CHAPTER 1
The sun was setting as supper was served.Pinks and oranges filled the sky, and therewere little, puffy clouds, which made it that much more beautiful.It was the day of my fifth birthday.
While I was outside playing with our cat, Mother called me in towash up. As I ran toward the castle, a huge smile spread across myface. I ran up the steps, and when I arrived at the door, my mothergave me a squeeze and kissed my forehead.
My mother was beautiful. Her hair was golden like the sun, andher eyes were a deep sea-blue color. She was tall and elegant. Thatday, she was wearing a purple gown with beaded flowers. When sheheld me, I loved running my fingers over the beads on her gown.
The castle had big, heavy wooden doors. Sometimes I had adifficult time opening them by myself. There were stairways thatled to different parts of the castle, which had many rooms. I hadno idea what was in most of them. Papa did business in a few of theextra rooms, and Mother painted in one. I liked to watch Motherpaint.
Numerous paintings were displayed throughout the castle,especially in the hallway that ran from the foyer to the dining room.A row of paintings of our family hung along the wall, beginningwith a picture of my great-great-great-grandpa and ending with apicture of me. The newest painting, a likeness of me that had beenpainted for my birthday, was hung before dinner. I had to wear niceclothes that morning for the artist to paint the picture of me. I worea loose-fitting light blue dress shirt with black pants. Mother saidthe blue brought out my eyes.
It was the last painting on the wall, and it was the first one ofme alone. We had many paintings done of my parents and me, so itwas weird standing there all alone, posing by myself. But it meantthat I was growing up.
I walked past the paintings and into the dining room, wherePapa was already seated at the head of the table. The dining tablewas located by the windows on the right side of the room. I lovedhaving the windows open, because the smell of roses drifted intothe room.
The table was huge. It could fit up to twenty people—I counted!While we rarely had more than just Papa, Mother, and me for dinner,we had almost every seat filled a few times.
On the left side of the room was a fireplace, with a couch and achair in front of it. At times, after dinner, we would sit by the fireto relax. Mother would sometimes read a book to me while Papasmoked his pipe in his chair. I hated the smell of that thing. Papasmoked less after he discovered that I really disliked it. Secretly,Mother hated it too.
People always said that I was the spitting image of Papa. Theonly difference between Papa and me was that I had short brownhair, while he had long brown hair. His eyes were the color of theclouds on a gloomy day, but they would change from grey to bluedepending on what he was wearing. Mother said that I had her eyesbut was definitely my father's son.
As I looked around the room and inhaled the intoxicatingaroma of the roses, Mother came in with a vase of deep-red rosesin her hands. She set the vase on the table. Mother smiled at me asshe did this. She knew how much I loved the scent.
She kissed my father before sitting down next to him. Myparents were very much in love. Anyone who came in contact withthem, even someone just passing by, could easily see that. Theyaffected many people around them in a positive way. Never had Iseen love like theirs, which made me want the same when I grewup.
My parents wanted me to be more than a rich kid. They wantedme to be intelligent, so I was homeschooled. I had a private tutornamed Chapin. He knew just about everything there was to know.I'd had a private tutor since I was three. The strange thing wasthat I actually liked learning. Sometimes at night, when I could notsleep, I would go to our library and read.
Our library was huge. It was located upstairs above the diningroom and was a total of four stories high. There were probably overtwenty thousand books. Mother would read to me in the library afew nights a week; she had done so for as long as I could remember.I loved reading any book I could get my hands on. Our librarian,Audric, grabbed the books off the shelves when they were too highfor me to reach.
Audric was a studious old man. His hair was as white as freshlyfallen snow. He told me to read a lot of books, not only to learnbut also to exercise my imagination. It was always interesting totalk with him. He was silly at times. After I finished studying forthe day, I would talk to him about different books, and he wouldrecommend ones that I should read when I grew older.
Sometimes I would sneak a book from the library into my roomat night. After my mother said good night, I would relight a candleso that I would be able to read the book by candlelight. I had beenin trouble before for doing that. But I still did it anyway.
The library, like the hallway to the dining room, had paintingsin it. These paintings were of landscapes and houses instead ofour family. There were times when I would just stare at them anddaydream about being in them. My favorite painting in the librarywas of a house—the Rose House, as I called it.
The Rose House had a roof made of dark wood, while the houseitself was tan, with a brown front door. Also, there was a windownot too far from the door, with deep-blue shutters. My favoritething about it was that there were roses everywhere. They notonly surrounded the base of the house but also grew up the sidesof the house. There were red, bright pink, yellow, white, violet, andmulticolored roses. The house was surrounded by tall trees, whichmade it look as though it were situated in front of a forest.
