by Lou Kuenzler
“Pity you are no better at riding than you are at curtsying,” laughed Precious as she snapped her fingers for a groom to come and unsaddle Champion.
“Oh, go stick your head in the muck heap,” snapped Grace. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude,” she said, turning to the riding master. She didn’t want him to think that she wasn’t a proper princess. She tugged the veil of her hat down over her face so Precious wouldn’t see her blush.
Rip!
Grace yanked so hard that the thin netting tore free from the hat and floated up into the air. A gust of wind caught it and blew it over the maple trees.
“Oh no,” gasped Grace.
“Looks like it’s heading for the beach,” said Sir Rolling-Trot.
Grace watched, amazed, as the dark square of netting flew over the meadow and down toward the sand. “It’s blown so far away already,” she said.
“You’d better go and fetch it, then, hadn’t you,” said Precious. “Before it goes any farther and you end up looking even more scruffy than before.”
Grace couldn’t stand it anymore.
“All right, I will,” she said. And before her friends could stop her, she climbed up onto the gate and scrambled onto Billy’s broad back, one leg on either side, as if she was on a bicycle.
“I’ll ride down to the beach and get it right now,” she said.
“You can’t sit like that!” Precious cried. “Only boys sit like that. Tell her, Sir Rolling-Trot.”
The other princesses gasped. But Sir Rolling-Trot just laughed. “Good for you, Princess Grace. You go and fetch that veil. I’ll tell Flintheart…I mean, Fairy Godmother Flint, that you’ll be a little late for deportment class.”
Grace couldn’t believe what she had done. Now that she was up on Billy’s back, she didn’t really know what to do.
But as Sir Rolling-Trot opened the gate, she squeezed Billy with her legs, and he shot forward with a rollicking bound.
Grace grabbed his mane, but she didn’t fall off.
“Good boy,” she whispered.
As Billy bounced away across the meadow, Grace knew she didn’t look elegant…but she felt as if she was really riding at last. The minute Billy’s hooves felt the soft sand, he began to canter.
The beach was deserted, just a few swooping seagulls, and the princess and her unicorn charging toward the distant lighthouse.
Grace felt herself fit into Billy’s rolling rhythm as he sped along. Cantering bareback was actually easier than trotting.
“Giddyup!” she cried, just as she had done a million times in her games at home. She wasn’t afraid at all. The wind whipped her hair, and Billy splashed through the edge of the waves, sending sea spray flying up behind them.
“Whee!” whooped Grace. For the first time in her whole life she didn’t feel clumsy. She couldn’t trip, because her feet weren’t on the ground; Billy’s legs were doing the work for her. All she had to do was cling tight and encourage him….
She pulled gently on his mane, steering him toward something dark and blue she could see fluttering along the sand.
“My veil!” she cried, slowing Billy to a trot.
But she couldn’t bear to get down from his back, not even for a moment. So she walked him over to a cluster of trees at the edge of the dunes. She snapped a dead branch from above her head and broke off the twigs until she had a long, straight stick like a knight’s lance. Then she charged back down the beach and speared the veil in one go.
“Got it!” She grinned as Billy leapt forward and thundered back to the school like a knight’s charger.
By the time Grace had brushed Billy down, fed him some hay, and seen him tucked safely into his stable, she had missed her entire deportment lesson.
“Never mind,” Sir Rolling-Trot laughed. “From what I saw, you learned quite a lot about keeping your back straight and your head high down there on the beach. I said you’d be a good rider…and you are.”
“Thank you.” Grace flung her arms around Billy’s neck. “It was the most exciting thing I have ever done.”
“That breath of sea air did you a world of good.” Sir Rolling-Trot chuckled. “Much better than standing around with a book on your head, eh?”
“Oh yes,” agreed Grace. “Much better.”
The next morning, Grace was not so lucky.
“Double deportment,” she groaned, checking the timetable scroll on the First Year Common Room wall.
Grace picked up her copy of Princess Manners for Beginners and balanced it carefully on her head.
“We’re supposed to have our curtsies perfect for today,” said Scarlet.
“Today?”
Thud!
Princess Manners for Beginners fell to the floor.
“Come on,” said Izumi, grabbing the book. “We’d better not be late. Flintheart was furious you missed her lesson yesterday.”
“It was awful,” agreed Scarlet. “I had to give her the note from Sir Rolling-Trot. I thought steam was going to come out of her ears.”
“Good thing she didn’t see me charging down the beach on Billy-the-Thunderbolt.” Grace giggled. “Or she’d have boiled over like a cauldron.”
They slipped into the ballet studio just as Fairy Godmother Flint was clapping her hands to begin.
“Backs straight. Books on your heads,” she ordered. “Good of you to join us, Princess Grace. No items of lost clothing to find on the beach today? A handkerchief in the rose gardens, perhaps? A lost sock in the meadow?”
The class giggled.
Grace shook her head.
Thud.
Princess Manners for Beginners crashed to the floor. Grace had forgotten it was up there again.
“Dear me,” said Flintheart coldly. “I see you still have a very long way to go before you will be ready for the tournament, Grace. It is a pity, because Lady DuLac is coming to visit our class this morning to watch a demonstration of curtsies.” She clapped her hands again, gesturing to the girls to curtsy with the books firmly on their heads.
