Prin had found he didn’t need near as much sleep these days as he used to, so even though it was only the am side of the dead of night when Aster returned, his mind had already been twitching and stretching trying to be released from the confines of sleep.
The door slowly opened, tapping against Prin’s foot, which he moved.
“Oops, sorry, did I wake you?” Aster murmured. She tiptoed inside and closed the door again. Stepping around the prince, and Elwin who seemed dead to the world still, and well he should be, she went to the stove and started a fire. “It’ll warm up in here in just a minute.”
“No, I was already awake.” The prince said softly.
Aster extinguished the oil lamp on the vanity and lit a few candles that had gone out. “Save some oil for later.”
She sat down on the stool at the vanity and began pulling pins and the gold bands, which seemed to be some sort of thin metal strips, just as they had appeared, out of her hair, until the red curls fell halfway down her back, looking as soft and light as feathers. Next, a drawer was opened and into it was placed a jingling array of bracelets, rings, and earrings, efficiently removed.
Prin sat up and watched her in the warm ambient lighting.
“Don’t look too close, or you will see how the sausage is un-made.” Aster quipped.
“Oh, sorry.” Prin said sheepishly, turning away. He chided himself internally on his lack of concern for people’s privacy. Since he had never had, or needed, any himself, he was still getting used to the concept.
“I’m just kidding.” Aster chuckled softly. “You can look all you want, it’s the last thing that would bother me.”
“If you’re sure?” Prin turned back around where he could see Aster. “I hate to be rude. But . . . I do want to watch if it’s okay.” He looked over at Elwin to make sure the talking wasn’t bothering him. But it seemed to be fine. He looked as though a fire alarm and twelve barking dogs wouldn’t disturb him.
In fact, his face was sweet and relaxed against the pillow, in a way Prin hadn’t seen in a while. Prin wanted to kiss him but was afraid that would be just the thing that would wake him after all, and then he would be sorry he had done it.
“Be my guest.” Aster said. She opened a jar and rubbed the cream inside on her face before cleaning it off again with a rag dipped in freezing cold water. She shivered. “Bracing.” It was interesting to watch both the back of her head and her face in the mirror at the same time. A crack in the surface artfully bisected her face.
The make up came off on the rag, revealing an equally beautiful fresh face, pale complected and more abundantly freckled, but no less to look at then the artfully crafted day time face.
Next, she combed through her hair with her fingers until it was split into two sections, then plaited each side half way down and secured it with bits of ragged silk ribbon, faded blue.
Aster reached behind herself and pulled on the ribbon sitting at her waist, which caused the entire thing to loosen and the dress to sag, as though the fabric were breathing a sigh of relief after a long day. She bent over and undid the buttons on each red boot. “It seems like more trouble taking it all off then it did putting it on. More than once per evening too, sometimes.” She said, with a sigh. “Although how could that be possible?” She kicked the shoes off and smiled at Prin in the mirror.
“Putting clothes on is a pain.” The prince agreed. “I spent the first seventeen years of my life in a night dress, and I never minded it much. Though it was cold like that sometimes.”
Aster giggled. “I don’t know what to make of you.” She stood up again and let her beautiful dress and layers of colorful petticoats fall to the floor, so she could step out of them. Revealing an ornately decorative chemise. She scooped up the fallen dress and draped it over top of the one on the mannequin. “That should keep the wrinkles to a minimum.”
The last things to go were the long stockings and the chemise, tossed over the vanity stool. Leaving an Aster pared down to the minimum, white knee length silken bloomers with lace on their hem. Like a paper doll before you dress it. The loose apple-red braids with their trailing ribbons only partially concealed her smooth flat chest, which of course he had known to expect, but at the same time a pair of breasts would not have altogether surprised him either. He wondered if he was wrongly thinking of her all along as “her”, but it seemed only natural and he was embarrassed to ask.
Aster did not seem to mind his staring, even occasionally catching his eye with a playful look as though to say, you naughty boy, but not really mean it.
She took a thin robe, printed all over with birds in flight and flowers, and put it on without closing it, and flopped onto the bed. Aster looked even smaller without shoes on, and Prin wondered how tall she actually was.
“Bunny, would you pass me that box on the vanity there? The black and gold one.” Aster asked.
It took the prince a moment to discern which one she meant in the visual chaos, but there it was, lacquered black with gold corners and a gold bird in the center.
He brought it over to the bed and handed it to Aster.
