The Fairy Tale of Quinn

I paced back and forth. It was obvious to both my mother and King Richard that I was annoyed. I stopped and glared, trying again.

“We both agree we do not want to wed. I don’t see the problem in just letting us be.” I tried again. King Richard had been quiet throughout this entire ordeal, but my mother had not.

“Alex, no. We have already explained to you. You two being wed would unite our two kingdoms. It would make us bigger, and our country might evolve into the next superpower.” She had told me this story about one hundred times. Sure I love my people and want whats best for them, but me ruling with a bitch would not be what's best for them.

“This is ridiculous.” I muttered. My mom sighed dramatically.

“Princess Quinn is taking this so much better than you.” She practically hissed at me. This is where King Richard stepped in.

“Princess Quinn is taking this so much better because the only contact I have allowed her with men are at gala’s, and the men who work here. She hasn’t been allowed to fornicate with others.” I could tell he was angry. He words confused me though. Had she really only been around the men who worked here? What a shitty life that must have been. Her father did seem strict though, even I could sense his displeasure at her dress last night. I didn’t know why, but I think I do now.

“Richard, we agreed since I hadn’t held up my end with reigning him in, they would live here to rule.” She snapped back. I had already heard that I was going to be living here. I just learned why.

The door creaked open and Quinn walked in. Her dark hair was tied into a braid, and she reeked of dirt and horses. She had a bowl of what looked like yellow noodles and was humming ‘Say it ain’t so’ by Weezer. She was scrolling through her ipod. When she looked up, she jumped. She pulled our her headphones.

“Um, sorry. I was just going to my room.” She said. She tucked her head down and started walking quickly past us.

“Quinn.” King Richards booming voice would have made me jump out of my skin if it was me he was addressing. She slowly turned around.

“Yes father.” He looked completely annoyed.

“What did I say about those jeans.” Again I was confused. “Go put on a nice dress. If I catch you in them again I’ll be sending Helena to remove them all from your wardrobe. They make you look like a slut.” My eyes about popped out of my head. I looked over to Quinn, but her eyes just looked dead.

“Yes father.” She said quietly. “May I be excused?” I would never have put up with that. Then again, a king had never called me a slut.

“And for gods sake, take a shower. You are disgusting. You may go.” She nodded and put her headphones back in, leaving.

“That was ridiculous.” I stated, directly at him. His eyes narrowed on me.

“We are done here.” He was using that booming voice again, It was truly terrifying. No wonder he is such a great king. His people were terrified. “You are to wed my daughter in six months on her twenty first birthday, so get used to it. Leave.” He stood and walked out, my mother followed. Suddenly I was alone, and I knew exactly where I wanted to be.

I didn’t bother knocking on her door. If I couldn’t yell at him for treating her like a dog, I would yell at her for letting him. I walked in and was instantly shocked. I guess I had always imagined her room elegant, like the rest of the castle. Her room was instead, badass. Her bed had red silk sheets with a black comforter. It was unmade. He had band posters around of bands I had never heard of, and even though there wasn’t music playing I couldn’t help but notice the speaker system around the top of her ceiling. Music could get loud in here.

I heard the sound of a piano, and walked around the corner. She didn’t know I was here, but I could see the back of her. She was playing softly, I could tell that she wasn’t just playing to play. She was playing because she needed to comfort of it. Her headphones were still in, I assumed that she was playing along with her headphones.

She started singing, and my breath caught in my throat. She didn’t sound like she was trying, but her voice was beautiful. Her words were heavy with emotion. She wasn’t singing because he loved singing, she was singing because she couldn’t go punch her father in the throat.

“Wow.” I said aloud, not thinking about it. She instantly spun around, eyes wide. I noticed her eyes were red, as if she were crying only moments before.

“What the hell! Heard of knocking!” She screeched. She quickly grabbed a hoodie and pulled it on. She was wearing a tank top. I had seen women in much less, but with how she was raised I knew that she probably was uncomfortable.

