Tuesday, July 20, 2010
She sat in that long, yellow dress of hers, the one she wore when she couldn't decide what to wear. It was too long, really. Especially if you are tidying up the house, which is what she'd been doing until just a moment ago. In an attempt to save the hem she'd pulled the dress up at the side and tied the extra fabric in a knot. The resulting look was not particularly flattering. In combination with her unruly up-do, she looked almost wild. Or untamed. Or maybe just uncivilized. Her current activity contradicted her image. She was seated, straight backed and neat, on the couch. To her left was an open window which let the sweet smell of summer and the ladybugs in. Seated on the couch to her right was an old dog. He, it seemed was trying to mimic her good posture, but gave up shortly there after and with a grunt flopped into a more comfortable sprawl. The girl was reading. The book was unremarkable in size or color, but that is rarely the important part of a book. This was an old book, with many bent pages. The front cover was nearly torn off. She wasn't very far into it yet, only on page 12, but the way her eyes darted from word to word and her right thumb rubbed the pages suggested that she knew what was coming next. This wasn't the first time she'd read it, after all.
She was wearing a blue dress. It was regal and adorned with crystals and lace to a point where the dress was lost in adornments. This suited her. Hopefully, the people would notice the dress, and not her. Not the bruising under her right eye or the cut on her lip, both partially hidden by face paints. Maybe they wouldn't notice that her blues eyes, the blue eyes she that were supposedly the most beautiful in the country, were remarkably green. And if they did, maybe they would think it was a trick of the light. She had every intention of staying seated for the whole evening, in fact she had very little choice as just hidden below the dress her legs were shackled to prevent running. And most importantly of all, the people could not realize she was not their princess. That she was, in fact, a servant persuaded rudely by fists to be the stand in, the decoy. Now, all dressed up in clothes finer than any she'd worn before she greeted the court and, hidden in the folds of her dress, crossed her fingers with the hope her smile wasn't too fake.
She sat in that long, yellow dress of hers, the one she wore when she couldn't decide what to wear. It was too long, really. Especially if you are tidying up the house, which is what she'd been doing until just a moment ago. In an attempt to save the hem she'd pulled the dress up at the side and tied the extra fabric in a knot. The resulting look was not particularly flattering. In combination with her unruly up-do, she looked almost wild. Or untamed. Or maybe just uncivilized. Her current activity contradicted her image. She was seated, straight backed and neat, on the couch. To her left was an open window which let the sweet smell of summer and the ladybugs in. Seated on the couch to her right was an old dog. He, it seemed was trying to mimic her good posture, but gave up shortly there after and with a grunt flopped into a more comfortable sprawl. The girl was reading. The book was unremarkable in size or color, but that is rarely the important part of a book. This was an old book, with many bent pages. The front cover was nearly torn off. She wasn't very far into it yet, only on page 12, but the way her eyes darted from word to word and her right thumb rubbed the pages suggested that she knew what was coming next. This wasn't the first time she'd read it, after all.
She was wearing a blue dress. It was regal and adorned with crystals and lace to a point where the dress was lost in adornments. This suited her. Hopefully, the people would notice the dress, and not her. Not the bruising under her right eye or the cut on her lip, both partially hidden by face paints. Maybe they wouldn't notice that her blues eyes, the blue eyes she that were supposedly the most beautiful in the country, were remarkably green. And if they did, maybe they would think it was a trick of the light. She had every intention of staying seated for the whole evening, in fact she had very little choice as just hidden below the dress her legs were shackled to prevent running. And most importantly of all, the people could not realize she was not their princess. That she was, in fact, a servant persuaded rudely by fists to be the stand in, the decoy. Now, all dressed up in clothes finer than any she'd worn before she greeted the court and, hidden in the folds of her dress, crossed her fingers with the hope her smile wasn't too fake.
