Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale (17 page)

Albert visibly relaxed with relief and
then turned toward Roderick. “You don’t have any objections?”

Roderick folded his arms across his
chest and smiled. “None at all.”

Liesel wondered why he should look so
pleased. She found his smug look to be quite annoying.

Albert pushed himself to his feet. “Then
that settles everything, I suppose.”

He then started toward the door, but
immediately turned back to address her. “Can you be at the kitchen at sunrise?”

“
At
sunrise?” Liesel repeated,
feeling panic rise within her. “Would it be alright if I arrived a little
later? Just tomorrow?”

Roderick looked at her in dubious
surprise. “Do you have a prior engagement at that time?”

“We all know how she likes to race the
sun each morning …” Maria grumbled from the kitchen.

Liesel put her hands on her hips and looked
at each person in turn. “Actually, yes, I do have something I need to do at
that time. I have a message I need to deliver.”

She turned to face Albert fully and
continued, “At most, I’ll be an hour late, but I’ll be there.”

“That is a pity,” the old man replied,
shaking his head. “The start of the day is the hardest for my wife …”

Roderick quickly stepped forward to
intervene. “Where do you have to deliver your message, Liesel?”

“Here. Someone is coming here, and I
said I would be here at sunrise.”

“Who is coming here?” Roderick
questioned.

“That is not important. What is
important is that I said I would deliver it at sunrise so that is what I must
do.”

Roderick waved toward his sister. “Can’t
Maria deliver it?”

“I beg your pardon!” Maria exclaimed.

Roderick brushed his sister’s disdain
aside. “Come Maria. Don’t look so put-upon. It’s just a message.”

“No, thank you,” Liesel quickly
asserted. “I think I need to convey this message myself.”

Roderick nodded and turned to Albert.
“It seems Liesel is determined to keep her appointment. Hopefully your wife
will understand. But assure her that I’ll escort Liesel to the castle as
quickly as possible after she is done delivering her message.”

“Oh no, no, no,” Liesel responded. “That
will be quite unnecessary.”

“How else will you find your way to the
kitchen?”

“I’m sure I could eventually find it on
my own,” she stubbornly proclaimed.

“But if you’ll already be late, then you
shouldn’t waste any more time than necessary,” Roderick pointed out. “I don’t
mind at all. It’s the least I can do to help you keep your promise to Albert.”

Liesel bit her lip as she considered her
dilemma. She wanted to personally tell Prince Cornelius her change of plans,
but she certainly had no desire to do so with Roderick standing nearby. The
last thing she would ever want was for the two men to meet! But on the other
hand, she detested the idea of entrusting a confidential message to Maria. That
seemed like pure foolishness.

She looked back at Roderick. She pictured
him standing at her side as she told Prince Cornelius she couldn’t leave with
him for two more weeks. Such a picture made her shudder. Somehow she knew that
Roderick would more than slightly object to such a plan.

And then she might never find another
chance to leave …

Finally, when she could no longer bear
the weight of everyone’s eyes upon her, Liesel threw her hands in the air in
defeat and exclaimed, “Fine. I’ll let Maria deliver my message.”

Albert clasped his hands together in
gratitude. “Thank you, Liesel. I can’t even express my relief. I’ll be off now
so I can go tell my wife. She’s going to be thrilled.”

Liesel leaned against the table and
sighed as she listened to the door close behind the old man. Just when her
future had seemed so bright with new hope, it had to be extinguished with more
disappointment yet again.

After Roderick bolted the door shut, he
walked over to take the old man’s vacated seat. Leaning toward her, he reminded
her, “Now what is it you wanted to talk to me about?”

Liesel let out another growl and
answered, “Nothing. It is of no importance anymore.”

At least for two more weeks,
she added silently.

She then rose to her feet and began
stomping off toward the other door.

“Where are you going?” Roderick called
after her.

“Back to the barn. With such an early
day to look forward to tomorrow, it is probably best if I retire.”

“Are you sure you want to stay in the
barn?”

“Yes. I would rather stay there, if you
don’t mind. You are more than welcome to my old place in here.”

“Are you certain? What about the rats?”

“You are mistaken, sir. I have looked
and there are no rats in the barn. Just mice.” She then glanced toward Maria
before finishing, “And those don’t frighten me anymore. Not one bit.”

Without waiting for a reply, she quickly
escaped into the crisp, night air and then leaned back against the closed door.
She tried to steady her breaths as she attempted to regain her composure.

“Two more weeks,” she whispered. “Just
two more weeks.”

She vowed she would not let anything keep
her from leaving then.

“I’
m
afraid I can’t pay you anything for your help, but here’s an old glass jar you
can fill each day with scraps of food for you to take home for your supper,”
Albert’s wife, Hilda, instructed after she had shown Liesel the layout of the
castle’s great kitchen the next morning.

