"Jean! I'm so sorry!" Jean looked up to see her sister,
"Anne... What are you doing here?" How had Anne got there? Jean didn't remember anyone following her, she had been convinced the door would only open for her.
"What am I doing here?" Anne sounded angry,
"What are you doing here? I'm taking you home right now that's what I'm doing, mum will have a heart attack if we're not back before morning!" Anne flung her hair back and glared at Jean with her hands on her hips. She looked really angry and maybe even worried, but Jean couldn't really see what was worrying about the place. Jean didn't know what to say, she just stood there, speechless. Jean hadn't thought about her family when she left, she felt a pang of guilt, but she could not turn back now, not even for her mother, Anne would just have to come with.Jean ignoring her sister for she didn't know what to say carried on walking.
'Jean' yelled Anne 'where are you going?' Jean turned around and stared at her sister, after a minute she said 'I'm going to meet the queen.' Jean didn't like her sister being here, she was so boring never in for an adventure and always worrying about everything, it was enough to drive anyone mad. Her sister was wearing her uniform for some strange reason, her expression changed, she looked excited.
"You're, going, to meet, the, queen?"
"Yeah, don't really want to but apparently I have to. So I guess you're gonna follow me?" Jean sighed, by her sisters happy and excited expression she knew she was stuck with Anne for good.
"Duh! What do you expect me to do?" The rest of the way to the castle was just plain boring. Anne was talking about some prince shed met and a whole lot of other junk like that, did Anne seriously think she cared about some stupid prince? After what seemed years of Anne babbling about princes they finally reached the gate. Anne pushed Jean out the way and knocked on the gate.
*
A small flap opened in the gate and a face appeared,"Yes what do you want?" Anne stepped back letting Jean talk,
"Er, um, well, I'm Jean and I was, er, told that I had to come and meet the queen" Jean hadn't really been looking at the man, she was afraid of what he might say but his answer; "She looks nothing like I expected." made her look up in surprise. The speaker was a man with long brown hair and a bored but very expressionative face, he was wearing a funny hat, Jean fought back the desire to laugh. The man seemed to be talking to himself more than anyone else, for he closed the flap and his footsteps grew fainter and fainter. They stood there, Jean wandering what the man had meant "She looks nothing like I expected." and as for Anne who knew what she was thinking, probably something about the prince she'd been talking about. Shortly afterwards the man appeared again telling them
"My mistress wants some of your hair." He looked even boreder than before. Jean laughed, this must be a joke,
'Some of my hair?' Jean giggled.
"Yes, that was what my mistress wishes." Jean looked back at Anne, she shrugged and said 'If it gets us in we may as well do it. A bit of hair won't hurt.'
"You mean I may as well do it.' corrected Jean, 'You don't have to do anything, besides you probably just want to see the prince.' The man raised his eyebrows at this,
"The Prince?" Anne scowled and said quickly
"It's nothing, Jean is talking nonsense." Jean pulled out a strand out a strand of her hair and gave it to the man and said
'Who is your mistress?' Jean asked, she was curious.
"You must not ask questions." He glared at her and walked away muttering to himself forgetting to close the flap. Jean leaned against the gate and sighed, she was getting bored of waiting. The gate swung open and Jean toppled over, embarrassed she got up quickly and dusted herself off. There were to maids standing there, one was young, maybe eighteen, nineteen, the other old about eighty, she was tutting as if Jean was a disgrace. The elder spoke to the younger,
"Ex zin va Jagger sahr." Then the younger one spoke,
"Yiz, qitino, si layakin ong"
"Yiz. Twa ong." The elder replied. Jean could not understand what they were saying. Then the younger spoke again, this time in English.
'mm, 'pologies, I be Lise an tis
'Come,' said Lise grabbing Jean by the arm, 'we follow.' She led Jean through the same door and into a small but breath taking room. A staircase took up most of the room, it was beautifully made, constructed of hundred and hundreds of twigs twirling up to the next level. Even though it was made of twigs it looked incredibly strong, like magic was holding it up. Lise smiled at Jean and led her up the stairs and across a landing to another beautifully carved door.
