The Spring Prince

The kingdom’s princess was called Belle-Rose. This said as much about her, as her long, golden brown hair, or her generous dresses that ranged from pink to turquoise and back. It said as much as the fact that, like every true princess, she had been given the gifts of kindness, beauty and music, by her fairy godmothers. As much as the fact that, as the daughter of a well-loved king and queen, she was born loved. All this said as much about her as frosting can say about a cake, or a frame can say about a painting.

Belle-Rose wished to be called Rose.

Belle-Rose slept her nights, studied her studies, and let the servants dress and adorn herself, in her big, white room. White floor, white walls, white bed, curtains and sheets. All the white things were decorated with golden embroidery, paint or ribbons. The crystal windows narrowed towards the ceiling.

Belle-Rose had always thought the ceiling was too high above. It made her feel cold and uncomfortable. Her own voice sounded unnatural in that room, even though she had been living in it since she was eight. Her parents had never agreed to her wish to live in a simpler room. The princess grew used to it, but never started to feel like the room was really hers. It wasn’t Rose’s room. It was the room of the princess. The dressing table, the four-poster bed, the painting of the twelve fairy godmothers, and the one of two crowned parents, could have belonged to any princess. Just like the empty space on the wall, that could only be filled with one more person with a crown upon his head.

Rose spend her free moments in the library instead of her room. The ceiling was just as high, but Rose felt it belonged in the library, where the shelves were almost as high, rather than the bedroom.

Rose didn’t read too much. She was always in the process of reading a book, but she got through it slowly. It was other things in the library that held her interest. She liked to hide in the library. And she loved the pictures in the books. She had never been considered an artistic talent, but she liked to practice copying the pictures. More than anything else, she liked the complicated and beautiful capital letters that decorated the first page of a chapter. She’d grasped their style well, and began to design her own, with the assistance of her lively imagination. She’d gathered more than a dozen pictures for every letter of the alphabet over the years.

The day our story starts, Rose was sitting in the back of the library, on a windowsill. She had just finished the twenty-first “A” in her collection. She had more of them than any other letter, because it was such a common letter.

Rose sat on her knees, bending over her drawing. Her rose-red gown was wrinkled, she’d loosened her tight bun, and arranged her hair on both sides of her head in long, wavy ponytails. Rose knew she would get scolded. Today was an important day, and there wasn’t much time. The thought brought a wrinkle between her brows, but it disappeared when she focused, to draw a few more curls on her A. Then she straightened herself to look at the picture. A satisfied smile crossed her face.

The library’s rose window clock chimed for noon. Rose startled. For a moment she breathed heavily. The clock was beyond her view. After thinking for a while, the princess recovered her sense of time. She sighed, and looked out of the window. The castle was so high she could see the harbour from the library. While she’d focused on her work, Rose had almost forgotten what was about to happen. On a whim, she opened the window.

The wind wasn’t too strong, just a refreshing breeze. Rose pulled her knees up, and stepped lightly on her drawing with her toes, so it wouldn’t fly away. She closed her bottle of ink, and stopped for a moment, looking at her amber pen. She pressed her lips together and a sting of guilt went through her, but she ended up wiping the pen into the inner layers of her underskirt anyway. It was just like her to forget to bring a handkerchief.

Rose was looking at the harbour, letting the wind blow at her face. She couldn’t tell the ships apart. She wasn’t even sure which ones were coming and which ones going. Some of them must have been bringing yarn and fabrics. Rose had understood there was something wrong with the sheep in their kingdom. Then her thoughts went back to the ship everyone in the castle was waiting for. It might have arrived already. Someone was probably looking for her by now.

Rose wasn’t going to hide much longer. She wasn’t really rebellious by nature, and she had noticed a spark of excitement inside her, whenever she thought about the guests she’d soon meet. But it was all a little scary. The king had not seen his sister for fifteen years, but the princess hadn’t seen her cousin ever.

Truthfully, more than Rose was thinking about meeting her cousin, she was thinking about a prince from a faraway land, coming to meet a princess to a faraway land. Prince Yori. Somehow, Rose enjoyed the idea. That’s why she didn’t resist, when she was found from the shelter of the library, and brought back to the white room, for being dressed to look as much of a princess as was possible.

