• 1

    A Spade amongst Hearts


    The halls of the castle were bright and decorated with red and green. Servants were bustling are around trying to get the last of the preparations for the Christmas gathering together. The yearly Christmas party of the King and Queen was quickly approaching and it was not going to wait on anything. Ten year old Jacqueline of the ---Spades was running about the hall in a very elegant pale blue dress that complemented her wavy light brow hair, the hems were flapping at her ankles.

    “Where’s my mother?!” She cried out as she made her way down the very festive hallway. One of the guards patrolling stopped as the saw the small girl running up the hallway. Jonathan Wolf was the captain of the guard, fairly handsome with thick dark hair and forest green eyes and all though he has the one of the greatest fighters around, he had a soft spot for anyone in need. Jacqueline continued down the hall until she tripped over her feet. She would have slammed her head against the flower if the captain had not been there to catch her. He placed her back onto her feet.

    “Easy there young one would want you to get hurt on such a joyous night as this,” he smiled as he spoke. He looked to see she was upset, and slightly pale. “What’s wrong?” Her face grew more pale as she lets out a gasp and collapse to the floor. “Oh no,” Jonathan said calmly. He lifted up Jacqueline’s head and pulled some smelling salt, when she suddenly giggled. Jonathan quickly catching on poked her on the side making her laugh.

    “Fine you caught me!” she said giggling, “But seriously, where’s Mum?” Jonathan was about to reply when Jacqueline’s nanny entered the room gasping for breath. The nanny stood up straight and gave Jacqueline a firm look.

    “Jackie what in blazes are you doing out here?!” She crossed her arms bitterly waiting for the young girl’s explanation. Jacqueline let out a startled squeak and stood up quickly. She shot a glare at the nanny.

    “You smacked me for no reason! Meanie!!” she said in a commanding voice.

    “For running away from your mother!” The nanny explained. “She worried sick about you!!”

    “Nuh-uh! Why would I be looking for her if I wanted to escape her?”

    “Unless your telling me a story.” The nanny accused bitterly.

    The young girl gasped at the nanny’s cruel assumption. “Lies! I don’t fib, you big fibber!” She quickly ran up to the nanny kicked her in the knee and ran up the stairs.

    “JACQUELINE SPADE GET BACK HERE NOW!!” the nanny demanded while rubbed her sore leg.

    Jacqueline stopped at the top of the stairs, that woman dared to use her full name! Nobody used her full name! “DON’T CALL ME THAT! YOU…you…YOU WEENIE!!! She continued to rant bitterly, of course if she had known her father was no standing right behind her. Unfortunately she didn’t know the Lord of Spades was standing right behind her tapping his foot.

    “Now,” said the Lord of Spades. “What was that?” He looked down upon his daughter knowing that she had been raised better than that. True, she was not the daughter of the royal family of the Hearts, but she was one the daughters of a head family.

    The kingdoms affairs where divided into four parts, run by for heads. The science, discovery, and over all development of the kingdom was the hands of the Clovers, and there three leaves of order; Discovery, Knowledge, and Understanding. The Clovers where not the most glamorous of the four but they did understand more than most. The economy and the overall treasurers of the Kingdom were the Diamonds, rich, well spoken, very witty, and most every thing they do they try not make it wasteful. The Spades were in control of the nations defenses funding armies, many of the heads were generals. Strong, quick thinking, unbreakable; these are some of the decryptions of the Spades. Finally the Hearts, rulers of the kingdom. The Hearts remained the head of the kingdom for generations, being fair, well judged and wise, they are loved rulers.

    The young Lady of Spades turned slowly to her father. She was now staring at her feet, with a slight blush on her face. “N-n-nothing…”

    The lord shook his head at his daughter, how could he be mad at her, just as he was about to speak his train of thought was interpreted, by a new presences that no one normally couldn’t ignore. All respect must now be present: the princess was now in the hallway.


























    2

    Little High Little Low


    The ten year old princess floundered in behind the nanny at the bottom of the steps. Her emerald green dress hung down to her ankles, giving her the chance to show off her matching shoes. A red ribbon was tied around her waist and another one was carefully tied into her dark blonde hair. Her brown eyes skimmed the room. She lightly tugged on the nanny’s sleeve.

    “Scuse me, where’d Jackie go?” She asked politely. The nanny pointed up the stairs. The princess looked up the stairs and noticed the Lord of Spades.

