by Walleye
Sir Rathbone just scowled at this. To him this just reduced her claims to high status.
Maryellen wasn’t sure what to do as mermaids ate while floating upright or reclining. They rarely ate sitting. She stared at Johnathan seeking help.
Something seemed to penetrate Johnathan’s demeanor of indifference. What was she doing? Why was she looking so beseechingly at him? What did she want?
Then it came to him. In most courts the host seated his lady guests. This had to be what she was waiting for.
He went over to stand in front of Maryellen. He bowed and then offered her his paw. “I would be honored if you would allow me to escort you to your seat, Milady.”
He received a smile so intense and grateful that it warmed his heart. A woman was actually responding to him with genuine affection. He couldn’t help it. He smiled back at her.
She reached out and immediately took his paw in her own hand and squeezed it gently. He felt a thrill go through him as again she smiled at him. Once again he felt a real connection with this lovely woman.
He led her with one paw to a chair which he pulled back with his other paw. Maryellen realized that he wanted her to sit. Which she did and smiled again at him as he held her chair steady so she could sit in safety.
He swallowed as he felt an unexplained surge of deep attraction to her. He tried to be suave and nodded and turned to do the same for Elliot but he found that Sir Rathbone had already performed this duty for him.
He raised an eyebrow at the knight who just shrugged. He might not like the man but he at least seemed to have his wits about him. It was a fact of life that quite often the people you disliked on first sight were often more than they had originally seemed to be.
As he walked by Maryellen his nostrils twitched. His nose was ten times as sensitive as it had been when he had been human. He drew in a deep breath and he thought he could smell the scent of the ocean coming off her and it seemed like it was one he had smelled before. He didn’t realize that he had smelled it before when he’d met her at the river.
After everyone was accommodated and he was seated he kept sneaking glances at Maryellen and one time she even shyly smiled back at him, sending a shiver through his body. This activity ended when the butler came and filled the wine glasses. Then the servants brought the hot venison steaks and put the steaming plates in front of them.
Johnathan picked up the knife and fork and promptly lost his grip on the fork which fell to the table with a clatter. He felt like a fool and he hated that feeling. He especially disliked cutting up his meat as the knife and fork didn’t really fit his paws.
He caught the disgusted look from Sir Rathbone and it made him want to use the man as a polishing rag for the floor flagstones.
He didn’t really want to look over at his lady guest and see her look of disdain for his clumsiness. He was sure she would be turned off now.
When he finally steeled himself to look he saw to his amazement that his guest had picked up her steak in her hands and had taken a bloody bite out of it. She was chewing happily away.
Sir Rathbone was staring open mouthed with his fork in his steak and his knife poised to cut.
Johnathan suddenly felt a debt of gratitude to Maryellen as by her actions she had just given him permission to do the same. He didn’t know that mermaids never used forks and spoons and used knives only occasionally. Maryellen was just doing what she would’ve done if she were at home.
As his cousin Elliot and Sir Rathbone watched open mouthed he imitated what his guest was doing, taking his own steak up in his paws and taking a great big bite. “Dig in.” He growled around the mouthful of steak. “It tastes damned good.”
Cousin Elliot watched the two eat for a moment. If Johnathan’s mother, the Queen, had been here she knew the woman would have been apoplectic with offended rage just as Sir Rathbone appeared to be. But Elliot had only sympathy for her cousin and his struggles. To the blazes with the Queen’s dignity. She wasn’t even here.
She put her knife and fork away, picked up her own steak in her hands and joined them. She was very impressed with the way their guest had relieved her cousin of embarrassment.
Sir Rathbone muttered angrily. “Is this a mad house?”
Johnathan glared at him. “What did you say?” There was tension running through his body. The Beast was ready to strike.
Sir Rathbone looked away. “Nothing, Sire”
“Good. Then eat.” The Beast commanded just before he bit a huge bloody piece out of his steak.
Sir Rathbone savagely attacked his steak for a moment with the fork and knife and then used his fingers to pick up and put the pieces into his mouth.
“Why aren’t you using your teeth to tear up the meat?” Growled the Beast.
Sir Rathbone looked down in embarrassment. Finally seeing that was not going to be a refuge he looked up at his host. “Begging your pardon, Sire, but I can’t bite and tear as I lost my lower teeth during my first combat.” He opened his mouth, showing he was wearing a lower set of very finely carved wooden teeth.
“Oh.” The Beast replied. That was a damn good reason. “Carry on.”
The venison steaks were finished in silence.
This left the butler the only one staring with open mouth. His mouth stayed open as they treated potatoes and ears of corn the same way. As he watched, he was glad the cook had decided to not serve soup.
Finally he shut his mouth and turned to the servants. “Forget the cooked pie. We’ll have fresh apples tonight.” The servants nodded and hurried to obey. They were glad that the butler was at least adaptable.
Johnathan couldn’t remember the last time he’d really enjoyed eating dinner with guests so much. It had to have been before he’d been cursed. It was especially nice to hear a female voice even if it was his Cousin Elliot and to have a non-relative female guest who wasn’t repulsed by him and whose smiles made his heart skip.
