The Damsel

Chapter 1

Sophie hated parties; there was never anyone interesting at them. Well at least not at the ones she went to anyways. All the people at those parties were just people who wanted to present some awful boy to her, so they might become “acquainted.” Acquainted? That’s not what they meant all; they meant to show off their sons and nephews to Sophie as prospective husbands.  Sophie had no desire to marry now, she was only seventeen. Not only that, but none of these boys even sparked her interest, but for the sake of Papa she laughed when it was necessary and danced with whom she was told to. It wouldn’t be right for her to do otherwise; she was the Prince’s daughter after all.  The boys weren’t the worse part though. Those stupid giggling girls were, always laughing and speculating over who would soon be engaged to whom. Sophie didn’t care who ended up with whom.

That evening Sophie and her father were attending a ball at the home of the Duke of Aldershot, whose son, Phillip kept telling horrid jokes about cows. Sophie escaped his distasteful humour by telling the young man that she was obliged to meet a wife of a friend of her father’s in the ladies withdrawing room. Sophie bustled away to the withdrawing room, where she did have a brief conversation with the Countess of Milcroft, so she did not tell Phillip a complete lie. Sophie then made her way to the balcony, where she welcomed the cool summer air upon her face.  Looking below she saw the fields that lead back to her home, Appleby. She longed to be there again as she and her father had been travelling around for the last fortnight, attending balls and garden parties and having tea with so-so, all very mundane. As soon as she was home she would ride her horse Melody, from breakfast until supper. It would be lovely not having to wear these ugly dresses any longer, they were so tight and hard to walk in, not to mention the awful hairstyles that she’d been enduring, dreadful buns and curls.

Sophie’s thoughts were interrupted as her “friend” Jane, daughter of the Duke of Guelph, came to her side.

“Oh, Princess, tell me, is he as charming as he looks?” Jane inquired.

“Who?” Sophie replied, still gazing towards her home.

“Why, Princess, Phillip! You’ve spent the whole evening with him, lucky girl!”

“Phillip? Charm-“ Sophie stopped herself; she turned and saw the excitement and anticipation in Jane’s eyes. Jane wanted to hear that Phillip was just a charming as his father had made him out to be. The two of them would be perfect together, what with Phillip’s poor sense of humour and Jane being so naïve.

“Oh, Jane, you’d love him, he’s splendid! I think he might prefer you to me though, I don’t get his jokes.” Sophie shared instead.

“Really! Oh, I’ll go talk to him right now then!” Jane scurried off into the ball room, but suddenly she turned around abruptly.

“Oh, and  Princess, your father wants you to meet in the foyer in twenty minutes.” Jane called.

“Thank-you Jane!” Sophie replied.

Sophie turned her gaze to the stars and thought how peaceful it would be to be able to lie undisturbed in the grass at stare up at the night sky. What a wish. Sophie would never be able to do that, she was almost always with someone else. Her father would not be pleased that she had been left unattended for such a long amount of time.

“You are a princess and you must act like one.” Her father had once told her.

Sophie had just nodded in agreement. It was of no use fighting with her father, he always won.  She had honestly tried to spend the entire evening with Phillip but his personality was so unbearable. It would be easier if her father didn’t always make her spend time with boring boys. Perhaps if he told Sophie to dance with a boy who had grown up in the British Columbia she’d spend the evening with him ungrudgingly. No such luck however; they were always lacklustre.