THE INVISIBLE ROSE EXCERPT
“Gabriella!”
Doshi shot from her bed, tangled in her sheets, then fell
headlong on the floor in a heap. She blinked in the dim early
morning light, attempting to determine what had disturbed her
delicious dreams. She didn’t have long to wait before
discovering the source.
“Gabriella, you get out here this instant, young lady!”
Her father was yelling for Gabriella again. Every time
Gabriella took a new lover some woman discovered the two
together, word got back to the king and chaos reigned in the
castle. Would her older sister ever learn?
Doshi disentangled herself and tiptoed to her door. She
pressed an ear to the cool panel and listened intently. Only
five maids worked this floor and all of them should have been
below collecting their charges’ breakfast or retrieving clean
dresses and linen from the laundry, but Doshi heard many of them
hurrying along the passage. The inhabitants of Glamdire Castle
were eager to see this latest episode in the continuing saga of
the Wild Rose. Doshi was no exception.
When she heard her sister’s door open, Doshi cracked open her
own to take a peek. The king should be distracted enough that
she could get a good look and a better listen.
“Father, let me explain,” Gabriella pouted, her head bowed.
Doshi noted the scowl marring her father’s features. The
normally handsome man of fifty odd years was obviously beyond
his endurance. In spite of his anger, Doshi couldn’t help the
surge of love she felt for her only parent. Even at this early
hour, he was perfectly dressed in the obligatory royal green
robes, a symbol of the prosperity of the Glamdire Kingdom. Her
father, King of Glamdire, took his role as leader very
seriously. He would never be caught in a state of undress, even
at six-thirty in the morning.
Doshi hoped to someday find a man as tall, handsome,
distinguished and fearless as her father. She wanted a man who
knew his duty and did it without qualms, no matter who stood
against him. She hadn’t yet found such a paragon. And so at
twenty-six years old, she was still a virgin, to her disgust.
Of course, that wasn’t the case with the Wild Rose. She’d had
more than her fair share of men. That was the problem. Doshi’s
gaze slid to her less than innocent sister. Gabriella stood
before their father in a floor length filmy white nightgown. Her
glorious chestnut hair hung free halfway to her waist. How could
she stand there with wide blue eyes looking as innocent as a
newborn fawn? It was inconceivable, knowing what she’d been up
to the night before and many nights previous.
“Don’t bother, Gabriella!” Her father jerked a hand through
his own locks, which matched Gabriella’s. “I have raised a whore
in my own castle.”
Gabriella gasped. “Father.”
“No! Don’t deny it. We’ve been through this a hundred times.
What is it about you? I don’t understand these urges you have.
What makes you sleep around this way?” The king paced a few
steps away and then turned back. “Maybe if your mother was
alive…”
“Father, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me,”
Gabriella attempted.
“I’ll tell you what came over you. Lust. Pure and simple lust
came over you. You should be setting an example for your little
sister, Gabriella.”
Gabriella’s hand slid to her waist. Doshi could imagine what
she was about to say and steeled herself against the hurtful
words.
“Doshi? Pah. She’s only two years younger than I am and she
couldn’t get a man if you paid one to take her.”
“Don’t you dare talk about your sister that way, Gabriella.”
He grasped his daughter’s arm and shook her. “Doshi is a very
beautiful woman. She just has trouble believing it. You should
be helping her build her confidence rather than tearing her
down.”
Doshi blinked away tears. Her sister was right, though her
words stung. She was not confident. But who could be, with such
a glorious beauty for a sister? The mothers of prominent men had
long debated the faults of the two princesses. Gabriella was too
loose. Doshi was too plain.
That didn’t stop suitors from coming, she thought bitterly.
Prosperity wasn’t the symbol of Glamdire for nothing. Her
father’s kingdom was the richest in the free world. Any kingdom
that allied with it through marriage was bound to prosper under
her father’s golden touch.
Gabriella crossed her arms. “Well, it’s obvious you love
Doshi more than you love me.”
Her father deflated visibly and his voice gentled.
“Gabriella, you know that’s not true.”
“Don’t I?”
Doshi dropped her gaze. Even she, with her low self-esteem,
knew her father preferred her to Gabriella. Yet, surely her
sister realized how hard it was for their father to overlook her
promiscuous activities.
Although her father and mother’s marriage had been arranged,
the two had fallen in love with one another. Neither could dream
of being with another. It was this perfect relationship she
dreamed of one day having. Not that she didn’t dream of having
wild intimate relations. She did. But her husband would provide
that, or so she hoped.
She sighed and leaned her head against the door frame. There
was no use lying to herself. Doshi had listened to Gabriella and
her maid discussing her intimate adventures and had often
dreamed of taking a lover.
