From Bella's diary
Once upon a time, there was a princess called Cathy. When she turned sixteen she gained independence and declared she would get married.
‘But there are lots of horrible men out in the world beyond our moor!’ cried her father. ‘Stay here with me and the queen and we will keep you safe.’
But princess Cathy was adamant. She put out a notice in the kingdom declaring that she had set up a bed in the castle, and whoever could slept the night there could ask for her hand in marriage.
Each night a young prince would arrive at the castle gates. The princess would spend the evening with them, eating and chatting, and then she would show them to their bed-chamber. She was always amused to see their faces when they beheld the bed.
‘Why there must be a hundred mattresses there!’ would say the prince. Princess Cathy would smile as she led them to the ladder.
‘101,’ she would say, winking. ‘1 extra for luck.’
And then she would leave the young prince to climb the latter to his sleeping quarters and retire to her own bed.
Over breakfast, in the morning she would ask him how he slept.
‘Like a baby!’ he would say, before getting down on one knee and asking for her hand. Princess Cathy would smile and politely refuse.
This went on for weeks, with prince after prince coming and slumbering in the amazing bed.
‘How did you sleep?’
‘Like a child!’
‘How did you sleep?’
‘Like I was in the arms of Morpheus himself!’
How did you sleep?’
‘Like the true prince I am!’
‘Marry me! Marry me! Marry me!’
‘No.’
She turned them all down.
One stormy night a raggedy girl arrived at the castle gates. She had no shawl and her dress was torn. She begged to be put up for the night as she had nowhere else to go.
‘Can you not go to your parents?’ said the king kindly, but the girl just stared at him and shook her head.
‘The poor girl is half-starved and petrified,’ said the queen.
Princess Cathy took her by the hand and led her to her chambers. She bathed her and gave her a nightgown. She fed her and took her to the special bedroom. When the girl saw the bed with a hundred and one mattresses her mouth dropped open.
‘That’s magnificent! She cried, climbing up the ladder.
‘Sleep well,’ smiled the princess and retired to her own bed.
In the morning when she walked in she found that the girl had kicked the ladder away and was stranded at the top, looking out over the side.
The poor girl must have pushed it away in her sleep, thought Cathy, picking it up and placing it against the bed.
The girl climbed down and curtseyed. Her eyes were bruised from lack of sleep with dark bags under them.
‘Did you not rest well?’ asked princess Cathy.
‘Sorry my lady, but I am never comfortable in a bed. I do not sleep well.’
‘But this bed has a hundred and one mattresses! It is the most comfortable bed in the world!
‘Never the less, I was not comfortable. I was awake most of the night.’
Princess Cathy smiled and beckoned the girl to the edge of the bed. She slid her hand under the bottom mattress and pulled out a pea.
‘I have waited many weeks to find someone who can feel a pea through a hundred and one mattresses!’
The girl looked seriously at the princess.
‘Who’s pea is that?’ she said.
‘Mine,’ said the princess, feeling her heartbeat in her chest. The girl stared at her then took her hand and led her around to the other side of the bed. Reaching under the bottom mattress she pulled out another pea.
‘This is mine,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter whether it is one mattress or a thousand. Somewhere in me I will always feel the discomfort.
Princess Cathy nodded but all she said was:
‘Why do you want to feel the discomfort?’
‘Because I want to stay awake. Because when you are asleep then that is when the monsters come. When did you get your pea?’
Princess Cathy felt a single tear roll down her cheek.
‘When I was eleven,’ she said.
‘I got mine when I was thirteen,’ said the girl.
The two girls embraced. When the queen came in Cathy told her that she had found her one true love.
‘But she’s a girl!’ cried the queen. ‘What will your father say?’
Princess Cathy nodded and the girl showed her the pea.
‘She’s the same as me, and the king no longer has any say in what I do.’
And the queen looked down in shame. The princess and the girl were married and banished the king and queen from their queendom and they lived happily ever after.
