Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale

by Kristen Niedfeldt

  Her words trailed off into silence. She couldn’t bear the look of utter disappointment etched across her dear friend’s face.

  “I understand,” Albert murmured, bowing his head.

  Liesel closed her eyes in resignation. She had promised. He had saved her from a great deal of harm, and she owed him a favor in return.

  But when she opened her eyes, she scowled at Maria. It was her fault she was being put in such a terrible position right now. If Maria hadn’t crusaded through the marketplace wreaking havoc that fateful day, Liesel wouldn’t have ever had this obligation to stay any longer.

  She sighed. She would have to tell Prince Cornelius to return to Levenstein without her. As difficult as it was to make this decision, she was determined to be a woman of honor.

  Liesel cleared her throat and forced a smile. “I’m sorry, Albert. I just needed a moment to think everything through. Of course I will help your wife.”

  Albert visibly relaxed with relief and then turned toward Roderick. “You don’t have any objections?”

  Roderick folded his arms across his chest and smiled. “None at all.”

  Liesel wondered why he should look so pleased. She found his smug look to be quite annoying.

  Albert pushed himself to his feet. “Then that settles everything, I suppose.”

  He then started toward the door, but immediately turned back to address her. “Can you be at the kitchen at sunrise?”

  “At sunrise?” Liesel repeated, feeling panic rise within her. “Would it be alright if I arrived a little later? Just tomorrow?”

  Roderick looked at her in dubious surprise. “Do you have a prior engagement at that time?”

  “We all know how she likes to race the sun each morning …” Maria grumbled from the kitchen.

  Liesel put her hands on her hips and looked at each person in turn. “Actually, yes, I do have something I need to do at that time. I have a message I need to deliver.”

  She turned to face Albert fully and continued, “At most, I’ll be an hour late, but I’ll be there.”

  “That is a pity,” the old man replied, shaking his head. “The start of the day is the hardest for my wife …”

  Roderick quickly stepped forward to intervene. “Where do you have to deliver your message, Liesel?”

  “Here. Someone is coming here, and I said I would be here at sunrise.”

  “Who is coming here?” Roderick questioned.

  “That is not important. What is important is that I said I would deliver it at sunrise so that is what I must do.”

  Roderick waved toward his sister. “Can’t Maria deliver it?”

  “I beg your pardon!” Maria exclaimed.

  Roderick brushed his sister’s disdain aside. “Come Maria. Don’t look so put-upon. It’s just a message.”

  “No, thank you,” Liesel quickly asserted. “I think I need to convey this message myself.”

  Roderick nodded and turned to Albert. “It seems Liesel is determined to keep her appointment. Hopefully your wife will understand. But assure her that I’ll escort Liesel to the castle as quickly as possible after she is done delivering her message.”

  “Oh no, no, no,” Liesel responded. “That will be quite unnecessary.”

  “How else will you find your way to the kitchen?”

  “I’m sure I could eventually find it on my own,” she stubbornly proclaimed.

  “But if you’ll already be late, then you shouldn’t waste any more time than necessary,” Roderick pointed out. “I don’t mind at all. It’s the least I can do to help you keep your promise to Albert.”

  Liesel bit her lip as she considered her dilemma. She wanted to personally tell Prince Cornelius her change of plans, but she certainly had no desire to do so with Roderick standing nearby. The last thing she would ever want was for the two men to meet! But on the other hand, she detested the idea of entrusting a confidential message to Maria. That seemed like pure foolishness.

  She looked back at Roderick. She pictured him standing at her side as she told Prince Cornelius she couldn’t leave with him for two more weeks. Such a picture made her shudder. Somehow she knew that Roderick would more than slightly object to such a plan.

  And then she might never find another chance to leave …

  Finally, when she could no longer bear the weight of everyone’s eyes upon her, Liesel threw her hands in the air in defeat and exclaimed, “Fine. I’ll let Maria deliver my message.”

  Albert clasped his hands together in gratitude. “Thank you, Liesel. I can’t even express my relief. I’ll be off now so I can go tell my wife. She’s going to be thrilled.”

  Liesel leaned against the table and sighed as she listened to the door close behind the old man. Just when her future had seemed so bright with new hope, it had to be extinguished with more disappointment yet again.

  After Roderick bolted the door shut, he walked over to take the old man’s vacated seat. Leaning toward her, he reminded her, “Now what is it you wanted to talk to me about?”

  Liesel let out another growl and answered, “Nothing. It is of no importance anymore.”

  At least for two more weeks, she added silently.

  She then rose to her feet and began stomping off toward the other door.

  “Where are you going?” Roderick called after her.

  “Back to the barn. With such an early day to look forward to tomorrow, it is probably best if I retire.”

  “Are you sure you want to stay in the barn?”

  “Yes. I would rather stay there, if you don’t mind. You are more than welcome to my old place in here.”

  “Are you certain? What about the rats?”

  “You are mistaken, sir. I have looked and there are no rats in the barn. Just mice.” She then glanced toward Maria before finishing, “And those don’t frighten me anymore. Not one bit.”

