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“Sit up straight, Rosella,” Lady Gertrude said for what must have been the hundredth time.
Rosella let out a loud groan and tried to make herself comfortable on the stone garden bench.
“And don’t groan like that, it’s not ladylike.”
Rosella pushed herself into an upright position and folded her hands in her lap with exaggerated politeness, watching the throngs of well-dressed courtiers going to and fro.
Why did being ladylike have to be so awful?
The spring day was a bit warm for the season. The sky overhead was a perfect shade of blue, and flowers filled the air with their fragrance.
On a day like this, Rosella would have been running around the gardens, climbing trees, and playing hide-and-seek with the other castle children.
Unfortunately, the castle was all topsy-turvy today because some duke’s daughter was marrying some earl’s son. Most of the courtyard and the gardens had been taken over for the wedding festivities.
Worse yet, because Rosella’s parents, her tutors, and her usual governess were occupied with the wedding, Rosella was stuck in the company of Lady Gertrude, the castellan’s wife.
And to top everything off, Rosella had to wear her best, and therefore least comfortable, springtime gown. The frothy, frilled mass of pale pink organdy itched in a dozen places and was weighed down with at least a ton of lace and ribbons, and Rosella had lost count of how many times she’d tripped and stumbled over the dress’s floor-length hem.
When I am queen, I shall pass a law against forcing little girls to wear itchy dresses that you can’t climb trees in.
Out loud, she asked, “Where are Mother and Father?”
“Your parents are paying their regards to Lord Bertram and Lady Cecile, as is correct and proper,” Lady Gertrude said. “You will meet lots of fine lords and ladies when you are a grown-up queen, and so you will have to greet them courteously as well.”
If that was what being a grown-up queen was like, Rosella thought sourly, then she would rather be an eight-year-old princess forever.
Maybe her parents were just as bored and impatient as she was. A few days before, she’d overheard King Graham lamenting he’d have to cancel a fishing trip at Lake Maylie because of the wedding.
“Please, Lady Gertrude!” A maid of honor came trotting up. “Your assistance is wanted in Lady Cecile’s chambers.”
“Very well.” Lady Gertrude rose to her feet. “Rosella, stay out of mischief.”
Rosella waited until Lady Gertrude was out of sight. Then she bolted up from the stone bench and took off into the garden. Freedom!
She headed for the far northwest corner of the garden, one of the few spots in the courtyard not overrun with wedding guests, and hunkered down behind a rose bush.
Heralds’ trumpets sounded, and all the guests in the garden began to make their way inside.
Rosella waited in her hiding spot for a few minutes more.
She was alone, completely alone, in the garden.
Finally!
She eagerly started to scramble to her feet.
And then she realized that she’d gotten one lace-covered sleeve of her dress caught on a rose thorn.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Rosella muttered. She yanked the sleeve loose, tearing the lace and cloth in the process, but lost her balance and fell against a curtain of ivy on the garden wall.
Something green fell from the ivy and landed on her arm.
“Oh!” she said in surprise.
It was a lizard, about as long as Rosella’s hand, with bright green scales and glittering purple eyes. It looked up at her curiously.
“Are you bored too?” Rosella asked. “I can’t run around and play like I usually do. It’s because of this dumb wedding.”
The lizard chirped and began to climb up Rosella’s arm.
And then it unfurled a pair of gossamer silver wings and began to flutter around.
Laughing, Rosella got to her feet—not caring that she now had flecks of dirt all over her dress—and began to run after the lizard.
The lizard doubled back and landed on Rosella’s outstretched hand.
“Let’s do that again!” Rosella said.
Back and forth, the lizard flew in loops around the garden as Rosella ran after it.
There were the strains of music coming from inside the castle. The wedding must have started.
“Princess Rosella!”
Rosella jumped a foot in the air and quickly put her hands—with the lizard—behind her back.
Lady Gertrude had returned.
“It’s time for the ceremony! And what in heaven’s name have you been doing? Your gown is a fright!”
Rosella carefully slipped the lizard into her pocket before following Lady Gertrude inside.
Lady Gertrude steered Rosella into the crowded Great Hall. The cavernous room was filled with nobles and guests in their best clothing.
The thrones were empty, but a group of ornate chairs stood to one side of the dais. King Graham and Queen Valanice were seated there.
“There you are, Rosella,” said Valanice, looking perfectly elegant in her green brocade gown. “What have you been up to?”
“Probably having more fun than we are,” Graham joked.
Lady Gertrude made a face like she was eating a lemon.