Rose felt calm. She wasn’t calm by nature, but whenever she felt she was a princess, it was easy to stay calm. She smiled politely, and the person looking back at her from the mirror, was princess Belle-Rose, with her big blue eyes, long eyelashes, and shiny hair curled above her head. When she was wearing the dress, which was the lightest pink there was, she didn’t really feel like she was a real person any more. And the inner Rose liked it, even though the Belle-Rose in the mirror looked politely distant.

This is the kind of story, where a boy meets a girl, and they like each other right away, because they hope to. The prince from a faraway land never pretended he hadn’t left his home to fall in love with the princess of a faraway land. And the princess didn’t lie to herself either, she knew why her heart seemed to skip a beat every time she’d looked towards the harbour these past few days. She didn’t pretend to not know why her dress, her tiara, and the jewellery she’d worn many times before, seemed special today. Or how smiling seemed to fit her so well that day.

Prince Yori was dressed in gold and silver. He arrived to the great hall of the castle after his parents, two small sisters behind him. They all stopped in front of the king and queen, and the only princess. Through their greetings, Rose barely noticed anyone but Yori. The gazes of the prince and the princess had been tied together from the moment the prince had stepped inside. The prince didn’t lower his gaze out of Rose’s reach, even when he stopped to bow to her.

The great hall was soon filled with food, the smell and the warmth of it, the hovering servants, the clatter of glass, and the slowly growing chatter between the relatives. When the old familiar people had been uncovered under all the new wrinkles and grey hair, and the new acquaintances had formed an intelligible first impression of each other, the atmosphere was warm and inviting. Rose ate a lot, but she didn’t taste much. She let her parents lead the conversation. She looked at Yori a lot, and often. Yori looked back without any intention of hiding it, smiling as distantly as the princess did, but their eyes revealed their interest in each other anyway.

When the queen suddenly moved in her chair, Rose was brought back to the table from her thoughts, and she already knew her moment had come. She focused on smiling, when her mother suggested she should go and take prince Yori around the garden. It wasn’t in its most beautiful bloom yet, but still worth seeing. The prince and the princess made a point about not agreeing too fast. They shared a gaze, and knew the next moment would already be too slow. So they turned, nodded at the queen, and waited for someone else to leave the table first. Then they stoop up, careful to do it at slightly different times.

The princess and the prince walked side by side in silence, until they arrived at the garden’s gates. It was golden like the ornaments in the princess’ room, and the garden it led to, was ten times as large as the great hall. It was lined by tall rosebushes, which were still full of buds. Between them, high arches and columns rose from the ground here and there. The garden was arranged so that it looked like it had rooms, divided by flowers and bushes and trees. Smaller and bigger ones. Some were full of lilies, some hydrangeas, and some had flowers even the princess didn’t know the names of. Some had marble benches and others lounge chairs. Across the garden went a lane of lindens and at the back of it rose a circle of oak trees, which was great for hot days, better than an umbrella.

The prince and the princess only talked about the wonders of the garden first. Rose didn’t really pay any attention to the substance of the conversation. After a while she made up her mind, and suggested she’d show the prince her favourite place in the garden. Yori agreed with a smile. Rose turned to lead them ahead between the lindens. She bit her lip in secret and her heart was pounding a little. She led the prince where the lindens ended, and even past the oak room. Behind it grew some green hedge. Rose smiled shyly, and Yori looked at her, already with a question in his eyes. Rose turned her gaze and took him to a small room lined with the green bush.

The prince looked around.

– But these are… wild flowers, he said quietly, and the princess blushed, and turned her gaze from the prince, to the flowers. Between them grew some hay, too.

– Well, yes.

Rose smiled, and shrugged, and prince Yori didn’t need anything else. He looked at Rose like anyone who’d just realized his dream had come true: his princess was just a girl after all. Yori’s lips curled into a smile of confusion and satisfaction. Encouraged by the smile, Rose picked a bluebell from the ground, and put it behind Yori’s ear. They both smiled. And then they were laughing. They sat down among the wild flowers.

– Do you like books? asked Yori. Rose had already placed herself comfortably on the ground, she was lying sideways on her elbow. Her eyes flickered.

– Very much, Rose said. – But I think I might like their looks more than their content.

Yori nodded, looking interested.

– But it’s fun to read sometimes. What about you? Rose asked.

– Yes, sometimes is good. Truthfully, I read more than sometimes, but I don’t think I enjoy it that often.

He fingered the grass and continued:

– I think it’s just a habit. An easy way to pass the time.

