By the next day, the rumor mill had already picked up that Princess Fie was somewhere in the castle.
“Hey, did you hear? They’re saying Princess Fie is in the royal palace!”
“No way! I thought they had her shut away somewhere in the consort’s chambers!”
Apparently, the Princess Fie was not only staying in the royal palace but was even being allowed to walk around freely. She was infamous for having an illicit love affair with King Roy before he, in his dislike of her, locked her away in her chambers. She wasn’t recognized as his second wife, so everyone still referred to her as a princess. What was she doing in the palace? What was going on? And was she really as hideous as the rumors made her out to be?
The young, gossip-loving (and, let’s face it, not exactly the classiest) palace maids were terribly excited. “Want to go try to see her?” one asked.
“But isn’t she upstairs?” her friend replied. “Just think what would happen if anyone found out we went up there.” Where one worked in the castle was dependent on one’s social status, and these maids on the castle’s lower levels were not allowed to enter the upper floors, nor the heart of the palace. The higher one rose in the castle, the greater the importance of the people who lived there, all the way up to the top floor, which hosted the rooms of the king and his wife themselves. Only a few select maids were ever allowed in there.
“Yeah, but she’s only on the second floor, isn’t she? I’m sure that’ll be fine. None of the guards or the ministers can tell us apart anyway.”
“That’s true! I guess we’ll be fine so long as none of the older maids catch us.”
Brimming with curiosity, the young maids made up their minds and set off for the second floor.
“So, where is she?” a maid asked.
“Do you know, I bet she hasn’t even been with a single guy her entire time here. She’s that ugly.”
“Let’s see her for ourselves so we can tell the others.” They snickered to themselves as they crept around the forbidden second floor.
However, whether from bad luck or maybe poetic justice, one of the older maids spotted them almost immediately. “Hey!” she snapped. “Aren’t you lot supposed to be working in the gardens today? What do you think you’re doing up here?”
“Oh no!” one of the young maids squealed.
“What should we do?” another asked.
“Run!”
Unsure what else to do, the girls broke out into a run. The senior maid chased after them, yelling, “Wait, stop! Look out, there’s a—”
In their hurry, the maids all tripped over the step leading out into the courtyard and fell over on each other like a pack of dominos, moaning in pain. The impact with the ground was hard enough to bring tears to their eyes. Yet just then, someone reached a hand out to help them up.
“Are you okay?” the person asked. Her voice had a clear, sunny ring to it.
The maids’ tear-filled eyes traveled upwards and saw a girl who looked about the same age as them, with beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. Her face was charming and youthful, but she had something of a dignified air about her.
The girl helped the maids to their feet one by one. “Are you hurt anywhere?” she asked.
“No, thank you, we’re okay...” The maids shook their heads. As they sniffled through their tears, they wondered, Wait, who is she?
Judging by her manner of dress and the stately way she conducted herself, this mystery girl was quite obviously of a far different social class than the maids. However, none of them had received any notice that a young noblewoman of this age would be staying as a guest in the palace. If she was a nobleman’s daughter or a princess from a far-off kingdom, even these minor-league maids would have heard about her through the grapevine by now.
Several maids of a much higher station ran up to the girl. “Your Majesty Princess Fie, are you quite all right?” one asked.
“Do please step away from those girls,” another advised. “It is horribly inappropriate for them to be up here!”
Wait, Princess Fie? This girl was Princess Fie? In their shock, the young maids completely forgot about their pursuer, who was now glaring daggers at them.
Fie stepped in front of the younger girls to protect them from the elder’s wrath, trying to pacify the senior maids. “It’s okay,” she said. “They probably wanted to see me because of the rumors. I don’t mind.”
“Your Majesty, even so, this is still an issue,” one protested.
“It’s my fault since I was the one who wanted to go down to the second floor in the first place,” Fie said. “Sorry about that.”
“Nonsense, Your Majesty.”
The older maids looked troubled. They were supposed to serve the princess, not receive apologies from her.
After fretting over it for a few moments, the group let out a collective sigh.
“Very well,” the leader of the maids said. “We will overlook it just this once.” She would pardon the girls for letting their curiosity lead to rule breaking. “Girls, return to your duties immediately.”
“Don’t go troubling the senior maids, okay?” Fie advised. “I’m going to swing by the kitchen and then head back up to the third floor.” She smiled, waved, and darted off.
The elder maids scurried after her, calling, “Oh, Your Majesty, please wait!”
Still sniffling, the young maids watched them go in mute amazement. Finally, one mumbled, “She’s not at all like the rumors...”
“Yeah, she’s not even remotely ugly. She’s actually really cute.”
“And she’s so nice too.”
She was so unlike their expectations that the maids almost felt disappointed. They had been eager to discover the source of all this gossip, but this was a bit of a letdown. Not only that, but Fie had had to bail them out too...
“Should we go back?” one of the maids suggested.
“Yeah...”
Filled with an odd sense of defeat, the maids returned drearily to work.
Meanwhile, Fie’s continual roaming of the castle was causing the older maids no end of trouble. To prevent her from leaving the castle again, the chancellor had commanded her to stay on the top floor, but Fie had decided to expand her territory down to include the second floor as well. (And just who was it again who had said not to trouble the senior maids?)
“That looks so good,” Fie said. “It wouldn’t hurt to have just a little bite, right?”
“No, Your Majesty. This dining hall is reserved for the cabinet ministers. Your Majesty’s meals are being prepared in a much more suitable location.”
Fie grumbled and pouted like a boy.
She now wore dresses every day, and was waited on by maid servants at all times. Her hair was still short, but now it was done up in a girl’s style. Yet honestly, after all her time spent as a squire, Fie would rather put on pants and go run around outside. What stopped her was the knowledge that doing so would bother both these maids and her captain. (Granted, this knowledge did not stop all of her escapades.)
Still, she bet Queen would enjoy seeing her like this. He had mentioned a couple times previously that he would have liked to see her a bit more girly. I wonder how he’s doing, she thought. She hoped that he wasn’t too upset by this whole thing happening so suddenly.
She hadn’t told Captain Yore about her relationship with Queen yet either. She hadn’t found the opportunity to talk with him, but she figured he might be pretty receptive to the idea. After all, Captain Yore, a.k.a. King Roy, was in love with Fielle, so why would he care if Fie dated someone else? (Although wouldn’t he be concerned about his reputation?)
Therefore, Fie’s primary concern was hoping that Queen wasn’t worried about her. She wanted to find an opportunity to show him that she was okay, but this was rather challenging, given that she had been told to stay in the palace. Darn that chancellor! For some reason, she couldn’t find it in herself to defy his orders. So until he gave his permission, Fie had to stay put.
Still, living in the palace wasn’t all bad. Once the final doubts about her identity were dispelled, Fie was allowed to visit her sister again. It was to be their first reunion in a year, and Fie couldn’t wait.