A Wonderful Life

The story of a noblewoman's wonderful life. From her perspective.

I live a wonderful life.

I was born of a noble class and married a nobleman, the adviser of the king himself.

My children are all well-bred and have my looks and their father’s brain.

They are all proper in their education, manners, and social standing.

The boys are all trained in excellent swordsmanship. I hired the most-suitable teacher for them. I heard that they have not yet lost to anyone else in their practice duels.

The girls are all trained in their ability to act as a lady like me.

I wake up when the sun is high, and the servants are already busy with their work, as they should be. Only a foolish servant will fool around while they are living off of my wealth.

My lunch is served in my room. My plate is filled with meat, just how I like it. There are no signs of vegetables anywhere. The wine tastes luxurious. And desert soon follows.

Chocolate cake, triple layered, all for me.

I spend my day walking around the castle overseeing the servants. I walk quietly so that I can catch the lazy ones unaware. But all my servants are hard-working. As I look down at them passing by with my group of attendants, I see that not one of them is out of place. I often turn around and ask my attendants for a cup of tea, which they carry on a large cart filled with my favorite brews. And as I sip my tea, I think of how wonderful my life is.

Sometimes, I do have to dismiss some servants. One time, I heard one whispering about how my son slept with her sister.

I could not allow such erroneous rumors spread around the castle, so I asked the hangman to dismiss her from duty.

I truly hope that she is still doing well.

My eldest son is of courting age, so we often send letters to other nobles of the kingdom. When we do get replies, they come over to visit.

I have to represent my husband well, so I dress up nicely.

I also have all my children dress formally.

The visiting noble family often looks nervous, for a good reason. We are a well-known family in the kingdom, and our reputation reaches far beyond the kingdoms. Naturally, anyone who steps onto our land will feel nervous.

The daughter of interest often looks at my son intriguingly. She is frowning, so she must be trying to get a better sight of him. He has rippling layers of fat to show off our family’s wealth. His attitude shows that he is proud, as a nobleman should be. He holds his head up high and speaks with his manly, sometimes cracking, voice.

I can see why girls would be so fond of him. He is truly the representation of what a man should be. Unfortunately, bad vision is not a wanted trait. I will have to refuse this one as well, I suppose.

I walked over to my sons’ sword-practicing field today.

My son was sparring a younger boy. The younger boy was on the floor with his hands covering his head and crying. My son was beating him with the wooden sword and kicking him, calling him names.

I nodded in approval. Such weak opponents are not worthy of my sons.

As I walked away, I heard my son shouting,

“I am the prince. Bow before me,” before the sound of hitting resumed.

I opened the doors to my husband’s room. He was sitting on his couch, as usual.

He was leaning back. He must be sleeping.

I sat next to him gently, to not wake him. His head fell to my shoulder. I ran my hand across his face, which was smooth as a gravestone. He must take real good care of his skin.

He was getting lighter these days. He looked real thin, too. His eyes were sunken into his eye sockets. His skin was almost white. I could make out every bone in his body.

I do worry for him, but he is my husband. He will be fine.

I reach out for the cup that is in front of him. It is filled a bitter-smelling liquid, his favorite wine. I was never fond of it, but when I gifted it to him for his birthday, he drank it all, so he must have enjoyed it. I was there with him, watching him drink every last drop.

I walk out, and he lays down on the couch.

And I resume my wonderful life.

Reviews

[roarke]

Wow, LOTS of story here. You've given the queen a detailed portrait. I've gotten a vivid picture of her, her life, her kingdom, sons, husband. While reading, I got a sense the queen was having a conversation with someone. You slyly mention one of her servants was "dismissed" by the hangman... and later on you slyly suggest she poisoned her husband so as to not be questioned and to keep her gloriously wonderful life. Could her narrative/conversation be to a court or to the hangman coming to her cell to bring her to execution? Could she be passing on her ideals of royalty to her son, who seems to readily take after his mother. MG, you have a crafty gift with subtly. Keep this write and when you have time, play around with different treatments. Good stuff.

[MajesticGust]

Thank you for enjoying the story! When I first wrote this story, i had a word limit, so I couldn't go into detail as much as I would have liked. I will definitely try to improve it more.