– I see, Rose said, then smiled and asked:

– Then, why did you talk about books in the first place?

Yori’s lip pouted slightly while he pondered it.

– I suppose it’s because people usually have an opinion about books. And maybe it says something about them.

That made Rose blush, and she couldn’t help saying:

– I like romantic, educational stories and happy endings. What would that say about me?

Yori frowned slightly, and seemed really focused for a while. Then he broke into a relaxed smile and crossed his legs.

– I have absolutely no idea, he said. Rose liked the answer.

– What kind of books do you like?

Yori had to focus again.

– I suppose I like stories about characters who have it worse than me. That way, I won’t start dreaming I had their lives instead of mine.

Yori grinned.

– I wonder what that says about me.

Rose gave a laugh.

– Probably, that you have an admirable sense of duty.

Yori titled his head slightly and looked at Rose, but then shrugged. Rose didn’t say anything, and after a while Yori reached to pick up some daisies. He started to make a crown with them. Rose was thrilled he’d picked that flower. She picked one herself and started to pick its petals, very slowly, asking the flower the question. She glanced at Yori, but he hadn’t noticed. Only when she’d pulled the last petal and was looking at it with satisfaction, Yori looked at her. For a moment he stared at the petal, like it had the power to doom him.

– Which was it?

Rose bared her teeth.

– Not telling.

The princess and the prince left the garden hand in hand, and both of them had a crown of daisies on their head. They carried them with serious, noble air, like they were real crowns. Rose had unconventionally hooked her tiara to the front of her dress. They walked like that around the castle, amusing the servants. Some turned their heads politely, but some couldn’t hide their smiles. The prince and the princess smiled back. When no one was looking, they burst into laughter. Then Rose pulled Yori with her, and ran towards the library.

Yori liked the books right away. The library wasn’t as cold as the one in his castle. Here the shelves were of different heights and shapes, they seemed to celebrate the fact that they were handmade. In the library Yori knew, he felt like the shelves were ashamed of it and tried to hide it by each trying to look as straight and tall as the next. When you looked at them closely, and noticed that not every ornament was the same in them, you felt disappointed. But in Rose’s library it seemed exciting instead, like each shelf had its own spirit.

– Every book has a spirit too, Rose said. She blushed a little and continued:

– Or that’s how I feel. And I don’t think it has anything to do with the content. The spirits of stories aren’t really my area. I mean that I like how every book is unique in looks, whether the content is the same or not.

Yori nodded with a ghost of a smile. He’d never thought of that, but the details Rose paid attention to, seemed very interesting to him. He felt it had to be as Rose said, even if he couldn’t see it.

– If I had to decide, I suppose I would say the content is more familiar to me. Though, far less than to many others I know. I guess I just don’t like the stories enough to know them so deeply. But I can still recognize it immediately, just by scanning the pages, if the spirit of that story is calmingly cynical or painfully syrupy.

Rose giggled.

– I never know if I like a book before reading it to the end.

– So, you read a lot of unnecessary books and I read too narrowly. I suppose it’s good we’re royalty and not librarians.

Rose giggled again.

– Funny how much we talk about books, even though we aren’t even sure how much we like them.

Yori’s eyes turned towards the heights of the bookshelves and moved along with them, when he pondered her words.

– I suppose they’re just too big of a part of our reality. And most readers are probably like us; not that good at it.

Rose sighed a little tiredly.

– Maybe it’s because as a princess, I have to do everything so correctly. At times, it’s nice to do something I don’t have to be good at. Maybe it’s about something similar for other people as well.

Yori smiled and shrugged. Then Rose turned to him suddenly.

– But what would you want to do? she asked. – I’ve only taken you to places I like.

Yori had nothing against this, but Rose seemed embarrassed, so he said:

– I like attics.

The princess’ eyes glimmered. She took the prince by the hand again, and pulled him to run. After climbing some stairs, they had to stop and breathe. They walked for a while and ran again. They stopped to breathe and giggle many times on their way up. Finally, Rose gave up, because she didn’t want to be scolded for sweating through her dress.

Rose had picked the tower she remembered as the dustiest. If Yori wanted to see attics, it was best to do it thoroughly. Rose felt she’d succeeded, when Yori glanced and the footprints he’d left on the floor, satisfied. The room was small and didn’t have too many things inside. It looked like a picture book attic. There were a couple of chests, some broken frames for paintings, leaning on the walls, and a couple of baskets filled with old silverware.

