Chapter Two

Derek and I had suddenly become friends. Through that small moment of a shared grief, he had accepted me as an individual and I saw him as human. 

The following two weeks passed more quickly than the previous two and a half months had. Our days were spent mostly in the treehouse, where we could avoid the rest of society and get lost in our chess tournaments and story telling, which we did often. 

Brom was with us and he seemed to take it in stride that I had suddenly become an accepted member of the treehouse. And though he and Derek were closer than ever, I didn't mind as long as I could be a close observer of the friendship. Besides, I would have been a fool if I wanted to separate them now. Though I shared in the grief in Matthias' loss, Brom shared in the experience of his death and I occasionally noted the haunted looks that passed between the two teenage boys. 

Bromley Erinson was a year older than Derek, though you wouldn't guess it on first glance, or even after a long acquaintance with him. He was shorter, for one thing, and bigger in the middle than anywhere else. His hair was blond and curly and surrounded a face that could have been on a two-year-old. He was a marvelous shot in archery but when it came to any other form of physical activity he often found an excuse to disappear. 

But despite his passion for the easy way out - which was about as far away from Derek's character as you could get - and his love affair with food, he was always good company and a marvelous partner in chess and at storytelling. His humor was endless and as the days passed in the treehouse, I began to understand why Derek had preferred his company to mine. Brom had a sharp mind - if not the sharpest body - and was a loyal friend. He never took offense, even if you meant to give it, and he had a wonderful knack for getting a person out of the glums, even in the midst of his own grief. 

In what seemed the blink of an eye, it was time for me to go home. Derek's birthday had come and gone and we had tried to celebrate, though I'm sure I wasn't the only one who didn't feel like celebrating the birth of one prince when we had just lost the other. And then it came time for my ship to sail. 

Derek, Brom and I stood in the treehouse for the last time that summer, looking around the small room without speaking. The boys seemed especially solemn to me and I wondered if I had the same long look on my face. 

"Well, squirt," Derek finally sighed, using the nickname he had given me the week previous when I had first beat him in a game of chess. He had been so dumbfounded by the circumstance of losing to a girl, and someone his junior, that he had chided himself aloud for a full five minutes. "I'll see you next summer." He gave me half a smile and reached over to pat my head with brotherly affection. I nodded, not daring to speak for fear of my emotions spilling out of my open mouth. 

"Of course we will!" Brom said in an attempt at cheerfulness. "And it'll be just as those you never left." He grabbed me in an affectionate hug and I frightened both boys by bursting into tears. 

"No it won't," I choked out through my tears. Brom and Derek looked at me with fearful expressions. Neither of them had learned yet how to comfort a girl in the midst of a storm of emotions. "You two will be back to normal" sniff "and I will be left to sit in my room again while you chase after pretty girls!" More crying. 

I was shocked out of my tears by a hearty laugh from Derek. 

"Silly, squirt," he laughed. He grabbed my hand away from my face and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Don't you worry. Brom and I will chase all the pretty girls while you're away so that when you come back we can spend all summer playing chess." He almost looked like he meant it and I almost felt better. 

But I sighed, feeling the weight of the certain future pressing upon me. I knew that the past two weeks had been too good to be true. We were friends, true, but how long could a friendship last when Derek took it into his head to notice the rest of the world again, pretty girls included? Our two weeks had been like a chapter out of a fairytale for me but I was pretty certain this one wasn't going to end happily ever after. 

"Now run along, squirt, before I start chasing You," Derek said with a wink. I waved a hasty goodbye to my two friends before scrambling down the ladder of the treehouse and off towards the front courtyard where father was waiting to set off. 

And so ended the summer of our friendship. 

The upside to spending each summer away from home was that the rest of the year seemed to fly by more quickly. My time at home was precious to me and I treasured every moment. 

My own room, my own castle to explore, and even my own studies to pursue. I found an inordinate amount of pleasure in being mistress of a house, rather than a guest. 

And so the next summer rolled around without much strain on my patience and we sailed across the sea once more. 

I should point out that the only thing that changed considerably during the interval at home was my mind. I was particularly taken up with studies of all kinds at this time and I prided myself on the extensiveness of my vocabulary and the readiness of my wit. I could discuss all matters relating to politics (though my understanding then was still no more than could possibly be expected from a thirteen-year-old girl, bright as she may be) and my pet subject was philosophy and the study of things as they should be. I believed myself to be quite the scholar. 

But physically... Nothing had changed. I was still short. Still red, or white, depending upon the circumstance, and even growing rather round in some places I did not wish to be round. My teeth seemed t be taking each other in dislike and they were growing further apart. I wrapped a string tightly around them at night in an attempt to pull them together but they were rebelliously resisting my efforts. 