  Without waiting for a reply, she quickly escaped into the crisp, night air and then leaned back against the closed door. She tried to steady her breaths as she attempted to regain her composure.

  “Two more weeks,” she whispered. “Just two more weeks.”

  She vowed she would not let anything keep her from leaving then.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I’m afraid I can’t pay you anything for your help, but here’s an old glass jar you can fill each day with scraps of food for you to take home for your supper,” Albert’s wife, Hilda, instructed after she had shown Liesel the layout of the castle’s great kitchen the next morning.

  Liesel cupped the empty jar and peered inside. Surprisingly, she found that she was actually more excited about this compensation than she would have been about any alternative monetary payment. After a week of eating stale bread and raw vegetables, her mouth watered at the mere thought of something soft and cooked. She inhaled a deep breath, smelling the rich aromas that were wafting about the kitchen. Palace food. How she had missed such smells!

  “Liesel, are you listening to me?” Hilda beckoned, snapping her fingers in front of her.

  “I’m sorry, yes,” Liesel replied, tucking the small jar away in one of the front pockets of her apron.

  “Then let’s have you start working in this room over here. You’ll be washing all of the supper plates. They’ve been put away for a long time in the lower corridors of the castle, so they’ll need a good cleaning.”

  Liesel followed Hilda into the small, stone room, and gazed at the towers of plates lining the perimeter. “How many plates are there?” she asked in awe.

  “A few have broken over time, so I’m not sure. But at one time, we had over two thousand.”

  Liesel eyed the piles of plates with trepidation. Where does one even start with such a task? At least she had two weeks, she reminded herself. She would need it.

  “Just let me know when you are all done, and I’ll have the servants fetch the spoons and goblets,” Hilda added.

  Liesel gulped. Her hands would surely fall off from so much scrubbing.

 
“Well, if you don’t have any more questions for me, then I’ll be returning to my own work,” Hilda stated as she turned to go back into the kitchen.

  “Actually, I do have one question for you,” Liesel said stepping forward, bringing Hilda’s steps to a halt. When the old woman turned to look at her again, Liesel cleared her throat and then timidly asked, “Do the … Do any of the royal family members ever venture into the kitchen?”

  “Into the kitchen?” Hilda repeated, as if she hadn’t heard correctly. She then laughed. “Why, wouldn’t that be quite the thing! Royalty in the kitchen …” She shook her head and then commented, “What a strange land you must have come from.”

  Liesel smiled, albeit a little sheepishly, to conceal her blush. She almost wished she hadn’t asked, but she had needed to know.

  After recovering from the initial disappointment of her changed plans the night before, she had been consumed with dread when she realized that if she helped Albert’s wife, she would be working in the kitchens of the Thrushbeard King. How she prayed she would never have to cross paths with him or any of his bearded sons!

  At least now she could take solace in the fact that the probability of that occurring was highly unlikely.

  “That is all I wanted to know,” Liesel finished with a shrug of her shoulders.

  Hilda shook her head and laughed again. “I’ll leave you to your work then. Oh, and let me know when you want the wash water refreshed.”

  Liesel looked around the tiny room again with a sigh. She had never seen so many plates in one place before.

  Sitting on the stool that had been provided, she rolled up her sleeves, and then began to scrub the dirt and dust off of the plates from the nearest stack.

  With no one to talk or listen to, her thoughts wandered about on their own while she worked. Light was beginning to stream more freely through the high windows up above, which made her thoughts turn to her missed meeting with Prince Cornelius that morning at sunrise. She still felt a sharp pang of regret that she had missed it. She was left to just pray Maria had delivered her message. And if she did, she prayed even more fervently that Prince Cornelius would return for her in two weeks like she had asked in her letter.

  As she dried a stack of plates and then carried them to the other side of the room, she thought about the coins she had deposited in the clay jar that morning before she had left with Roderick for the castle. She had thought he would have been surprised, or in the least impressed, by the pile of silver coins she had poured into the jar, but he had only mumbled that that reminded him of his own coins from his work at the castle. He had then proceeded to retrieve, not one, but two small bags filled with silver coins.

  Liesel shook her head. She should have been grateful to have more money to look forward to, but instead she was only annoyed to see Roderick looking so smug again.

  Men could be so maddening sometimes.

  A full week passed of long, silent hours for Liesel as she helped Hilda with a wide range of tasks in the kitchen. In addition to several odd chores, she had been tasked to wash not only the plates, goblets and spoons, but the vases, candlesticks, knives, and an endless supply of serving platters as well.

  This particular morning she found herself again in the small room, but fortunately, she no longer had anything left to scrub. Instead, she sat alone, folding a mountain of table linens while she listened to Hilda shout orders in the adjoining kitchen to the servants who were hauling in fresh vegetables from the market.

  “Liesel, can you please come help sort these vegetables?” Hilda called a few minutes later as she leaned in through the doorway. “The indolent servants mixed all of the peas and beets together and left it all for me in a giant mess.”

  Liesel quickly set the napkins on her lap aside and followed the elderly woman into the kitchen. There were heaps and heaps of vegetables scattered around the room.