– Would you like to explore the chests? Rose asked. Yori turned and looked around the room.

– They’re probably locked.

– They might not be, Rose said and leaned over to lift the lid of the bigger one. It creaked and revealed a pile of old curtains.

– Isn’t it boring? We have no skeletons or secrets, Rose said and laughed. Yori took the fabric between his fingers.

– Is someone going to get mad at you if we put them on the floor?

– Probably.

Yori glanced around, and went to get a white cloth that was partially covering the frames at the back of the room. He shook it, and put the cloth on the floor, the less dusty side up. He bowed to Rose, and gestured with his hands that the floor was ready for her to sit on. Rose curtsied with a grin on her face, and sat. Yori’s gaze had turned back to the frames. He’d noticed a drawing between them. He picked it up, and sat beside Rose.

– It looks like a sketch of a painting, Yori said. Rose leaned closer to see. She frowned, and then lifted her brows.

– It could be the painting on my wall, with my twelve fairy godmothers.

Yori glanced at Rose, and then at the sketch.

– But it looks like there are thirteen people in it.

– Are you sure?

Yori squinted.

– No, it’s pretty blurred.

He put the picture away. Rose dropped onto her back on the floor. Her crown of daisies fell off. She took off her gloves, and kicked her shoes off of her feet. Yori wanted to laugh at her relaxed smile. Then he kicked his boots into the corner of the room. On a whim, he took Rose’s delicate white shoe from the floor and looked at it. He tried the heel with his finger.

– It must be hard, to walk with these.

Rose shrugged.

– Those have wide heels, you can walk in them all day. For balls, I have the same shoes with narrow and wide heels. When I’m too tired, I change to the wider ones and stand by the wall until my feet are good to go again. No one notices I’m not wearing fashionable shoes if I don’t dance.

Yori lifted his brows with interest in his eyes.

– I suppose that’s how you’ll get through tomorrow. Your birthday, I mean. It’s hard to be a princess.

Rose smiled.

– I’m sure princes have it hard too.

Yori grinned.

– Sure. We don’t even get special gifts from fairies.

Rose sighed and closed her eyes.

– There’s nothing great about those, she said, her lip pouting. – A princess just has to be beautiful, kind, and good at singing, to even be a princess. It’s only the starting level. And I don’t even like singing.

Yori looked at her in surprise. When he didn’t say anything, Rose looked at him with a frown.

– Doesn’t anyone else think that? she asked. Yori shrugged.

– Most girls would do anything to be like that.

Rose looked at the ceiling and seemed absent-minded for a moment, then sad.

– When I sing, I feel like I’m not able to make a mistake. Like I’m under a spell. Or, I suppose I am, Rose said quietly. – I’m not free. No one asked me if I wanted something like that, and I have to repeat it over and over, whether I want to, or not.

Rose became silent, and looked at Yori who’d listened carefully.

– I’m sorry, she said and tried to laugh. – What am I whining about?

Yori shook his head.

– No, don’t apologize. I had no idea it felt like that.

Yori looked to the floor, then to Rose, like he was embarrassed.

– What is it? I didn’t want to make you upset, Rose said. Yori lifted his gaze.

– I was just thinking how I’ve been charmed by your beauty today. How you look just as beautiful, even though you throw yourself on a flower bed, mess up your dress, and laugh hard. How every strand of your hair that falls down on your shoulders seems to land differently than anyone else’s. As if one could paint a perfectly aesthetic paining of you, no matter what you were doing. As if everything about you was always in the right place. And now I don’t know if it’s because I like you so much, or because someone else made you that way without your permission. Maybe you’re just made to charm a prince.

Rose blushed a little. She could’ve been depressed about Yori’s words, but the five simple words among them saved the rest. Yori had not placed them as a question though, so Rose didn’t answer them. She just smiled and said:

– I suppose it’s good I have never wanted to do anything really bad. If I wanted to run away or something…, she stopped and bit her lip. – Well, it probably wouldn’t work out. I guess, as a princess, I’m pretty lucky.

Yori smiled a little sadly.

– Princes are able to make mistakes. We have to, I think. We can do what we want, and we have to take responsibility for the consequences. If we become kings, and make big mistakes, the whole world suffers. But I guess it balances things out that princesses are perfect, even if we can’t always fix our mistakes.

