Wicked Stepmother

Lara meets the king

This had gone on for long enough. Even though the young princess was quite clueless and useless (aren't they all?) I liked her. There was a sort of sweetness to her and we were all under her spell to some degree, even at times Marsha although she saw her as dangerous, potentially falsely acting and narcissistic person whose influence on the household should be minimised.

I didn't think Marsha was completely right. Granted Clover was pretty self-absorbed but she had never been taught to be otherwise. Her old life had all revolved around her and she had never had to do anything that I would consider as work. I thought that was a mistake by her parents actually, even if she was a princess- not to teach her any useful skills. Clover's apparent self-absorption was tempered by a genuine leaning toward kindness and empathy. She could manipulate people with her well-chosen compliments and admittedly she did use them strategically but there seemed always to be a genuine desire to please behind them and some level of sincerity about what she said even if her timing was diplomatic.

She was too young and stupid to deal with being pregnant, and she should have been better raised and looked after so that it would not come to that to begin with. Partly the fault lay with her stepmother who was herself too young to be a queen and far more interested in her own appearance and power than in the well-being of her husband's child - which ought to have been paramount in her priorities. I am not sure when the envy started, maybe early on but I was sure that Queen Kiora had never looked after Clover properly.

At first I had thought our house would be a safe and healing haven for Clover- away from the reach of her stepmother and whichever blackguard had got her with child (probably at her stepmother's request) and that she would learn important skills and become generally a more wholesome person. When it became clear that the stepmother would not rest until she had destroyed Clover I knew I needed to let the king know where she was because perhaps after all in the castle the stepmother could not act as openly.

I had not expected HER to be there when I received an audience with the king (which happened surprisingly fast given how long the lines were). She sat there with her child, her breast bared to it in the most disgusting public display and she had a sort of beauty to her I suppose with her blemish-less tawny skin and her dark, dark eyes as well as her unnaturally red lips. She wore a high silver coronet, a confection of the silversmiths' best work and her orange brocade dress would not have suited one woman in a hundred but she was dark enough to carry it off. She had an outsized ruby around her neck that matched her lips.

She was good at acting, she managed to seem concerned about her stepdaughter and when I saw how keen she was for the king to ride out and bring her home I regretted having come- but there was nothing for it now. He seemed completely taken in by her, no doubt due to her black arts.

It was too late to reconsider, his majesty ordered a horse for me and then looked again at my height and amended the order to a pony. Possibly I ought to have admitted I had never ridden before but I desperately wanted to give it a try so I kept silent. They saddled up a beast for me and I mounted up. Oh how high it felt to be up here and how precariously balanced I was. The thing took off at a terrifying speed and I was at the front by his majesty but at this breakneck speed I could only cling on and couldn't talk.

"Have you not ridden before?" his majesty asked me, some humour in his kindly voice.

"No sire" I managed to choke out.

"We will mount you up with a groom" he said which sounded not at all the thing and quite improper! But what he meant was that a groom had a horse and they put me in front of him like a child. Thus I was able to show the royal party the way to our lowly cottage.

I was grateful I had apricot pies and the good shortbread with nuts in it in the larder but I was worried there would not be enough and that the party would make a sizeable dent in our stores.