Looking thus, I arrived back in Chambry on my thirteenth year. 

On arrival, everything seemed to be just as I had left it. Queen Augusta welcomed us as though she had not seen us in years and Derek went so far as to embrace me before patting my head and saying I looked "just like my little Squirt." 

He had grown, an inch or two, and it was obvious that he spent more time in training his body than anything else. Otherwise he seemed much the same as the year before. 

Brom, on the other hand, had grown more than both of us put together - but it was all around the middle. He looked just as young as ever, with that twinkle of humor in his eye, and he gave me a teasing bow before grabbing me up in a bear hug. 

After the formal welcome was over and the adults had gone off to discuss whatever boring matters they thought necessary, Brom, Derek and I raced off to the treehouse.

We played chess all the day through. And when the night came, Derek brought out a picnic he had ordered made up for us. I glowed with pleasure as we sat on the dirty floor and ate the cold meats and cheeses with cook's famous brown bread. 

As soon as the food was gone we began the storytelling. The year had made all of us a little wiser and thus our stories were better. I even managed to earn a round of applause from the boys at the end of mine and I knew right then it was something I would not easily forget. I was in heaven. 

The end of day came too quickly. We stifled a few yawns before surrendering to the inevitable. Clambering down the ladder one after the other, we finally headed to bed. 

I couldn't get to the treehouse quickly enough the next morning. I grabbed a piece of fruit for breakfast and rushed through the castle, heedless of the oncoming bustle of servants and courtiers in the hallway. 

Breathless, I was the first to make it to the treehouse. I climbed up with a smile on my face and sat down to wait. I even contemplated the best way to startle the next person to enter, coming up with all sorts of complex schemes that would most likely win me a girlish scream from one of my two friends. 

The hours passed though and I was alone in the treehouse. Neither Brom nor Derek made an appearance and when it finally reached lunchtime I descended grumpily down the ladder and berated myself for not realizing that they were probably off hunting or doing something very important. I knew only something very important would keep them away. 

I passed the rest of the day in a glum state and when the evening came I could have burst into tears if I had let myself. Fortunately, I had learned to control my emotions somewhat during the past year and instead I devoted my time to listening wholeheartedly to Lady Sylvia tell me every detail of the past year of her life. 

The next morning I was not so quick to make it to the treehouse. I was nervous of the same results as the day before and I thought that if I stalled I would be more likely to find the boys already there when I arrived and thus not have to endure the waiting. I was right. 

I arrived at the treehouse and heard the voices from above. My smile nearly split my face and I started up the ladder with the swiftness of an athlete. As I drew new the top though I suddenly realized that there were feminine voices as well as those of Brom and Derek. I slowed and then stopped a few rungs from the top. 

It was unmistakable. Brom. Derek. And girls. At least two of them, if not more. Laughing, giggling and saying everything sweet and nice to my two scoundrel friends. In OUR treehouse. I squeezed my eyes shut and held back the tears. 

But if I had learned to control my emotions by that time, I had also learned how to use them to my advantage. An emotion expressed at the right moment and in the right way can be a powerful tool. 

I ascended the rest of the way, scrambling as gracefully as I could over the railing around the perimeter of the house and then smoothing my skirts before entering the actual house with a dangerous smile on my red face. 

Lady Ansley and Maria Mynsky sat on either side of Derek on the bench set on the left hand side of the room, while Lady Serena lounged lazily beside Brom on the floor. I entered just as Derek finished saying something smart and Lady Ansley clapped her slender hands together as she giggled in response. This was followed by Derek leaning towards her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. She promptly followed suit, coming in just close enough to place a light kiss on his cheek and then burst into a multitude of becoming blushes. 

I felt sick. I felt as though they were desecrating not only my friendship with Derek and Brom, but all the memories I had stored in the treehouse of that friendship. At least they could have left me that! 

And I was jealous, though perhaps not in the way I would have been had I been a few years older. I was too naive for that. No, my jealously was of the more childish kind, and all the more devoted for that. I was jealous of the flaw in my friends characters that took them away from the privacy of our friendship. I was jealous of things getting back to the "normal" way where Derek chased after the pretty girls and forgot about his little Squirt. 

"Ah, Lady Ansley," I said in my sweetest voice. The occupants of the room were startled and Lady Ansley's blushes turned all the more scarlet when she noticed me standing in the doorway. "Queen Augusta has been looking for you."

"Oh?" Lady Ansley said in a quivering voice. 