Liesel cupped the empty jar and peered
inside. Surprisingly, she found that she was actually more excited about this
compensation than she would have been about any alternative monetary payment.
After a week of eating stale bread and raw vegetables, her mouth watered at the
mere thought of something soft and cooked. She inhaled a deep breath, smelling
the rich aromas that were wafting about the kitchen. Palace food. How she had
missed such smells!

“Liesel, are you listening to me?” Hilda
beckoned, snapping her fingers in front of her.

“I’m sorry, yes,” Liesel replied,
tucking the small jar away in one of the front pockets of her apron.

“Then let’s have you start working in
this room over here. You’ll be washing all of the supper plates. They’ve been
put away for a long time in the lower corridors of the castle, so they’ll need
a good cleaning.”

Liesel followed Hilda into the small,
stone room, and gazed at the towers of plates lining the perimeter. “How many
plates are there?” she asked in awe.

“A few have broken over time, so I’m not
sure. But at one time, we had over two thousand.”

Liesel eyed the piles of plates with
trepidation.
Where does one even start with such a task?
At least she had
two weeks, she reminded herself. She would need it.

“Just let me know when you are all done,
and I’ll have the servants fetch the spoons and goblets,” Hilda added.

Liesel gulped. Her hands would surely
fall off from so much scrubbing.

“Well, if you don’t have any more
questions for me, then I’ll be returning to my own work,” Hilda stated as she
turned to go back into the kitchen.

“Actually, I do have one question for
you,” Liesel said stepping forward, bringing Hilda’s steps to a halt. When the
old woman turned to look at her again, Liesel cleared her throat and then
timidly asked, “Do the … Do any of the royal family members ever venture into
the kitchen?”

“Into the kitchen?” Hilda repeated, as
if she hadn’t heard correctly. She then laughed. “Why, wouldn’t that be quite
the thing! Royalty in the kitchen …” She shook her head and then commented, “What
a strange land you must have come from.”

Liesel smiled, albeit a little
sheepishly, to conceal her blush. She almost wished she hadn’t asked, but she had
needed to know.

After recovering from the initial
disappointment of her changed plans the night before, she had been consumed
with dread when she realized that if she helped Albert’s wife, she would be
working in the kitchens of the Thrushbeard King. How she prayed she would never
have to cross paths with him or any of his bearded sons!

At least now she could take solace in
the fact that the probability of that occurring was highly unlikely.

“That is all I wanted to know,” Liesel
finished with a shrug of her shoulders.

Hilda shook her head and laughed again.
“I’ll leave you to your work then. Oh, and let me know when you want the wash
water refreshed.”

Liesel looked around the tiny room again
with a sigh. She had never seen so many plates in one place before.

Sitting on the stool that had been
provided, she rolled up her sleeves, and then began to scrub the dirt and dust
off of the plates from the nearest stack. 

With no one to talk or listen to, her
thoughts wandered about on their own while she worked. Light was beginning to
stream more freely through the high windows up above, which made her thoughts
turn to her missed meeting with Prince Cornelius that morning at sunrise. She
still felt a sharp pang of regret that she had missed it. She was left to just pray
Maria had delivered her message. And if she did, she prayed even more fervently
that Prince Cornelius would return for her in two weeks like she had asked in
her letter.

As she dried a stack of plates and then
carried them to the other side of the room, she thought about the coins she had
deposited in the clay jar that morning before she had left with Roderick for
the castle. She had thought he would have been surprised, or in the least
impressed, by the pile of silver coins she had poured into the jar, but he had
only mumbled that that reminded him of his own coins from his work at the
castle. He had then proceeded to retrieve, not one, but two small bags filled
with silver coins.

Liesel shook her head. She should have
been grateful to have more money to look forward to, but instead she was only
annoyed to see Roderick looking so smug again.

Men could be so maddening sometimes.

A full week passed of long, silent hours
for Liesel as she helped Hilda with a wide range of tasks in the kitchen. In
addition to several odd chores, she had been tasked to wash not only the
plates, goblets and spoons, but the vases, candlesticks, knives, and an endless
supply of serving platters as well.

This particular morning she found
herself again in the small room, but fortunately, she no longer had anything
left to scrub. Instead, she sat alone, folding a mountain of table linens while
she listened to Hilda shout orders in the adjoining kitchen to the servants who
were hauling in fresh vegetables from the market. 

“Liesel, can you please come help sort
these vegetables?” Hilda called a few minutes later as she leaned in through
the doorway. “The indolent servants mixed all of the peas and beets together
and left it all for me in a giant mess.”

Liesel quickly set the napkins on her
lap aside and followed the elderly woman into the kitchen. There were heaps and
heaps of vegetables scattered around the room.

Liesel sighed. Moderation was apparently
never embraced in King Thrushbeard’s castle.

After about an hour of sorting all of
the vegetables into their respective piles, Albert startled them as he entered
through the back door of the kitchen.