Rose sighed.

– Is that how much we weigh in all that? I don’t like it. I’d rather give my beauty, my kindness and singing voice to someone who’d really want to use them for something else than decorating a castle. I thought that could be my birthday wish.

Yori laughed softly.

– It’s a good wish. But wouldn’t that kind of thing make the world too perfect in the end, just what you’re trying to escape?

Rose blew air through her nose.

– Don’t say that! Just when I’d worked everything out nicely. The world wouldn’t lose its roughness so easily.

Yori laughed.

– I was only teasing.

Rose smiled widely.

– Thank you. That almost never happens to me.

Her smile thawed the air around them, and they didn’t go back to unpleasant topics. But they couldn’t stop talking. They could talk about the weather, or food, or anything else, and still make the topics actually interesting. They could talk about their relatives without boring each other. They laughed until they were tired, and the light in the attic grew dimmer.

– I think we missed the supper, Yori said, once the full moon was already shining from the window.

– Well, I know where to steal some! Rose said, and Yori answered her mischievous look eagerly. So Rose lead them to the backdoor of the kitchen, where they could get to the storages without anyone in the kitchen seeing them. They quickly took sausages, bread, cheese, juice and fruits with them, and then Rose led Yori back, but before they reached the attic room, Yori stopped. Rose looked at him quizzically.

– Do you think anyone would find us in the morning, if we… spent the night at the highest tower’s attic?

Rose felt her heartbeat quicken.

– Yes, actually… Someone is going to climb through there to change the flag for my birthday, but… the smallest tower would do, it’s far enough from everything.

Yori nodded and asked Rose to lead the way. Rose took Yori to the bridge that connected the towers, and was glad of it, because the city below looked impressive at night. They stopped for a moment for the view, almost dark already, but lit with a million lights at the windows.

Yori looked at the sky.

– Did you see that shooting star?

Rose shook her head.

– Too bad. Maybe it would’ve strengthened your birthday wish.

Rose smiled sadly at the thought.

– I don’t think it’s my birthday yet, she said and then grinned. – I turn sixteen almost exactly at midnight. I think we would hear the bell.

Then her stomach growled. She laughed, and Yori smiled. They continued towards the tower.

After they’d eaten, the princess and the prince relaxed on the cloths and pillows they’d found. The attic was cool at night. There was more stuff than in the other tower, and the candlelight they had lit, created interesting shadows everywhere. The princess opened the skylight window, so they would see the stars better. Soon she started to feel cold, and the prince offered her his jacket. Then he couldn’t hide his shivering either, and they curled inside a cloth together, resting on the pillows.

They looked at each other for a long time in silence, until Yori said:

– I like you, Rose.

Rose smiled slowly and let the confession she’d already heard earlier, sink further into her.

– I like you too, she said. Then she laughed. Yori asked why.

– Today, I believe you like me. If you’d met me tomorrow, and seen me at my birthday party for the first time, I wouldn’t believe you could ever like me more than you’d like the princess you saw there.

– You still look like a princess today, said Yori.

– But tomorrow, I’ll look like that even more. The sixteenth birthday is always magical, Rose said quietly, and a smile didn’t leave her voice. Yori nodded.

– Think about it, if I’d arrived just a day too late.

He looked Rose deep into the eyes. Rose answered the gaze like flickering stars. Their heads were already resting on the same pillow. After looking into Yori’s eyes for a moment longer, Rose was ready to close that distance.

But Rose didn’t do it, because her eyes stopped at something behind Yori. A shadow she hadn’t seen before. Rose leaned on her elbows to lift her head, and she was startled by the odd-looking object. Yori looked at Rose, frowned, and turned to look behind him. Then he looked at Rose in confusion. Her eyes looked back at him like a deer’s.

– Are you scared of something?

Rose frowned. She looked from the object to Yori.

– Do you know what that is? she asked quietly.

Yori’s brows rose.

– Haven’t you ever seen a spinning wheel before?

Rose batted her eyelashes, and shook her head.

– We… in our kingdom, we don’t make yarn, she said quietly.

Princess Belle-Rose gave a laugh at herself, in the darkness of the attic and shrugged at the prince from a faraway land, who was in the wrong place. Who had arrived at her side on the eve of her sixteenth birthday. Just one day too early.

Just then, the clock chimed for midnight, like a cold spell in spring.