The Queen's Handmaiden

The Ball

The evening came before anyone was ready.

The palace was decorated like a bride and brimming with people from all states and many neighboring kingdoms. The maids and servants rushed to fulfill their duties, making sure nothing remained out of order and the managers ordered them here and there to make sure everything stayed according to the plan. The King and Queen sat on the throne enjoying the evening as much as Richard dreaded it.

The Seasonal festival, which really was a ‘Match-making’ festival that lasted a week, was officially going to begin. Many eligible bachelors along with many eligible ladies attended the festival at the palace, staying there at the kingdom’s expense to find suitable life partners. At the top of the list was the Prince himself, apparently looking for his future queen.

Jane stood behind the queen’s throne in her pastel peach dress, a gift from the queen, simple yet elegant, not made for a handmaiden but not for a lady either. Old Martha, now in her fading age, had tied Jane’s long brunette locks in a pretty bun, adorning it with flowers rather than the regular brown scarf. Jane was allowed some light jewelry which she was glad to wear and was ready to assist the queen through the night.

Ladies with their chaperones were announced as they entered the ballroom for an introduction to the prince. Richard, though good at formalities and pretense, was already feeling tired. He knew it was important but he was skeptical with the hope of finding the love of his life in the next few days. He smiled and curtsied and gave the same fake compliment to every lady and princess he was introduced to. So far he hadn’t danced with a single woman. It was starting to worry his parents, who could see that their son wasn’t even trying.

Out of a sudden, the Queen addressed Jane and ordered her quietly, “Anne dear, I see Richie isn’t even trying to know the ladies but our kingdom needs a future Queen. Why don’t you go around and talk with the potentials, observe and note, and then tell me what you’ve gathered? Give me your honest opinion about who would suit him best. You grew up with him, you know him as well as I do.”

Despite not wanting to mingle with the high ladies, Jane had no choice but to obey the queen’s orders. She might be her favorite handmaiden, but she was still a handmaiden.

She curtsied to the queen and gathered the courage to step into the ballroom and walk around. She thought it better to go to the princesses first, so she took a deep breath and made her way to the pretty blonde princess of a small neighboring country. She smiled softly at everyone and played the game of pretense to perfection.

If Jane wasn’t a handmaiden she might’ve never noticed the little giveaways of how much the princess wanted nothing to do with the ball. Her eyes seemed to be searching, Jane believed, for the prince.

“Your grace, the queen sends her regards and hopes that you are enjoying the evening?” Jane smiled and curtsied to the princess and introduced herself, “I am Jane-Anne, the Queen’s handmaiden. She has tasked me to come ask you if you needed anything.” (The set of lines that she was to repeat many times during the night.)

The princess sighed and gave a tiny smile and nodded, “I’m good. Tell Her Majesty that it would’ve been better if the prince had decided to dance at least once tonight.”

With that, Jane knew the conversation was over. The princess was Clarissa Campbell.

Janne-Anne turned around for another princess, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the mannerisms all around her. She felt so out of place in her simple gown and no make-up, surrounded by ladies in lavish ball gowns, but she had a job to do and she focused on that.

Jane then made way to a redhead princess, looking prettier than most but with an intangible sinister look in her eyes that could easily be missed by anyone who got lost in her beauty. Jane made the same introduction but was surprised at the utter rudeness that she received at the hands of the exquisite Princess Mary, who snarled, “So the prince doesn’t want to dance or even talk for that matter, and his mother sends a handmaiden.” The way she said ‘handmaiden’ like it left a bad taste in her mouth, made Jane wonder what was so wrong with her job and especially why the princess thought it to be so.

Taking her rounds one by one all around the ballroom, Jane talked with as many ladies as were willing to converse with her, since some proud ones simply pretended that she wasn’t even there. Everyone was looking for the prince but after the first hour into the ball, Richard was nowhere to be found. Everyone had started complaining in whispers about the lack of the main host.

As Jane did the task assigned to her, she kept glancing at the Queen in case she was needed. Finding her busy in a conversation with some ladies and getting introduced to princesses, Jane decided it was time she had had enough with the ball.

She could tell her observations to the queen tomorrow. She had had enough of the rudeness of the ladies for the night. Jane ventured outside and made her way to her favorite spot in the palace, other than the library, and the royal rose gardens. She found a friend, another maid at the palace, her own age, picking roses, “Raven! What are you doing here?” Jane called out, surprised.

“I could ask you the same question! Don’t you have the queen to accompany? It's a huge night.” Raven asked sarcastically and continued collecting roses in a basket. “Oh, don’t even start about that.” Jane groaned, making Raven laugh, “That bad?”

Jane simply nodded and sniffed a rose in full bloom on the plant. Raven mused, “I thought the festival was supposed to bring great people together.”

Jane nodded and sarcastically answered, “It does. Only, the greatness is in the status, not manners with people below them. And don’t even let me start about the ‘Game of pretense’ that these ladies play.”

“What do you mean?” Raven asked curiously and Jane sighed, “I swear the amount of make-up that these boxes of cake wear must weigh a ton. And the way some of them stood and smiled at the lords to catch attention-”

“Like the lords are fools who would fall for such-” Raven laughed, but Jane added, “They are!”

Raven looked at her surprised as Jane nodded, “You have no idea how many of them have danced simply because the box of cake was pretty.”

This time Raven let out an unruly laugh at the term ‘box of cake’ that Jane was using for the ladies, “What? Believe me, if you get close enough, you can see the layers that cover their skins. I don’t even want to know how they carry it and that too, all evening. And then there is the fact that they are all here only to become our future queen.”

Raven sighed finished with her job, “They can’t all be so bad. I mean, one of them could quite possibly be our queen before the new moon.”

Jane nodded, “A blunder ready to happen.”

“Is that so?” Asked a strong male voice from behind them, making Raven almost jump with shock. Especially after the person stepped out of the shadows, Raven’s eyes got round like saucers as she nervously bowed so deep, she might’ve kissed her knees, “Your Highness.”

Jane mentally slapped herself for not making sure that they were alone, before starting to spill her thoughts so freely. She, too, turned around and, without looking him in the eye, bowed as well.

Raven saw the opportunity to pick up her basket and make her exit before she lost her job for bad-mouthing princesses. Jane gasped in shock as her friend left her alone with the prince to explain herself, in the middle of the garden in the darkness of night illuminated by nothing but the full moon.