Chapter 4 - Back to routine

I woke up the next morning in my bed at the castle. I jumped out of bed when I saw Anna coming in through the door: "You told me that you would arrive later today. Where is your overcoat?" I had a strong desire to tell the whole story to her, but she could be scared and would not let me go back there. I didn't know if I really wanted to go back to that house. I answered Anna simply: "I missed my room; not everything is beautiful beyond the castle's gates."

After I changed, I went to have breakfast with my dad. I found that my plans to return to the old little house in the middle of the forest would be postponed because the king planned an engagement party. All the nobility and my suitor would be there tonight. He would talk about the alliance before I met him.

That's the reason for the floral ornaments and all the beautiful decorations in the castle's ballroom. "A dinner, Dad? Why didn't you tell me yesterday? What should I wear?" He smiled because he was happy with my concern about what to wear. "The seamstresses came yesterday, and they will come back again today to help you with the dress." He was less worried than the first time we talked about the arranged marriage.

I spent part of the morning in my room thinking, wanting to go back to that crypt and maybe have the courage to talk to that handsome creature. But I felt fear, and today I had enough commitments. I couldn't leave after the engagement, because if the king wanted to talk to me later, I had to be there. That was very risky.

The seamstresses arrived mid-afternoon. I wore a beautiful gown in pink satin, full of ribbons and jewels. I looked like a real princess. But my thoughts turned to the marriage. What if my suitor were an old, ugly, and paunchy man? How could I, in my seventeen-year-old, marry someone so much older?

It was hard not to think of this sort of thing. The king didn't give me details about my suitor. A prince from a faraway kingdom was the only thing I knew. What disturbed me most was not having my mother to talk about these things. How would it be to marry someone? I should have someone to talk about this with.


The evening fell, and I could see the great movement of carriages coming from my window. I could leave my room only when the king called me, just as tradition dictated. So there I sat, ready and just enjoying the lights and nobility coming through the front door, from my window. I saw a black carriage coming up with four beautiful black horses, and I saw someone jumping from the carriage by a servant. "Was he the prince? He looked younger than I thought. But at this distance..."


With my eyes, I followed the carriage and saw when it was placed behind the castle, apart from the rest. "Strange," I thought. One of the horses looked up, and I saw its eyes like red flames. My heartbeat was faster and louder, and I began to tremble. It was not an ordinary horse. I got even more terrified when the horse snatched and ate a rat, licking the blood that had drained through the floor.