Chapter 42 - *Black Beauty

The next time I took a step in the living room, I had a whole head of black hair. 

Cael gaped at me from his spot on the carpet, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

"Unicorn hair..." he mumbled. "What happened to the unicorn hair…?"

"There never was anything of the sort," I answered back as I stuck out my tongue. Kid was trying to rip me off with wooden horses, the brat. 

At that moment, Faustine came bursting through the kitchen with a flourish and placed a small dish on the table. 

"Kids, are you done with whatever you were doing?" she called absent mindedly, not noticing that we were standing right there. "Come, let's have a...snack…." She noticed us. 

"Ashli! Dear!" she cried as she approached me, her hands outstretched. "Oh. Oh...oh Lord! My, you are so beautiful, darling!"

I smiled as I felt her warm hands embrace my cheeks. She brushed a few strands of my hair away from my face as she gazed dearly at my dyed hair. Though I'm certain she hadn't any idea that I had just artificially colored my tresses. ILLUSTRATION:

I had also just slipped into a lovely, long dress belonging to Reynard's sister which made me appear ever so sophisticated. The white flower hair accessory I had worn on the event of the ceremony had still been stuck to my head and I had styled my hair with it by braiding the locks attached to my temples and pulling it back into a lovely hairstyle I had seen quite often back at school. 

While Faustine admired my new appearance, I glanced nervously at Reynard who had yet to leave my side. With a tilt indicating the door behind us, I silently questioned him: 'Did you clean the room?'

With a slight node of his head, he wordlessly conveyed to me the answer. 'Yes.'

Faustine said something which made me break my gaze away from him and I looked down at her with a large smile. "Shall we eat?" I asked. 

We all sat around the table and this time, Lennard was absent from the participants. How fortunate. 

Cael was giving me the stank-eye with his lips out in a pout. He didn't respond when Faustine asked him if he wanted one or two servings of the lovely pottage that she had just whipped up. According to what I was seeing, pottage was kind of like a stew-slash-gravy made with different assortments of vegetables: peas, onions and tomatoes. I also saw lumps of oats and several floating bits of meat, probably from the leftover scraps of boar. 

Faustine poured me a serving in a small wooden bowl and told us all to dig in.

"Reynard," she said, mid-chew. "Is Amice doing any better today?"

"Same old." He sighed which brought out with it hot steam from the stew. "The new medicines the apothecary prescribed did help her sleep for the night but she developed the coughing fit and pains once anew in the morning. Things aren't looking too well for her now, according to the physician. Though I really hope she'll get better soon."

"And so," Faustine mumbled, "do I. Should I come over today and help a bit around the house?"

Reynard waved his hands in dismissal. "Thank you for considering it, although Rosa's got it all covered. But we'll call you over if she's in need of assistance."

We sat in silence while everybody sipped onto their stew. 

I had yet to taste it as I never was too fond of water touching my meat. I know, I know it sounds weird, but it feels quite strange to my tongue. 

Carefully, I spooned some stew and sipped it. It was good, but it smelled quite pungent to the nostrils. I inhaled a lot of spice and sneezed a couple times, unaware of the worried gazes on me.

"You okay, dear?" Faustine asked worriedly as she reached for my shoulder and patted it.

"I'm good," I said as I furtively pushed the bowl away and set my eyes on Reynard, going in for the question that had been bugging me for a while. "I've been hearing that your mother's really sick. Can you tell me what's happened? If you don't mind, of course."

Reynard lowered his spoon and stared at his stew wistfully. 

"She's been dealing with a severe typhoid case," he said sadly. "Started half a month ago. I've been trying to help her get better ever since but we see no signs of improvement."

Faustine smacked her hands on the table, resulting in a clattering of bowls. "Nonsense," she said, frowning at Reynard. "She'll get better, love, that's all you need to keep in mind. Don't let go of the last thread of hope, alright?"

Reynard mumbled something under his breath and silently finished his stew. I, too, kept taking small sips so as not to offend dear Faustine, though I did have to keep my nose shut the whole time.   

