Chapter 18.

Tricks up the sleeve.

The moment Peyton arrived at the foreman's house, one of his maids recognized her and before telling the foreman that she had arrived by surprise, she told Miss Flower because Peyton was only supposed to visit the foreman's house to ask Miss Flower for special "favors."

However, when Miss Flor heard that Peyton had come unannounced, she told her maid to let her in quietly and secretly, that no one should know that this woman had set foot in the foreman's house, because then the heads of everyone in the residence would be hanging by a fine thread.

 The maid, surprised and a little frightened, obeyed Flor's orders, took an empty sack of potatoes and as soon as she arrived back at the entrance she put the sack over Peyton's head, took her by the hand and led her behind the trees to a small chicken coop that was in the residence and that everyone seemed to have forgotten existed, but that was conducive to the meeting of both women. 

There, sitting on a semi-rotten wooden bench was Flor, who couldn't contain her amusement at seeing Peyton with a sack of potatoes that reached his waist. 

The scene was, at the very least, a laughable spectacle. However, Peyton's visit there was worrying, since Peyton was well known for having been the slaves' wife and many referred to her as a milk reservoir because all men, regardless of their age, had at some point in their lives emptied their needs into the woman's body. 

Then Flor made a sign to her maid to watch that no one approached the area, although by itself no one would go to the henhouse and Peyton taking off his jacket snorted a little and with his forehead sweaty he let out a long sigh saying: wow, it seems that it is more difficult to enter here than to enter the palace, so Flor answered her: if it were not for your bad reputation you could walk freely everywhere without a man attacking you, Peyton commented: that does not matter, I have come here today because I need your help…

I thought that the last time you had sweetened the king ing well so that he only had eyes for you, then Peyton answered her: I do not come for the king, I come for his heir, I can no longer stand the rudeness, arrogance and superiority complex that he has with me and my daughters, I want to dominate him and make his ego lower itself to nothing, I really want him to be a puppet for me to be his ventriloquist.

Flor, listening, said: he was just a child who lost his mother a few months ago, you have to understand that he was born in a golden cradle and no matter how much you dress in pretty silk today, you will stay that way forever, however, I have a little trick that could work for you to master it, but keep in mind that everything you do during this time perhaps for now, you will not see the consequences because you have suddenly achieved success, but be careful, because what comes easy goes easy and beauty is not forever the shell that we have as a presentation... 

Someday it will be something undesirable for anyone, however, Peyton told her: I don't care, my actions at this moment are redirected to keep me in the now, in the present, I can't go around looking back to regret old actions, nor can I look to the future to look at my present and tell myself not to do it, however, I can live in the now, today and that is what I am doing so now I await your contribution.

 To which Flor said, shaking her shoulders and saying calmly: Don't say later that I didn't tell you and warn you.

So my dear Peyton, remember well what you are going to do. 

Inside the palace you have to enter the prince's room or the place that is most filled with his essence, that is, the place where he spends the most time; and you will take with you a large toad, a male one. You will take it with your right hand and you will pass it under your belly five times, mentally saying the following words: (toad, toad, like I pass you under my belly like this… (in this part you will say the name of the crown prince); he will have no peace or rest until he comes to me with all his heart and with all his body, soul and life.)

After saying these words, you will take one of the finest needles, you can steal it from the royal seamstresses and you will thread a little green silk thread through it, sewing the eyelids of the toad's eyes, being very careful not to touch the iris, because otherwise the person you want to bewitch in order to dominate will go blind and in this case the prince cannot be blind.

You will only sew the skin that surrounds the eyes from bottom to top so that the toad's eyes will be hidden, but without having suffered any damage; after having done this, on a full moon that same day, preferably on a Sunday, you will have to sew the skin around the eyes from bottom to top,  you will continue saying by the power of the prince of science I sewed your eyes shut, which is what I had to do so that you would have no peace or rest and your pride would belong to me, (here you will say the name of the crown prince again) and you will continue saying: here you are imprisoned and tied without seeing the sun or the moon, until you love me I will not let you go from here, here you are captive, imprisoned just as you are a toad, and while your pride does not bend before me not even the unknown will be able to save you.

