Act I: Scene III
There was no point in trying to use logic for anything at this point. Not to understand why everyone spoke like they belonged in the twenty first century, not the sixteenth, and not to understand how I was here in the first place. I would just have to trust my father. It was really hard to do that, but I owed it to him, after what I had put him through, and now that he was gone.
When I awoke the next morning, I saw that someone had placed a dress at the end of the bed. Oh god. There was a corset. I wouldn't even be able to get it on my own! This was going to be very trying. I was already dreading the day when a servant came in to help me dress. I took one last deep breath before she started to tug. How did women breathe in these things?!
When she finished, I looked in the mirror, and had to admit, my boobs did look great. Not worth damaging my ribs or lungs over, but they did indeed look bigger, and any belly fat was what looked like permanently sucked in. Well, there had to be perks to most bad situations, right?
I was going to have to come up with a back story. I couldn't exactly tell anyone the truth. But... that might be just what I needed. I needed to stick as close to the truth as I could, so that, if questioned, I would be able to recall the details quickly. Right. I could do this. Just needed to take a deep breath. Oh wait. I couldn't. I could barely even sit down. How was I going to eat? Right. Focus, Corrine. Focus on the big picture.
Backstory. Alright, well that should be easy enough. I thought for a few moments before leaving the room I'd slept in. I barely got out of the door before I was swarmed. I took half a second to look at my surroundings before focusing on the girls suddenly around me. It looked like a common area. Couches, chairs and very nice rugs, along with a bible on a stand. The girls had left their embroidery where they were sitting. They all wanted to know who I was and where I had come from. Obviously.
Once again I was saved by the queen. When she came in, the girls scattered quickly, going back to their work. The queen beckoned to me and I followed her into a side room. A desk sat in the room, with chairs on either side. "Sit." She said quietly. So I sat. You don't exactly get to say no to a queen, and why would I? I had to give her an explanation. I had to belong here if I was going to save her and her son. Because it wasn't just Hamlet. So many people were going to die if I couldn't fix it. I had to force calm throughout my body, which was hard to do without breath.
"I need to know, Corrine, how and why you've come to Elsinore. Girls don't just come here on their own and jump in the river. So, how did you come to be here?"
Here it goes, I thought.
"My father... he passed away, just recently. And my mother, she's been gone for a long time. I didn't know where to go. I have no husband, and I hoped to find a place to start here. I'll earn my keep, I can be a servant. I just need a place somewhere. I have no one now. I got so distracted by the beauty of this place, that when I was near the river, I slipped in the mud. I can't swim, and my clothes were heavy in the water."
The queen nodded. "I see. I'm sorry for your loss. But don't be silly, you won't be a servant. I will take you in as one of my ladies. Ophelia, the newest of my ladies, besides you, will teach you about your duties. The rules here are simple. Do as you are bid, be virtuous and kind, and you won't have any problems," she said with a small smile. I nodded quickly. That was easy. I really had hoped to not be a servant. It would make it much harder to get close to Hamlet, or anyone in the royal family. And the queen had just given me a good place to start. Ophelia would teach me my duties. She had an integral part of Hamlet's story. If I could be her friend... it would help me out a lot. Thank you, Gertrude, I thought. Thank you very much.
"Thank you. I will do my best to please you, your Majesty," I murmured.
"You may go," she gestured with her hand. "And try not to fall in any rivers. My son might not be around to save you next time."
I nodded quickly and exited. So now Hamlet was the one who saved me? Well the play did talk about how devoted Gertrude was to her son. That also made things easier for me. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard. But I couldn't forget, Dad had tried to save them many times over, and failed. So it wouldn't be as easy as it seemed. I was afraid of the challenges ahead, especially the one that would come at the end of my journey. But I couldn't think about getting back now. I wouldn't even try to do so until I either succeeded or failed to save Hamlet.
The next few hours were mind numbing, and I stabbed my finger with a needle several times. Embroidery was obviously not something I could pick up quickly. Ophelia was kind, though I could tell she was trying her best not to laugh at me when I hurt myself. I successfully stopped myself from bleeding on the cloth, which was my only success during the morning. I wasn't the type to just sit and do basically nothing for hours on end, but these women seemed perfectly content to work on their patterns.
Ophelia was sharp witted, which I almost hadn't expected. After an hour of stabbing, I mean embroidery, she told me stories of the other ladies, and some of the scandals at the Elsinore court. She was someone I would want to have as a friend, if she didn't live only in a story where she would eventually kill herself. When I felt as though I would laugh out loud from one of her stories, I remembered her fate. It seemed hard to imagine this sarcastic and beautiful woman killing herself over a man, but I knew that was what laid in her future, if I didn't do something. After our morning together, I wanted to save her more than anyone else.
"So now what?" I asked her as we put away our mornings work.
"Now we eat lunch," she replied. "And then it's time for reading, and then a party tonight. There's so many parties here, it's like no one actually has anything to do. Though, since we spend most of our time doing what really is basically nothing, it's not so surprising."
"What do the men do while we twiddle our thumbs?" I asked her, rubbing my own sore thumb. That was going to hurt for a while.
"Well the men who work with the king are in the chambers, taking care of the country. If only it was left to us women. Well, the smart ones anyway."
I laughed. "Yeah, if only."
"Unfortunately," she murmured, "there are plenty that care only about nice things and the attention of men."
I smiled. "Yeah, I can see that. Well, if you have no power in the world, is it worth it to care about the things you can't change?" I asked, curious as to what she would think.
She glanced at me, unsure. "Of course it is. Someday, we will have the power to publicly change things. It's best to not get caught unaware. Besides, sometimes we already have that power, we just have to be subtle about it. Manipulate the men who think they're in control."
I grinned. Now this girl was one who would make a good queen. Now if only I could make that happen. She was sharp. Just what any country needed in a ruler. "I agree," I said softly. "Most definitely."
We made it to lunch, and ate at a table with the other ladies, but in a room with the men of the court, including King Hamlet and the queen. During the meal, I felt eyes on me and looked toward the main table, where the royals sat. There was a man watching our table, and who gave me the creeps. He could have been good looking, except for the look in his eyes and the way he watched the women. He was younger than the king, and something about them was similar.
Ophelia confirmed my suspicions. This was Claudius, the king's brother. Wait. That was it. If I could stop Claudius from killing the king, Hamlet would never see his father's ghost, go crazy, and cause his own death and that of the people around him. I could stop all of it before it even happened. But how?
