Yester-times

1.1

It was bright spring morning. Dawns in the land of Sainted Lakes were something special. And tenderness of those dawns led loyal folks of king Talantus to peaceful feeling that land of their fathers’ is best on the Earth, and to be such a wonder at least till the End of The World. Which was inevitable according to prophets and saints of this land, which was abound of good and righteous people in its private and really inimitable way. Generous in fruits and cattle Sainted Lakes’ land were teaching benevolent folks the lesson to be generous in the love to fellow beings. And this lovely day of April was doomed to be the day of great sacrifice– the king Talantus was going to offer on the castle altar in midday his biggest white ox to attain mercy of Savior, the only God of this land. Now God’s Divine Grace was to be dedicated to king’s only child the princess Lavinia. She was in her mid-teens, or if to put it down more accurate– fifteen. Pretty girl of slim figure, innocent looks and freckles. The last thing, as we must notice, was the sign of royal blood in her. And in these days freckles could be seen on only this awfully rare occasion, and acknowledgment of this fact sometimes made Lavinia’s virgin heart to beat faster with girlish pride, she felt in these moments that her utmost beauty is a sort of prophecy of her unusually happy future, as we must to admit– girls since then changed very little, and she was, like girls are now-a-days, dreaming of prince charming whose soul to be devout to her caprices. Not a plausible attitude, you know, but with girls that know of their almost unbelievable beauty, with girls that know that all others know about it, the situation is always on verge of funny conclusion that these young princesses are not all there, sorry for the ruthless wording.

This morning was breaking into existence in gentle way that was not to disturb those sleeping and, the same time, was to raise cheerful atmosphere in minds of those who already woke up and started to fulfill their daily duties. These working class and priesthood people were already occupied with their affairs after short but obligatory morning prayers at the saint altars in their houses and on the main squares of their villages.

Sun seemed smiling to the land of Sainted Lakes. And land of Sainted Lakes seemed smiling to the sun with its flowers, fields of corn, forests and famous lakes that gave their name to this land because of purity and medical aspects of their waters which had always been full with fish and lilies.

The castle of king Talantus was already busy with servants, bakers, cooks, and other people so plain of rank and unseen in day-by-day life that their names had not survived till our days. Only few of them now remained in historic rolls of fame. One of them was Nadine the maid general of princess Lavinia. She was named after her mother, who was in her time maid general of Lavinia’s mother. These Nadine girls were very industrious ones in their time, they had to rise early and after brief washing of their lively and intelligent faces went to prepare dresses and bijoux for their young princesses.

When princess Lavinia’s mother was dying after giving birth to her only child, she asked her best friend in the world, her maid general, you know name of this girl was Nadine, to give birth to maid general for her daughter, and at the end of that year, little Nadine was borne and destined to fate of faithful service to the court and especially to another little girl, who, then in gilded cradle, was waiting for days to come and fortune to fulfill.