The Princess Bride

At First Sight

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Walking through the castle always made me feel so very small and insignificant. Our home was large and there were lots of expensive things everywhere, so it wasn't a completely new experience. But the castle was just....so much more. It was a lot bigger and much more luxurious, and we never had nearly as many people in our home as were in the castle on a normal day. I couldn't imagine people actually living here the way the royal family did.

Before too long, I stood along side Papa in one of the castle's spacious reception rooms. As predicted, I was bored after only a few minutes. The grown ups would acknowledge me initially, but then they'd ignore me while they talked to Papa. But remembering my promise to be good, I pretended I wasn't bored. I didn't understand a lot of what they talked about, so it wasn't easy.

I began looking around the room and noticed that Angelica and Victoria were absent. At least for now. The only other children in the room looked to be either much younger or much older than myself. All but - ugh - the prince.

I'd never actually met the prince before, but everyone knew who he was. Part of me thought he could actually be interesting since he was a boy and wouldn't care about dolls or dresses or needlepoint. But I also didn't think he knew much about actual fun. He probably thought ordering people around all day was fun. He must be a snob. Mostly, the richer people were, the more stuck up they were, and he was royalty, after all. I didn't doubt for a second that he was vain and pompous. Talking to him was probably ten times worse than talking to Angelica and Victoria, because at least, in their way, they were trying to be likable. Why would a prince feel the need to impress anyone?

Judging by the way he was surveying the room with that bored and superior expression, he wasn't impressed by anyone here either.

With a frown, I turned my attention away from Prince Alexander and hoped that we wouldn't have to interact at all. I wasn't sure how I'd keep my promise to Papa otherwise.

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Unfortunately, my hope had been in vain. I probably should have known it would be, because of course Papa would want to speak with the royal family. That was probably the entire reason he was here.

And so with forced smile, I curtsied and said all the appropriate things when Papa introduced me to Prince Alexander. The prince did all the appropriate things too, but he was barely even trying to be pleasant. He hadn't smiled at all and he barely looked at me or anyone else.

Honestly, if I could be polite, he should be able to as well. He probably had a politeness tutor or something. And it just made me angry that I had to try when he didn't. No one even looked at him funny for his sour expression.

Well, I certainly would. Sneaking a quick look at Papa and the other grown ups to make sure they wouldn't see, I turned back to the prince and, once he met my gaze, I made the nastiest face I could come up with and stuck out my tongue. But only for a second so Papa wouldn't discover that I broke my promise. I quickly glanced back at him to check and to my relief, he hadn't noticed a thing.

When I looked at the prince again, he seemed different. Surprised.

Well good. Maybe now he knew that not everyone thought he was amazing simply because he was born to one family instead of another.

Of course, if he planned to tattle on me... I nervously glanced at Papa again.

The prince recovered from his surprise and then took me off guard with a nasty look of his own. There was something in his eyes though that told me that the motivation behind that look wasn't to be nasty at all. He thought it was funny. It was such a strange and unexpected reaction, I couldn't help giggling.