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Thad looked over the ballroom, impatiently searching for the one who would be his future wife. She was the daughter of a Baron, and she was allegedly quite pretty – unlike himself. As a prince, Thad had been flattered and adored his whole life, but at the tolerable age of twenty-one he had come to realize that he was not handsome by any means.
He was too short, a bit too thick around the middle, and was the owner of a nose of unsavory size. His eyes were too round, and his ears stuck out. Really, the only redeeming physical quality he had (one he had heard praised to the skies more often than he wanted to remember) was his smile. It was charming and bright, as he was told. Further inspection proved the lauding advisors to be more or less right. The prince thusly made it his personal ambition to smile as much as possible, so as to keep from looking monstrously hideous.
He was a good man, all things considering, despite his physiognomy. He was friendly, tender, just, and logical. In short, he was all a prince should be, except handsome. Money can bypass looks, however; this was how he was settled with such a pretty bride. He endeavored to be sure she was a moderately pleasant person, too, but the only people who could vouch for her character were the same ones who said Thad looked like a gift from the gods. Understandably, Thad did not have high hopes for Lady Joslyn, whoever she may be.
“Baron Hiles and Lady Joslyn,” the announcer said, his voice barely ebbing above the music and chatter that filled the room.
Thad looked to the entrance quickly and caught a glimpse of the edge of Lady Joslyn's dress, but the rest of her had disappeared into the crowd. She would find him soon, he knew, so he took that opportunity to drink the rest of his champagne and double-check his attire. He'd just determined that he looked as trim as ever he would when a vision in sage materialized in front of him.
He quickly decided that he was in love. Even as she smiled her fake smile and fed him her fake words, he knew that no one else in the world would ever make him happy. And one day, he knew he would make her happy, too.
Inspiration: The story of the ugly prince that my sister told, mentioned in an earlier post. I'll be fleshing it out, more or less, in the next few posts. I'm not sure yet whether it will be a complete short story or merely some plot fragments; I suppose we'll see.
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I like this! Poor guy. I finally read the actual story, too. It seemed rather long and daunting before, but now I have read it. It was sort of horrible, and made me realize that I'm probably a very shallow person, and it was particularly awful that it wasn't that the princess asked the lion to kill her husband, but deep down it knew what she wanted. Quite the chill factor, actually. Your little sister could write horror stories. Haha. :D I did disapprove, though, of the prince trying to train her tiger for use in war. That was terribly rude of him. Anywho, I am intrigued to see how you flesh it out. :D
ReplyDeleteHi There Billi,
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to see some of your writing on other subjects, especially the non-fiction. I agree with your distress over stereotypes of 'ugly=creepy' and 'beautiful + handsome=happy ever after': the fruit of our appearance obsessed culture I am afraid. I think we all ought to do as much as we can to resist such prejudices whenever we notice them.
I also think that the word 'ugly' is as bad as, if not worse than, most swear words because of the harm it does to the object receiving the label. I have made it a 'mouth-washed-out-with-soap' offence in my family, when they call eachother ugly. (mean Mum ay!)
By the way what a cool word physiognomy is! I had forgotten such a word existed before reading it here. *adds it to her vocab list for Aff&Aff*
Ah, Billi! I don't know why I missed this update - perhaps if I linked to your blog on my own, I could keep more up-to-date with them. In fact, I think that's exactly what I'll do. :D
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I really like this piece. I see it as being very honest, albeit a little harsh on itself in some regards (the Prince immediately falling for the Princess, despite him being aware of her false appearance, comes to mind). I'd definitely like to hear the rest of this story once I get the chance.
Keep at it, Billi!
~ SB