    “Oh,” The princess curtsied to the noble then shifted her attention to Jackie. “There you are!,” she let out excitedly. “What’re you doing up there? And why’s Lord Spade tapping his foot?” She placed her hands on her hips. “Did you take a cookie from the kitchen again?”

    The Lord of Spades bowed lowly, then addressed the princess. “Good afternoon princess.” He looked at his daughter for a moment. “I’m sorry but you’ll have to excuse us for a second. I need to speak with my child.” He took Jackie into a room at the top of the stairs.

    Jonathan looked at the princess seeing a slight bit of disappointment that her friend was taken away. He kneeled down to get on the same level of the princess.

    “Now I know you’re not up to anything are you princess?” he asked playfully.

    The princess smiled with her reply. “Of course not! I just wanted to play with Jackie, mister. I hope she’s not in too much trouble.” There was a slight pause in her breath after she spoke. The guard continued his attempt to cheer up the princess.

    “Well, I’m sure she’s not in too much trouble. Are you expecting any special visitors Princess Michelle?” The princess’s eyes brightened.

    “Uh huh!” she replied excitedly.

    Jackie and her father walked out of the room she and her father had entered earlier. Her face was mildly tear stained, and she was still slightly sniffling. She looked up at her father then gave him a hug around his waist. Michelle spotted Jackie crying and instantly ran up the stairs. When she reached Jackie she patted her back gently.

    “Aw, come on, don’t cry, it’s a party remember? We’re supposed to have fun,” Michelle said in her attempt to make Jackie feel better.

    Jackie smiled at the kind princess and took her hand. “You’re right let’s have fun!”

    A shout came from the forward hall. “A guest of the princess has arrived!”

    “A guest!,” Michelle squeaked. She tugged on Jackie. “Let’s go say hi!” They began to skip down the hall, laughing with one another.

    They happily ran the front hall to see how the party setup was going. Their merry prancing stopped when a young man, maybe a year older than them, entered. He was normal sized for an eleven year old boy and wore clothes that seemed below the high class but were decent for a commoner. He had thick, light brown hair that covered his forehead. His hair framed his smog blue eyes nicely, and his simple smile lit up his entire face.

    Jackie ran to the boy excitedly giving him a tackle like hug. “OMIGOSH! Hi Harrison!” She gave a huge grin followed by a bubbly giggle, then finally moved to help Harrison up.

    Michelle gasped. “It IS him!” She began to run excitedly to Harrison.

    He was a good friend to the princess and Jackie. Although a commoner, he had the opportunity to meet the princess when his step-father brought him to a job he had at the castle. The princess stayed in the castle all of her life, so she didn’t have many friends outside of Jackie. So when she met him, she simply wanted to play. They spent most of that time using the castle as a big play ground, finding hidden paths, secret ways into the castle, and even a special place they could go to that only they knew about. After that day, he would find ways into the castle to play with the princess. Although the princess tried to keep his occasional visits secret, the king and the queen found out easily, but they didn’t mind, the young lad was just a little friend and a young gentleman at that. When Jackie visited the castle with her family, she met Harrison as well quickly becoming attached to the boy.

    Michelle reached the boy and began to jump up and down excitedly. “How’s it goin’?! How’d you get in? I can’t believe it! It’s been sooo long!”

    Harrison simply rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, well I’ve been helping out around the clock shop.” He turned to Jackie “Well you are always out of town”, then returned to Michelle. “And you can never leave the castle.” He smiled warmly adding. “But it’s nice to see you both.”

    Michelle rolled her eyes. “Yeah, my mom never lets me out of here. I wish you could come over more. We could do all the fun stuff we normally do.” She began to count with her fingers. “Like help you practice swordplay, all three of us playing in the garden, or using the special place and pretending I’m the queen and you’re my brave knight protecting the kingdom!” She threw her hands down. “But I’m so glad you could make it! Now all three of us are together!” She tugged on his sleeve. “Come on, let’s go see if the food’s out yet. I’m starving!”

    Jackie wrapped her arm around his. “I’ll never leave without telling you, you know that! But now, let’s eat!

    The three made their way into the main dining hall. The servers where frantically running about making final preparations. The princess sighed. “They’re not done yet…aw man.” The head server caught sight of the princess and her company.

    He chuckled to himself and walked up to the princess. “Don’t worry your highness; we’ll be done here soon.” He looked left, then right. “Why don’t you go see your visitors? You wouldn’t want to be a rude hostess would you?

    “Oh,” She smacked her forehead. “Of course, thank you sir.” She curtsied to the head server and left for the main hall.