"Yes," I replied with a smile. "She says she must consult with you on the Eve Fest. Something to do with a dance..." I shrugged my shoulders but gave her a knowing wink. 

"Oh!" she squeaked. She rose to her feet and smoothed out her full silk dress with shaking hands. 

"Take these two with you," I motioned towards Maria and Lady Serena. "I'm sure they could be very helpful in selecting the attire for the festivities." I smiled and fluttered my eyelashes as the two girls looked at me with daggers in their eyes. Nevertheless, they got up and followed Lady Ansley out of the treehouse and down the ladder. After all, I was a princess, no matter how far apart my teeth were. And it wasn't often I was unheeded, when I set my mind to being noticed. 

When the girls were gone I turned back to find Derek and Brom standing tall before me. They were obviously displeased with how quickly I had disbanded their little party, though they were just embarrassed enough to prevent them from stopping me in the first place. 

"Oh, I almost forget," I said before they could get a word in. I was still smiling sweetly and my tone and manner took them off guard. "I have something for you. Wait here!" I turned and left them standing dumbfounded behind me. 

Quickly climbing down the ladder, I found my hands shaking and my heart hammering in my chest. I vaguely heard Brom say "I thought she would have been furious when she saw the girls up here!" but I was too mad to do anything more than snort in derision and continue down. 

When I reached the bottom I walked to the nearest support and stopped, looking up for a brief moment to find that Derek was peering down at me with a questioning look on his face. 

The treehouse was supported by four support beams, one on each corner of the house. The year before, Brom had jokingly asked us what would happen if someone ran full force into one of the beams and broke it while we were up there. I hadn't thought much of it until I had heard the girls voices and suddenly turned into a very angry and conniving little girl seeking revenge. 

I looked away from Derek and took a few steps back. And then I ran. I ran full force into the beam. Nothing happened. Which, if I had been thinking straight, should not have been entirely unexpected. I was, after all, a small girl, and the beam was rather thick. I tried again though. Still nothing. 

Chagrined, I looked up and saw that Brom had come to stand beside Derek and they were both laughing at me. My anger was fueled. 

I ran to the next beam, throwing all of my weight against what I thought would be it's weakest point. Nothing. I tried the next. And finally the last. And as I did so, I felt something crack. Just a small crack, but still it was loud enough for Derek to hear up above. 

"Megs," he warned, quickly heading towards the ladder. "Wait a minute!"

I was gleeful. I ran back and then headed towards the beam again. Another crack, though it still stood upright. 

"Brom, get down," Derek shouted from above, nearly pushing Brom down the ladder. He started down after him and they were both still on the ladder as I headed towards the beam for the last time. "Meglyn Odette!" Derek warned again, his voice lashing out with both fear and anger. 

Crack. The beam split in two and suddenly the treehouse was crashing down. On all of us. Derek and Brom got the brunt of it, but in my anger I hadn't thought to assure my own escape. 

All I knew was pain, seizing up my body from my leg and enveloping me in a haze. I could barely breath and I knew it wasn't just from the thick boards lying on top of me. 

"Brom, are you okay?" I heard with that tiny conscious part of me. There was a whimper and then a confirmation. "Don't move," Derek urged from somewhere beyond the mass of broken wood and furnishings around me. "Megs!" I finally heard. I thought about answering but my mouth was shut tight as another spasm of pain shot through my upper left thigh. 

Suddenly the board lying across me was ripped away and I had to blink to hold back the tears from the sunlight and the pain. 

"Megs, you idiot," I heard Derek say. He pushed another board off of my legs and I couldn't hold back a little scream of pain. A quick glance down confirmed the aching suspicion I had harbored that my leg was broken. Snapped. 

Derek crouched down beside me with his own grimace of pain. 

"Put your arms around my neck," he ordered. I took a deep breath and followed his instructions. "Good. Now hold tight." He rose to his feet and I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out again as he grabbed under my legs to hold me up. "You okay?" he asked. I nodded, though my eyes were closed against the pain. 

With a few words to Brom, he set off towards the castle at a quick pace, though he was as gentle as possible with the broken girl in his arms. Me. 

The treehouse had been built a few hundred feet past the well-kept gardens, allowing us to play without interruption and keeping us far enough away that the adults wouldn't have to listen to our fighting. Unfortunately, that kept them from knowing that the entire structure had fallen to the ground on top of us, making it necessary for Derek to make the trek back to the castle with the most injured of the party to see that I got immediate care. 

