Me, the Prince and His Lady's In Waiting

We arrived at the castle, much to my dismay, how weird does that sound? Anyway, my father walked me round the outskirts of the grounds to the entrance hall of the castle. Workers had to stay inconspicuous, y’see? “Can you take it from here, George? I really need to get to work.” My father was one of the castle’s 25 gardeners and was always physically drained from his duty, but he still loved his job. I don’t see why or how he could, to be honest. I know I sound like a sour, bitter person but I’m really not. I just despised the path my life had to take.

I sighed quietly. “Yes dad. I’ll see you later, ’kay?” He smiled sheepishly at me and gave me kiss on the cheek before trotting off into the direction we’d just come. I knew he felt guilty about me doing this job, but I felt I owed it to him more than I owed it to any family tradition or to any other person in the world.

When I was three months old, my mother died from a brain tumour. It was discovered when she was four months pregnant with me, it was revealed early and could have been cured. However, to cure her illness she would have had to endure courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, aswell as lots of scans and medication. When she was told that there was a large chance that this medication could harm me physically, mentally and could possibly kill me in the womb, my mother refused treatment. Without this treatment, the tumour would grow and there would be no way she would survive. My father had begged and begged her to reconsider her decision, not because he didn’t want to have me, but because he didn’t want to lose his wife, best friend and soul mate. She continued to refuse the treatment and admitted that she would eventually die, but at least she’d had a child and left an imprint of herself upon the earth with the man she loved and would always love. I was then born, as healthy as a baby could be, and my mother became extremely sick. For the last six weeks of her life she was unable to move and finally, when I was three months old, she passed away. From then on, it’s just been me and my dad. He halted his whole life to bring me up, doing all the jobs two parents would usually share between them. This is why I owe him so much, as well as my mother. Both of my parents gave up their lives to keep me safe, alive and to bring me up to be the beat possible person I could be.

At the door to the entrance hall, there were two guards of honour. I waited for them to tell me where to go, but they didn’t move. All they did was blink. What was I meant to do now? Just walk into the castle and wonder about? Or wait here even longer? I thought waiting outside would look suspicious, let alone stupid, so I proceeded to climb the flight of steps. Nobody stopped me, so I guessed this was okay? I entered the entrance hall where I was greeted by a snobby looking man in top hat and tails. He had olive coloured skin, dark hair, almost black and tiny, brown, piercing eyes. “You’re late.” He snapped. Yep, fits the stereotype perfectly. No I wasn’t late, if anything I was early! The cheek of him! Before I could speak, he strode off at a brisk walk. Was I meant to follow? I did anyway.

He stalked through a thick panelled wooden door, down a corridor, turned left and stopped outside another thick panelled wooden door. I huffed and puffed along after him, trying my hardest not to stumble over my two feet as I followed quickly behind him. “Your uniform and locker is in there. Get changed, you have 5 minutes. I’ll be out here waiting.” I nodded at him, though he looked away from me. Hmm, friendly! I hoped he wasn’t in charge of me. I opened the door, surprisingly light considering it was made of think planks of wood, and entered the room. I expected it to be dark and dingy, representations of stereotypical castles had taught me that, instead it was bright and airy.

Hanging outside an empty locker was a uniform with my name on a tag pinned to the front of it. I quickly undressed and dressed again in this outfit. There was a mirror that I went and checked myself out in. You have got to be kidding me! The reflection in the mirror was wearing black opaque tights, and black, high-heeled shoes and a black sort of puffy dress with a white apron on the front of it. It looked exactly like a stereotypical maid’s outfit, except not as slutty. The dress wasn’t too short, or too long, just above knee length. I didn’t look like a slut in the uniform, I just looked like a…maid?

I exited the room and came face to face with the same man again. He looked me up and down and said, “Take the pin off, silly girl! We do not walk around a castle, serving a royal family whilst wearing name tags!” Oops, the label I’d mistaken for a name tag was clearly just that, a label. I pulled it off and stowed it in my pocket. He stalked off again and I was obliged to follow. I wish he’d slow down, I was in heels now and couldn’t walk as steadily or fast as before. As well as this, it did no favours for my clumsiness either. I staggered along behind him, glad that he could not see me, as fast as I trusted myself to go without falling flat on my face or breaking my neck.
He led me down more corridors and through more doors, still not speaking. There was no way on earth I was going to find my way around here! We came to a rather large, grand looking door that had gold plating around it. The man turned round, ready to brief me on my job, I guessed. “My name is Gunther. I am the head of Royal Services here and consequently, in charge of you. As you can probably guess from your uniform, you are going to be a maid. You will be assigned many different tasks day to day, but your main job is to serve the east wing. The east wing is the smallest part of the castle. Although it is the smallest part of the castle, it is not small at all. It belongs to Prince Alexander and comprises of different rooms that Prince Alexander uses for all different reasons and occasions. This door here is the entrance to east wing.” Gunther continued to tell me about all the different locations in the castle, where to find them and what to do. He also told me where to find people I would most likely need help from. He told me that I had to meet him at the end of my day to report back. “Now, Ms Newton. You are to enter the east wing and you are to greet young Prince Alexander with a curtsey and brief introduction as to who you are. You are then to ask him for what he needs or wants, then you are to fulfil his requests. Do you understand?” I nodded, grimacing inside. Gunther began to retreat then back down the corridor. Bloody fantastic! I have to now spend however many more years of my life serving a young Prince. What was he, 8? Older? Younger? Spoilt brat, whoever he was. I thought to myself, sourly.

I braced my self to enter the wing. I opened the door and was faced with one more huge corridor. Oh you are kidding me! Not more! There was no way I was gonna be able to work here! Which door was I meant to go through, anyway? There were loads! I made my way to the first one and knocked timidly, no noise. Next I went to the second door, no answer This became a pattern up until the fifth door I knocked. There was a pause followed by a very bored voice, “Enter” it commanded. Here we go. This is where it all starts. I opened the door slowly and entered.