Broad continues: The Party

Dear Grandmamma,

Patient and puissant, learned and lovely, ideal model for the aspirations of this most humble of your granddaughters!

Broad collected double for tonight’s story. It hardly seems fair; even though he says it’s the climax of the tale so far. I didn’t get a raise with my promotion (I don’t mean to complain, Grandmamma), and I had to pay double for Minsky, too. But if the tale is useful to your friend Zade, perhaps it’s worth it.

Broad began:

The day of Briar Rose’s 18^th birthday dawned clear, with just enough cloud to make the sunrise especially beautiful. The birds sang their dawn chorus as though they had rehearsed it for months as a gift for the princess.

Most of the Court didn’t notice; they were still snug in their beds. Servants hurrying to start their day’s work noticed. Rose noticed.

Rose hadn’t slept well for a week. However comfortable the bed, having to sleep in the drafty dome instead of her own boudoir was unsettling. The reason for the change was doubly upsetting, even for someone made placid since infancy by fairy blessings. She was in exile, to save her family and her Court from a lurking curse, but that meant, if it came, she’d have to face it without the massed protection the Castle could offer – or could it? It was very confusing. It was even possible to think, when you hadn’t slept much for a week, that a hundred year’s sleep might be a blessing.

But then I’d wake up, she thought, and Papa says I’d have to marry whichever of my cousins kissed me. I wonder which one it would be? They are all sweet princes, of course, so I guess it wouldn’t really matter. If the curse is averted, as my ladies-in-waiting tell me they are sure it must be, then I’ll have to chose among my cousins myself. The ones I don’t chose will be so disappointed! How do other girls decide among their suitors? I’ve no idea. Thomas is tallest, Richard can sing best, Harry looks so gallant when he bows and swirls his cloak around ... I do wish the party was over, the day was over. I wish I never had to make another decision that would hurt someone’s feeling!

Then her mother came and kissed her, and hugged her especially tight and long, and the day officially began. After breakfast her mother left and Papa with his birthday wishes. He blew his mustache out to make her laugh, and patted her shoulder and said, “There, there, gel,” as though she was his favourite mare. He gave her his gift, a necklace with one gorgeous diamond, that mother must have selected, and then he was gone. It was all she could do not to run after him across the marble bridge.

The first of the princes came. The Court came, in small groups, looking anxious, gave their gifts and stayed until the Majordomo signalled that they could leave. Her secretary made a note of each gift, what it was and who had given it.

The princes spelled each other off, looking uncertain – they didn’t want to be in the pavilion if the curse started, but they didn’t want their rivals to be there, either. Supposing a spindle mysteriously appeared, and a rival saved the Princess – well, Rose would pretty well have to marry the hero, wouldn’t she? So it was better to be there and be the hero, wasn’t it? But supposing he didn’t recognize the spindle? The drawings hadn’t been too clear, and there had been so many things on it – spinning wheels and carding combs and bobbins and bobbles, it quite boggled the mind. Safer to be back in the main castle as much as possible – but then, that left a rival with Rose. What was a prudent Prince to do?

About the kissing part all the princes were all clear – a kiss must be administered at the first sign of weariness. It was Rose who didn’t seem too clear on it. She didn’t want to practice, though they each urged her that they should. She even turned her head away when she yawned! Irresponsible, and not much fun.

But the gifts were fun – lovely expensive jewels and ornaments, things a queen would want about her, things to use or to wear or to look upon. The princes looked daggers at each other as they changed places – each felt that the beautiful gifts and the beautiful girl should be his!

Some of the gifts were living things: greyhounds, a lapdog, a singing bird, a talking bird. Then, in the sweetest basket, a little furry creature with big eyes and floppy ears – it put its head on one side and made soft whistling, chuckling sounds, as though it was trying to talk. When Rose lifted it out of the basket it snuggled into her hands, and licked her fingers. She set it on her lap, displacing an indignant lapdog and displeasing the countess who had given it. It rubbed against her, with little purring sounds. It took hold of her hand with its paws, and guided it into its marsupial pouch. There was something inside, something round and smooth, but oddly sharp at one end. It would hurt the little creature; she’d better get it out . . . ooooopssss s   s      s         s.

[I looked at Minsky. Minsky crossed its arms across its belly, puts its ears back, showed its teeth and hissed at me. I really wonder why I bother with it!]

The attendant prince turned away from the lady-in-waiting he had been flirting with, and looked at the sleeping princess. Shouldn’t be asleep? He was hero . . . something he should dooooo . . . not sure whattttt . . .

The stasis spell rippled in concentric circles though the dome. The guests, the lapdog, the singling bird slipped quietly into sleep. Ladies in waiting settled in their chairs; servants who knew they shouldn’t lay down, for just a moment . . .

The spell crossed the bridge, and engulfed the visiting royals disporting themselves in the ballroom, the téte-à-tétes in the small reception rooms, the infidelities and jealousies and gossips, the courtiers and servants, the cats and dogs and birds and goldfish, horses in their stables, the yeast in the raising bread in the kitchen, the insects and spiders and dust-mites and bacteria, the trees and flowers and herbs in the gardens, the mosses and lichens on the castle walls. In short, every living thing in or on Briar Castle fell under the spell, fell fast asleep. The time warp wrapped everything round, so that you don’t see even an outline of a castle on Briar Hill. The briars grew, of course, fastening into the surface of the time warp. In the end they packaged the whole thing up as neat as could be – and when they bloom, no birthday gift for a princess could be more beautiful.

‘And now,’ Broad said, ‘the tale begins to get interesting. If you want to hear more, you’d best be here on Tuesday.’

I asked Minsky why it had hissed at me. It made a ferocious face, and bit a crescent out of the edge off one of my lovely iridescent shoulder scales. I was really surprised; I didn’t know anything but another dragon could bite though those scales. And I was vexed, so vexed I told it that it should find its own transportation after this. But it snuggled up and promised to be good, so I took it home.

With greatest love and respect,
Yours, Toby