“Hello, Hilda,” he greeted with a quick
kiss to his wife’s cheek.

“What are you doing here?” Hilda questioned,
notably surprised by his unexpected arrival.

He set a bag on the counter. “You forgot
your breakfast this morning, and I didn’t want you to have to go without.”

“And you thought I’d starve in a
kitchen?” she asked, amused.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t
want to risk it.”

Hilda chuckled and pinched his cheek
affectionately.

“It looks like no one will be starving
at the ball, either,” Albert commented, observing the piles of food around the
room.

“Not if I can help it,” Hilda assured
proudly.

Hilda then pointed to a chair and
instructed, “Since you are here, you should sit and wait a few minutes and you
can taste the bread I’m making. I put it into the oven just a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, that reminds me, dear. I was going
to ask you if you meant for that bucket of milk to be left outside.  I just saw
it sitting out by the goats. Was it forgotten?”

Hilda clenched her fists in frustration.
“Ugh, the laziness of the servants these days! My absentminded helpers left a
little while ago to purchase more food, and it appears they forgot to finish
their chores before they scampered off.” She dusted off her hands and then
declared, “I suppose I should go retrieve it before it spoils.”

“Why don’t you let Liesel retrieve the
milk?” Albert suggested. “After all this work in here, I’m sure she might like
the fresh air.”

Hilda turned to Liesel and asked, “Would
you mind?”

“Of course not,” Liesel replied,
springing to her feet. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

“No need to hurry so fast, right,
Hilda?” Albert responded. “Liesel should enjoy the sunlight. It’s a beautiful
day.”

“I suppose she needn’t run,” Hilda
answered. “But there is a fair amount of work to be done in here.”

“I can help out until she returns,” Albert
assured with a smile, waving for Liesel to exit the door. “There now, enjoy
your stroll outside.”

Liesel looked back over her shoulder again
at the old man before she disappeared through the door and caught Albert still
smiling at her. She was curious why he should be so happy for her to leave. She
wondered if he might be trying to orchestrate some time to be alone with his wife.
Or maybe he knew she would be missing the sunlight by now.

Liesel shrugged her shoulders as she
kicked a rock down the cobblestone path. There was no way to tell, but it
didn’t really matter. She turned her face up to the sun, and relished the
warmth that kissed her countenance. It was indeed a beautiful day! After a week
of spending all of her time indoors, she was relieved to be outside once again.

When she had almost reached the stables,
she passed below several open windows that she reasoned must belong to the
ballroom because of the musicians she could hear within practicing yet another
song for the upcoming ball. She had heard traces of their rehearsals all morning,
but being so close to the music now made it sound even more enchanting.

Recognizing the tune, her feet ached to
dance along to it once again, but she refrained. It would be too unseemly for a
person of her station to make such a spectacle right there next to the castle.
Moreover, she was uncertain if peasants in this land were even supposed to know
such dances.

But she decided she could at least hum
along. 

As she approached the open door of the
stables, she quickly spotted the pail in question tucked away just inside the
entryway. She reached for the handle and was about to exit the stables to head
back to the kitchen, but a strong hand reached out and stopped her.

Her humming transformed into a piercing screech
and she spun around to face the stranger, ready to throw what was left of the
milk that had survived her surprise his way, but she stopped herself mid-swing.

It was only Roderick.

She exhaled a deep sigh and then pointed
an accusing finger at him. “Don’t
ever
scare me again.”

“I’m sorry. Scaring you was not my
intention,” he apologized as he pulled the milk pail from her vice-like grasp
and set it safely on the ground. “I only wanted to see you.”

“Couldn’t you just see me this evening?”

“I couldn’t wait,” he smiled.

She regarded him suspiciously for a
moment and then asked, “Did you ask Albert to send me outside?”

Roderick’s smile grew. “He promised he
could manage it.”

“You two seem to have become fast
friends.”

“He’s a good man.”

“It makes me nervous when my friends
switch alliances …”

“I’m certain he still has your best
interests at heart.”

“Hmmm,” Liesel replied, hardly
convinced. “So what was so important that you had to arrange this secret
meeting with me right now?”

“I wanted to show you something, and I
couldn’t wait.”

“And you didn’t want Hilda to see?”

“The kitchens can be a little chaotic
sometimes and I didn’t want to have to vie for your attention.”

“Well, what did you bring me?” she
questioned, her curiosity piqued.

He held up a finger. “Wait right here.”

Roderick jogged to where he had tied his
horse at the back of the stables and then immediately returned with a bag.

“Open it,” he instructed, holding it out
to her.

After accepting the bag, she reached
inside and then withdrew a small canvas about the size of her hand. She
fingered the cream-colored canvas reverently and asked, “Where did you find
this?”

“The mistress of the farm where I’ve
been laboring was going to discard it so I asked if I could take it. I am sorry
it’s not bigger, but I thought since Maria told me that you have been painting
and you have those paints in the barn …” …”