Rosella sat down next to her parents, and Lady Gertrude sat down next to her.
The ceremony started, and the bride and groom walked to the dais where the archbishop of Daventry was now waiting.
It was long. And boring.
Rosella stifled a yawn.
And then she felt something skittering up her arm.
The lizard had scuttled out of her pocket and over the back of her chair.
Oh. No.
Rosella fought back a rising wave of panic and carefully glanced over her shoulder, trying not to attract the attention of her parents or Lady Gertrude.
The lizard had climbed up a large column on one side of the hall.
Should she try to catch it?
“Rosella, stop turning around,” Lady Gertrude hissed.
Rosella quickly turned her eyes back to the dais.
And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the lizard again.
The lizard was now fluttering toward where the high-ranking council lords and ladies were sitting.
The lizard landed on top of a lady’s ornate headdress, looked around for a minute—and jumped down into the lady’s lap.
The woman let out a shriek that could possibly be heard as far away as the Great Mountains.
All over the Great Hall, guests scrambled to their feet, anxiously looking around for what had startled the woman. It was sheer pandemonium.
Valanice looked shocked. But Graham was laughing.
Rosella bolted from her chair before anyone could stop her.
Where was it? Where was it? Surely a green lizard would stand out against the red carpet and the bright marble.
And then she saw the lizard running for a giant porcelain vase of flowers on one side of the Great Hall. She made a beeline for the vase.
“There you are!” Rosella scooped up the lizard. “I hope that lady didn’t trample you.”
The lizard chirped, skittered up Rosella’s arm, and settled down on her shoulder.
“Princess Rosella.”
Rosella looked up…and there was Lady Gertrude, with a face like a thundercloud.
Uh-oh, Rosella thought.
“Hello, Lady Gertrude,” she said as innocently as possible.
Lady Gertrude opened her mouth to deliver the scolding to end all scoldings, but was interrupted by the arrival of Graham and Valanice.
“Rosella, what on earth is going on? What’s that?” Valanice pointed to the lizard on Rosella's shoulder.
“It’s a Serenian Dragonet, just like the one in your nature book, isn’t it, Mother?” Rosella held the lizard up for Valanice to see.
“Quick little blighters, aren’t they?” Graham said with admiration. “They’re impossible to catch.”
“I was in the garden, and I was so bored, and I just found him, and we were just—”
“Your Majesties.” Gertrude pressed her lips into a thin line. “I have been trying to exercise due influence over the princess, but really, the child has been impossible today.” Gertrude started on a litany of Rosella’s assorted faults. “Flighty, impatient, fidgety, willful—”
“In other words, she’s being a normal little girl,” Graham finished. “Thank you, Lady Gertrude, we will take it from here.”
It was known that Lady Gertrude thought Graham was far too indulgent with his daughter, but obviously she could not say as much in public. Criticizing the king of Daventry to his face was certainly NOT ladylike, after all.
Lady Gertrude bobbed a stiff curtsy and headed off, still scowling.
The castle doctors were tending to the lady with the ornate headdress with a dose of smelling salts. Various attendants and courtiers were trying to restore order, and the archbishop was retrieving his miter from where it had rolled off the dais.
“Rosella, I think your little friend would be much happier back in the garden,” Graham said. “Let’s put him back there, shall we?”
“Okay,” Rosella said.
Heading back out the side door with her parents close behind, Rosella carefully deposited the lizard on an azalea bush next to an ornamental pond. The lizard darted away into the flowers.
Through an open window, the archbishop could be heard rushing through the last part of the wedding ceremony, and the crowd delivered a relieved “Amen.”
“There is a time and a place to go playing with small reptiles, my dear, but a grand occasion like a wedding isn’t one of them,” Valanice said gently but firmly.
Rosella looked down at her shoes. “Yes, Mother.”
“And your mother would know,” Graham said. “After all, she let an iguana loose in the house during an important banquet when she was your age.”
“Graham!” Valanice remonstrated.
Rosella burst out laughing.
“Gave one old lady a massive case of the vapors, your governess told me,” Graham added.
“It wasn’t an iguana, it was a Greater Kolyma Swamp Newt, that’s a—” Valanice stopped herself mid-sentence, blushing. “I think it’s time we head back inside. The wedding feast will be starting soon.”
Rosella started to follow Graham and Valanice back inside. As she did, she heard a skittering noise from a nearby flowering vine.
The lizard was there, clinging to a strand of flowers.
Rosella grinned. “Bye, friend.”
The lizard chirped in response, fluttered its wings, and flew off.