“Yeah, I have heard of it. I don’t really like doing it though.” I said cockily. She shot me a glare. Although I most definitely didn’t want to marry her, I couldn’t deny that she was hot as hell. I was definitely going to bed her before we left. She grunted and rolled her eyes. “So what the hell was that?” I cut to the chase.

“Uh it was Coldplay.” She knew that wasn’t what I meant. I shot her a glare. “Look, he may be my father but it has been made clear to me my entire life that he is above all, my king. My king told me how it is, so that is how it is. If it wasn’t for the fact I was promised to you, I’m pretty sure he would have married me off the day I turned sixteen, to get rid of me.” She rushed out. She rubbed her eyes, they probably stung if she had just been crying.

“You shouldn’t let him treat you like that.” I argued. She rolled her eyes.

“What do you suggest I do then? I am a woman. I have no say.” She said blatantly. She got up off of the piano bench and started walking towards the couches. I followed.

“Make him listen to you!” I yelled. She scoffed.

“Remember about 5 years ago when slavery was abolished? That was me, trying to get my dad to like me again. My mom had just died, he wasn’t talking to me. I came up with the schematics, showed him how it would decrease unemployment rates, decrease poverty. He told me it was an idiotic idea, and that because I was a women that I should be out with the other women, picking out a dress for our next gala.Told me if I spoke out of turn again, he would have me confined to my room. Well I did speak out of turn again and he made me stay in my room for a bit over three weeks. The entire time I watched him holding press conferences, taking my idea of abolishing slavery and claiming it at his own. He even used the numbers that I gave him.” I could tell as she continued through her story, she was becoming more angry.

If my father had done that to me, I would be angry too.

“Look. If we can’t get out of this and we do end up getting married, I promise I will give you more of a say when it comes to things like ruling.” I could at least give her that.

“Thanks but no offence, I don’t want to get married. Even if by some crazy miracle I actually grew to love you” Ouch. “I’m too young. I imagined I would be studying cultural anthropology. Instead I’m stuck here, taking my generals through a tutor when I can find the time.” She sounded so.. defeated. There was a knock on her door. She went to open it and her face instantly lit up. “Eugine! What brings you here.” She stepped aside and the man I had met last night stepped in. He looked stiff and professional.

“The stable master has requested a meeting with you. I normally would refuse, but he had insisted that I at least ask for him.” His voice sounded firm and stiff, but it didn’t seem to bother Quinn because her face lit up even more.

“Of course I want to see Nathan! Make sure Brett is there too. I don’t know what he does, but his full name is Brett Sinclair.” She said happily. Maybe her dad didn’t know what he was talking about, although he had said that they had male servants.

“As you wish Lady Quinn.” She was smiling.

“Can you have them come up tonight? Around nine?” She said. Eugine just nodded and left. I smirked, although the thought of her bedding another man just didn’t sit right with me.

“Your boyfriends?” I joked, part of me hoped she would say no. She just laughed.

“Remember the servant who dumped his dinner on me? Thats Brett. Nathan is our new stable master, he didn’t know who I was so my day was quite enjoyable as a normal girl for a few hours.” She smiled. “I just met the boys, so no they aren't my boyfriends. Plus I’m engaged, remember?” She joked. I thought to Natalie, my girlfriend. She still didn’t know about Quinn, I couldn’t figure out how to tell her.

“Have you ever had a boyfriend?” I asked curiously. She automatically blushed.

“No. I've been courted, or boys have attempted to court me but my dad is a bit protective.” I could tell it was an uncomfortable subject. She smirked a bit. “There was once a boy I grew fond of, but he was just a normal boy. He didn’t know I was a princess until I told him it would never work between us because he was a normal boy.” She smiled a bit, but covered it up.

We had spent the next few hours thinking of ways to get out of the marriage. The only one that we thought of that was remotely possible was that if Richard had gotten another woman pregnant, and she was to bare a son. The only problem with that is the fact that he was careful with his mistresses. Plus, that would mean that Quinn wouldn’t get the throne. Soon, there was a knock at the door. Quinn checked the time on her phone, smiled and opened the door.

