Ember Bettie Sharpe

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. Can you stand to see this pretty face every day of your life? I will endure that dull fa�ade, so long as I may see your frecklesand your dark eyes every night. He kissed me. I know you won t believeme when I tell you this, but you are beautiful.He was right.I did not believe his words, but he believed them andI loved him for it.136 www.bettiesharpe.comEmber10.The Ever AfterThe Prince married his Cinder Girl in a grand ceremony at theroyal cathedral.Cheering crowds lined the streets, for all the people ofTierra del Mar� loved their Prince.And if they loved him a little less thanthey once had, they hardly noticed it.They scrambled to pick up the coins he threw as he and his briderode through the streets.They shouted his name.They shoutedcompliments to his lovely, demure bride.They told each other that theircharming Prince was truly a good man to have married a commoner forlove rather than a princess or noblewoman for wealth.I doubt they d have been so kind if they d known their Princemarried a witch.My sisters were not so easily appeased as the general populace.Their missing toes gave them both a grudge against Rian, and the abilityto resist his Charm.He had to grovel to gain their forgiveness.They dbeen quite attached to their little toes.Though they ve never come to like Rian, my sisters eventually sawhow much he loved me and forgave him.I believe it helped his causewhen he convinced his father to create my sisters duchesses.Everyoneknows duchesses are far more forgiving than whores.Lady Minette and Lady Dulcie stayed at Maison d Aube.Theyturned the grand old house into a salon for exiled d Orans.Minette spentwww.bettiesharpe.com 137Bettie Sharpesome of her new fortune on lessons in reading.And once she got thehang of it, she spent more of her fortune on books.She has turned theparlor into a library.Her collection of books rivals the royal library.Dulcie became a patron of the arts.She takes all manner of artistsunder her wing.As a result, some of the finest art in all the landstatues, paintings, ballads and poems depicts the beauty andgenerosity of the Lady Dulcibella.The statue of the Lady of Sorrows outside the cemetery bears herface, as does Mirelli s famous fresco of the Lady of the Sea in the grandhall of the Merchants Guild.Next time you go to Commerce Square,observe the statue of the Goddess of Spring.If you manage to drag yourgaze from her lovely attributes and examine her bare feet, you will notethe right one lacks its smallest toe.The salon at Maison d Aube is now a renowned gathering place forintellectuals, artists and luminaries.They hold forth on all manner ofphilosophy and create clever stories to amuse each other.One such storywas Minette s satiric Cendrillon.To be truthful, I do not know how it got beyond the doors ofMaison d Aube and began to circulate the land.Dulcie and I laughed andgiggled at the tale Minette spun from threads of the neighbor s gossipand speculation.It was a silly tale of a dull-witted but pretty cinder girland her terrible stepsisters and a Prince who loved the cinder girl for hershy virtue and her dainty feet.It was a jest, you see?138 www.bettiesharpe.comEmberI ve ordered the bards to stop telling the tale, but they think I ammerely humble and tell it anyway.Next time the moon is full, I will crafta spell to strike any bard who sings the tale mute.You think me cruel,but I do not like to hear my sisters slandered so.You seem surprised I still practice my craft.I do not understandwhy.I have told you time and again that I am a witch.Did you think Iwould give up witchery when I became a wife? Despite all I ve told you,you do not know me.Less than a year after the wedding, my first and favorite victim,Lord Campos, grew weary of his tribulations and hanged himself.I didnot mourn him, but I do miss all the fun I had with the little hex doll Imade in his image.His lands, which abut the Dark Forest, reverted to the crown.When the old king died and Rian became King, he awarded LordCampos s lands to Sylvie and Raoul.My sister and her husband nowhappily play lady and lord of the manor while they raise a veritable litterof sharp-toothed children.I did not fare so well in childbirth as Sylvie.I lost two babes asstillbirths before delivering a sickly girl with a twisted foot.We named herNieves and we love her completely.Shortly after her birth, some lordsand councilors complained of her imperfections her gender, her palecoloring, her twisted foot, her frail health and urged me to risk my lifeand my heart again to give their King a son.www.bettiesharpe.com 139Bettie SharpeI cursed them all with impotence.Their complaints ceased, thoughnow they look at me in fear.Within five years of her birth, Nieves put all complaints to rest.Herfoot remains twisted, but she outgrew her sickliness and grew into herpale skin and over-sized eyes.Her hair, like Rian s, is black as a raven swing.Her skin like mine, beneath my freckles is pale as snow.She isbeautiful, and the people love her for it.The people do not know Nieves is also clever, adept at magic, andjust the slightest bit wicked.She has her father s gentle nature, and mytaste for vengeance.She will make a great queen when we are gone, I amsure of it.As king, Rian cares little for the business of ruling.He would muchrather spend his time with our daughter and me, or with his horses andhounds.I take care of the tasks that go with running the kingdom.As Idid at Maison d Aube, I make the rules, keep the books, and keep thepeace.I encourage trade and punish our enemies.Running a whorehouse was surprisingly good training for runninga government.The land has prospered under my guidance.Themerchants are wealthy, the peasants are fat, and the streets are filledwith art and commerce.I am a good queen but despite all I ve done, some enemies whisperI am wicked [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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