Whenever I set foot in the library, Audric or one of the othersworking in there would open the windows for me so that the scentof the roses would rush in and fill the room. Even though the librarywas on the second floor, I could smell the roses' scent in the room.Surrounded by the smell, I would close my eyes, pretending that Iwas at the Rose House. I had always wanted to go there. But I wasnot sure if the house was a real house or just a painting. At night,sometimes I dreamed about the Rose House. I wished it were real!
Before I walked to the table, where my parents were sitting,I walked over to the window. Once there, I opened it a little moreand then turned toward my parents. One of our maids, Deleena,started to bring out dinner. Deleena had brown eyes and shortdark brown hair. She was shorter than Mother was, but her heartwas just as big.
"Come on over, darling—time to eat!" Mother informed me.
"What is for dinner, Mother?" I asked.
"Your favorite, Son!" Papa chimed in.
"Yum!" I said as I rushed to the table.
My favorite meal was rabbit and mutton with onions andpotatoes. It was accompanied by warm white bread. Really, I enjoyedany type of game, but rabbit was my favorite. Papa said that notmany people were able to eat rabbit, only those with money. Breadwas something that I ate often. Honestly, I could have eaten it atevery meal. In fact, when I wanted a snack, I would have hot teaalong with bread, enjoying time with Mother and Papa.
I sat on Papa's right-hand side, across the table from Mother. AsI sat down, Mother smiled, so I grinned, with my two front teethmissing, back at her, which made her giggle.
Deleena brought out the food, kissed my forehead, and wishedme a happy birthday. Our maids and other workers in the castlewere like family to us. I hung out with a few of them from time totime, telling them everything about my day. My parents thoughtit was silly, but they truly were my best friends.
Mother began to dish out the food. But before we ate, Papa saida prayer. After we said "amen," we began to enjoy the wonderfulmeal in front of us.
After we finished eating, Mother handed me something—mypresent. It was a book that I had been asking for, even though Icould not fully understand it yet.
Not long after we finished dinner, Deleena brought out applecobbler, my favorite dessert. The smell of the apples made mymouth begin to water. I began to lick my lips, preparing for thewarm, flaky crust and the sweet, tart apples.
"After you are finished with your dessert, you have a little bit oftime before you need to go to bed," Mother told me. "We still haveto finish preparing for the party your father and I are going to. Iam sorry you cannot come with us."
"I understand. Sometimes those parties are really boring tome. I like it when we have them here, because if and when I getbored or tired, I can leave the ballroom and go to my bedroom. I donot have to stay and dance with girls," I stated, laughing. "I hopeyou have fun!"
My parents were invited to parties all the time. The next day,after my birthday, they were leaving for a business trip. I was notallowed to go with them, because I was still too young.
After finishing dessert, I ran, with my new book in hand,through the hallway with the paintings, up the stairs to the left ofthe front door, and into the library. Once there, I put my new bookon a shelf that I could reach.
I walked over to the giant windows in the library; they werestill open from earlier, when I was being homeschooled. As I startedto close them, I caught the aroma of the roses. This stopped me inmy tracks. I took a moment, becoming lost in the sweet scent. AfterI came back to reality, I shut the windows and then walked over tothe painting of the Rose House. I held a candle up to the paintingto take one last glance at the roses.
After standing there for some time, I decided to make my wayover to my parents' room, which was in another wing. From thelibrary, I walked down the stairs, toward the dining room, and thenpast the hallway with all the paintings of our family.
I walked through the foyer into another hallway. I called thishallway the Seasons Pathway because of the designs painted on thewalls. The walls were covered with many different, intricate trees.Some were full of blossoms; some had lush green leaves. Others hadbrown, red, and yellow leaves on the branches and surrounding thebases. There were also trees that were completely bare, with snowon the branches and around the trunks of the trees.
After I passed one of Father's business rooms, the stairs that ledto my parents' and my rooms were to the right of me. The ballroomwas to the left of where I was standing. My parents loved to throwballs. We had way too many, in my opinion. Mother explained tome that I had to take dance lessons, which were held in there too.We had our own dance instructor, Cantrelle.
At the last ball, my parents had made me dance with a girl—Ava.She had bouncy blonde hair and was wearing a pink dress. Ireally did not want to dance with her; I did not like girls then. Butshe was a close friend of mine. Her mother, Odelia, and my motherwere good friends. Because of their friendship, we saw each otherall the time.