“The headmistress is coming here for a very special reason,” the fairy godmother continued. “She is going to pick one of you to be the Golden Princess at the tournament. The girl who is chosen will lead the parade wearing a long gold dress. At the end of the jousting, she will curtsy and present a trophy to the winning knight.”
“Oh dear, I hope it’s not me,” said Scarlet, looking worried.
The other princesses were grinning brightly.
“It will be a great honor for whoever is picked, of course,” said Flintheart.
Precious was sticking her nose in the air and smiling smugly as if she was sure that she would be chosen.
Grace’s shoulders slumped. There was no chance she would be picked to be the Golden Princess. But she wished she could have a few more days before she had to show Lady DuLac her disastrous curtsy.
Crash.
Princess Manners for Beginners fell to the floor yet again.
Grace was scrabbling around to find it, her bottom sticking out from under a row of little gold chairs, when Lady DuLac swept into the studio.
“Good morning, Headmistress,” chorused the girls.
“Oops.” Grace stood up so fast that the chair came with her, balancing on her head like a lopsided golden crown.
“Good morning, Young Majesties.” Lady DuLac smiled as Grace fought to pull the chair from her ears. “As I am sure Fairy Godmother Flint has explained, I am going to pick one of you to represent Tall Towers as our Golden Princess at the joust. After all, you young First Years are the future of our school.”
“Pick me, pick me!” cried Precious, flicking her golden ringlets.
“Or us!” cried the twins. “We could do it together. Wouldn’t that be adorably cute?”
Lady DuLac held up her hands. “I wish I could choose you all,” she said. “Unfortunately, there is only one trophy to present.”
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��Let us show the headmistress our curtsies,” said Fairy Godmother Flint.
Grace edged toward the back of the room.
“Sorry,” she mouthed as she collided with Scarlet, who was trying to hide too.
“You should go to the front,” Grace whispered. “Your curtsy is the most graceful in the class.”
Scarlet shook her head. “I get terrible stage fright. I’d hate to stand up on my own in front of all those people at the joust.”
In the end, it was hopeless to try to hide, as Fairy Godmother Flint lined them up in the far corner of the room and asked them to cross the floor diagonally, curtsying for Lady DuLac one by one as they reached the center. All it meant was that Grace and Scarlet were now at the back of the line and would be the last to go.
Precious, of course, had pushed herself to the front.
“We want to see a full ceremonial curtsy,” said Fairy Godmother Flint. “That means you must sink lower and hold your positions for longer than you normally would.”
At least we won’t have our books on our heads for once, thought Grace.
“I’ll show you all how it’s done,” crowed Precious.
She performed a beautiful curtsy, and everyone clapped politely as she held her balance close to the floor.
To Grace, all the princesses looked elegant, flowing across the room. But Scarlet seemed almost to float. In spite of her shyness, she didn’t rush or stumble.
That just left Grace.
She strode across the room.
When the other princesses walked, there didn’t seem to be any sound at all, but Grace could hear the thud of her feet on the wooden studio floor.
Down she bobbed.
The curtsy wasn’t too bad. Without Princess Manners for Beginners on her head, Grace managed to sweep quite low and hold her position for at least a second or two.
It was only as she came up again that she slipped.
Her spaghetti legs twisted around each other, and she couldn’t quite figure out how to untangle them again.
Her arms spun in the air like the branches of a tree in a storm. By a stroke of luck, she managed to stop herself from falling over and instead skidded to the opposite corner of the room.
Everyone clapped, except Precious and the twins.
“Thank you,” said Lady DuLac. “What a difficult task it will be to choose between you all.”
“But I am the best,” whined Precious. “It was obvious.”
“Thank you, Precious.” Lady DuLac cleared her throat. “Perhaps we should ask Fairy Godmother Flint who she feels are her most promising deportment students.”
“Princess Precious has fine posture,” said Flintheart. “But Princess Scarlet is the most balletic. She has true talent.”
Scarlet looked at the floor and shook her head.
Lady DuLac nodded as if she was thinking about something. “I suspect Princess Scarlet would not welcome this role at the moment,” she said. “I do not wish to force anyone to do anything they do not wish to. We will find other challenges for you as you grow in confidence and move on through the school. I know you will do great things for us when you are ready, Princess Scarlet.”
Grace squeezed her friend’s hand. She knew that in her kind and gentle way, Scarlet did brave things every day already.
“And in that case,” said the headmistress, “Precious will be the Golden Princess and award the trophy at the joust.”
“Yes!” whooped Precious. She spun into the middle of the room with a triple pirouette. “I knew it would be me.”
“But,” said Lady DuLac firmly, “I have not been impressed by the way that you have shown off today, Precious. A true princess should be proud of the things she is good at but should never be boastful or laugh at others when they try their best.”
“I know that.” Precious shrugged as if she wasn’t really listening.
“If I hear that you have been showing off or making fun of others again, you will not represent Tall Towers at the tournament,” said Lady DuLac. “I will give the job of Golden Princess to somebody else.”