Two boys came tumbling in. They both had long blonde hair and bright eyes. One hair his hair pulled back into a ponytail while the other had his combed back into a flow. Their faces were extremely similar, but there were enough differences to tell them apart.

“Princess Quinn.” One of them bowed to her, she looked completely confused. The other one gave her a goofy smile.

“Hey Quinn.” He instantly walked past her and plopped down on the couch next to me. “Hey, are you her boyfriend or something?” He asked. Was this guy serious? Did he not know who I was? I looked over to Quinn who was obviously amused.

“Alex, meet Nathan” She gestured to the one who was still bowing a to her. “And Brett.” She gestured to the one who was sitting next to me.

“I’m so sorry about today, please don’t fire me.” Nathan said. She looked confused. She turned to Brett, but Brett just shrugged.

“Why are you apologizing again?” She asked slowly. He looked up at her, horror in his eyes.

“I made the princess shovel hundreds of pounds of horse shit, and then I rode her horse!” He exclaimed. Was he serious? She just laughed.

“Nathan, if I didn’t want to shovel horse shit I would have just said ‘no, I’m the princess now get the hell off of my horse’ but the fact is I didn’t mind. I like helping, I like working with the horses.” She stated. I watched her as she stood there smiling. He didn’t look very comfortable.

“Princess, I would like to formally apologize for anything offensive I might have said.” I was curious now. I wish I could hear what my servants said behind my back.

“What did you say to her?” I asked hesitantly. Nathan looked completely embarrassed. Brett cut in.

“First, he told her that she had named her horse a dumb name. Then, he called her ugly.” I shot Nathan a glare. One, you are an idiot to ever call any girl ugly. Two, Quinn was far from ugly. Instead of being mad, Quinn just laughed.

“Nathan, you are beating yourself up over nothing. You said the princess would be ugly in comparison to me. Well I am the princess. But you are wrong about Quark. Quark is a brilliant name. Now loosen up and take a seat. Its not like I’m going to fire you.” I would have fired him, but I chose to keep my mouth shut. Nathan didn’t say anything. Quinn let out an annoyed sigh and pulled out her phone calling someone. “Eugine, can you send up Matty? Thanks.” She hung up.

“Who’s Matty?” I found myself asking. For only seeing the male help, she seemed to know them all pretty well. Ben, Nathan, Brett, Eugine, now Matty?

“He is an old friend.” She smirked. A couple minutes later, there was a knock at the door. She let a boy walk in. The boy looked to be a couple years older than her, maybe my age. He had dark brown hair that was messy and stubble. His eyes were bright green, hard to miss. He looked confused.

“Quinn, what's going on?” She rolled her eyes.

“New boy. He thinks he should be all apologetic or whatever. Tell him your story.” He smiled instantly.

“She totally got you didn’t she?” Nathan stayed quiet, but Brett was smiling wide. “When I came here a couple years ago, Quinn somehow managed to convince me that she was a wedding planner, and she was here to plan Princess Quinn’s marriage to ‘some pompous asshole’, If I remember correctly.” He looked right at me and blushed, I knew I was the pompous asshole she was referring to. “You are lucky to found out right away. She went along with being Jenny for almost two weeks before her dad caught her. I was falling all over myself I liked her so much. Of course after I found out I was shocked that I didn’t put it together before. I mean look at her! You don’t look that good, and live in a place like this, unless you are a royal. Or me.” She laughed at Matty’s story. She quickly wrapped him up in a hug.

“Moral of the story, don’t feel bad. And please, call me Quinn.” Quinn said happily. Nathan nodded.

“Okay Quinn.” Those seemed to be the magic words.

“Is that all boys? Because I am in the middle of something with Prince Alexander right now. Can I talk to you tomorrow at the stables?” Nathan nodded, and offered her a small wave. He looked like he was about to throw up. Brett leaned closer to me. He reeked of ranch.

“Use protection man.” Brett whispered, giving me a thumbs up. I smirked and nodded. I loved the idea of people thinking I was bedding her. Now I just needed to actually bed her.

Both men left the room, Matty following. Eugine knocked on her door seconds later.

“You are both needed in the throne room.”