fine."

I shook my head and looked away from the dress.

"That one," I haphazardly gestured to a black dress.

"Are you sure, Your Highness?"

I looked over at the dress I had chosen. It had a black, full sleeved bodice of black velvet, and a full black skirt of black satin that would brush the floor. It looked like a dull mourning dress. It seemed fitting, and besides, I seemed to be doing nothing but let people down since I had been confined to the palace grounds. Why break the streak?

"I'm sure."

The party seemed to stretch all over the first floor of the palace. There were people in the dining room, people in the sitting room, people in the parlor, the library, the halls, the garden, the menagerie, everywhere. Foreign Queens laughed with daughters of nearby Earls. Young Lords flirted with young ladies, and widowers flirted with widows. My sister laughed with three or four suitors, and my mother stopped to say hello to every group.

I walked through the party like a ghost. I wanted so badly to forget Mallory, and to just enjoy the party, but she filled my head. She was everywhere. I would mistake someone laugh for her, see a flash of dark brown hair, or catch a glimpse of some emeralds strung around a lady's neck. Eventually, I opted to grab a drink and sit on a bench by myself.

"Oh, Adelaide, I've been looking for you."

My mother had found me.

"Hello, mother. Well you've found me."

"You've become so rude lately. Please make an effort, you're not talking to servants."

She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the party to the parlor, before pushing me in front of a guy who looked a couple years older than me, who was awkwardly sipping his drink.

"This is Prince Josef of Hehron. I thought you two might get along."

She smiled awkwardly, before walking past me and hissed in my ear.

"Don't mess this up."

He awkwardly nodded at me.

"I don't believe we've met, Princess."

"Neither do I, Prince," I said dryly.

"Um, your mother tells me you like embroidery,"

"I do. I stitched the flowers on those curtains."

I gestured to a small design on the bottom corner of the library curtains.

We stood in silence for a moment longer.

"I'm going to find a waiter and get something to eat. Would you like anything, Princess?" He asked politely.

I nodded.

I wondered what Mallory would have done. She was usually quite shy. It was funny to think that before last summer, I had been quite social, and had my etiquette down, but these days Mallory would probably fare better in a conversation than me.