Alexandria looked at herself in the oval mirror that stood off to one side from her bed. Her maids had already been; prepared for sleep she looked at her reflection one last time by the candle light, turning this way and that, the short lilac nightie she was wearing rising slightly from the movement, the silk brushing against her hips. Her long brown hair fell down to her shoulders and she pouted at the mirror, only to giggle at how it made her look.
Like some petulant child that had failed to get what she wanted, she thought.
"...Then again I suppose I am a bit spoilt." She said aloud to herself.
Alexandria, or to use her full title, Princess Alexandria of Corrongate III, was getting used to her new quarters. She had recently married a dashing prince and was living, or so she had thought, the fairytale life. The marriage had only been a week ago, a huge event; her extended family had come from around the world to wish her the best, which, combined with all the pomp and circumstance, the grandeur... the white doves, had her head still spinning. None of it made any easier by her husband's disappearance directly after the wedding ceremony. He had left a message with one of his couriers that he had to attend to some urgent matters abroad and would be with her as soon as humanly possible. It was all very mysterious and somewhat frustrating. She had been looking forward, though she would never admit it even to herself, to discovering her duties to her husband in the bedchamber.
She was entirely innocent, as a virgin should be, over what took place behind closed doors between a loving husband and wife. She knew that it made the serving girls titter and blush as she caught snippets of their conversation from time to time, but apart from that, nothing. Nervous about consummating the marriage, she had begun reading into the smiles and glances of her maids, giving their gestures a significance they most likely did not warrant. It was as if they were all privy to a secret she herself was exempt from.
She was a princess for goodness sake! She should not be left out from anything. Alexandria stamped her foot in front of the mirror, pouting for real this time. Almost as if the reverberation had set something off within the castle, she heard banging as the sound of doors below crashed open. Was he back? If he was, judging from the sound of the voices drifting up to her bedchamber, he sounded angry. Again she thought to herself how little she knew of her husband. Naturally it had all been arranged by her parents and though she had met her husband, the meetings had all been vigorously chaperoned making it nigh on impossible to communicate about anything other than the weather and the petty intrigues of court. He was a tall man, well-built, with flaming red hair; a steely countenance that gave the impression that he would brook no disobedience, worn as a knight would wear a helmet into battle, was across his face at all times. And so in her eyes he was an enigma, a man that at once sparked her curiosity as it did her fear of the unknown. Would he be gentle with her?
Imagining that he might very well come up to see her... to legitimatize the marriage, to claim her, Alexandria quickly sat down behind her vanity table and started to put make-up on. She wanted to look her best for him, but before she was half-way through, her door burst open and in he came. He took her in with one glance, saw what she was doing and frowned.
"Princess, do you know what time it is? You should be in bed sleeping, not preening yourself before a mirror. I need you to be alert when you conduct your housekeeping duties, not bleary-eyed and incessantly yawning."
"I.. I'm sorry. I thought...You might have wanted to... I was going to bed eventually! Though at first, taken aback by his criticism and his aggressive body language, she was unable to coherently frame a reply, but being unaccustomed to being spoken in such a tone, she defiantly spoke up and was now glowering from across the room at him.
Calmly he put his riding hat on the stand by the door, and causally shoved off his jerkin onto the floor. Walking to her side, he stood towering above her and was not surprised when he saw some trepidation enter her eyes.
"I will not be spoken to like that in my own home, nor by my own wife. You will find that I can be a harsh but fair taskmaster, but that by talking back to me or in fact expressively disobeying my commands in any way, you forsake yourself of the protection that I as your husband offer you. Do you understand?"
