Chapter 9: Portrait
Once back to the grounds, I took Sandy (the name I decided to call her because of the color of her coat) back to the stables. I was exhausted, she was too. I hoped that the owner of her wouldn’t ride her tomorrow. As I was walking out of the stables I heard one of the boys from the castle. Ugh, I was tired, and I didn’t want to put up with his lip. I was debating whether to stay here until the voices went away, or to just go to the palace. I looked back at Sandy’s stall area, it was clean and it had fresh hay, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to stay here, with her, I mean it is not like I’ve never slept in a barn before. I mentally slapped myself, who were these boys to make me feel like I couldn’t go into the castle. I was so tired, before I knew it my feet were carrying me to the hay near Sandy. I lay down on it and fell asleep almost instantly.
***
I woke up to laughing, and I looked around and the two boys from the palace were looking at me. Great.
“Hey hay girl.” one of them said in a voice that just made me want to slap him, hard.
I glared at him. “Be gone.” I muttered in an annoyed tone, and plopped back down on the hay.
I heard them laugh, “Oh, come on princess, do you really want to sleep in a horse stall?” his voice was not full of concern, it was full of sarcasm.
“No, what I want is to be left alone! Now please, go away!”
I started to stand up, but I was dizzy, I stumbled. The two boys actually looked nervous when I stumbled. One of them caught me. I blacked out.
****
I woke up in a warm fluffy bed. When I opened my eyes, a maid was bustling about, cleaning and such. I looked out my window, it was dark. “What time is it?”
“About a couple of hours until sunrise, Miss.”
Wow, already so late, or early. “How did I end up here?”
She looked at “I‘d been asking myself that very same question for many a years now.” she chuckled, then answered me, “Fabian brought you in.”
“Who’s Fabian?”
“One of the stable boys.”
“Oh,” I really didn’t like them. “How?”
“How what dearie?” She asked not looking up from folding something.
I sighed, “How did he bring me in?”
“Oh, well he carried you of course.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I see.” I said simply, I didn’t feel like elaborating.
She smiled at me, “Is there something wrong with that?” she said in a sweet voice.
I guess she wanted to continue the conversation. Yes I yelled in my mind. “No, of course not, I’m very grateful for being brought in.” I lied. I wasn’t sure why I did, maybe because I didn’t want to be rude.
“Well I better go, and let you get some sleep.” She walked out and closed the door.
I truly wasn’t tired, because I must have slept for a long time, so I decided that I would get up and go for a walk. Then I remembered the portraits. The ones that sort of looked interesting. I stood up too fast, and received a massive headache for it. I was really comfortable and looked down, I was in a beautiful white silk nightgown. I smiled. There was a pair of slippers by the bed, but it was quite warm, so I decided that I would just go barefoot.
****
The first portrait was a man in front of a plain black background. Above the portrait read the initials K.O.B. He had an eye patch, and he wore a navy blue suit with silver buttons on it. He was well shaved, had a smile. He also had piercing blue eyes. I realized they were the Prince’s eyes. I moved on to the next one.
The middle one was a woman. She had Strait brown hair, with dark grey eyes. She did not look friendly. She was wearing a pale yellow dress covered in lace. She lacked a smile. She was in a study with a desk to her right. Above the portrait read the initials K.O. D. H.
I moved on to the last, and third one in that row. It was a man again, he had black hair, and a smirk, this was also a feature of the prince, and many other people in this kingdom. He was in front of a plain grey background. Above this portrait was the initials K.O.A.C
I looked back to the woman. On the desk to her right there was a piece of paper in fancy calligraphy it read, “To get to where you need to, find something that differs from my neighbors.” Why would they bother to paint such an insignificant detail. They wouldn’t, this has to mean something. I started to dissect the phrase. ‘To get to where you need to…’ I stopped there. Where does anyone need to go? I want to find the meaning. Then I wondered if this is just there to just mess with people, or even if the painter just added it because he wanted the scene to be perfect. What if there is not anywhere that anyone needs to go? Maybe I am just too desperate to get out of here that I fantasized a way to leave. Then I remembered that I chose to come here. I took a breath that was probably it. I just wanted to leave.
“But what if this is a real thing, and I could leave, I would have missed my chance if I pass this up.” I whispered to myself out loud. I decided that I would try to figure this out. I looked at the portraits again. I stared at them for a little while.
****
After a while of staring at them I decided I was going at this the wrong way. I must go through all the steps, and first is to go through the history. First thing tomorrow, I will go to the palace library and learn about the past. I need to know what differs from her neighbors, or who she is.
