"I signed a marriage treaty with the King of France, and that girl will obey it. If not there will be hell to pay. I have had enough of her foolishness, we have already been grand enough by allowing her to go through with these disgusting delusions. If I had been my grandfather, she would have been burned for these desires." The Tsar spoke as he walked through the castle corridors angrily, the cloak of night already upon them.
"But she does not love her, my Lord." The Tsarina told him, trying to calm her husband.
"It's not about love." He replied.
"Well, perhaps it should be." The woman reasoned, knowing that their own marriage had been the product of love, the two having sneaked off to the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in St. Petersburg to be married in secret.
"She must learn responsibillity, Alexei is gone and while his son Pyotr lives on, we must prepare Yekaterina for a life were she might still become my successor. I have accepted that her successors will come from her siblings, but I demand that she shall still be married." The Emperor insisted.
"The sampling cannot grow in the shadow of a mighty oak, she needs sunlight." The Tsarina tried again.
"She needs a good whipping, that's what she needs." The man replied as they made their way towards the chambers of the Grand Duchess.
"Really Pyotr, can't this wait till morning?" The Emperess enquired.
"If I cannot sleep, neither shall she." The Tsar said as they bursted into the princess's chambers, finding them entirely empty.
"Oh no, not again, Kathinka." The Grand Duchess's mother whispered under her breath, knowing her husband's anger was growing by the minute.
The Grand Duchess Yekaterina Petrovna, was a curious child. Her beauty was exquisite, her face like porcelain, her eyes bright blue like the sky at high noon, and her hair hanging in long blonde ringlets. This was something that greatly annoyed her father as it was wellknown that the young princess could have had any man she wanted, but there in layed the issue as the Grand Duchess did not want a man at all, she wanted a woman.
The girl's father was quite right. Her grandfather, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, would have had her burned for her sexuality. Even her father's own laws were an issue as he himself had passed a law banning homosexual relations in the millitary, and as such his own daughter being allowed to marry a woman was quite controversial. However, the girl was still the apple of his eye, especially being the only living child he had left, and as such she gained priviliges. Of course, it would have been far easier if Katya had just agreed to marry Princess Nicole of France as she had been requested to do. But being the headstrong woman she was, the Grand Duchess of course refused to follow intructions.
Once again her mother and father found themselves in an empty bedroom, ready to teach their unruly daugther a lesson. Katya however was long gone, having made a rope out of bedsheets to climb down from her guilded cage. Not caring that the tower loomed high over the ground as she had made her way down and ran off with one of their horses.
She rode until morning broke but that was when her horse grew tired and threw her off, running away before she could stop it. Katya was not nearly far enough away to evade her father's clutches so she needed to find another horse quickly. Just then she heard the rooster sing as she neared a large farm house, she hurried over and saw large stable grounds.
Oh, how luck had smiled upon her once again, she thought as she fetched a large stallion as black as coal. Katya quickly mounted the horse, making haste to travel onwards.
As the Grand Duchess rode out and neared the farm's orchard, an apple flew towards her, quickly followed by another. In no time at all she had been thrown off the horse, finding herself on the ground with her cloak wrapped around her head, hiding the princess's face from view.
"Thief!" Another girl's voice yelled as more apples flew at the princess.
"This will teach you not to steal my father's horse." The young girl's voice sounded again as she hurled another apple towards the Grand Duchess.
"Please, my own ran off, I had no choice." The young princess replied, trying and failing to explain her situation.
"And our choice is what? To let you steal it?" The other girl responded.
"I was only borrowing it." The Grand Duchess tried again, her cloak still hiding her attacker from her.
"Get out, before I wake the house." The girl spoke again.
Finally Katya managed to free herself of her cloak's hold, the garment falling into it's proper posisition once more, revealing a young farm girl. The young princess looked the woman over, finding it most likely that the she was a maid at the house. Soot from the fireplace on the woman's face and hay in her hair clouded the girl's features, but Katya still saw a great deal of beauty in her. She did not have much time to take in the girl's features however as the young woman fell to her knees before the princess moments later, her face towards the earth as she begged forgiveness.
"Forgive me your Highness, for I did not see you." The young woman said.
"Your aim would suggest otherwise." Katya replied as she felt her body grow sore from where the apples had hit her.
"And for that I know I must die." The girl said. The Grand Duchess had forgotten entirely that it could in fact be counted as an attack on the crown and as such there was punishment by death awaiting the young woman. The princess could not however tell the girl that she was in fact running away from the palace to avoid getting married, and as such could not in fact carry out such a punishment.
"Eeh, the-then speak of this to no one, and I shall be lenient." Katya responded. She needed the girl's silence to protect her from her father figuring out which route she had taken. The Grand Duchess quickly mounted the horse once again, desperate to not waste more time.
"We have other horses, Your Highness. Younger, if that is your wish." The maid said in a shaking tone.
"I wish for nothing more than to be free of my guilded cage." Katya said as she emptied a bag of coins before the girl. "For your silence." She added, as she rode off, continuing her journey for freedom.
YOU ARE READING
Ever After ✔~ trixya
Fanfiction"Her name was Beatrice Mattel. And this, was her glass slipper. Perhaps you will allow me to set the record straight?" The Grand Duchess says as she picks a beautiful shoe out of the silver box. "Then it's true? The story?" The writer enquires. "Yes...