Even Sir Rathbone had thawed a little and in the after dinner conversation had offered some very succinct observations on the latest war between the English and the Russians over the Balkans.
He disliked the man but that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate intelligent suggestions from him. He even told him so which distinctly surprised the knight so much that he sputtered into his glass of wine before he actually thawed enough to give him a feeble smile.
Finally Johnathan bid them all good night and as it was growing dark he headed up to his rooms. As he climbed up the staircase his Chamberlain Richards joined him to help him get ready for his night’s rest.
The turtle-like man was so full of enthusiasm about the new girl and the interaction between the two of them that he was practically gushing. “Oh, Young Master, I think that the lovely Lady Maryellen could be the one to break your curse. She may be the one to fall in love with you and for you to fall in love with her. You could be human again.”
Johnathan sighed wearily. For a delirious moment of happiness he had thought the same thing. But then he’d recalled the Sidhe witch’s proclamation as to how the curse could be broken. “I’m afraid, Richards, that she’s not the one to break the curse.”
Richards was one of the few he could discuss the curse freely with since he had been there when the Sidhe witch had cast the spell and so no barriers existed between the two of them as far as any discussion of the curse was concerned.
Richards sputtered as he stopped on the stairs to turn and face his master. “I, I, I don’t understand, Young Master. It appears she could grow to love you and if you love her then you’ll be free.”
Johnathan nodded sadly. “Yes. Between the two of us love is very possible, but you’re forgetting one very important thing, my old friend.”
Richards looked puzzled. “And what is that, Young Master?” He said as he wrung his hands nervously together.
Johnathan sighed. People so often recalled only what they wanted to remember. “Don’t you remember what the Sidhe witch proclaimed before she departed?”
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Johnathan could remember every painful word the witch had uttered as she stood over him where he lay on the ground twisted from the agony of his change. He could never forget them.
The witch had proclaimed. “I have cursed you so that you will experience the derision that you in your turn have heaped so cruelly on others for their outward appearances. Three conditions must be met before the curse can be lifted.”
“In the first you must truly be sorry and repent your cruelties, becoming a better person. Second, you must meet a girl and fall in love with her and she must love you in spite of your outer appearance.
“But it is not enough for her to feel for you in her heart. For the curse to be lifted she must proclaim aloud her true love for you. Only when you hear her the words from her lips ‘I love you’ will the curse be lifted.’ But there is a limited time in which these things must happen.”
“You will have only four years to meet all these conditions. For if you have not met them, then you will be doomed to remain a beast for the rest of your life.” At that point the Sidhe witch had vanished.
Richards’ face fell as his enthusiasm bled away. “I see, Young master. Lady Maryellen is mute and being so she can never speak to lift the curse.” He sighed sadly. “She could never say the words even if she did love you and you loved her.”
“Which is why I must guard my heart around her.” Johnathan told him as he started back up the stairs. “For if I love someone else other than the one who can break the spell, then the curse will never be lifted.”
Richards felt sorrow for his young master as he continued up the stairs behind him. The wizard Garland had told him and the other servants that Lady Maryellen was also cursed and part of the magic binding his master.
He wondered if maybe she had been put here by the Sidhe to torment the young master by tantalizing him and showing him what the poor man could never have. He shook his head sadly. The dark fairy folk called the Sidhe were certainly proving they intended to live up to their reputation for malicious cruelty to everyone who encountered them.
If Lady Maryellen had also been cursed by the Sidhe, Richards determined that he would pray for both her and the young master tonight to defeat the curses placed on them.
In her assigned room Maryellen at first found it strange to have to put on clothing and throw a blanket over herself so that she could lie down to sleep. This was because mermaids just floated on their beds which consisted of piles of sand with a restraining framework of tied together seaweed strands which kept them from drifting away with the current.
But as the nighttime temperature fell she found that close fitting clothing kept in the heat and combined with the blanket helped to keep her warm. Humans were proving to be more intelligent than she had ever realized. She slept well until Tillie awoke her the following morning
When she got up she learned about the use of chamber pots and wiping paper. After being cleaned and dressed by Tillie she was served a plate with bacon and eggs with toast before Tillie left to get her hopefully finished dresses from the seamstress.
Maryellen stared at the strips of what appeared to be cooked meat and the round white circles with yellow centers. What was she being served and how did she eat it? She’d never seen its like before under the sea.
She knew from hearing Sir Rathbone’s mutterings last night that she had made a mess out of eating. She now knew that she was supposed to use tools called silverware to eat with.
She looked at the fork and knife and wondered what she should do with them. How was she supposed to hold them?
She took the fork with its sharp tines and experimentally poked them into one of the white things with their yellow centers. Immediately a yellow liquid ran out across the white surface and began to pool on the plate. Great. Now she couldn’t even pick up the object with her fingers and eat it like she wanted to do.
“Hi, I’m back.” A friendly voice said in her ear.
