Project Princess Opening Page

A Meeting of Interest...

You enter the room, expecting to see this "princess" the people have spoken of, but instead, you are surprised to see not one but two women. Which one of them is the princess, you wonder?

This is an ongoing story that is currently in production. Check back when you can for updates!

May I Please See the Princess?

Foreword

My mistress has spared no expense in the pursuit of her Beloved. Her dreams of love alongside a woman have been nothing but the purest, most gentle of musings, paid for always dearly, bartered from her very own heart.

There was once a young lady-lad, slinging poisoned arrows for fun, who struck Miss so deeply, it was a miracle that the arrow hit her low in her chest, nearer to her abdomen, and not in my mistress's heart. I found her there, her blood pooling on the forest floor.

I rushed to get my father, the castle caretaker, and we took her inside; brother went to retrieve the doctor. I sat with her for three days, while she recovered.

....

Now we hear the next lady-knight,
And my Mistress not yet well from the last;
Already pounding on the palace gates,
Spouting placatives about being there at last "to slay the dragon."

They all say that.

The woman my lady is to love,
will understand her tender, delicate affections,
And honor their precious nature;
She will approach the castle with reverence and joy.
There is no bower so complete,
Where lush green grass unfolds forever,
In golden love,
As in her soul's fibers,
Where all the threads of life therein,
Sound loud and low and clear.

At last, the sealing of a door,
So no more was she pillaged,
Or hunted by greedy treasure seekers.
Instead she found a warm contentment,
A satisfaction of simple proportions,
Suited to her soft, steady persuasion.

We locked her up, again,

here, for her own protection.

All this, under our watchful care,
So each time she came to love us more and more,
And we her,
Until we were family,
All of us together awaiting the next brave knight,
Each time asking,
Is this one the beloved?
The real beloved?

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Persistent nevertheless, in piercing the mighty armor: a sweet and brave young woman-knight gazes up dizzily in horror and amazement at the towering castle growing taller and taller before her very eyes. How would she ever scale those tall walls? She questions if the apparition were real or false.

But we tell the woman-knight, as we tell each when they arrive at the gates, professing to court her-- Yes, we say, it is real-- all real:

That is our lady's castle, bought and paid for by her, with her own flesh and blood. Yes, it belongs to her, the ghastly thing. And yes, we live here with her.

Chapter 1

My father will not allow any new suitors, unless they are someone he knows. He is infuriated about the “trouble” he says I have gotten into, and the disgrace I have made to the family by wanting to marry another woman.

It does not matter if she can pass as a knight, he says. The people will still know. They will still find out, somehow.

I don’t understand this. If we have so much power, why can’t we choose to marry whom we please? It shouldn’t matter that she comes from a common family, and that she is a woman. We let the people live their lives peacefully, so why cannot we do same?

This entire social structure is beyond my comprehension, and I have no say in the matter at all. Needless to say, I do not approve. Now, I am forced to stay here in the castle, for my father is afraid that another woman will pique my fancy, bringing us more trouble yet again.

The most I can manage to get him to let me do is a horse ride each day, but even during this ride, I must be watched by the guards. There’s no chance of me escaping with six or seven good horsemen ready to pull me back.

So I sit here, day after day, waiting for some word from my lady-knight. I know she is out there, somewhere, trying to find her way back to me.

It has been nearly a year since my father had her banished from the kingdom. I will never forget that day when he stormed into my drawing room, where the two of us sat side by side, soaking up the luxurious rays of sunlight, she reading a book aloud to me.

Our perfect, heavenly bubble was burst when he stormed in. I have never seen him so angry before. Not in my entire life. Not when I fell from the willow tree when I was five, not when I got way too close to one of the alligators in the moat when I was twelve, and not when I sneaked out of the castle gates to gather wild dahlias from the field beyond. This new anger was nothing compared to those last furies. This was a blaze.

I tried to protect her. I ran to her side, but the guards pulled me off, and even though I struggled with them they would not release me. The other guards grabbed her and pulled her away from the room, away from me.

I cried out to her, pleading with my father. How could he do this? I thought he cared about me. How could he take the woman I love from me? The one thing I wanted the most in this world?

I have not spoken a word to him since. I stay in my rooms all the time. Anywhere to be away from him and my mother.

My mother is strange, too. When I bring all this up, she does not say much, but I can tell she is on the side of my father, since she must follow his orders.

My father has brought two of his own suitors to meet me since, and I have treated them all as they should be treated. The first one, I threw a tea saucer at, and the second, I threw the whole pot.

With the hot tea inside.

Thankfully, neither will be returning again.