She lay in her bed, dressed in her favourite pink, ankle-long, long-sleeved woolly night-gown, holding a teddy bear in her arms. Her father sat beside her, with a storybook in his hands.
“So princess; are you ready to hear a story?” he asked.
She sighed deeply. “Yes dad, I am,” she replied, already half asleep. She loved her father’s bed-time stories, and always wanted him telling her one every night.
Well then, let’s see”, he began, not even bothering to open the book, making the story up as he told it. “Once upon a time, in a land far, far, away, there lived a princess called Louise.”
Ten year old Louise giggled. The princess and she had the same name! How hilarious is that?
“She had long, dark hair,” her father went on, “and fair skin, and was her fathers’ favourite daughter; in fact she was his only daughter. He lavished her with beautiful gifts; anything she wanted, he got her; no matter how much it cost. After all, he was the King, wasn’t he?
In her wardrobe, she had several wonderful, ankle-long silk and velvet dresses and skirts, hundreds of silk blouses, to name but a few of the beautiful clothes she had.
One day, Louise was out walking around the town beneath the castle where she lived. It was a big, noisy, busy town, filled with big, noisy, busy people, running this way and that.
She looked around in amazement, as always wondering; was her father really the King of all of this? As always when she walked around the town, she had a hard time believing that. It must be difficult to keep track of everything that happened!
Suddenly, she was approached by an old woman.
“Hello dear,” she said. “Are you lost?”
“No, I know exactly where I am.” the Princess said. “I’m Princess Louise,” she trustingly introduced herself, “and my father is the King of this town. Who are you?” Louise asked.
“My name is Sienna,” the old woman told her, “and I’m only passing by, looking for someone who could help me. The thing is; I’m looking for someone, small enough to fit into a tiny, dark place, and isn’t afraid of being left alone; but so far I haven’t been able to find such a person. I’ve met lots of people, who have been either small enough, or brave enough, but they have never been small AND brave enough, if you see what I mean.”
The Princess thought long and hard. Did she know such a person? She was small for her age, and she certainly was brave (her father and everyone around her had told her so on many occasions).
“What do you want help with?” she finally asked.
“What I would like some help with is to collect money, which alas, I’m too old to do it myself.”
Louise made up her mind, right then and there. She was going to help this poor old woman! ‘At least for a while,’ she thought.
“I could help you with that!” she bravely said. “What do I have to do?”
“That’s very kind of you, dear.” The old woman said, patting her on the hand. “All you have to do is sit on a stool, and watch a bowl on the ground in front of you. But first, you will have to get yourself real dirty. Do you think you could do that for me?”
“Sure,” Louise said. She walked over to a puddle of mud, and started jumping around in it. Soon the mud splashed everywhere, and she was covered in it, from head to toe.
“Gee, this is fun!” she laughed.
Meanwhile, Sienna had fetched a long piece of chain. She locked one end of it to a ring in the wall; the other end had handcuffs attached to it. She hid the opened cuffs under a bowl.
“Louise, dear,” she said. “Please come over here, sit on this stool and just hold this bowl until I tell you to stop. That is all you have to do.” She pointed at a stool by the wall facing the busy lane.
Louise did as Sienna asked. When she felt the cuffs encircle her wrists, she started protesting, but by then it obviously was too late.
As she sat there, so angry she cried, people started putting coins in the bowl and soon, there was a small pile, which grew and grew. When Sienna, who was hidden in the darkest shadows of the alley, saw that, she smiled and chuckled wickedly. This girl was a natural-born beggar!
However, when a boy stopped to talk to the little girl, Sienna became less than pleased. Standing there interrupted the steady flow of money! Sienna stepped out of the shadow and approached the boy.
“Get lost will you!” she hissed.
But, instead of walking away, he asked: “Why have you cuffed her?”
“That’s none of your business!” The old woman hissed. She took a loose brick from the wall of the house to the right of her, and was about to hit the boy over the head with it, when a big, heavily iron-clad fist hit her over the jaw, so she collapsed in a heap.
The boy took a bunch of keys from her belt, quickly found the right one, and set Louise free. Louise quickly got to her feet, gave the boy, who was one of the stable-boys who had been sent out to look for her, a hug and turned towards the man who had knocked the wicked lady out.
“Father!” she said, and gave him a hug too. “I’m so glad you came looking for me.”
He gently grabbed her shoulders and gave her a stern look.
“Don’t you ever walk away like that again!” he said, and you could clearly hear by the tone of his voice, he was more scared than angry.
“No father,” she said, looking very lop-eared, “I won’t, I promise.”
He scowled but smiled, gently ruffled her hair and said: “Let’s all go home, shall we?”
Having ended the story, the man put the book down and looked at his sleeping daughter, with a proud smile on his face. He gently checked the pouches covering her hands, which originally had been put there to stop her sucking her thumbs during the night, and then sort of had stayed there, fulfilling other purposes.
Then he went around the bed, and where necessary tightened the straps. Lastly he checked the belt around her waist, tightening the three straps a bit. She had had episodes of sleep-walking when she was younger, at one time nearly falling down some stairs. After that episode, it was decided she would have to be restrained in bed, to prevent future accidents.
Satisfied everything was as it should be, he went to the door, turned off the light, and walked out.