I did enjoy the music they played at the balls. In fact, it wasbecause of a ball that I started to learn how to play the piano. Rightbefore my fourth birthday, I started lessons. We had a music roomin another wing of the castle. I practiced in there almost everyday. One day I hoped to have the chance to play the piano in theballroom. Mother said that I had to wait until I was older and hadmore experience before I could play it. But I really wanted to playit more than anything, and I thought I was good enough to play onthe beautiful black piano in the ballroom.
Once I was between the ballroom and the stairs, I looked at thedoors leading to the ballroom before running up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs, on the second floor, a few guestrooms were on my left. We had many guest rooms in the castle.Many travelers and other people stayed with us from time totime. Because of this, I met a lot of interesting people. The mostinteresting person I met was a philosopher! He knew so much andseemed really nice.
To the right of where I was standing was a restroom, and aheadof me were more stairs, which led to our rooms. Our rooms were inthe west wing of the castle, on the third floor. My room was to theright, while my parents' was to the left. These hallways were notas long as the others were.
Once at the top of the stairs, I heard Mother making noise inher room, so I ran to the door and knocked on it.
"May I come in?" I asked, peering in through the partiallyopen door.
"Of course, my son!" responded Mother. She was sitting at hervanity, fixing her makeup and hair in the mirror. There were pinsall over the counter. Her hair was curled.
She grabbed a curled lock of hair and twirled it around herfinger. Then, after placing it in the precise location on the top of herhead, she grabbed a pin, put it in her mouth to open it, and stuckit in her hair to make the curl stay in place. She did this until allof the curls were placed on her head. Some of the curls were not astight as others, so they hung down a little. When she moved, thesecurls bounced with her.
I walked into their bedroom and over to their bed. It wasdifficult for me to sit on their bed because of my height. The top ofthe bed was level with my shoulders. I had to put both of my handson the bed and jump, spinning myself around, to be able to sit onit. Whenever I did this, Mother always giggled.
"Mother?" I softly said.
"Yes, my love?" She looked at me in her mirror.
"What time do you and Papa have to leave tomorrow?"
"Not until after lunchtime. We can go riding in the morningafter breakfast if you would like to."
"Oh yes, please, Mother! That sounds lovely!"
Mother was wearing an elegant red gown. This one remindedme of the roses outside because of the color.
Papa walked into the room with his right arm behind his back.As he turned toward my mother, with his back toward me, I saw inhis hand a rose that matched her beautiful dress. When I leanedforward to try to smell it, I almost fell off the bed.
As he handed her the rose, he said, "For my love, a beautifulrose, which cannot even compare to your beauty!"
"Oh! You are so sweet!" She blushed. "I love you!"
"I love you too, my bride."
Whenever they dressed up, they looked so elegant, almost asperfect as a painting. Papa leaned over to kiss Mother. Their lovewas so pure and natural; they genuinely cared for one another.
Our cat, Buttons, came into the room. His nose was pink, withan orangish-pink spot on the right half of it. His fur was orange,with white on his paws and belly. His eyes were golden like Mother'shair. Buttons was a sweet cat who loved to be held and petted. Andhe was almost always purring; he was rarely quiet.
Buttons jumped on the bed next to me and then crawled intomy lap. He was purring so loudly that one could have heard it froma few feet away.
"All right, Son, time for you to go to bed," Mother informedme.
"Oh, okay." I sighed.
I walked out of my parents' bedroom and toward mine. It wasdark, even with the candles lit on the wall and the one in myhand.
Once in my room, I set the candle on my night table so thatI could put on my pajamas. When I picked the candle back up, Iwalked into my bathroom. As I set it down on the counter to brushmy teeth, I heard Mother walk into my room.
"Make sure you go to the bathroom, sweetheart," she remindedme.
She was sitting on a chair by my bed, waiting for me to finish.She held the vase of roses that had been on the dining table as weate dinner.
As I walked to my bed, I began to yawn. Mother set the vase ofroses on my night table, next to my glass of water.
Every night when Mother put me to bed, she would sing a songto me. When I lay down, Mother pulled up my covers and then satnext to me on my bed. She placed her arm around me and beganto sing:
Little rose, my little rose,
Grow up big and strong.
Let your beauty shine,
Let your love ring
Until the end of time.
Little rose, my little rose,
Be all you can be.
You are my little rose,
And I love you so!
Her song and her voice were very soothing.
"Do you have to go out to the party tonight, Mother?" Iwhined.
"Yes, I am sorry. But we will be home before you know it! Do youwant me to wake you once we are home?" she asked me.
