A Tale of Fur and Flesh by Unknown Read Free Book Online

Lally consented immediately. 
Though she said very little to the huntsman as they trudged through the vast
expanses of snow-covered Northern land, Lally felt tremendously indebted to
him.  The huntsman’s caring warmed her heart.
    When Cook caught sight of the mongrel, she clapped
him over the ears with a carrot.  “What are you playing at, bringing that hairy
animal into my kitchen?  How am I supposed to work with that beast about?”
    Lally felt uncomfortable, conspicuous, ashamed that
the huntsman’s sympathy had brought on his wife’s wrath.  Perhaps she ought to
go.  There was nowhere she belonged now.  Not in the turrets of her own castle,
not in the subterranean kitchen of the Northern Palace.  She might as well
return to the comatose comfort of her frozen tree.
    “She isn’t an animal, she’s a girl.  Poor creature’s
been sleeping rough.  She’ll catch her death out there.  I figured she might
help you with your dirty work, what with you always saying you hate to do it.”
    A malignant grin spread across the plump woman’s face
as she assessed Allerleirauh once again.  “I suppose you’re right, husband
mine.” 
    Cook pointed to a kitchen cupboard, where no daylight
entered.  “There you can live and sleep. You’ll eat what scraps you find. 
Might as well get you started.  You’ll be carrying the wood and water, and then
I’ll need you to sweep the hearth.  And I’ll have no dilly-dallying, because
after that you’ll be plucking the fowls for supper.  Don’t think you’re
finished your day yet, though.  You also need to rake the ashes, and do
whatever other dirty work I can find for you.  Can you do all that, hairy
beast?”
    From within her layers of peltry, Allerleirauh nodded
despondently.  Tears soaked her cheeks.  Alas, fair princess, what is to
become of you now?
    * * * *
    Allerleirauh lived for a long time in great
wretchedness.  It happened, however, that one day a feast was held in the
palace.  When food was prepared and the event well underway, she asked the cook
if she might she go upstairs for a while and look on. She would place herself
outside the door, of course.  She had never seen the Palace beyond the
kitchen.  Every day she worked from dawn to dusk, then collapsed upon her straw
bed.  Might she enjoy some gaiety?
    “Yes, go,” the cook answered in a surprising show of
goodwill, “but you must be back here in half an hour to sweep the hearth.”
    A long-forgotten feeling of delight bubbled up in
Allerleirauh.  She took her oil-lamp and went to her den to wash the soot from
her face and hands before journeying upstairs.  Just as she sought to enter her
small closet, she beheld a sight most peculiar.  A brilliant light shone
through the cracks in the wooden boards of her door.  Lally had not seen
anything so spectacular since her mother was alive.  Suddenly, she knew what
was contained in her enchanted walnut.
    Throwing open the door, she found upon her straw mat
the late queen’s three loveliest gowns.  One was golden as the sun, one silvery
as the moon, and one bright as the stars.  Forgetting her wretchedness, Lally
leapt smiling upon the three gleaming gowns.  She hugged them as though they
were her mother’s own person.
    “Make haste in there, will you?” the cook called
out.  Lally froze.  In her mind, she cried, Please, oh please, do not open
the door!   She couldn’t bear the thought of Cook seeing her mother’s
precious things.  Here in the North, her safety was in peril if anyone should
discover her true identity. 
    She breathed a sigh of relief when the cook went on,
“I’ll be heading out of doors for a moment.  Remember to come back down for the
soot, hairy beast.”
    It then occurred to Allerleirauh what her mother
meant for her do to.  Her heart ceased its joyful thumping.  For so many
months, she had hidden her pretty face and golden hair beneath Wolf’s repulsive
head.  There was comfort inside her warm, dark