  Liesel sighed. Moderation was apparently never embraced in King Thrushbeard’s castle.

  After about an hour of sorting all of the vegetables into their respective piles, Albert startled them as he entered through the back door of the kitchen.

  “Hello, Hilda,” he greeted with a quick kiss to his wife’s cheek.

  “What are you doing here?” Hilda questioned, notably surprised by his unexpected arrival.

  He set a bag on the counter. “You forgot your breakfast this morning, and I didn’t want you to have to go without.”

  “And you thought I’d starve in a kitchen?” she asked, amused.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t want to risk it.”

  Hilda chuckled and pinched his cheek affectionately.

  “It looks like no one will be starving at the ball, either,” Albert commented, observing the piles of food around the room.

  “Not if I can help it,” Hilda assured proudly.

  Hilda then pointed to a chair and instructed, “Since you are here, you should sit and wait a few minutes and you can taste the bread I’m making. I put it into the oven just a few minutes ago.”

  “Oh, that reminds me, dear. I was going to ask you if you meant for that bucket of milk to be left outside. I just saw it sitting out by the goats. Was it forgotten?”

  Hilda clenched her fists in frustration. “Ugh, the laziness of the servants these days! My absentminded helpers left a little while ago to purchase more food, and it appears they forgot to finish their chores before they scampered off.” She dusted off her hands and then declared, “I suppose I should go retrieve it before it spoils.”

  “Why don’t you let Liesel retrieve the milk?” Albert suggested. “After all this work in here, I’m sure she might like the fresh air.”

  Hilda turned to Liesel and asked, “Would you mind?”

  “Of course not,” Liesel replied, springing to her feet. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

  “No need to hurry so fast, right, Hilda?” Albert responded. “Liesel should enjoy the sunlight. It’s a beautiful day.”

  “I suppose she needn’t run,” Hilda answered. “But there is a fair amount of work to be done in here.”

  “I can help out until she returns,” Albert assured with a smile, waving for Liesel to exit the door. “There now, enjoy your stroll outside.”

  Liesel looked back over her shoulder again at the old man before she disappeared through the door and caught Albert still smiling at her. She was curious why he should be so happy for her to leave. She wondered if he might be trying to orchestrate some time to be alone with his wife. Or maybe he knew she would be missing the sunlight by now.

  Liesel shrugged her shoulders as she kicked a rock down the cobblestone path. There was no way to tell, but it didn’t really matter. She turned her face up to the sun, and relished the warmth that kissed her countenance. It was indeed a beautiful day! After a week of spending all of her time indoors, she was relieved to be outside once again.

  When she had almost reached the stables, she passed below several open windows that she reasoned must belong to the ballroom because of the musicians she could hear within practicing yet another song for the upcoming ball. She had heard traces of their rehearsals all morning, but being so close to the music now made it sound even more enchanting.

  Recognizing the tune, her feet ached to dance along to it once again, but she refrained. It would be too unseemly for a person of her station to make such a spectacle right there next to the castle. Moreover, she was uncertain if peasants in this land were even supposed to know such dances.

  But she decided she could at least hum along.

  As she approached the open door of the stables, she quickly spotted the pail in question tucked away just inside the entryway. She reached for the handle and was about to exit the stables to head back to the kitchen, but a strong hand reached out and stopped her.

  Her humming transformed into a piercing screech and she spun around to face the stranger, ready to throw what was left of the milk that had survived her surprise his way, but she stopped herself mid-swing.<
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  It was only Roderick.

  She exhaled a deep sigh and then pointed an accusing finger at him. “Don’t ever scare me again.”

  “I’m sorry. Scaring you was not my intention,” he apologized as he pulled the milk pail from her vice-like grasp and set it safely on the ground. “I only wanted to see you.”

  “Couldn’t you just see me this evening?”

  “I couldn’t wait,” he smiled.

  She regarded him suspiciously for a moment and then asked, “Did you ask Albert to send me outside?”

  Roderick’s smile grew. “He promised he could manage it.”

  “You two seem to have become fast friends.”

  “He’s a good man.”

  “It makes me nervous when my friends switch alliances …”

  “I’m certain he still has your best interests at heart.”

  “Hmmm,” Liesel replied, hardly convinced. “So what was so important that you had to arrange this secret meeting with me right now?”

  “I wanted to show you something, and I couldn’t wait.”

  “And you didn’t want Hilda to see?”

  “The kitchens can be a little chaotic sometimes and I didn’t want to have to vie for your attention.”

  “Well, what did you bring me?” she questioned, her curiosity piqued.

  He held up a finger. “Wait right here.”

  Roderick jogged to where he had tied his horse at the back of the stables and then immediately returned with a bag.

  “Open it,” he instructed, holding it out to her.

  After accepting the bag, she reached inside and then withdrew a small canvas about the size of her hand. She fingered the cream-colored canvas reverently and asked, “Where did you find this?”

  “The mistress of the farm where I’ve been laboring was going to discard it so I asked if I could take it. I am sorry it’s not bigger, but I thought since Maria told me that you have been painting and you have those paints in the barn …” …”