Chapter 1: Are you there, Princess?
It’s the first day of the fourth month and it’s that time of the year again. There’s no day I loathe more than this. It seems like no matter how hard I try, I can’t escape my reality. I won’t ever be able to run away from my supposed destiny. What a drag.
“Caesalpinia! Are you done with your hair? “Caesalpinia! The suitors are now arriving.”
“Caesalpinia…! What are you doing? Your hair is still in that messy braid. You have to be prettiest today. I hear Lord Tyrell will be coming as he’s back from his trip to the other Kingdom. Such a handsome, young Lord.”
Helio kept on yarning on how good looking this Lord Tyrell fellow supposedly is and how we’d make wonderful babies. Helio was a good soul. She knew I hated this day and so, tried to make me smile to ease the mood. She’s the best hand’s maid anyone could ever ask for. She especially looked marvelous today. Her reflective light brown skin looked even more beautiful in her sky-blue attire as she stood behind me undoing the mess I had on my head. Her shoulder length hair was well combed and rested nicely on her. She held a soft smile, hazel eyes focused solely on the hair she was so determined to fix.
“Hey, red fire?”
I raised my eyes slightly to meet her gaze.
“I know you wish you could skip this part of the year but you know better than anyone else, this is something you have to do. As the first and only daughter and child of The Great King Alexandre Myrr Tancredi Barbados III, you have to get married. You were successful in eluding it the past three years, but you’re nineteen now. You have to choose a suitor this time. The entire kingdom is growing weary. Your father most especially is apprehensive. So please, pick a gentleman this time?”
I understood everything she said and I knew that much myself. I never liked the concept of matrimony but I guess that’s what I was made for. I should consider myself lucky that I’m not being married off to some old Emperor far away from here or whatnot. At least I get to choose. I’m lucky, aren’t I?
“All done!”. I looked at the mirror in front of me and my reflection was saddening. I had been adorned with jewelry and priceless ornament. I was beautiful yet in the deepest part of me, I wished I could be just disappear or at the very least, be happy for today.
“You’ll have to smile of course. You look so much like her when you smile. I’ll leave you for a while now. I’ll be outside with Sir Trevor waiting.”
She said this as she looked at me with a hopeful smile while she excused herself. I remained sat as I stared at my reflection in the mirror for a brief moment. My skin was clear and dark as ever. My pouty lips dressed in baby pink gloss. Gold jewels dazzled all over my hair and dress. My face highlighted in makeup that made my little nose seem pointier and my brows and lashes even more luscious. She had put my rather difficult, wooly hair in a nicely braided bun and crowned me with my blue coronet. I even wore a family’s keepsake, a bold pinkish-gold necklace that sort of wore my somewhat long neck down. With my graciously flowing lapis-blue ball gown, I was stunning to behold. Glancing at my picture-perfect reflection for the last time before exiting my room, I tried to muster up a heartfelt smile. Being a well taught princess, I was successful in doing so even though it made me feel only more pathetic. I then rose as I threw my floor kissing gown over my silver coated heeled shoe and made my way out of the room.
“You look marvelous”, said Sir Trevor who was my personal guard assigned to me on my Christening. I held a true smile and let him corset his arm with mine as we proceeded to the ball room downstairs. Helio followed right behind us making sure my gown was in the right flow at all times. As we descended the stairs, I had a tinge of nostalgia as this is my third attempt to pick a suitor. The Lords, wide-eyed and piqued, all gazed as I made my way down the impossibly long stairs. They somehow hadn’t grown tired of this same ceremony and all held a gentle smile.
“Such beauty! Regal and radiant! Breathtaking majesty! Her Highness as resplendent as ever!” With compliments echoing all around the hall, I was filled with muted delight.
Sir Trevor escorted me to my father who was at the other side of the six-edged ballroom. With glimmer in his eyes, he took my hand and kissed it. He held a well pronounced smile on his fully bearded face and complimented my beauty. With a gentle whisper, he uttered the question;
“Are you ready?”
To which I gently nodded yes. He then clacked his glass, getting the attention of the room. In his profound hoarse, commanding voice, he cheered.
“Here’s to my daughter! The princess of the Kingdom of Meniskos! The pride of Barbados!”
As the hall roared at my father’s telling of me, he bended slightly and whispered in my ear, -- make your mother proud.
With the roaring fading, it was time for the ‘Red in Distress’ as the orchestra began with the symphony. The piece opened with a rich, intricate melody that set the tone and as per tradition, it was my queue to do the ‘Choros Anthinos’. It would be my first time actually partaking in said tradition, as I made sure to find a way in past times to elude it. I closed my eyes and with every string of the violin, and every note of the trombone, and every touch of the organ, I swindled and twirled like a flower in the graceful rain. My mother had taught me all there was to being a princess. She had made every lesson clear and I learned every to perfection. She particularly loved this dance and taught me with an unfiltered smile each time. As I skipped and swanned round the center of the ballroom, my memory was filled with her essence and grace. It felt like nothing else mattered. Eyes closed, heavy and calm breaths, sways of my diaphanous gown in whatever direction I pleased, the music enchanting my ears with every second past, as I listened to my heartbeats, as loud as the harmonious symphony. I was in euphoria. I was free! Then as everything else in this world, the violinist strung the final chord, and my dance was completed.
With the hall filled with cheers and applause, I quickly scanned the entire floor. It was the same as always. Lords from all over the kingdom were in their neatly catered suits. Men from the ages of twenty all the way down to fifty were in anticipation of being chosen by me for a dance. I could remember almost all the faces, each with their own unique teeth and smile. I spotted Helio and quickly but gracefully walked to her side.
“You did amazing Caesalpinia! You were so beautifully incredible! Everyone was in a trance...”
Helio kept on bombarding me with compliments and praises while I stood and smiled awkwardly but happily. She then proceeded to telling me all about the new Lords whose faces I couldn’t recall or rather, I hadn’t seen before as I rarely ever forget a face. So, when I looked at the far east side of the room, and a saw a man in armor guarding that wing, I knew that was in fact, a new face.
“Who’s the knight at the far east?”
“That’s one of the new guards that have been brought into the palace. He’s a rather odd fellow or at least that’s all I’ve heard about him.”
I stared at him for a second or two before then proceeding to listen to Helio as she went on and on about the new Lords. As we stood, gossiping and chuckling, it wasn’t long after till a new face walked in through the second east door by my right side. Tall and brazen. With a smile that had people, men and women looking twice, he walked gallantly into the halls towards the King.
“That’s him!”
Helio in a well contained excitement exclaimed.
“That’s Lord Tyrell!”.
I looked at him as his eyes met mine and he began walking boldly towards my direction.
