Part 5
583 Words
FIVE
Bianca followed Hazel through the house to the wine cellar, which she was surprised to find appeared bigger than the house above.
It wasn't until they were deep between the dusty barrels that Hazel spoke. "You're wasting your time with that one," she said. "Like all the others, he'll be gone in three days."
"Others?" Bianca asked, her mind whirling. The thought of better men to choose from was certainly appealing.
Hazel grinned. "Oh, so many others. The promise of a palace and a princess's hand in marriage is quite the prize to a penniless adventurer, which most of them are. Dear Cousin Efe dresses them up in fancy clothes, but if you look closely, you can see how poorly they fit. Borrowed finery instead of the patched rags they arrive in, so that we allow them to sit at our table, but they will learn no secrets from us." She pointed at a barrel. "This is the one. This wine is stronger than anything you have ever tasted, which is why we don't. It's for men only, Cousin Efe says, which is fine by us. Here, look at the mark." She rapped her knuckle against the barrel, below a blackened smudge.
Bianca squinted at it. Now she looked more closely, she realised it was a brand, applied several times to the same barrel or just once by a particularly unsteady hand belonging to a man who'd perhaps drunk too much of his own wine. "Is it a bird of some kind?"
Hazel nodded. "This comes specially from somewhere far to the west. It's Efe's private supply, which is why we give it to his guests." She took a jug and proceeded to fill it from the barrel.
"Why didn't he dine with us tonight?" Bianca asked. Surely the queen's cousin would take every opportunity to dine with princesses, if only to make himself feel important.
Hazel laughed. "Oh, he wouldn't stoop to eat with us. We're the queen's hostages to our mothers' good behaviour. Anyone too pretty or too clever or even anyone who catches our father's eye for too long winds up here. For if another wife's daughters marry better than hers, she might lose her place as principal wife and queen. Perhaps that's why he forces us to share meals with beggars and soldiers of fortune, in the hope that we're silly enough to marry them. Disgraced daughters, disgraced mothers...that would only serve to cement her power in the capital."
Considering the idea, Bianca shook her head. "More likely she intends to leave us here to rot in spinsterhood, for any children we might have would still possess royal blood, no matter who their father was. But why would that man tonight think he had a chance to marry one of us, if he is a beggar?"
Hazel winked. "Delusions of grandeur, I'm sure. He believes he is better than any man before him, so he will be the one to solve the mystery, winning a bride and lands that he does not deserve."
"I have not heard of any mystery here."
"That's because it's no mystery to us."
Bianca opened her mouth to insist that it most definitely was a mystery to her, then closed it again as Hazel leaned in closer.
"Wait and see. Brenna has a plan that will confound even the queen. We are the king's daughters and we will not be held prisoner against our will. Not even Efe and a whole army of beggars will stop us." With another wink, Hazel led the way up the steps to the palace proper, carrying the jug of wine.
- Writer