We entered the palace and in less than ten seconds we were surrounded by countless servants and would be physicians and well meaning adults of every kind. Derek wouldn't pass me off to anyone but the doctor himself though and so it was a good while before I was taken back to the north wing to undergo the very painful process of resetting my leg, by which time I had lost consciousness and gratefully grown deaf to the noise of the castle for some time. 

When I awoke, I was in my bed and the doctor was hovering over me. It was then he reset my leg. I screamed and fainted. 

When I awoke the next time I was still in my bed but there was no doctor to be seen. Instead, father was sitting by the window reading and a young serving girl was setting a bowl of grapes on the small table beside my bed. It was nearly heaven to me. 

"Papa," I croaked out. He was at my side a moment later and I started to cry at the look of relief on his face. "Oh, papa!" 

Much later, when I had eaten the grapes and enjoyed the comfort of my father's arms and his consoling words, I asked after Derek. 

"Ah," father sighed, "he has dislocated his shoulder, but is otherwise unharmed."

"His shoulder!" I exclaimed. "But he carried me back to the castle!" 

"Yes," father nodded, "an extraordinary feat. Doctor Wortworth says he has seen warriors in battle do such things, carrying their wounded comrades back to safety while wounded themselves, but it does seem incredible that he managed to carry anything with a shoulder out of joint." He looked deeply thoughtful for a few moments and then apparently set it aside to think on later. His eyes came back to me and though they were full of love (that was unmistakable) they were also a little accusing. 

"Bromley was injured as well, it seems, though he did not break any bones. He is a bit bruised up and will be nursing a sore head for some time, but Derek had pushed him far enough away from the crash to prevent any real damage." His eyes narrowed and he stared me down for a moment. "Do you know what caused the treehouse to fall, sweetheart?" he inquired softly but firmly. I hid my face in my pillow and didn't answer. "I see," he sighed. 

I heard him stand up to go and I reached out a hand to stop him, finally pulling my face away from the pillow. 

"Papa, you don't understand!" I cried. He looked at me patiently and I squirmed. "I had to do something!" 

"Then it was your intention to harm Derek and Bromley?"

"No!" I protested quickly. Then I blushed. "Well, yes. But I didn't mean for them to truly get hurt. I was just so angry with them for bringing the girls into the treehouse and for abandoning me for so many days..." I let the words trail off, realizing how petty they sounded. "They brought the girls into our treehouse," I whispered in a teary voice. 

"And you thought that warranted bringing the treehouse down on top of them?" There was almost a smile in his voice and my heart stopped dragging for long enough to hope that I would get off easy. 

"Yes," I said with a weak laugh. "It was our special treehouse, and no one else was ever meant to enter! And just because they have pretty teeth and golden hair and are everything a real princess should be..." I stopped, realizing I was sharing feelings I never meant my father to know I had. He sat down on the edge of the bed again and took my hand in his. 

"What do you think a princess should be, Meglyn?" he said quietly, searching my soul with his eyes in mine. 

"Beautiful," I whispered, suddenly realizing that that was the one thing I wanted more than all the world. The one thing that would mean the key to my happiness and success for the rest of my life - to be beautiful, as Mathilde and Lady Ansley and every other girl Derek liked to flirt with was. To be worthy of notice and admiration. To be liked and sought after and special. To be a real princess. 

Father's eyes turned sad and there was a very long silence. His mouth opened to speak and then closed again. I couldn't recall ever seeing him struggle so hard for words. At last he spoke and there was a tremor running through his voice. 

"Listen to me, Meglyn Odette," he began. "the worth of a princess does not come because she has golden hair or perfect teeth. It does not come in how tall she is or how gracefully she walks. It is in her heart. It is in the kindness of her actions and the measure of her love. A princess is valued by the leader she is to her people, and the friend she is to her friends. It is in the character of a princess that true beauty is found. The kind of beauty that does not fade with time or change with the color of her dress. The beauty that goes much deeper than what mere mortals can see or men can describe. It is something only the wise can see and the just can appreciate. It is the beauty your mother had." He choked on the last word and took a few deep breaths before continuing. 

"Meg, your beauty is deep inside of you and it will take time to discover it. The thing you see in the girls you think Derek likes is an illusion. And it will not last. If they do not take the time to become beautiful inside, they will soon find that they are left with nothing more than golden hair and perfect teeth. And that will not bring them love." 

I bit my lip and tried not to cry. He was in earnest and I knew he was trying to comfort me. But, despite his best efforts, I could not see the value of his words at that time, though they would stay with me for the years to come and I would eventually come to live by them. 

"But," I said in a shaking voice. "I want golden hair." And then I burst into tears.