I haven’t shared an excerpt from The People the Fairies Forget recently, have I?  I was thinking it would be fun to introduce…well, he would be Cinderella’s Prince, if he ever manages to get the slipper on the right girl.  Prince Roderick was one of my favorite characters to write, and he seems to get strong reactions from people.  One of my friends is quite adamant that she’d like to hit him with a two-by-four.

Context for the scene below: my heroine, Catherine, was mistakenly carried off to the palace when Cinderella’s slipper fit her.  She’s been waiting around for the prince to come see her; he’s just arrived in this scene.  My fairy narrator, Tarragon, is also present, but invisible.

That should fill you in, but check out the People the Fairies Forget category for more background and other excerpts.

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            Prince Roderick looked like everything a prince was supposed to be.  Tall and handsome and young.  He was wearing a multitude of gold braid and a rapturous expression that looked as carefully designed as the braid.  The expression dissolved away into petulance as soon as he saw Catherine.

“But you’re not the right girl,” he complained before she’d even completed a curtsy.

“That’s what I’ve been telling everyone,” Catherine said, looking vindicated.

Roderick turned to the smaller man with him.  “Leonard, she’s not the right one.”

I’d hardly noticed the smaller man when he had walked in with Roderick.  He was a thin man with long-fingered hands and a wisp of mustache.  His clothes and his hair and his eyes were all shades of vague pale brown, so that he almost blended into the background.  “How unfortunate, Your Highness,” he said smoothly.  “I can’t imagine how such a mistake could have occurred.  Clearly we should not have trusted the herald to handle such a delicate matter.”

The prince sighed deeply.  “Why is everyone always wasting my time like this?”

Catherine’s vindication was replaced by irritation.  “Wasting your time?  You came in half a minute ago.  I’ve been stuck here since yesterday, because you couldn’t be bothered to come see if I was the right girl or not.”

Roderick seemed surprised by her annoyance.  “I was busy,” he said, as though this would explain everything.

Catherine didn’t see it that way.  “You were busy?”

“I was hunting.”

For just a moment, she looked inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.  “And you didn’t get a message?” she guessed.

“I got a message.  But I was hunting.”

Catherine sat down, somewhat heavily.  “And that was more important than coming to see the woman you’re in love with?  I’m not her, of course, but you didn’t know that before you came in here.”

“I didn’t give you permission to sit in my presence,” the prince noted.

“So arrest me,” she said, reaching for a biscuit.

“I suppose that isn’t necessary,” he decided.  “And I’m not in love with the girl I was dancing with.  I just think she’s pretty.”  He looked at Catherine thoughtfully.  “You’re pretty too.”

Catherine stopped halfway through tearing her biscuit in half.  “I’m going home.”

“Pretty in a different sort of way.  She was kind of more…”  He frowned.  “Less solid.”

She frowned too.  “I don’t even know what that means, but I don’t actually care because it doesn’t matter.  Because I’m going home.”

“It may not be that simple,” the small man with the prince said.  I had to concentrate to remember his name.  Leonard.

“Of course it’s that simple,” Catherine said, viciously tearing a piece off the biscuit.  “I’m not the right girl, he doesn’t want to marry me, this was all a stupid mistake and I am going home now.”

“The difficulty,” Leonard continued, “is that we have already announced that we found the prince’s bride.”

Catherine put the pieces of the biscuit back on the table, apparently having lost her appetite again.  “So un-announce it.”

“We could do that,” Roderick said with a nod.

“I don’t think we could do that,” Leonard said.

“Maybe not,” Roderick amended.

“It is imperative that the common people respect the royalty,” Leonard said.  “Announcing that we have found a bride, and then announcing that we have not, will only lead to ridicule.  I am the royal family’s chief adviser, and it is my job to prevent such misimpressions.”

“He’s very good at it,” the prince commented.

Catherine stared at both of them.  “So you’re suggesting that I marry the prince to save the royal family from a little embarrassment?  That’s absurd.  I won’t do it.”

“There is no such thing as a little embarrassment when one is a member of the royal family.  These things are immensely serious.  On ridicule are revolutions made.  I am not merely suggesting you marry His Highness.  I am strongly advising it.”  Leonard’s expression, even his tone, were utterly inoffensive, utterly non-threatening, and yet there was something underneath it all…  I tried, but couldn’t put my finger on it.  And even though I was almost sure that concern over royal ridicule wasn’t his sole motivation, I also couldn’t put my finger on what else might be going on.

“Find some other way to prevent a revolution.  I’m not marrying him.”

“Anyone would think you didn’t want to marry me,” Prince Roderick said with a smile.

“I don’t.”

The smile turned puzzled.  “But all young women want to marry me.”

“I don’t.  I can’t.  I’m already promised to marry someone else.”

“But you came to the ball, didn’t you?” Leonard said, voice soft.  “Clearly you considered yourself eligible.”

Catherine dropped her gaze.  “Technically…I mean, I’m not married yet…but that doesn’t exactly mean…the point is, I am promised to be married.  So that’s it then.”

“All right, but what sort of man are you promised to?” Prince Roderick asked.  “You know, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief?”

Catherine blinked.  “Ah…poor man, I guess.  But hard-working,” she added hastily.  “Good prospects.”

“But not inheriting a title?  Not commanding armies or anything like that?”

“No, of course not.”

The prince folded his arms in evident satisfaction.  “Not a problem, then.  Break the engagement.  There’s not much he can do about it, if he hasn’t got an army or anything.”

“But I don’t want to break my engagement; that’s the whole point.”

Roderick looked momentarily puzzled.  Then his face cleared.  “Oh, I see.  You don’t want to hurt him.  That’s thoughtful.  But he’ll get over it.  I’m sure we could find him someone else to marry.  We have lots of serving girls.”

Catherine’s hands were clenched into fists in her lap.  “No, that’s not…well, that’s part of it, but…I don’t think you understand that I agreed to marry him because I wanted to marry him.”

“Of course you did.  But now you have a better prospect.”

“What makes you so sure you’re a better prospect?”

He shrugged.  “I’m the crown prince.  I’m the best possible prospect.”

I was resigned to egotism in crown princes, so it didn’t surprise me.  Catherine may have been expecting something different.  She shook her head.  “You know, for a prince, you’re really not that charming.  I always heard that princes were supposed to be charming.”

Roderick looked disapproving.  “I think I resent that.  Leonard, am I charming?”

Leonard, who had practically faded out of my notice for the last two minutes, was very swift to say, “Of course, Your Highness.”

“I don’t even see why you want to marry me,” Catherine protested.

“I have to marry someone.  You’re pretty enough.”

“And as some details of your identity have already filtered out to the general public, it would be awkward to change to another girl.  Therefore, you have become the best choice,” Leonard explained.  “For the good of the royal family.  And the country.  It would be unpatriotic of you to refuse.”