Lies That Princess Told You: A Cinderella Retelling by Caitlin Rush

Author:Caitlin Rush [Rush, Caitlin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Caitlin Rush
Published: 2023-04-27T23:00:00+00:00

Roselyn had just enough time to post her letters before rain began to fall.

“Quickly, girls, to the carriage!” she shouted above the pounding raindrops, the earth beneath their feet rapidly turning to mud.

The air was thick and damp, and she breathed in the smell of freshly turned earth as the wind blew. Whenever the wind stopped, the stench of manure and horses pulsed through the air. Roselyn crinkled her nose in disgust, trying to both hurry and be extremely careful where she stepped lest she accidentally bring some of the lovely manure scent home with her.

“But we haven’t had our lesson!” nine-year-old Eloise protested, looking longingly over her shoulder towards the castle gardens as they ran. “We came all the way into town, and we can’t just leave!”

Roselyn had promised the girls a lesson on architecture and then a tour of the palace gardens, which were open for visitors this week in honor of the young prince’s birthday. Eloise had been going on for days about all the plants and flowers she would see and had brought paper to sketch them to show her father when she returned home.

“Yes, Mother! Please, let us stay! It is so much more exciting here than at home!” Adeline said dramatically, sloshing through a murky puddle by accident.

While Roselyn recoiled at the city, Adeline reveled in it. Even at the young age of six, her eyes always grew wide whenever they visited, and her face took on a mesmerized expression as she watched all the coming and going. It reminded Roselyn of the way Phillip used to look when he was planning his voyages to faraway lands. It was as though Adeline wanted to literally breathe it all in but couldn’t; she yearned for the pace of it, the feel of it, and Roselyn did not understand it at all.

“Sorry, girls, but I cannot help the weather,” she replied shortly, only steps away from the carriage.

At that precise moment, a man galloped past on a horse, and a haphazardly placed hoof hit a puddle at such a perfect angle that a large gush of muddy water arched up into the air before crashing down over Roselyn’s head. The cold of it was shocking, and she screamed aloud before looking down to see her dress absolutely coated in mud. She glanced over to her little trio of children, all of whom had wide eyes and stifled their smiles as they awaited her reaction.

Roselyn decided to set a good, dignified example for them and proceeded gracefully towards the carriage as though nothing was amiss. Ladies of high standing were always expected to keep their composure. However, on her second step, her ankle rolled across a slippery cobblestone, and she found herself sliding along the slick, mud-coated street as though pulled along by an invisible string until she crashed into a stone wall. This time the girls could not hold their laughter at bay. They howled from where they stood, tears of mirth blending with the rain.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.