Aster sat up, with a grin, and opened the box. She took the hollow metal statuette on the headboard, of the goddess, and put something in the flower base. “Oh.” She looked at Prin as though having momentarily forgotten he was there. “I hope you don’t mind?” She patted the bed next to her. “Here, sit close, sit close. Otherwise you wont get any of the smoke.” She lit it with a long wooden match, and immediately a thickly sweet, almost perfume like smoke wafted up through the goddess’s outstretched arms.
The smoke was vaguely familiar to the prince, like there was some element of a medical concoction that he had before in his sickly days (so recent, yet seemingly forever ago!). So, he wasn’t afraid of it but . . . He looked down at Elwin, who was curled on his side with his arm under the pillow, his blond hair decorating the space around his head like a messy halo.
Aster patted beside herself impatiently. “Don’t make me talk to myself, come on. And you can take off a few of those extra layers if you want to.”
The prince, somewhat hesitantly, sat down beside her, though remaining fully dressed. A compromise he supposed.
Aster leaned her head backward toward the metal burner. “This is amazing for helping you fall asleep. Otherwise, inside my head, all the time, it’s chat chat chat, you know? I can’t sit still. But yet I need the sleep or I will be a cranky mess the next day, you don’t want to see me as a cranky mess, right bunny?” She giggled.
At first the smell was slightly nauseating, but Prin quickly forgot about that as his head felt lighter than air, yet his limbs heavy. Would his head float away of its own accord? Would Elwin be mad about this? He crawled to the edge of the bed and peeked at him once more, nope, still peacefully sleeping. “He really needed this rest.” Prin said, he could feel the word rest stretching out too long and slithery like a snake’s back sssssss, or maybe not and it was just his imagination.
“Stay and talk to me.” Aster said. “Please. It helps.”
Her words were so sweet and plaintive that the prince resolved instantly that he was needed and should comply. Maybe it would be better after all, without so many extra clothes? He struggled out of his shirt and pants, though leaving on his final layer of leggings and by now somewhat bedraggled night shirt. He wasn’t THAT smoke drunk. “Okay, of course.” He settled into the pillows next to Aster.
Aster breathed deeply and yawned. “That one was just practice, to see if I’m sleepy yet.” She informed. “Tell me how two fresh young foals like yourselves ended up washed ashore on this middle of nowhere island, hmm?”
“How old are you?” Prin wondered. She always talked to him like he was so young, but she could hardly be much older.
“That’s-That’s an impertinent question.” She sputtered in faux indignation, but couldn’t help but laugh at her own farce. “A quarter century. It feels like much longer.”
A quarter century, wow, Prin thought. Wait a minute, wasn’t that just twenty five? It was still older than he had thought. “Since you already told me how you got here, I’ll tell you.” Prin said. “We got fired from our jobs on a big boat, and kicked off onto a little boat? It was all . . . very dramatic. We were trying to get to the next major port in pursuit of the witch, but ended up here because it was the only place we could row to.”
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“I won’t ask what you got fired for, because that feels like a story for another day.” Aster said.
“Yes.” Prin agreed. I wouldn’t tell you anyway. “Did you make the rugs yourself?” He asked, searching out an innocuous talking point.
“Did you like those!? Yes. I made them.” Aster said. “I’m happy you noticed. You can really tell how bored I have been based on how much work I put into this place.” She laughed. “I have been on the island for a year and ran out of things to see so I started decorating.”
“How did you learn to do so many things?” The prince asked. “I think, no, I know, you are good at everything.”
“What a sweet thing to say, lil bunny.” Aster touched his arm. “Everything might be a bit of an exaggeration. But I have always been a jack and jill of all trades. It’s a long story to get into. Do we have time for a long interlude of back story?”
“Nothing but time.” Prin said. “I already slept.” Even though he said that, he did feel sort of deliciously sleepy, but not like he actually wanted to go back to bed. He was having too much fun lounging around and talking about rugs. He could talk all night.
“Well, I didn’t, so forgive me if I fall asleep abruptly. Just let me, if that happens.” Aster said. “So,” She snuggled into the bedding, getting more comfortable. “My mama, was everybody’s mama, because she was a Madam, she ran the brothel that she inherited from my grandmother, see?”
“Oh!” Prin was surprised, having never imagined such a thing could be a family business. Not that he had spent much time imagining brothels.
