The Tale of a Princess Fallen from Grace

Chapter Six

Every day for the past week Rose had been getting up early to help Romi with the horses. She did not know how she had slipped into such a routine. The day after the sunrise mountain ride Rose had awoken early and found herself wandering to the horse stables before everyone else's day had even started. She had quite literally bumped into Romi, who was surprised to see her, but welcomed her in. She sat upon a hay bale as he and two other men sorted the horses out with food and water and groomed them. She did help him lead Alsukar into her pasture of the day though, and was pleasantly surprised when the horse allowed Rose to lead her without any qualms. She was obviously getting used to her.

She awoke early the day after and found herself wandering to the stables yet again, and the day after that and so on. She was drawn to Romi like a moth to a flame. Deep down she was panicking, but she felt an overriding sense of ease as she convinced herself that she was simply helping Romi with the horses, and his company and captivating tales were just a bonus. He was such a gentleman and never forced her to do anything, content to have a one-sided conversation apart from when she felt particularly brave. He also called her 'zahra', which meant 'beautiful flower', which always set her cheeks alight.

No one knew about her secret trips apart from the five other stable hands Moose, Cain, Oden, Seth and Uriah, so Rose convinced herself that his company was really nothing to worry about. All six of the men were kind and talked to her freely, well apart from Seth who ignored her apart from the occasional bow, so she enjoyed mixing with them. Their company was refreshing. She was proving herself useful by helping to feed and groom the horses, so it was not as if she was causing any trouble either.

Aurora was getting a little suspicious though. Twice she had caught Rose sneaking from her room at dawn as she was up early with the children, and when she joked that Rose was spending time with Romi, Rose turned the deepest shade of guilty-red that Aurora had ever seen, confirming her theory. Fortuitously she was discreet about the matter and had not told anyone else, but did love to tease Rose about having a little crush on him. Rose was adamant that she did not though - they were friends perhaps, but that was it. She certainly had not noticed how sweet his smile was, and how he had dimples when he laughed with a happiness from deep within.

Keeping busy with Romi and her sister's family was actually improving Rose's mood - although the thought of Josiah was certainly still painful, focusing on something other then herself helped to take her mind off the situation a little. She had actually grown quite close to Romi, which was surprising - he was unlike any friend she had ever had before. A true one.

He was teaching her how to look after the horses, and had told her all about his parent's farm, which was sadly struggling as they are living through a drought. Rose did not realise they were in a drought before Romi had told her, which made her feel quite ashamed that she had not bothered to find out what was going on past her life. She thought it was just always hot, but apparently it was hotter then usual and there had been no rainfall for three months. Most of the crops were starting to wither, making people anxiously wonder whether they were heading for starvation. Rose wanted to help him in any way that she could, and had spoken to Henri who was already on the situation and rationing water, such as turning all fountains off and closing most of the public baths.

Rose learnt that Romi had a younger sister named Malika who had always wanted to visit the castle, but her parents forbade her. He awkwardly revealed that his parents do not like him working at the castle but it pays well and he has health care benefits. Rose gathered that they have a certain bias against the Royalty class for some reason, which unnerved her. If she ever met his parents, she would want them to like her, although she was not sure why that was important to her.

In return Rose revealed a little of her life in Alluvia to him, and told him stories of her four brothers and two sisters growing up. As the sixth child out of seven, things were never dull when she was a child. Sometimes she wished she could go back to her childhood, a time when things were much simpler and happy.

Tomorrow evening was Josiah's ball, which Rose was quite nervous to attend. The castle was understandably very busy with last-minute preparations and setting up, as well as highly esteemed guests arriving. Rose had had her final dress fitting and wanted to spend a few hours away from it all, so she was hiding in the stables with Romi.

"Is this correct?" She asked, referring to her soft strokes, grooming the horse carefully.

"Yes thank you so much for your help Rose, but you know you really do not have to help me." Romi replied as he looked up from sweeping the stable.

His surprised expression when Rose picked up the brush to help irked her, as she did not want him to think she was just some useless Princess.

"Oh do not worry about it, I am happy to help." Rose smiled as she continued to comb the brown-speckled mare down, who was content to munch on hay.

"Would you not rather be preparing yourself for the ball? My sister has spoken endlessly of the tireless beauty regimens and skin treatments the rich women go through to look beautiful." Romi asked. "Although you certainly do not need it." He added hastily.

It was true. Rose was missing out on an afternoon of luscious skin treatments, from a gold flaked bath to the latest mud facial meant to make the skin glow, but she was sure she could just go tomorrow, or if not she was not truly convinced that it made a difference anyway. Aurora was not going so it would have just been Nijah's three sisters, a couple of their friends and Rose, so she was not too fussed. Spending time with Romi was certainly more gratifying to the soul.

"No that is alright, I would rather be here with you." Rose shrugged with a smile as she moved up to the horse's face.

Romi did not say anything, but she saw his features crinkle into a wide happy smile, filling her with a dizzying emotion. He started whistling a jolly tune, one of his many gifts as they carried on in comfortable silence.

"Would... Would you ever want to go to the ball?" Rose asked a little timidly, swallowing unsurely as she suddenly felt rather nervous.

"Oh no, it is certainly not my scene!" He laughed causing Rose to wince. "None of my clothes would be acceptable, and I certainly would not fit in with your world." He chuckled, but his words offended Rose.

"What is so wrong with 'my world'?" She asked with a frown as she stepped back from the horse.

"Well you know Rose... The upper class has always been very greedy and looks down on the working class, even though it is us looking after their houses, children and livestock. They get to just sit back and enjoy the riches. Most of them do not even care that we are in a drought, and certainly do not care that it is the lower class that will suffer the most, still going on as usual and using horrendous amounts of water for unnecessary things." Romi sighed bitterly as he stood up straight and leant on his broom for support.

"Well I am sorry you feel that way, but it is just the way of the world. There will always be people richer then you; it does not mean we are all bad people. Poor people can be evil too!" Rose exclaimed heatedly, alerting Romi that she was offended.

"Well yes of course, I am sorry. I did not meant to offend you." Romi sighed as he ran his hands through his cropped black hair.

"Do not worry about it, it does not matter, I understand how you feel about me. Do not bother coming to the ball with me, I certainly do not want you to come." She huffed before storming out of the stable with angry tears biting at her eyes.

"Zahra wait!" Romi called out as she heard him scuffling along behind her.

"Leave me alone!" She spat before breaking out into a full run, not wanting to look at him any longer.

Deep down she knew the true reason why she was so offended was that everything he said rang true, and she hated herself and the world because of that.

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