The king and queen of the realm have seven children, and you are the youngest. You always felt your presence there was insignificant, so one night, you and your girlfriend left without telling anyone. Six months later, your entire family shows up at your doorstep, looking for you.
It was the best decision of her life. Leaving the castle wasn't so difficult once the sun set and the servants retired to their chambers to rest. Only a friendly guard saw her. He was keeping watch in the garden that night, making sure her passage was clear by pretending to hear something closer to the fountain. Just as he had promised her.
She tried not to think back to that night because it didn't matter anyway. Her parents spent their days fulfilling royal duties or ensuring her siblings had a future worthy of royalty.But she always slipped out of the equation by accident. "Out of sight, out of mind," as her nanny once told her, and that saying has stuck with her even now. While she lives with the herbalist's daughter, learning her craft during the day and sharing sweet words and warm affections at night. When she and Marianna tended the garden next to their cottage on the edge of the farthest village and when they walked through the forest picking herbs, mushrooms and berries. Especially now, as she stood by the open door, wiping her hands in her flour-stained apron. They were kneading bread together when the knocking sounded.
The king was standing at the door.
King.
Her father.
Behind him, the rest of her family poured out of the gilded carriage. Two brothers, four sisters, and her mother. She was speechless and unsure how to respond. Should she let them in? Should she shut the door in their faces? Should she pretend to be a peasant, hoping that the last six months spent away from their sight would prevent them from recognizing her in peasant clothes?
"Honey, who is it?" Marianna called from the other side of the cottage, too busy kneading bread to turn around. Her words took her out of her train of thought.
"Can I help you?" The princess asked, having regained her voice, looking at the newcomers with a mixture of surprise and disapproval. "If you're looking for a herbalist, she moved two villages north to be closer to rare herbs."
"Izabela... Is that really you?" her mother asked, taking a step closer to the door, standing directly next to her father. Now even Marianna turned at the commotion and looked at her partner questioningly.
"I'm sorry, but we're a bit busy, is it urgent?" She asked sharply.
Her mother looked at her with a frown. "Of course! We've come to free you!"
"Free me? From what?" She raised an eyebrow.
"From the hands of the cruel people who kidnapped you!" cried Antoni, her eldest brother, who passed their parents in the doorway and took her face in his hands.
She pushed his hands away and took a step back to regain her personal space. "Really cute and all, but no one kidnapped me. I ran away. Didn't you feel the note I left?"
"The witch helped us decipher your cry for help," explained the mother. "And now we have all come to take you home with us! The candidates for your husband are already waiting for you in the castle."
"A witch?" the princess asked flatly, folding her arms. "The same old woman who's been scamming you for money for several years now? That witch?"
"She doesn't..." Father began, but the girl interrupted him.
"The same old woman who convinced the King of the neighboring lands to take her son as a nobleman and then send him to flirt with princesses at balls and rob castles? The one I warned you about countless times?"
"It's just gossip," the mother said defensively.
"Wait a minute, isn't Sir Victor one of the sutors?" Alice, the king's third daughter, asked, connecting the dots.
The family looked at each other in silence.
"Go back to the castle before they rob you," the girl sighed heavily, "and leave me and my girlfriend alone," and she closed the door behind her, leaving the royal family at the door.
