The Secret of the Seven Princesses

Suspense Chapter 17

Thaleia shrugged this time and waved her hand as though dismissing this monumental pronouncement as of little importance. "Yeah, something about you can enter as many times as you want but exits are kind of limited. And I think we're almost there."

At this, Gustave stood abruptly, dislodging the package from his lap and sending the pages scattering across the floor. Callia knelt and immediately began straightening and reordering the pages with motherly care. Gustave paid her no heed.

"Are you telling me that you have been visiting a cursed room every night for the past eight months?" he asked with terrified anger.

Eurielle addressed her slippers. "Nine and a half, actually."

"You've been endangering your lives for...for what? This play?"

Cliodne raised her chin almost defiantly. "In our defense, Father, we didn't know about the curse."

"I don't care whether you knew or not! What I want to known is: why in the world was this worth it? The lies, the sneaking, the secrets, the sleeplessness, if you were just waltzing into danger?"

Callia urgently thrust the stack of parchment, newly straightened, into his hands once again. "Because it's us. We've put everything into this."

Gustave had to repress the urge to toss it aside. "And if you had to do this...thing—" he spat the word out as though it were something vile, "—why couldn't you have done it without leaving the safety of this castle?"

He was surprised at the ferocity in Eralie's eyes. Indeed, when she looked at him like that, he was reminded forcibly of her mother during one of their spats. "Would you have let us? You, with all your speeches of propriety and ladylike behavior? Would you have let any of us act? Would you have let Callia write? Have you not always disapproved of Cliodne's dominant nature? Or Thaleia's and Petra's less delicate interests? Did you never wonder why we never tried to fit your expectations before? We are not your dolls!"

Raia laid a calming hand on her sister's arm and Eralie fell silent. With a surprisingly gentle voice, Thaleia said, "You ask why we would risk so much. Well, this room and this thing, as you called it, provided a place for us to express ourselves and be who we were without facing your constant disappointment in us."

"But then you wanted to take that away from us as well," Eurielle said in a small voice.

Gustave's anger deflated in the light of their impassioned explanation. He slowly sat down again. All too aware of the seven pairs of eyes gazing at him intently, he averted his eyes to stare unseeingly past his daughters. Suddenly, he viewed everything with new consideration. The food fights of old, his daughters' secretive whispers and late morning lie-ins, the prince competition and the fates of its contestants, and even the admitted escape to this chamber of theirs were not actually malicious forms of rebellion, but desperate measures taken in pursuit of their independence and individuality.

Furthermore, he realized anew that their behavior had indeed changed for the better since these last night excursions had begun—a fact that he had been too blind and stubborn to acknowledge before, especially when he believed them to have betrayed his trust. But it had been many months since he'd witnessed even a single pea leave a princesses' plate during mealtime, and they certainly carried themselves with grace and decorum as they stood in front of him at the moment. He glanced at the script in his hand.

The Diamond in the Rough. Could it be that this play, this pastime, this opportunity for freedom had finally brought about the change in his daughters that he'd long despaired of? That in acting like beggars, or ruffians, or whatever other characters were in this curious play, they had actually learned to act like princesses, as well? It certainly appeared to be the case. And if it was so, then perhaps it was high time he learned to support his daughters for who they were and encourage them to become who they wanted to be.