Chapter 31 #2
“Come, come,” Languidere said with a limp wrist held out to her.
Nan, with hands clasped before her, stood directly in front of Languidere.
Obedience sometimes helped. The princess ran her fingers over the Nan’s lips.
“Such a pretty, pretty, face. It’s so rare for poor people to be pretty.
They usually don’t even have all their teeth.
” The princess’ voice crept into a whisper and then a giggle.
“Nan, now is the part where you tell me that I am pretty.”
“You are most beautiful, Your Majesty.”
“I know. I am far more beautiful than Alice,” the princess said, pressing three fingers against Nan’s mouth.
She traced Nan’s uniform boning at her bust. The red fabric was the same hue as the red paint on the princess’ nails.
“Now, tell me, darling Nan. What about my dress is daring?” she said, circling the knot of laces at the center of Nan’s chest.
“I meant no offense.” There was nothing Nan could say, though she tried. “The emeralds and gold metal boning are extraordinary.”
“Too late for that, Nanny. Speak your mind, silly.” The princess tugged at the knot.
“I have, Your Majesty. It is what I say,” Nan said quietly, as the princess yanked at the trailing laces and giggled as fabric snapped back from her pull.
“Oh, Nan, it is not what you say.” Languidere tugged at the knot again. “For ’daring’ implies, I’m not sure, something arrogant. You don’t approve? You think he prefers some little doe-eyed virgin like her?”
“I do not know what the king prefers, Your Highness,” Nan tried as the princess continued to playfully yank the button, her eyes flaring like a taunting child. Alice had become a singular obsession in the princess’ mind. The outcome of such fixations was usually quite catastrophic.
“Do you think she would wear that daring dress, Nan?” the princess whispered, close to Nan’s mouth. Then, abruptly, she jabbed Nan in the stomach.
Nan flinched. “I do not know.” She resisted the urge to look away. Weakness was far too enticing to Languidere.
Languidere grinned, shaking her head hypnotically.
“Oh, no, no, no…” She took Nan’s head in her hands and shook it side to side in unison with hers.
“No, no, she wouldn’t wear it. Poor, and I do mean poor, sweet Nan.
She can’t! Her breasts are as small as yours are.
” The princess’ hypnotic tone shifted higher as she now moved her and Nan’s heads up and down, nodding like the snake charmer’s flute bobs up and down.
Then, she stopped. “But you are so very pretty, even though your breasts are meager lumps. I do think you’re the prettiest of my maids.
Does that make you feel special, Nan?” Her hands were still twined around Nan’s head.
“It does. Thank you, Your Majesty.” Nan tried to appear calm, but she knew Languidere had a certain disdain for pretty women.
“Oh! Do you think she died?” The princess shifted, and the new topic caused her to giggle.
“Your Majesty?”
“Do you think Alice died when she was swallowed up in the port?” Languidere let out a dramatic exhale.
“No! She dined with the king and Rosemarie. So, no, she would not die. Damn!” Languidere smirked as her fingers tiptoed over Nan’s breast to her stomach.
“It’s the water, Nan! That is what allows us to avoid the silly nuisance of death, or, well, at least put it off for a very long time.
” Nan knew this, but it was always best to allow the princess to play teacher.
“If I were queen,” Languidere went on, “I’d make it so only royalty could drink goddess waters. And the royal house pets, of course.” She giggled, and with that childish emission, she yanked the knot at Nan’s bodice open. “I’d also rip out Rosemarie’s heinous unshapely rose trees, as well.”
Nan bowed her head, frightened to think Languidere could ever be made queen and what would become of the enchanted roses that had lived upon the palace grounds for centuries.
As Languidere began to pace, Nan thought of their roots that crawled deep into that very spring.
She knew that the roses were divine, for, in the garden, she could hear the whispers of spirits.
When Nan dreamed of her mother, she was always waiting for her in Queen Rosemarie’s garden at Thorncrest. Nan had dreamed of that garden all her life, before having ever seen it.
Languidere didn’t deserve to set foot in it, let alone own it.
“It is odd, isn’t it?” The princess began to walk, taking a new position of a power.
“What is odd, Your Majesty?”
“The concept of death.” Languidere turned, leaning her head to the side, her long hair swinging about over her exposed skin as she adjusted her scarlet silk robe over her shoulders.
The entire act was a performance. “Have you known death, dear Nan?” The princess was grinning.
She knew the devastation that many who were brought from elsewhere to Oz experienced.
“Your Majesty, my parents, I believe…”
“Pity!” Languidere chirped and then stuck out her bottom lip.
“But if one cannot die, what would happen if someone were to be buried alive, like Alice? Or!” Languidere clapped.
“What if she were chopped up into tiny bits? Little bits, really. Say, bits of chow or tiger kibble?” The princess walked slowly to Nan, sliding the silk belt of her robe through her hands tenderly.
“Are they someone who is now living as…” The princess giggled coyly.
“Kibble bits? Would her little lips still move, even though they are but a scrap of flesh in a pretty porcelain tiger bowl?” Languidere’s hands floated through the air to Nan’s face, and with gentle prodding fingertips, she strummed over Nan’s eyebrows.
“Or what if her eyeball was plucked out and thrown to the tiger and swallowed whole with the kibble bits? Would we see inside the tiger’s belly?
Would we watch our own little kibble bits bubble and stew inside of precious Hungry Tiger’s belly? ” The princess giggled at the thought.
“I do not know.” Nan wanted to run, but she would be caught and punished for such an act.
“No. How could you? But…” The princess lifted Nan’s face as a mother does a naughty child. “I want to know, Nan. I am so curious of these things. I don’t like not knowing the things that I am so curious about. I have to know.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Nan said through her tightening throat.
“You are very special to me, Nan, even if you are poor and say very stupid things.” The princess kissed her mouth, still holding her chin. “You will tell me what happens inside Hungry Tiger’s belly, won’t you?” She spoke sweetly and lowly and gave Nan another kiss, like kissing a child to sleep.
“Your Majesty?” Nan asked, nose to nose with her.