The Bella and Her Butler: Chapter 2 – Riches and Stitches

Chapter 2 – Riches and Stitches

Upon noticing that Baxter isn’t by her side when she wakes up, Blair goes to Baxter and slaps him awake.

“Huh? What is it, princess?”

“You left me when I told you to stay with me until I say to leave.”

“Well, you fell asleep and your parents don’t let us sleep in the same bed together.”

“They aren’t here so you shouldn’t have followed that rule. I needed you here by my side.”

Leighton enters the room and says, “It’s inappropriate for a princess to sleep with her butler, Blair.”

“I don’t understand why.”

“That’ll be a problem for you to solve when you’re older. For now, just know that a princess must be comfortable by herself even when she feels uncomfortable because there will be times when you feel alone even with people around you.”

“Hmph. Okay.”

“Today’s lesson will have to do with this bag of gold.”

Leighton gives the bag of gold to Baxter who takes a look inside and is shocked.

“This can buy us a house and more! What are we going to do with it?” Baxter asks.

“Nothing. Control your spending. Don’t spend it on anything and focus on what’s really important.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Get dressed and walk around town until you figure it out.”

Baxter and Blair do as Leighton says and take a walk around town. They see the many businesses that sell various exotic clothing, decorations, and other knickknacks that catch their eyes. Blair looks at the exotic dresses through the glass and is captivated by their elegance and beauty. A little girl who looks like Blair is trying one of the dresses and spins in a way that makes glitter fly around her. Baxter stops her before she enters the shop.

“You shouldn’t buy any dresses. You already have plenty,” he says.

“Oh, that’s right.”

Baxter helps Blair walk away from the dress shop. As Blair loses sight of the dresses, the thought of buying one exits her mind, but the sight of the furniture store distracts her. She looks into the store and sees a salesman presenting the furniture and looking directly at her in an almost creepy way with his happy and frowning face extending.

Baxter tugs on Blair’s hand and says, “Come on. We don’t need it.”

“Mmmm. Okay.”

The salesman waves bye to Blair along with the chair that appears to be waving as well. With one distraction gone another comes again with an antique store. The masterfully made figures dance in place and around the store with the flames from the candles in the store dancing with them. This display of beauty captures the eyes and minds of Baxter and Blair.  Baxter manages to snap out of it by thinking about the uses of the figures and his responsibilities and tugs on Blair’s hand.

“Let’s go, princesses. We don’t need them.”

“But…but I can bring them to my parents! They can provide lots of entertainment for them!”

“We already have entertainers in the castle and if we need more, your parents will hire them.”

“But we don’t have entertainers like those figures!”

“We don’t need them. Come on already.”

“Mmmmmm…”

Blair finds it harder to pull herself away from the figures until she catches sight of the pet store with various kinds of cats, dogs, and even tigers and lions in the window. The store advertises them as servant pets, pets that act as normal house pets but can also do the things a servant can do. She runs to it and can pet the docile pets through the cages. Baxter also pets the friendly animals though he isn’t too captivated by them. Again, he tries to pull Blair away from them.

“Why can’t I take at least one of them, Baxter? Think about having animal servants in the castle!”

“We already have plenty of servants in the castle.”

“But we don’t have servants like these! These servants will do everything I say and will always love me.”

“But you already have servants who do that for you. Servants like me.”

Blair slaps Baxter.

“No, I don’t! You don’t do anything I say and that means you don’t love me!”

“I do everything you want me to. Even the things you don’t tell me to do, I do because I want to do the best for both of us.”

Blair stops herself before she hits Baxter again then realizes what she’s done.

“I’m…I’m sorry, Baxter,” Blair says before hugging him.

“It’s okay. I forgive you.”

The gold in Baxter’s pocket melts and forms itself into a golden heart. He takes it out of its bag and examines it.

“The gold turned into a golden heart,” Baxter says.

“I wonder why,” Blair says.

Phillip comes out of the pet store with two bags and says to the two, “I see that you’ve just been challenged by gold. I remember going through that test multiple times before finally passing it.”

“What does this gold heart mean?” Baxter asks.

“It means that you’ve found what’s really important. What’s more valuable than gold.”

“What’s that?” Blair asks.