"Your room, Jean"
Before Jean opened the door she noticed the carvings, written or carved in the door were the words 'The Room Of Jean Dorsy' It was a curly sort of hand writing and carved around the writing were pretty flowers that looked a bit like roses. Slowly jean opened the door. Jean gasped,
"Is this my room?" Lies smiled,
"Well did read the carvings?" This Jean took as a yes. The door opened into the nicest room Jean had ever seen, it seemed sorta familiar. The walls were a lilac blue, the furniture was lime washed. On the side closest to the door there were three squashy rose Pattern chairs around a small fireplace, the side walls each had two windows, the left side had a glass and white wood door, at the end of the room there was a large window and a double bed with a beautiful patchwork quilt. On the left wall there was a dresser and a mirror on the right wall there was two bookshelfs and a desk. Jean walked across to the double door and opened it, she stepped out onto a balcony, there was a beautiful view. There was another staircase like the one downstairs just this one led down to a pretty garden, there was a big lawn going down hill and around the edges there were hundreds of roses and other flowers. At the end of the lawn there was a gigantic tree and hanging from that was a big swing, and after that there was a patchwork of fields, vineyards and orchids going down the hill and far into the valley. Lies came up behind Jean and said 'you can play while I find a fitting dress.'then she left. Jean ran down the steps jumping two at a time, Jean ran across the lawn and to the swing. She climbed onto the swing and pushed off. The swing seemed to be going much higher than it really was because the swing was on a hill. The wind made Jeans hair fly back behind her, she laughed. Jean had always loved swings.
"Jean! Jean!"Jean hopped off the swing and turned around. Anne was running across the lawn and only when she got there she spoke,
'Hey,' she said
'Lise and Agnes couldn't find fancy clothes for you so they are washing my school uniform for you.' because Anne wasn't wearing her uniform she dressed herself in pretty dungarees made of denim and a white T-shirt.
"I still don't see why I have to dress up for meeting the queen."
"You do want to make a good expression don't you?"
"Yeah I guess."
'Come on' said Anne holding out her hand, Jean grabbed it and the started heading up.
'Do you have a room to? Jean asked as they walked up the hill.
'Just next to your room, there's even a door between our rooms, luckily we can lock it with a latch.' she said with a wink. And so the conversation about the castle and their adventure began...
Lise came running down the stairs calling
"Jean" She tripped on her skirt and fell over but Anne and Jean caught her,
'Oh, thank you, we'd better hurry up or we'll be late.' she said brushing the graze on her knee with a wet cloth that must have come from her large apron pocket. Jean let Lise lead her up the staircase into Jean's room. Jean sat down on the bed as Lise walked to the dresser and opened it, there was nothing inside it except Anne's school uniform. Jean dressed quickly, she was very nervous about meeting the queen. As soon as Jean and dressed they walked down the stairs and into the entrance hall. They walked across to the large door opisite the front gate and stepped inside the next room. This room was huge, there were large windows on the sides of the room covered by a thin white fabric, though it was covered in fabric it still let in the light. The walls were painted in a dark red and the floor was a light marble. There was a long dark purple carpet in the middle, it was about a metre wide and stretched the length of the hall. On the sides of the carpet there were rows of wooden benches like in a church and at the end of the hall there were three dark green thrones and behind that there were six wooden chairs. Suddenly a door at the back of the hall burst open and two woman with rather large crowns came into the room. They were fighting in some unknown language. Four people walked in behind them. There were two girls wearing a white apron over a dress, the one dress was the same green as the throne and the other the same purple as the carpet. Behind them were two boys wearing strange suits also each in purple or green. Jean looked back at Lise and just relized she to was wearing a white apron over a dress that was red in color. The door they had came through flung open and a boy about Jeans age hurried into the room also dressed in a dark red suit. He was much younger than the other boys who seemed about eighteen. Lise, Jean and the boy walked towards the others you had sat down in the chairs at the end of the room already. The two woman sat on the thrones, the woman wearing a long dark purple dress had just longer than shoulder length black hair, a thin pale face, big dark blue eyes heavily coated in dark eyeshadow and big dark red lips, she was very pretty and very intimidating. The other woman was not as pretty, she had short blonde hair, big green eyes, pink lips, she to was pale, her face was not as sharp and stern as the other woman, her face was soft and gentle though it was thin. She wore a long light green dress with white frills at the edges, it wasn't the prettiest dress. Lise took Jean over to sit in the third throne and she and the boy sat on two chairs behind her.
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