The king glanced up, noticing Doshi and the servants. “All of
you get back to work,” he bellowed, loud enough to be heard
throughout the whole castle. Then his voice gentled. “Doshi, get
back in your room.”
As she turned to obey, Doshi saw her father clasp her
sister’s elbow and direct her inside her room. She shook her
head. Her sister was in for at least an hour’s lecture. She had
also withstood her share of the royal speeches. However, her own
indiscretions ran along the lines of tripping and splashing hot
soup all over the queen of a neighboring kingdom or sitting on
the spectacles of a potential mate.
She padded across her expansive room and flopped down on her
bed. An unladylike grunt escaped her lips as she stared up at
the ceiling, which was ornately painted with a forest scene and
stream, cleverly designed to appear to be moving.
She sighed in frustration. She was not normally so clumsy.
Yet every time her father brought a man to the castle for her,
she lost all sense of grace. Without fail, she managed to
alienate them. Not that any of them measured up to her dream of
the perfect mate.
“Maybe I do it on purpose,” she surmised aloud.
“Do what, your highness?” Her maid, Lin, slipped in carrying
a full tray of hot chocolate, eggs, sausage and toast. It had
been her chosen breakfast every day for years. She ate it in her
room when she was not commanded to join her father at the
breakfast table with her sister and her father’s lead advisor.
She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Do
you think I’m boring, Lin?”
The maid’s gaze dropped to the tray and back to her charge.
“You? Never.”
“Very funny, Lin.” Doshi grinned.
The petite servant placed her tray on a table near the bed
and began arranging the green silk pillows so she could eat her
breakfast in bed. Watching her, the princess thought even her
own maid outshone her.
Lin’s delicate limbs were as graceful as any princess'. Her
sable hair, though pinned at the nape of her neck, was silky
with gentle wisps that curled about her oval face, accentuating
sweet almond eyes. Doshi had often seen the male servants ogling
Lin as she strolled by them in the halls.
“Mistress, may I speak plainly?” Lin paused in her
ministrations.
“You always do.”
“Well.” The girl reached out a hand to stroke Doshi’s wild
mane. “I think you could be as beautiful as Princess Gabriella
if you tried.”
Doshi rolled her eyes. “That’s absurd, Lin. No one in the
kingdom is as beautiful as the Wild Rose.”
“You are,” Lin insisted. “You’re practically twins.”
Doshi guffawed and Lin’s nose crinkled as if she smelled
something repulsive. Doshi covered her mouth. Too late, she
remembered what turned people off about her. She couldn’t help
it. If she were as beautiful as Gabriella, maybe she could be
more confident around others. Maybe then she would be noticed
for something other than her frequent mishaps.
“If you had more confidence, you’d be just as dynamic as your
sister,” Lin claimed. “You have the same rich chestnut hair.”
“Mine is frizzy.”
“You have the same bright blue eyes.”
“Mine aren’t so bright.”
“And you even have the same voice,” Lin insisted.
Doshi slumped over her plate, stuffing her mouth with egg.
“Foolish Lin. You forget where my sister is grace personified, I
am clumsy and garish. While she has creamy skin without a
blemish, I’m cursed with a sprinkling of freckles over my nose
and hair that's so wild, it looks worse than an old mop. Let's
not forget, she has a neck as long as a swan’s and mine is thick
and short. She can charm the hardest heart. I can’t charm the
softest.” Doshi pushed away her empty plate and dragged a napkin
across her lips. “I accept my lot in life, Lin. I am content.”
“Oh, your highness, you know you are not.”
Doshi straightened her back and narrowed her eyes in her best
imitation of her father. “You dare contradict me, Lin?”
“No, your highness, of course not.” The girl was properly
humbled, though Doshi thought she caught a glimpse of amusement
lurking in her eyes. “I’m saying you could stand a bit of
confidence in your beauty.”
“I have no beauty!” Doshi snapped. She hated thinking Lin
didn’t respect her. To be royalty with no presence was
pointless.
“I would never want to displease you, your highness.” Lin’s
voice was hesitant. “You must see you have the same figure as
your sister.”
Doshi’s gaze dropped to her body.
“You both have the same measurements. You’re the same height.
You have…,” Lin hesitated again as her hands rose to gesture
above her bosoms.
Doshi reddened.
“…the same blessings,” Lin finished creatively.
Suddenly, Doshi burst out laughing. “I guess you’re right
there, Lin. The difference is that my sister flaunts her bosoms
by having her dresses cut as low as the law allows, which is
pretty low if you ask me.”
“Yes, and yours are higher than a nun’s.” Lin apparently
could not bite her sassy tongue.
Doshi glared at her. “Free speech over.” She sprung from the
bed. “I’m ready to go out for a ride, Lin. My habit please.”
“Yes, of course, your highness.”
.