“I was the only child from her body, of course. And I am a bit surprised she decided to have one at all. But she loved me sooo much and was so kind. However, mama, was very exacting.” Aster said. “She had me study reading and ‘rithmatic and other things from books all day and in the evening I did chores around the place. Like mending, gardening, nothing too serious, all very genteel.
I had the one mama, many sisters and aunties, and at least a dozen doting papas.” Aster laughed. “She never let on which papa was the responsible party, but I think she knew. It just worked out better for the both of us if there were papas to spare. Even though mama may have been strict, I was adored by everyone and treated like a little princess. My sisters and aunties dressed me up and painted my face and curled my hair, whenever they had a spare moment. Mama didn’t approve of children being dolled up like that, you might say. And I didn’t understand it at the time. I just thought she wasn’t any fun. However . . . now that I have worked for a variety of other establishments, I do get it. Mama didn’t want to give the appearance to any of the clients that children worked in her establishment.
There are some things, bunny, that are so morally abhorrent, that for you to even be in the presence of it and say nothing, do nothing, to stop it, puts a taint on you that can’t ever be removed.
This is why you should be careful about who you associate yourself with.” She patted Prin’s arm for emphasis. “Anyways, I digress.”
She got up on her knees and added another chunk of the stuff from the lacquer box to the burner on the driftwood mantel above the bed, and lit it. “Special occasion.” She said to Prin, with a wink. “Are you feeling it?”
“I must be.” Prin agreed placidly. “I feel like I’m on a magic carpet in the sky.” His head felt at one with the stack of pillows under it, and he had the stuffed bunny tucked into his arm. Contentment.
Aster laughed softly. “That sounds nice. Let me join you.” She settled in close to him, the length of their bodies touching. As much as they could anyway, with the height difference. “Now am I on the magic carpet too?”
“Yes.” Prin said seriously. “See the stars?”
Aster took his hand in hers. “Sure.”
“Why are you not there now? With your mama?” The prince wondered. He didn’t really think he was out in the open air riding on a carpet through the sky, it had just been a sleepy daydream but actually he was very interested in Aster’s story. “I had the opposite upbringing to you. One mama, one papa, and both of them couldn’t stand the sight of me.” He said it plainly, just stating facts, wondering if he would ever say it so many times that it would no longer hurt. Right now it didn’t feel so bad, but he figured that was owing to the smoke.
“Oh no! That can’t be true. There is no way you weren’t an adorable blue eyed, fat cheeked baby.” Aster said. “One that any mama and papa would go crazy for. I will say that a big part of the adoration put my way was sheerly due to cuteness. People are shallow, you know. And I looked a lot like mama, which appealed to her vanity.”
“No, I was sickly then, and probably ugly too.” Prin, who had only recently figured out he was probably not ugly, said. At least not ugly now. “I don’t even know what my mother looks like and I only saw my father a few times over the years. So that he could tell me what a disappointment I was, basically.”
“Never mind them, bunny. They were wrong.” Aster said. “A lot of the girls in my line of work had mistreatment from their parents growing up. It must be a lot more common than one would think. You did nothing to deserve it, it wasn’t your fault.”
Prin felt tears prickle his eyes but blinked them away. He tried quickly to change the subject, wondering why he ever brought it around to himself to begin with. “So your mama taught you a lot?”
“Oh, yes! Well, so, remember the doting papas? It turned out to be a good and bad thing for me, because one of the wealthier ones was always agitating to have me sent away to school, and he would pay for my education. Mama was reluctant but eventually he must have made her an offer she couldn’t refuse because when I turned ten, oh double digits! Big man!, I was sent away to boarding school.” She made a face at Prin. “One of those places where rich jerk offs send their rich jerk off sons. They made me cut off all my hair, right down to the orange roots. Yes, bunny, not to disillusion you, but this coloring is mostly dye. The true color is like that of a fresh plucked carrot.”
The prince laughed, picturing a carrot with the leafy green part still attached, growing from the top of Aster’s head. Though he didn’t think that the color would be so bad on her, if he was being honest.
“You know how I said, all you need is a focal point? You were lucky to be born with two of them naturally staring right out of your face. Some of us have to resort to artificial means.” Aster teased.
“That must have been awful for you.” Prin prompted. He was starting to feel like going back to sleep but he wanted to hear more, fearing that it would somehow be his only chance. Besides, at this point he felt invested in the Adventures of Little Aster.
