A maid walked into a relatively small and under-furnished room, considering the fact that it was the first Princess of the empire's room. A silver haired young woman is sat by the barred window looking out to the garden below with a wistful look on her face.
''Princess Esmerelda, his majesty the Emperor is calling for you'', the maid said after reaching the princess.
The maid was Esmerelda's personal maid, Maria and her only companion. Maria had to repeat herself as Esmerelda was locked in her own daydream or nightmare, if you pay attention to the immense sadness currently residing in her eyes.
As the maid repeated herself, Esmerelda felt her heart speeding up as she was terrified of her father. And he hadn't called for her in the two weeks he currently had her confined to her room because she had met his gaze while he was talking to her.
'What does he want with me' she thought to herself as she followed the maid down the corridor to her father's study.
She kept wriggling her fingers together due to nervousness. When she got to the door of his study, she actively tried to take deep breaths to calm herself because her father loved when she was terrified and it always made him want to punish her more.
Princess Esmerelda walked in meekly towards her father, the emperor.
"Your majesty", she said with a bow.
Esmé stood in front of her father with her head bowed trying to avoid eye contact so as not to rile up the aggressive man.
''What do you think you are doing standing like a peasant. With all the etiquette lessons you had since you were young, your posture is still so wrong and not fit for a princess", her stepmother said from a sofa in the room while her stepsister, Philia sniggered.
The table was set with tea, cake and pastries. They were about to have their afternoon tea. Esmé knew that she wasn't being invited to have tea with them — even though they had tea, breakfast and dinner together as a family everyday, excluding her. She wasn't considered a part of the family and was only a princess by name. It wasn't a secret in high society how her family regarded her which led to people disrespecting and abusing her with no fear of consequences. Even maids had little to no respect for her, making them refuse to tend to her or sometimes physically assaulting her because other members of the Royal family mistreated them.
Her stepmother, Reagan was purposefully making fun of her because she knew very well that Esme had never received any etiquette lesson and the little she knew was by watching from a corner anytime the royal tutor taught Philia. Reagan had caught her spying multiple times and she made her work as a maid as punishment until her feet bled, both times when she was only seven.
"You are going to meet the Duke of Xolotl in two days time to prepare for your wedding", her father said barely glancing at her.
'' Father,I didn't know I was engaged'', Esme mumbled, surprised. Which was clearly a mistake as she was immediately viciously shoved by her half brother, the Crown Prince, Damarcus who just entered the room to join the family for tea.
''Are you defying my father'', he stormed, '' You don't have to know, you just have to listen".
As Esme tried to stand back up she was forced down by a resounding slap across her face from Damarcus who was almost forming at the mouth.
"Who do you think you are? Looking at everybody as if you are better than them'', he bellowed, ''You are nothing'', he screamed with spittle flying everywhere.
Esmerelda took caution to avoid eye contact with everyone as she stood straight and dusted off her cloth. She stood still in front of her father waiting to be dismissed while Philia and Reagsn laughed at her like jackals, clearly enjoying the show Damarcus had put on for them. Damarcus stared at her bowed form with a self-satisfied smirk.
After waiting for quite sometime being forced to listen to the families chatter which mostly involved deprecating remark at her, her father nodded for her to leave.
As she was about leave, Philia walked up to her with her fake smile and malicious eyes, clearing taking pleasure in her misfortunes.
''Congratulations, sister! I heard you are getting married. It must be so nice to finally get married. Daddy won't let me get married no matter what. I've had to reject about 20 proposals'', Philia begins to boast about her marriage proposals because Esme had never received any. Nobody wanted to marry the powerless princess whose family didn't care about. Also, it wasn't like many suitors got to see how pretty she was as she was banned from all high society functions.
As Philia continued to brag, Esmeralda walked past her to get out of the room. Just before leaving she heard a father tell a maid that her fiancé was coming over for dinner. Clearly, he didn't tell her about it as he didn't want her an embarrassment to disgrace their family at the dinner. She resolved to go along with the plan to get her married as a way of escaping the family, although nobody cared about what she thought.
Princess Esmerelda has faced abuse and hardship from her family the ruling monarch of the Empire Lowë. She is forced to marry her family rivals which both hated each other to keep the peace. Battling identity crisis and trying to help her new crumbling family, Esmerelda has to start asking the right questions about who she is and how to save the empire from ruins.
Comments (2)
See all