***
“Spoiled little snip!” Mildred grumbled in resentment as she guided Evelyn and Alice back to the kitchen to complete breakfast preparations. She charged away, waddling as fast as her short, stout legs could carry her round, plump body from the royal bedchamber, lest Rose summoned them back to verbally accost them again.
“You shouldn’t say such things about the Princess, Miss Mildred,” scolded Evelyn, shaking her head in disapproval.
“I know,” admitted Mildred, with a disheartened sigh. “But I speak the truth.”
“No, you are not,” corrected Alice, still attempting to shake off the royal treatment dispensed by the Princess. The tall, thin woman stared down her long, narrow nose to gaze at Mildred. “If you were speaking the truth, you would be calling the Princess a spoiled rotten, ungrateful, insensitive brat who only knows how to bully and manipulate those around her, family included, to get her way!”
“Now, now, Miss Alice, I believe you’re exaggerating!” declared Evelyn. “I know the Princess can be demanding at times, but she is young, after all.”
“Don’t you go making excuses for the Princess! With each passing year she becomes more impertinent, ruder than rude and – and –,” stammered Mildred, trembling with anger as she searched for all the proper adjectives to describe the Princess. “And more!”
“You’re her same age, Evelyn, but you have enough sense to treat others with decency,” explained Alice. “You would think with her upbringing and privileged lifestyle, the Princess would be the very definition of diplomacy and civility. There are times when I cannot believe she is her mother’s daughter!”
“That is rather harsh,” responded Evelyn, cringing under Alice’s sharp, unforgiving tone.
“You are relatively new to the palace staff, my dear girl,” reminded Alice, patting Evelyn sympathetically on her shoulder. “However, if this is your mindset where she is concerned, you will be considered gullible, foolish or both. You do not know the Princess as we do. Regrettably for us, we know her all too well.”
“True, you both have been in service much longer,” conceded Evelyn, “but it may very well be that Princess Rose has had a hard life nonetheless.”
Mildred and Alice stopped dead in their tracks. They stared wide-eyed with mouths agape as though the young girl’s innocent words were a rude slap to the face. This moment of stunned silence was followed by a burst of laughter as the older women slapped their knees, guffawing heartily.
“My dear, sweet Evelyn, are you mad?” snorted Mildred; her tearing eyes rolling in dismay. “The only thing that pampered Princess has ever experienced that was hard had been cold toast too lightly buttered!”
“Or a tasty dessert that sat in the icebox for too long, becoming hard with the cold to bother her royal sweet tooth,” scoffed Alice.
“You make Princess Rose sound so very spoiled.”
“She is spoiled!” exclaimed Alice and Mildred, in total agreement.
“And in your short time here, you have experienced only a small taste of her obnoxious behaviour,” warned Alice.
“But suppose her life has been hard in other ways,” reasoned Evelyn, still attempting to find some good in the Princess.
“Oh yes, being waited on hand and foot; having servants at her constant beck and call,” teased Mildred.
“Having her every whim catered to,” added Alice, her thin lips pursing together in annoyance as her pinched nostrils flared ever so slightly. “I only wish my life was even half as hard as that!”
“The Princess has all these things and more, but perhaps she is lacking in other areas of her life,” responded the kind-hearted Evelyn.
“The only thing she is lacking in is some good old-fashioned discipline!” grunted Mildred. “If the Princess was my daughter – ”
“Heaven forbid!” interjected Alice, grimacing at the very thought.
“As I was saying,” continued Mildred, her pudgy finger pressing against her plump lips as she considered Rose, “the young Princess would be learning some manners from me if she were my daughter.”
“Well, if you ask me, I would say she is lacking in a good dose of common sense,” decided Alice.
“There you go then! How can you be so hard on Princess Rose?” asked Evelyn, blinking innocently as she pondered this mystery.
“She makes it all too easy, my dear,” responded Mildred, as she and Alice burst into a fit of giggles as they rounded the corridor into the dining hall.
“Good morning, ladies,” greeted Queen Beatrice.
They jumped with a start, immediately recognizing the Queen’s voice.
“Good morning, Your Majesty!” All three offered their salutations as they respectfully bowed before her.
“You must be having a wonderful start to your day,” commented Beatrice. “You ladies are in such a jovial mood this morning.”
“We are?” responded Mildred, her eyes arching up in surprise at this remark.
“Yes, I heard laughter coming from down the corridor. Perhaps my ears deceived me, but I was certain it was you three.”
“You heard correctly, Your Majesty,” assured Alice, her sharp features becoming more accentuated as her face flushed with embarrassment.
“Lovely!” exclaimed Beatrice, as she nodded in approval. “It is wonderful to hear such joy so early in the day.”
“Wonderful, indeed,” agreed Mildred.
“However, I was certain you had been tending to my daughter,” said Beatrice, smiling politely as she studied the worried faces before her.
“That, we were,” admitted Alice.
All members of the domestic staff had a soft spot for Queen Beatrice and her husband, King William. They truly respected and honoured the royal couple, but the Princess, because of her demanding and forceful ways, only garnered respect because of her title. Out of love and loyalty to the monarchs, the staff felt compelled to downplay the Princess’ abrasive nature.
“Odd…” sighed the Queen. “I just know how difficult my daughter can be at times. She is not in the best of moods first thing in the morning.”
“Oh, not Princess Rose!” exclaimed Mildred, her pudgy, nails-chewed-to-the-quick fingers waving off the Queen’s concern as Beatrice headed to the breakfast table to wait for the King and Rose to join her. “Your daughter was not being difficult at all. She’s a royal charmer, she is!”
“A royal deadbeat is more like it.” Alice muttered beneath her breath as Evelyn’s brows discreetly knitted into a frown of disapproval.
“You were saying?” questioned Beatrice, staring over at Alice.
“It was nothing, Your Majesty,” replied Alice. “I was just saying your daughter is loyal and upbeat.”
“You are too kind, Alice.”
“Oh no, Your Majesty, not at all!” exclaimed Alice.
“Oh yes, and I do know what I speak of,” admitted Beatrice.
“Pardon me, Your Majesty, but may we be excused?” asked Mildred. “We were just on our way to complete breakfast preparations.”
“Of course, Mildred.” The Queen nodded in approval. “And please make sure you serve up a healthy portion of stewed prunes with my daughter’s breakfast.”
“I mean no disrespect, but are you sure of this, Your Majesty?” questioned Mildred. “The Princess always raises such a fuss when you make her eat prunes.”
“I am quite sure,” responded the Queen. “One day she will thank me for promoting healthy eating habits in her quest to stay regular.”
“Nothing wrong with that!” agreed Mildred, but she was more pleased the Princess would be forced to grovel, whine and fuss before finally being made to eat the dreaded prunes anyway. She curtsied once more before herding Alice and Evelyn to the kitchen.
And such was the daily routine in Pepperton Palace. As the demands of the day mounted, Princess Rose made sure to add to them.