She turned her head and saw the saucy little fairy Thistledown floating right in front of her face. She took up her slate and chalk and wrote on the slate. She held up her slate and pointed at her plate with the food on it. What do I do with this?
“You eat it.” The fairy replied with a frown. “What else do you do with bacon, eggs, and toast?”
Maryellen rolled her eyes. Well at least she had a name for this meal. Sometimes her fairy friend couldn’t see the obvious. She wrote. How do I use these? She put down the slate and held up the knife and fork.
“Oops.” The fairy declared as she had the grace to blush.
Thistledown had never realized what being a magic helper in a fairytale could require her to do. In all the fairytales she’d ever worked with like Cinderella the fairy godmother just had to appear at the appropriate dramatic moment, smile, wave her wand and everything was done. Problem solved.
Apparently in this fairytale this wasn’t going to happen. It seemed that being the fairy godmother here meant she had to really help instead of just being a walk-on part.
She wondered if maybe the fairy godmother in Cinderella had subcontracted the rest of the job to the magic mice and birds who always seemed to be hanging around and helping Cinderella. It would be nice if she could do something like that but apparently that wasn’t going to happen here anytime soon as there was a terrible shortage of mice with clothing and birds with scarfs.
With a sigh Thistledown explained to Maryellen what this breakfast consisted of. “The red strips are called bacon which were cut from the backsides of a pig and cured in smoke. The white objects with yellow centers are called sunny side up eggs and the eggs were collected from a semi-flightless bird called a chicken and the eggs were broken and fried in the bacon grease.”
The toast took a lot more explanation as Maryellen had no frame of reference as to what bread was and how it was made.
Thistledown decided not to tell Maryellen about the bugs and worms chickens ate to produce their eggs. She wisely thought that a description of a thing like that wouldn’t help Maryellen’s appetite any.
She then showed her charge how to use the fork to eat the bacon and eggs. The knife was used to butter the toasted bread which was made from ground up grain. The toast was then used to soak up the yolk which was smeared across the china plate.
With her encouragement Maryellen managed to eat breakfast which she found to be an adventure in itself as she chased the yolk around the plate with the toast.
Then Tillie came back in to clear away the dishes. When Thistledown didn’t bother hiding, Maryellen tensed, waiting for the maid to cry out when she saw the fairy sitting on one of the plates and very happily nibbling away on a small piece of toast which she had dipped in the left-over yolk.
But Tillie apparently didn’t even notice the fairy who flew up to hover over the table and she almost hit her with her hand as she picked up the plate. Thistledown just floated there, smiling and humming to herself.
Tillie asked her. “Would Milady like to do some sewing and take some tea in the solarium this beautiful morning?”
Maryellen looked at the fairy and shrugged trying to get the fairy to give her an answer.
Thistledown realized that although she had observed women sewing before that as a fairy she had never sewn and knew nothing about it. It would be best to avoid this activity.
“Tell her you’d rather read.” She suggested in a whisper.
When she showed Tillie the slate with this message on it, the maid gave her a strange look as that was not an activity indulged in by many noble-born women let alone commoners but she didn’t say anything as she led her to the library. Once there Tillie asked her, indicating a sofa chair. “Is this suitable?”
Maryellen looked around in fascination at the walls lined with books and their shelves and the cases filled with books. Perfect. She wrote on the slate and then looked around again in awe. Never had she seen so many books in one place before.
As a princess she had been taught to read and her books existed only b
ecause her Father’s magic could preserve them under water. But this act of preservation took lots of magic energy and her personal library had been very small, consisting of only about ten books. There had to be hundreds of books here and seeing that incredible number of books in one place just stunned her. How much magic had been expended to preserve so many beautiful books?
She walked around the room running her fingers over the spines of the books and reading the strange titles to herself. Joseph the Record Keeper kept in the background and let her look for a while before he came up and asked. “My Lady, can I be of assistance?”
With the use of her slate and his help she picked out several books on human history and culture and settled down in the comfortable chair to learn what she could about the people who she was now a member of.
The fairy hovered just over her shoulder. “Before you ask let me say that only you can see and hear me.”
Maryellen sighed and reached out her hand with the palm up. The fairy lighted there and waited with a puzzled look on her face. Maryellen leaned over and gently kissed the fairy on her forehead.
The fairy blushed. She hugged Maryellen’s thumb. “I know what you’re trying to say and I return your feelings whole heartedly. You’ll always be my best friend and we’ll see this through to the end.”
About nine that morning Maryellen had an unexpected visitor. It was the Prince himself, returning some books. He raised an eyebrow as he took her in, sitting there in her chair with a book in her hands and reading.
“Did you find the books on mermaids useful, Sire?” Joseph asked as he took them from the Prince.
Maryellen almost leaped out of her chair on hearing this and she stared intently at Johnathan willing him to remember who she was.
“I don’t recall why I even asked for them.” Johnathan replied with a shake of his head.
He turned and stopped to stare at his guest sitting there with books piled on the table beside her chair.
She started to get up but he held his hand up, signaling that she should remain seated. “Good morning, Milady.” He said. “What are you reading?”