Then Peyton, you are going to take a vessel, you are going to place the toad in it and it will have to have a little water, which will be renewed every day with another little bit of fresh water collected from a spring or a stream through which the waste of fecal matter from the town does not pass.

Yes, Peyton, you have to hide the toad in the prince's room or in the place where its essence is most, well hidden, so that not even the elements can find it; and after having done this for a month, on the next full moon if the prince has begun to be more indulgent and submissive with you, the toad has to be slaughtered and released into pure water, you have to let it flow with the river current so that it is not found by any servant, and if you do everything as I have told you, the prince will obey you for life, because ¿who would dare to go where a river flows to look for a toad? No one would go to the open sea to look for a toad that is carried by the sea current. There, listening attentively, she said to her: Flor, ¿are you sure this will work? And the latter said to her: ¿How many times have I not given you my tricks and have they served you for good or for bad? ¿Do you dare to doubt me? 

Then Peyton quickly denied and said: Not at all, you know that I have always respected you and I have a high regard for your wisdom.

 Flor smiled and said to her: Tell my maid to get you a large male toad and then go straight to the palace, do not let anyone see the toad so that they never suspect your methods to get to power…

Said and done, so Peyton ran to the maid who got her the largest, slimiest and male toad that was in the residence, they put it in the potato sack, and mounting her donkey again, Peyton went without hesitation to the palace where the first thing she did was ask her personal maid to get her a fine sewing needle with green silk threads as soon as possible, because she wanted to remedy some details of a green dress that she liked very much, the maid without thinking anything bad, went in search of the dress and Peyton went straight to take off the disguise that she had used to leave the palace, and hiding it in the weeds around the palace she played dumb as if she had never been there; and after having bathed and removed the dirt and mud on top, she went to look at the entire prince's room, which was empty, and as Flor had taught her in the past to identify which is the place with the most essence of a person, she burned a little cinnamon with rosemary in the room, but the smoke dissipated immediately, which said that was not the closest place to the prince; And so, she went with the cinnamon and the rosemary room after room until she remembered the queen's living room, which was desolate and abandoned, since she had died no one dared to enter there, only the prince and the midwife Maggie, and making sure that the toad did not make loud noises, she went to the living room crossing his fingers that the prince was not in the living room and much less the midwife, and it seems that luck was on his side, because the living room and all the rooms corresponding to that area were empty, dirty, full of dust and dry leaves, it seemed like a place that had been uninhabited for hundreds of years, which caused him a little allergy and because of that he sneezed several times, and doing the test of the cinnamon and rosemary in the queen's living room, the smoke remained intact indicating to her that room was where the essence of the prince was kept freshest and alive, then, following the instructions that Flor had given her to the letter, she grabbed the still living toad with his right hand and passed it to her under the belly five times, mentally saying those words that Flor had indicated to him (toad, little toad, just as I pass you under my belly; so Cyprian VI, have no peace or rest until you come to me with all your heart and with all your body, soul and life)...

After saying those words, she grabbed the needle with the green silk thread and began to sew from bottom to top the skin that surrounded the toad's eyes while reciting softly (by the power of the prince of science I sew your eyes, what must I do so that I have no peace or rest and your pride belongs to me Cyprian VI, here you are imprisoned and tied without seeing the sun or the moon until you love me, I will not leave you from here to let go, you will be captive, imprisoned as you are by a toad and as long as your pride does not bend before me not even the unknown will be able to save you).

After saying that with such heart, Peyton grabbed the jar, put the toad in it and put a little water in it and closed the entrance of the jar with a small board covered with gold, placed that jar in one of the pieces of furniture to take down the painting of the queen and the prince for a moment and opened a small hole in the wall the size of the jar, then she took the jar and put it away in that hole, she finished filling it with straw that she had previously collected from the stable and folded the sack of potatoes as much as she could, and with a stone and a nail she placed the sack like a blanket the size of the hole in the wall to later put the painting back and completely close the windows, she removed the cords of gold thread that gathered the curtains and threw them on the floor and left that room with a satisfaction of accomplishment like no other.