A Girl in Black and White (Alyria 2)
Isadora sighed. “She wasn’t a princess; she was a farm girl.”
The little girl pouted. “But, Grandmother—”
She huffed, acquiescing or she’d never get through this story. “Fine. She was a princess, she just didn’t know it.”
Her granddaughter nodded, pleased. “This is a great story!”
“Yea, yea,” Isadora grumbled. “That’s because you’re twisting it how you like.”
The girl shrugged. “I’m only making it better. So what next? She doesn’t kiss the assassin, does she? Princesses are only supposed to kiss princes,” she said matter-of-factly.
Because Isadora was tired of her granddaughter bending the story how she wanted it, she said, “Yes, she does kiss him.”
The girl scrunched her nose. “Gross.”
Isadora was pleased with her granddaughter’s reaction; she hoped it would always stay that way.
“Do you mean I should go kiss assassins, Grandmother? Because I know you like to put your little lessons in these stories.”
Isadora blinked, wondering how the girl was only six. “No—”
“That’s how it sounded to me. After all, the princess kisses an assassin. And every girl looks up to princesses.”
Isadora let out a little noise of frustration. “Okay, he wasn’t an assassin; he was a prince. He was only pretending to be an assassin.”
“Oh! I bet the princess was happy when she found out.”
“She didn’t find out.”
Her granddaughter frowned. “Why didn’t he tell her?”
“Because he wasn’t a good prince, but a bad one.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “There’s no such thing.”
See, this was a lesson needed . . . “There is no black and white in human nature. Just because a man is a prince doesn’t make him a good man.”
“How do you know? You’ve never met one.”
“Yes, I have.” When it looked like her granddaughter was going to cut her off again, she hurried to say, “but that’s a story for another day.”
The girl sighed. “That sounds like a better tale than this one. But do go on, Grandmother.”
Isadora wasn’t sure she wanted to continue, but they had some time to kill until the man’s family came to retrieve him. “He was a bad prince, and he wanted the princess to free the magic.”
The girl’s mouth dropped open. “What an awful prince! Or maybe he didn’t know there would be pillaging and raping?”
Isadora couldn’t help the little laugh. “Oh, he knew.”
“Then why would she kiss him?”
Isadora sighed. She was beginning to forget the details of this story. So she shrugged and said, “You can’t help who you love.”
The girl scoffed. “I bet the princess didn’t love him. How could she love an evil prince? I bet she just wanted to try kissing, like Alysia. She kisses boys she doesn’t love.”
Isadora’s eyes narrowed. “What do you know about that?”
Her granddaughter shrugged. “Alysia kisses lots of boys—I’ve seen her. She says it’s fun.” The girl scrunched her nose. “I don’t know why. It looks gross.”