“Do I really need to spell it out for you? No, wait. Don’t answer that because I needed it spelled out for me even though I found it. It’s compassion for one another. Loving the people around you can be something you forget to do even if you devout your life to working for them.”

Blair and Baxter look and smile at one another.

“Oh, if only I can keep remembering that lesson, so I don’t need to keep repeating the challenge. I’d also like to have that kind of look with my servant. I don’t know why I want it though. Anyways, I have to get this food back to my pet at home. We do have a meeting later today, so I’ll see you two soon.”

Baxter and Blair go back to Leighton and Lynette and show them the golden heart.

Lynette holds it up and says, “This is amazing! Always look to the heart when you begin to lose sight of what matters.” Before giving them back the golden heart.

“I trust that you’ve seen Prince Phillip?” Leighton asks.

“How do you know we saw him?” Blair asks.

“It’s all part of the plan. We know everything that will happen except for what you will do.”

“That’s a little creepy…”

“We have only your best intentions in our hearts. There’s no reason to be afraid except maybe if you don’t like big falls.”

“Big falls?”

Leighton taps his foot and the floor below Blair and Baxter goes away. Both of them fall down a large hole and land a large pile of pillows in a large room that has red cushions on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

“I’m getting so tired of falling!” Blair exclaims.

“You’ll get used to it,” Phillip says who happens to be in the room.

“Phillip, how did you get here?” Baxter asks.

“This entire town has shifting tunnels that move at the will of the adults. It’s a strange power that I hope to get when I’m older. You won’t get it when your training is done though since you’re just temporary guests.”

“So, what are we supposed to be doing here?”

“Patience is a virtue they say, and you’ll have to cultivate it here with me. Sit down and make yourself comfortable if you aren’t already comfortable sitting on top of each other.”

“Princess, we-”

“I’m fine using you as a chair.”

“Yes, princess.”

“You two appear to be closer than I thought. Why is that?”

“We grew up together. We were the only kids in the castle, and even though our parents let us play together, they told us never to be close because they said I could only marry royalty and umm…next question. I’ll ask it. Why can’t we have powers like you?”

“Because you’re not tethered to this place.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know? The people here were sinners who fell too in love with the riches, power, and everything associated with royalty and high class, but at the end of their life, they repented of their mistakes and God is letting them work their penance here as they teach others the right thing to do.”

“Even you?”

“I was at the age of reason, so yes. I would’ve been in Heaven if I didn’t fall to greed.”

“Oh. I guess you deserve it.”

“Princess.”

“No, she’s right, servant. We deserve it and we’ll serve out our penance until we’re done. Now that you’ve asked your question, I’ll ask another. I’m really curious as to whether or not you too love each other.”

“We do.”

“Hold on. I mean romantically. I’ve read dozens of stories of love affairs between royalty and servants, but most of them were fiction. I’m wondering if this is real.”

“Ummm. That’s not for you to know,” Blair says with a red face.

“Okay, I’ll ask your servant then.”

“Don’t tell him anything, Baxter.”

“I won’t.”

“Hmm. Since you don’t want to say, then I guess I’ll leave it there for now, but that doesn’t mean I won’t ask again later. We still have a little bit of time left together.”

“How much longer is this?”

“I can’t tell you that. I can tell you more about the town and its people if you’d like.”

“Okay. Tell me about your weird half happy, half sad faces then.”

“It’s a representation of wealth and power. On the happy side, you have everything you could want in the world and the means to get it. On the sad side, there’s a lot of responsibility that goes along with it and the more responsibility someone has the more they are punished if they mess up.”

“What about the powers the adults have?”

“None of it can harm you and they’re all meant to help us get to places and conduct our business. That’s all I know.”

Blair and Baxter make small talk with Phillip for a little while until things go silent. Baxter and Phillip can remain still and composed while Blair fidgets and keeps looking around while waiting for something the test to be over.

“How much longer do we have?” Blair asks.

“I can’t tell you,” Phillip answers.

“Can you tell me something else to make this go by faster?”

“You’ll have to get used to my presence. Did I forget to mention that? In your life, you’ll meet people who will annoy you. Even if they aren’t doing anything to you, their presence will put you on edge.”

“You aren’t putting me on edge.”

“If you say so. Your servant has been still and calm as I have while you haven’t been able to stay still.”