When Reynard finished, he helped Faustine clear away the table and then pulled me along to the front door, stepping carefully over the glass.

"Aunty," he hollered, "I'm taking Ashli out for a while. We'll be back soon, so don't wait for us."

With that, he pulled me through the door and out into the afternoon sun.

"Fine day for a walk, isn't it, Your Highness?" he said, still clutching onto my long sleeves. 

"Very," I replied, my lips curling upwards as I glanced from house to house as we walked on the cobblestone path. "I was quite in need of one as well."

He remained silent as we walked through the street with houses towering on either side of us and with men and women roaming the streets, minding their own business.

"You won't be able to walk freely like this after a couple days."

I frowned. "Why not?"

He sighed and looked down at me, letting go of my sleeve. "In a few days, the imperial guards would be roaming the streets in search of the runaway princess. They'll probably go house-to-house as well. That's going to be our main problem, hiding you from their vigilant gazes."

I glanced down at my feet as we walked through the tight street. Rosa's shoes enveloped them in an embrace, the grey leather quite in contrast against my milky white skin.

"And I can't keep living at Faustine's house forever," I said. "Sooner or later, she's going to start questioning me about my figment of a mother's health and not long after that, she'll start getting sick of taking care of an extra burden."

"Oh come on," Reynard scoffed. "Don't think that. You aren't an extra burden at all."

"Well, you think that because it's not you who has to deal with me being in your house."

Reynard kept staring ahead with his lips in a straight line. We emerged from the towering houses into the main street where the sun shone a little bit shinier and the air was a little bit fresher. Even the amount of people increased by a lot. There was a lot of hustle and bustle even though it was afternoon time. 

"Market Day, is it still?" I asked as I shielded the sun from my eyes. 

Reynard did a 180° take of our surroundings. "Not today. But it still is quite busy, isn't it? Come on!"

He took my hand and we walked through the busy street. Unlike Sir Gradral, he was quite good at keeping me out of everyone's way and this time, I didn't have to face any verbal abuse from some irritated pedestrians.

All around us were loud voices, advertising their products:

"Get cho' fresh rolls here!"

"Fresh fruits for half the price today!"

"We've got ointments of all kinds here at Huvel's!" 

"It's so lively," I said as I looked from stall to stall with utmost heed. 

"Would you like to get something, then?"

I snapped my head around to look at him with an expression that spoke, 'Are you really asking?'

He raised his eyebrows as if to say, 'You want something or not?'

"I would love that!" I exclaimed giddily. 

He smiled smugly. "With that reaction, anyone would question the fact that you really are a princess who's whole life was a privilege."

Oof, he was getting there.

"A-anyways," I uttered, changing the course of our talk, "what's the budget?"

He folded his arms behind his head, totally nonchalant. "5 silvers. 7, if I'm in the mood to be generous."

Since I knew nothing about the currency here, I didn't have any idea what was the value of his offering, but when I eventually got around to asking the prices of various articles, I was hugely disappointed.

"How much for this scarf?"

"9 silvers."

"What about this lovely pair of flats?"

"That'll be 13 silvers."

"How about 5 silvers?"

"Madame you'll only get something for that cheap off the lost-and-found."

Next stall: "What does this chain cost?"

"20 golds."

A moment of silence. "H-hold it for me; I'll check the other stalls and come back for this later."

We walked from stall to stall browsing for cheap items for the rest of the afternoon till we lost track of time and it started getting dark. Soon, the vendors were lighting lanterns to keep their stalls lit and the street coupled Korea at night time. A whole constellation of stars right on earth. 

"As of now, I haven't seen a single item going for 5 silvers," I said grudgingly to Reynard as I tamed my black hair which had been disheveled by now. "How dare you be so selfish in your giving?"

He shrugged. "Unlike you, my father's not the Emperor, nor is he so generous. So I have to make my own money."

"And pray tell, how do you do that?"

He whistled a merry tune as he walked with his hands in his pants pockets, several coins jingling. "I'm a… Actually, never mind. How about we go check out that jeweler's stall?"

"Wait!" I tried to say but I was strung along by him, leaving my question unanswered.