Alice POV

Unlike the cottage, which had been like a picture from Alice’s imagination, the princess did not look exactly as Alice had expected. No, she was much more beautiful than she had imagined, even covered in dirt and exhausted out of her wits.  She also acted differently than Alice had expected. Frankly, Alice wasn’t sure how the princess had managed to survive her journey from the palace. The novel had made her seem a lot more… self-possessed.  Not like someone who would just spit out her name to the first person she met while she was on the run. Aurum wasn’t exactly a common name. In fact, no one except members of the royal family could be named Aurum – it was considered a protected piece of royal heritage. Now that she had told Alice her name, all Alice could do was pretend to be incredibly ignorant. So ignorant that the princess really should find it suspicious. Maybe she would once she woke up. She might even try to run away once she thought harder about how unlikely it was to find a person living in the woods alone who had never heard of the country’s princess. Alice’s whole persona would have to be that of an ignorant hermit, and as she was someone who could barely get through a normal conversation, she wasn’t confident she could pull off the deception.

But even if she could manage it, what should she do? Her plan to leave didn’t make any sense now. What possible excuse could she make for literally giving away her home? ‘Oh, hello stranger who looks exactly like a princess of the same name, no I don’t recognize you. By the way, I’m leaving forever, and you can live here instead! I’m definitely normal and this is all completely fine.’  That was ridiculous. What had she even been thinking before? It was clear to her now that she hadn’t been thinking through it clearly – she just so badly wanted to stay with the cottage she had convinced herself it was okay. And now, there was no reasonable way for her to leave. She felt like she had cheated – she was basically stealing from the princess, who should have had the cottage in the original story. But there really was nothing else to do.  

Alice sat at the kitchen table; hands locked around a mug of tea. The fire, dying slowly, flickered, insistent. I know you want me to stay, Alice thought at the cottage spirit. I really, really shouldn’t, though. It could still doom everyone by staying near her. The coals spluttered a few sparks weakly in response.    

She sighed in a rush and let her head fall against the tabletop with a bang. A window shutter slammed. “Sorry,” she muttered, cheek pressed against the wood. The house spirit really hated it when she did anything to hurt herself. Despite her guilt, Alice was relieved now that she had decided to stay; it would have been so very painful to leave the cottage’s care and protection.

What is done is done, thought Alice. Now I need to do everything I can to keep the story moving, otherwise, the whole kingdom will be cursed forever. I still don’t know if this is real, but if it is, that would be my fault. And… I want to live here safely for as long as I can. She sighed to herself again. She really was so selfish.

So she would have to do her best to help. Since she couldn’t leave without raising suspicion, she and the princess would probably have to live together until they could find the boy from town and the princess could leave to fight the witch. It was unlikely that Alice would ever need to go with them. She just needed to protect the princess in the cottage, help her recover from her escape, and persuade her to come visit the town with her. And she would try to help more along the way – she could teach her about house magic and spirits, and all the things the princess learned on her own in the novel. A thought struck her that made her heart race in excitement. Maybe if she shared the book she’d found on her first day the princess would remember it and change how people were educated on house spirits and magic when she was back in the palace. Would you like that? she silently asked the cottage. The fire flickered happily.

With that, Alice felt energized again. She was used to making the best of a bad situation, and she could do that now. She stood up and tapped the table thoughtfully for a moment before going to tend to the dying fire, then curling up in her armchair. As she sat thinking about what she would teach the princess when morning came, she fell asleep.

She had no idea that things were not going to go at all the way she expected them to.

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Sunlight filtered in through the windows, waking Alice from a pleasant dream in which she was harvesting winter vegetables from her garden to make a stew. She could almost smell the hearty broth braising as she opened her eyes.

And looked directly into the face of the princess, who was leaning over her where she lay in the armchair.

“I’m hungry,” she announced, looking expectantly at Alice.  Alice blinked. The princess was just as dazzling as she had been the night before, but her face was set in an unpleasantly domineering expression. Alice shook off the thought – that was hardly fair. The princess had been on the run and must be starving after eating only some porridge the night before. Of course she wanted food as soon as possible. She was also still just as grimy as she had been the day before – she’d fallen asleep before she could take her bath – and she was probably very uncomfortable.

Alice nodded, and went to stand up, but had to stop as the princess was still in her way.

“Umm, I need to go to the kitchen. For your food.” She waited for the princess to move, but she did not.

“I also need a bath. And do you have clothes?” Alice nodded, then shook her head. Looking confused, the princess finally stepped back, allowing Alice to make her way into the kitchen.

“What do you mean?” The princess sounded annoyed but nervous. “Say something.”

Alice remembered how often she had managed to frustrate those around her with her silence in the past, and shook her head again, this time in consternation. The sense of aggravation that flooded her at her own awkwardness almost made her forget to answer.

“Yes, you can wash up. And no, I don’t have clothes.” That was one thing the cottage had not been able to provide her, so she was still wearing the jeans and long-sleeved green T-shirt she’d arrived in, washing it every two days. It had confused her, the more she thought about it, that for whatever reason she had appeared here in jeans and a T-shirt instead of the pajamas she’d been wearing when she fell asleep. It made her nervous to consider it since it seemed to support the theory that this was some sort of hallucination or dream.

Shaking off the now-familiar unease at the thought, she realized she should keep explaining. The princess was now staring at her clothes in complete confusion. They probably didn’t have jeans here, or graphic T-shirts with pictures of a smiling sunflower. Compared to the princess’s clothes – simple trousers and a tunic shirt in tan and beige – Alice must look completely outlandish. Not to mention, she had just proclaimed she had no other clothes in her possession at all. So much for not seeming any more suspicious than she already did.

“I need to get clothes from town today. And food, and medicine. I am out. All my other clothes are… broken.” The princess looked admirably unconvinced. Alice was doing a poor job of it, but she really couldn’t think of any reasonable explanation.

“Never mind. Come with me and sit, I’ll heat water for your bath and make some porridge.”  At the mention of porridge, the princess wrinkled her nose, but to her credit she kept her mouth shut. She did not, however, say thank you. The story had mentioned the princess being out of her depth, so Alice swallowed a growing sense of annoyance and reminded herself to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Once the princess was fed and washed up, the two of them sat awkwardly at the kitchen table, each drinking some elderberry tea Alice had made. It was already almost noon. Alice wasn’t sure how far away the town was, but she knew she needed to leave soon if she was going to make it there and back safely. There was no way the princess would come along though, and she didn’t want to leave the royal alone when she was still a flight risk. And so she sat and stared at her tea, trying to think of a solution she knew did not exist.

“Well. So. Thank you, umm –” The princess suddenly looked stricken, and let out a nervous laugh. “Avis?”

Alice nodded but corrected her. “No. My name is Alice.”

The princess looked at a loss, but before she could say anything, Alice continued.

“I am going into town. You can come with me,” she paused, watching the princess carefully, “but you should probably rest. I will be back before dark.” There. That sounded fairly normal if you ignored all the weird things – like how she didn’t have clothes, or was fine with a stranger in her house, or was named Alice in a world where no one had ever heard of such a name. But the princess just nodded, looking relieved.

“So, I can stay?”

“Of course. I’ll be back soon,” and with that, Alice stood up abruptly, grabbed the coin pouch from inside a kitchen drawer, hurriedly pulled on her worn sneakers – another thing she was sure looked completely alien to the princess – and then she promptly fled the scene before anything could go wrong. She didn’t see the princess whack her forehead against the table just like Alice had the night before, but she did hear the cottage shutters slam as she almost ran down the front path.