The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye Read Free Book Online

told. And money,” said Crustacea, “does not grow on trees. So, as you will realize, it all seems to boil down to one word. Work!”
    “Work,” repeated the Ordinary Princess dutifully. “I expect you’re right, Godmama.”
    “I’m always right,” snappd the old fairy. “And now be off with you, child. And luck go with you.”
    She smiled a very kindly smile, and then, before the Ordinary Princess could even say, “Good-bye,” she slipped off the rock and disappeared under the water as smoothly as an otter, and there was nothing to show that she had been there at all, except a damp smear on the top of the rock and a widening circle of ripples on the surface of the pool.
    “Well!” said the Ordinary Princess. And she rubbed her eyes and pinched herself to make sure she had not been dreaming. But there were the ripples and the damp smear on the rock, and the pinch had certainly felt very real.
    “Anyway,” said the Ordinary Princess, “if I’ve got to start work sometime, I’d better start now.”
    So she stood up and shook out her ragged skirts and tidied her hair as best she could. Then she went to the tree stump where she had left Mr. Pemberthy and Peter Aurelious and her cloak.
    The cloak had not had nearly such hard wear as her dress and apron, for she had used it as a blanket every night and carried it rolled up in a bundle under her arm during the day, and when she put it on, it made her look quite neat and respectable.
    “It is a pity having no shoes and stockings,” thought the Ordinary Princess. “But then one can’t have everything. Good-bye, forest,” she said, “I’ve had a lovely time, and as soon as ever I’ve made enough money to buy some new clothes, I’ll come back to you!”
    She kissed her hand to the trees and the ferns and the emerald moss and set off toward the town of Amber. But she did not go alone, for Mr. Pemberthy and Peter Aurelious had no intention of being left behind.
    Mr. Pemberthy had stopped eating acorns and had taken one flying leap onto her shoulder, where he fluffed up his tail and sat looking very pleased with himself. Peter Aurelious flew alongside them, cawing loudly.
    It was almost four o‘clock by the time they reached the city, and the Ordinary Princess was very tired and footsore. It had been much farther than she had thought when she looked at its walls and roofs from the edge of the forest, which may have been partly because she found that roads are not nearly as comfortable to bare feet as moss, so that one has to go more slowly.
    She stopped by a little stone bridge over the river that ran through the town, to bathe her tired and dusty feet and decide what she had better do. “I think I shall try and get work at the castle,” thought the Ordinary Princess, wiggling her toes in the nice cool water. She smiled to herself and tweaked Mr. Pemberthy’s bushy tail. “It will be a change to work in a castle instead of living in one,” she said.
    Then she dried her toes on the long grass by the bridge and marched off down the road to the castle. Perhaps the old Fairy Crustacea’s wish that luck would go with her had something to do with it. But strange as it may seem, when she knocked at the back door of the castle and asked for work, she was taken in at once, in spite of that dreadfully ragged gown. For as luck would have it, the fourteenth assistant kitchen maid had tripped over the kitchen cat that very morning and twisted her ankle. So the Ordinary Princess got the job at two pfennigs a week, plus her keep and the loan of a spare apron.
    “How many pfennigs would it take to buy a new frock?” she asked the thirteenth assistant kitchen maid.
    “About a hundred,” said the thirteenth assistant kitchen maid. “But it depends on the frock.”
    So that is how Her Serene and Royal Highness, Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne, Princess of Phantasmorania, became an ordinary kitchen maid in the royal castle of