“They made me wear an itchy uniform that covered every inch from the neck down. But mercifully there was also a stupid little hat that covered up most of the orange.” Aster covered her face with both hands. “However, the terrible makeover was the absolute least of it.
If you knew some of the horrible things I have had to do, or had done to me, over the last few years, you would understand what it means when I say that boarding school ranks as one of the worst most traumatic experiences of my life.
Perhaps if I had done what they say to do if you are ever in prison, and are particularly short and with a pacifistic upbringing, and put myself in service to one of the stronger and meaner boys, I would have survived it.” She turned on her side toward Prin, and spread her fingers to peek out at him playfully. Before removing her hands from her face altogether and throwing them up into the air. “I had too much pride!” She laughed. “Me of all people. Oops, I forgot there was someone else here. Is he still asleep?”
“I think so.” The prince said. “After learning how to sleep in a ship on the ocean, now he sleeps like a rock.”
“Part of that is just being a teenage boy.” Aster suggested. “You know what the girls say about young men? Nah, I won’t repeat it.” Aster giggled. “There is something about you that makes me not want to say anything vulgar around you.”
“It’s okay, I don’t think of us as kids.” Prin said. “Isn’t seventeen grown yet?”
“On some it is.” Aster agreed.
“But I’m just a baby? Who doesn’t know anything?” The prince asked. In some distant corner of his mind he was a little irritated but, the more pleasant feelings of placid contentment overrode it.
“That’s right, just a little baby bunny.” Aster said. “You do know though, you could ask me anything you want to know about sex, right? No problem. You are looking at the expert. It’s really not all that complicated. Not much has changed since prehistoric times.” She gave Prin a cheeky look. “Oh, I mean, maybe a little here and there has changed.”
“Umm, no, that’s alright.” Prin didn’t feel ready for this conversation. He definitely wanted to be alert and perhaps in a less prone position when and if he ever had this talk with someone, and right now he didn’t even feel capable of sitting up. “Not right now, anyway.”
“Okay.” Aster yawned. “Whenever you’re ready, the offer will still be there.”
“Was that another practice yawn? I never got to hear the end of your story.” Prin said. “If you had too much pride to survive boarding school, how are you here right now?”
Aster laughed. “I ran away after two months. Quite a feat for a ten year old considering it was many miles away from my home. Mercifully on the same continent.
Mama was angry with me and disappointed, I guess disappointed more then anything. She tried to get me to go back but it was definitely one of those battle of wills I could not afford to lose, and she couldn’t win against her younger counterpart with all the same stubbornness condensed into a smaller container.
She vowed to make my life hard, until I was begging to go back to school. So, she made me work from sun up to sundown. I learned a lot of different things, as there was always something that needed doing. I took care of the small children some of the ladies had and even taught them a little, I did prep work in the kitchen, cleaned, did hair and manicures, even assisted in a childbirth. Whatever else you can think of in a big house full of women always needing something. Over the next few years it morphed from punishment, into her grooming me to eventually take over the business.
Which was fine with me, I would even say I enjoyed it. A lot better then boarding school anyway. And she let me wear whatever I wanted. However, I didn’t interact with any clients. Not that way, you know what I mean. She didn’t believe in it. Mama thought you were an adult at sixteen and not a minute sooner, and there was a marked difference between children’s work and adult’s work.”
“What happened when you turned sixteen?” Prin wondered. He wasn’t sure he thought that was the age of adulthood. Then again, it was only a year younger than himself.
“She still wouldn’t let me.” Aster laughed. “Of course.”
“She loved you.” The prince said.
“Yes.” Aster said softly. “Looking back on it, she never made me do anything that she didn’t feel strongly was in my best interest. She wanted me to be out of there, doing something different with my life. I’m sure.”
“Did you run away?” Prin wondered. He thought maybe Aster had become frustrated living under her mother’s rules. Maybe running away was more then a one time thing. Maybe it was a ritual.
“No, oh no.” Aster’s eyes widened. “Well, yes, in a manner of speaking. Although . . . there was nothing there anymore to go back to after the fire.” Aster went silent after that, and the silence extended too long before Prin finally asked.
“Fire?” He turned on his side to face Aster. Aster was fast asleep. Deeply breathing, arms limp, closed eyes creating pools of shadow in their sockets. The life had finally gone out of the doll.
But that was okay, Prin knew it would return to her in the morning, just like the sun. Or in the afternoon anyway. He closed his eyes too, and the sleep was blissful. He hardly dreamed about fires at all.