“Mmmmm. Fine, I’ll stay still.”

Blair tries to stay still and as calm as possible while keeping Phillip out of her mind. His smiling at her doesn’t help, so she holds onto Baxter’s hand whenever she’s feeling tempted to do anything. Eventually, a door opens itself behind Phillip.

“Oh, it looks like you’ve done it,” Phillip says as he gets up and leaves.

“We did it!” Blair says as she hugs Baxter.

“We did or rather, you did. I think you were the one who was tested the most.”

“What are you talking about? I have the patience of a saint. Now, let’s go. I’m hungry and I want to make one of your special meals for our victory.”

“Yes, princess.”

Baxter and Blair go up a long series of stairs and see Phillip waiting at the top of them with an adult man.

“This is the princess and servant I was training with today,” Phillip says to the man.

“Oh really? They don’t look very impressive,” the man responds.

“I know. Let me introduce you two to my father. He’s going to teach me how to use powers.”

“I’ll give you a display right now.”

Phillip’s father taps his foot and the stairs fold into the ground, which makes Baxter and Blair slide all the way down back into the cushioned room. The door then shuts on them locking them in the room again.

“That little brat! Uggghhh,” Blair says.

“Don’t worry about it, princess. I’m sure this is just another part of our training,” Baxter tries to assure her.

Blair punches the wall of the padded cell and starts feeling the walls.

“What are you doing, princess?”

“You know how in stories there’s a secret switch activated by a book or something in the wall. I’m looking for one.”

“Maybe there’s one behind the big pile of pillows or underneath the chairs or desk.”

“Nah, that’d be too easy, but you can check.”

Baxter checks under the desk and chairs and finds nothing, however, when he goes through the pile of pillows, he finds a hidden elevator.

“I found an elevator,” Baxter says.

“Oh, good job. I know I can rely on you,” Blair says.

The two get in the elevator and Baxter pulls them up until the elevator no longer goes up. Blair sees a nearby lever that she pulls to reveal that they’re on the top of the hotel with Leighton and Lynette along with Phillip and his father eating dinner together.

“Ah! You’ve made it just in time for dinner,” Leighton.

“Sit down and relax. You’ve done good today,” Lynette says.

“He-he and his father trapped us in the basement!” Blair accuses.

“That was part of your training. Learning how to deal with betrayal and finding hidden ways out of situations is a constant lesson.”

“You two seem better than I expected. Here I was thinking that we were going to eat without you,” Phillip says.

“Well, aren’t you two going to join us? Or do you need training in proper manners too?” Phillip’s father says.

Phillip laughs and Blair holds Baxter’s hand to control herself before sitting down for dinner. While eating, Blair looks around at the town below her. Her eyes focus on two people below them who are watching them with multiple eyes on their head like a spider along with their happy and sad face. The sight of them gets her to drop her eating utensils.

“Is something wrong, princess?” Baxter asks.

“Do you see those people down there looking at us? They have so many eyes on their head like a spider.”

“Oh, I do see them. Who are they?”

“Those will be your instructors for tomorrow. If you pass their tests, then you can leave. If you don’t, then you’ll have to take more tests,” Leighton says.

“So early?” Baxter asks.

“I’m not complaining,” Blair says.

“Who says the real training stops here? Life constantly trains you to be the best you can be. We’re giving you the essentials in our own special way.”

“We can pass the last tests with no problem. Right, Baxter?”

“If you say so, princess. I don’t think it’s going to be that easy though.”

Blair slaps Baxter’s hand.

“Don’t think like that. Think positively. We will pass the last tests.”

“Yes, princess.”

Blair slaps Baxter’s hand again.

“Don’t just agree with me. Say it!”

“We will pass the last test.”

“There we go.”

“He’s right, Princess Blair. Your positive thinking will help, but it’s going to be more challenging than you think. Half of the people we train don’t pass them the first time through. Your parents didn’t.”

“Hmph. I like those odds. We aren’t like our parents, so we’ll pass it. Right, Baxter?”

“Yes-I mean, we will pass the last test, princess.”

Blair feels confident about her abilities while Baxter tries to draw from it. Meanwhile, their final test is being constructed and will be ready for them when they wake up in the morning.