Writer's Notebook

16th December 2005

Dana was married today! How unfair life is! He was mine, her beau. We danced all night; he couldn't take his eyes off me. But come twelve o'clock and my precipitate departure, he showed how fickle a man's heart could truly be. He stood there stunned as I raced away; then forced into action he chased behind me to the palace entrance only to see me vanish into thin air... at least it might have been like that for him because in no time he'd forgotten me and chasing around after new conquests. True, I did leave a golden slipper, but the prince didn't even notice it, he was too busy staring into the deep blue eyes Dana flashed at him.

How stupid can you get! And the most stupid is that I still pine for him and envy Dana's luck. Of course, she played her cards right, did Dana. Knew she didn't have a chance while I was around, but also knew full well when I would have to go. So she kept herself very discreet and then offered a shoulder to cry on when he needed it. By all accounts it was more than a shoulder he took that night, but then Dana had always been an astute player and she won her man in her own inimitable way.

Oh, how terrible I still feel, even now one year later. I can see us still arm in arm, the prince tall and stately sweeping me around the room as if I was the only other person in the world. And all the world commenting on what a wonderful couple we made. I couldn't go to the wedding; it was too painful. But I do wish Dana the best of luck, even while wishing I could be lying there next to her husband this very night.


16th December 2006

What an amazing year. Who would have thought that today I would be marrying my true love and moving into the palace? Yet, that's exactly what's happening. No, no big public wedding like Dana's; no crowds of admiring onlookers, just me and my love with his Mam and Dad there to wish us every happiness. I did, in fact, invite Dana, not daring to ask her husband as well. But we move in different circles now, and he would never deign to honour us with his presence. I often wonder, whether he realises that the sweet, young girl (my darling's words, not the prince's) his chief steward was marrying was the with whom he had danced away the best part of the night just one year ago?

So how did this all come about? Well, my love has a true eye for beauty and once beholden, it can never be forgotten, as he always says. That evening his heart bled for me as he saw me dancing round in the arms of the prince. True, we did make a wonderful sight but my love knew more of the prince's character than anyone else and he feared for my reputation. Not to forget, of course, the fact that he was totally smitten but refusing to acknowledge the fact even to himself. He's so sweet, he's just like that. But now that we're married, I'll have to pump a little daily courage into him.

Anyway, my disapperance down the palace steps may have stunned the prince but it made my love rejoice. And the golden slipper on the stairs galvanised him into action. I've since discovered that he scoured the length and breadth of the land in search of its owner. Many a young laid claim to him and some of them even passed the slipper test, but not once was my love deceived, not, that is until the day he entered into our little town. And then he wasn't deveived but he recognised true beauty for what it is, and without even asking me to try the slipper went down before me on his knees and asked me to marry him. So now, I'm going to be married to the most gentle, kind-hearted and loving man in the whole world and we'll be living in the palace. I don't even think of the prince any more, despite his looks which apparantly outdo by far those of my love... so they say!

16th December 2007

Dana came to me in tears today. There's to be a big ball tonight in celebration of their marriage two years ago. I hadn't seen her since the day before her wedding, as her husband had not allowed her to come to mine. I was truly shocked by her appearance. Where was the sweet, young carefree little girl I used to run around the hills with? What had the prince done to her that she should be reduced to such a state of despndency and dejection.

I shall pass over all she told me, because who am I to blacken the name of the man hundreds and thousands of our citizens look up to as their next leader. Suffice to say that when I told my husband about my visit, he was not at all surprised. But as I gazed into his eyes, I realised for the very first time what a very lucky escape I had had, and promised myself that I would do whatever I could to lighten Dana's load.