The days grew colder over the next few weeks as autumn turned to winter. Precious talked of nothing except being the Golden Princess at the tournament. She even tried to get the other princesses to call her “Precious the Golden,” but nobody did. Not even the twins.
There were now regular practices for the parade, and the First Year princesses had never been so busy. Yet, between rehearsals, dance classes, deportment, riding, and all their other lessons, friendships grew and flourished.
Grace liked everyone in her class—except her spiteful cousin, of course, and the silly twins, who just encouraged Precious to be mean and copied everything she said. Visalotta seemed distant and bored but not unkind.
Most of all, Grace knew how lucky she was to have found such wonderful friends as Scarlet and Izumi. Scarlet was so gentle and kind. Grace loved the way she would burst into fits of giggles at a moment’s notice. But Grace also loved how confident and sure of things Izumi was. Although she was the youngest and smallest princess in the class, she was always true to herself and didn’t worry what other people thought. Yet she always noticed what was going on around her too. Her pictures were beautiful and bold, and she carried the little sketchbook wherever she went.
Grace and Izumi made a funny pair as they hurried through the corridors together, one so tall, the other so tiny.
“You look like a skinny beanstalk and a tiny ant,” said Precious when she saw them heading to the Sewing Tower one day.
“How hilarious! A beanstalk and an ant,” squealed the twins.
Grace and Izumi just laughed, holding hands as they ran to catch up with Scarlet.
The three friends were nearly always together, only separating when Scarlet went to practice her dancing and Izumi disappeared to draw or paint. Grace made sure that she spent time with Billy every day. She was doing well in riding lessons—even sidesaddle didn’t seem so tricky after her bareback race down the beach. Precious was furious when Grace was awarded the Best Rider Merit three weeks in a row.
But what Grace loved most of all was to take Billy out riding on her own.
Sir Rolling-Trot came to her in the stables when she was grooming Billy one day.
He coughed politely to get her attention. “I found this old saddle in the back of the tack room,” he said. “It needs a bit of a polish, but I thought you might find a use for it.”
Grace looked up, expecting to see a sidesaddle—but this one had stirrups on both sides.
“It’s a ratty old thing. I think it must have been used by one of the grooms years ago,” said Sir Rolling-Trot. “But it might save you sitting bareback if you want to take Billy up to the woods and so forth. So long as you always tell me you’re leaving, I don’t see any problem with you going for a ride.”
“Thank you!” cried Grace. She looked at the dusty old saddle covered in cobwebs and wisps of straw. It was just about the best present she had ever been given.
She polished the saddle until it shone. After that she went riding whenever she could.
The trees were bare now, and snow covered the mountains as winter crept in. But Grace was used to the cold. Fairy Godmother Pom had made her a pair of warm riding breeches. She had the thick hairy cloak she had arrived in, and Billy’s own fur grew more shaggy. They didn’t mind what the weather was like as long as they were out together exploring.
“Coronet Island is so beautiful,” Grace told Izumi and Scarlet as she stood dripping in the dormitory after a particularly rainy ride. “The woods go on for miles, and there are secret towers and caves. We’ve been right to the edge of the mountains where a great waterfall gushes down, and I’ve seen Mermaid Beach and the lagoon where we’ll swim in the summer term.”
“It sounds wonderful,” said Izumi. “I’d love to explore.”
“Let’s all go for a ride together this weekend,” said Grace. “It might be too cold for a picnic, but we could take some marshmallows and hot ch
ocolate in a thermos.”
“Just so long as there’s none of your fluffy fudge,” laughed Scarlet.
On Saturday morning, Grace woke up with a bump as she landed on the floor as usual. She hurried to get the others out of bed.
It was a beautiful crisp, clear day. They could see the snowy mountains against the cloudless sky as they trotted out of the stable yard on their unicorns.
They had asked Sir Rolling-Trot for permission to leave early, and no one else was up.
“It’s almost as if this is our own private island,” said Izumi.
The Tall Towers cook had packed them a little saddlebag each of hot chocolate in a thermos, fresh-baked rolls, and peach jam.
Beauty and Velvet tossed their heads. They seemed excited to be ridden outside the Dressage Hall for a change.
“Come on,” said Grace as Billy pawed the ground. “I think these unicorns want to feel the wind in their manes. I know the perfect route. We can get a good gallop along the beach, then walk up through the woods and along the river to eat breakfast.”
The ride was beautiful, and the girls laughed and chattered as they went. It felt good to be away from school, without Precious showing off and the cold glare of Flintheart for a while.
Even Scarlet galloped along the beach at full tilt—although she clung to Beauty’s neck and closed her eyes most of the time.
“Goodness,” she gasped, her cheeks glowing as they reached the woods and slowed down to a trot. “Knights must be so brave to charge like that in a joust. I can’t imagine how my poor cousin Wilbur can stand it.”
“We’ll see him at the tournament next week,” said Izumi.
“It’s so soon now,” said Grace. “I can’t wait to see the horses.”
They trotted on along the edge of the river and stopped to eat their breakfast at the gushing falls, which tumbled down from the mountains in a great torrent of splashing water.