The Kitchen Boy

Once upon a time, a kitchen boy fell in love with a princess. This is their story. It is not a happy one, but in the end both the princess and the kitchen boy learned valuable lessons about life.

Princess Cassandra of Milendew was a typical princess. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was thin and her complexion was perfect. Her favorite color was lavender, and her favorite activity was embroidery. She was the youngest of three daughters, and her parents’ favorite.

Her sisters, Alexandra and Brianna, were already married. Alexandra had married a prince from the next kingdom over. He was gentle, polite, and had a gift for coming up with fair solutions for problems, which was how he earned the title of Prince Thomas the Just. However, he was also nearly ten years older than Alexandra and plain (for a prince). He had brown hair and brown eyes and he was rather, well, short. He didn’t fight in tournaments. He didn’t encourage violence at all, even for the hand of a fair maiden. Alexandra claimed that she loved him but Cassandra didn’t see how she could. He was so…bland.

Brianna had married a much handsomer man. He had dark hair and brilliant blue eyes. He was tall and well-built. The only problem with him was that he was a knight. And he wasn’t a good one either. He was known as Sir David the Clumsy. He avoided tournaments like the plague, because he always lost. It was a rare occasion when he could even stay on his horse! And he had a terrible stutter, especially when he was nervous. Cassandra didn’t know how he had managed to become a knight in the first place. Brianna said that he really was sweet and she loved him, but Cassandra thought he was terrible.

It had been three years since Brianna had married Sir David. Cassandra was seventeen years old and her parents had decided it was time for her to marry as well. Because they loved her so much, they had agreed to let her choose her own husband, be he prince or peasant, knight or noble. The only problem was that she couldn’t find the man she wanted. She had had fourteen suitors in the past two months and she’d dismissed them all after a few days. Every one of them had a flaw of some sort. Some were too short. Some were too tall. Some were ugly; others were good-looking but had horrid personalities. She simply could not find her ideal, her “prince charming”.

The only person who knew exactly what Cassandra was looking for was her governess, Mary, to whom Cassandra told everything. Mary listened obediently to raptures about a tall, strong, brave man with a handsome face and a winning personality. Cassandra was holding out for a hero, and she would not be satisfied until she found one.

What she didn’t know was that there was a boy at the palace who longed to be her hero. His name was Will and he was Mary’s younger brother. He was not a handsome boy. He was short and skinny, with light brown hair that always looked too long and gray eyes. He worked in the kitchens and had seen his sister’s mistress many times. She was beautiful. He loved her. He told his sister this. She laughed at him.


“The princess would never consider a kitchen boy,” she said. “She’s waiting for a god to sweep down and carry her off! You don’t have a chance, Will. Forget the idea or you’ll end up with a broken heart. What’s wrong with the scullery maids? Some of them are pretty.”

Will hung his head and went back to the kitchens. He didn’t want a scullery maid. He wanted Princess Cassandra. She was perfect for him in every way. If she wanted a god, he would be one for her. He would do anything to make her love him.

He brought her flowers, helped her whenever he could, made her favorite foods for her and brought them to her in her room. She never thanked him. He wrote her poems, long epic confessions of love. Mary told him the next day that she had burned them in the fireplace. He learned to play the flute and wrote her a song, which he performed for her under her balcony. She sent Mary out to tell him to stop the noise.

This went on for an entire year. Will did everything in his power to make Cassandra notice him. She ignored him completely. Then, one month before her eighteenth birthday, another suitor came to the palace. His name was Prince Oliver and he was the handsomest man Cassandra had ever seen. He was also the most charming, brave, and romantic man she’d ever met. His hair was as blond as hers and his eyes were bright blue. He was tall and strong; he had won every tournament he’d ever been in; he was, in short, her dream come true.

They were engaged before he had been at the palace a week, and the wedding was planned for the day after her birthday. Will watched all of this with a heavy heart. It was no use. She would never be his. There had never been a chance for him. He was a kitchen boy. He should have tried for one of the scullery maids. He had been blinded by Cassandra’s beauty and now he had wasted an entire year pursuing her.
The day of the wedding arrived. Cassandra was an angel in white. Her father led her down the aisle and gave her away. Within an hour, she and Oliver were pronounced man and wife. She had grand hopes for their life together. It would be like a happy ending to a fairy tale.

That night he took her away to his kingdom. For three months, they lived in bliss. Then she was kidnapped by a wicked count. She expected Oliver to come after her, or at least to pay the ransom. He didn’t do a thing. Eventually, she gave up and stayed at the count’s castle. He wasn’t so bad. She lost her good looks and her hair turned gray by the time she was forty. She and the count became partners in crime, luring young children to their home and making them servants. This ended when one girl escaped and then came back to rescue the others, killing Cassandra and the count at the same time. But it didn’t really matter. Cassandra had learned something by that time: sometimes the man of your dreams isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.

Back at her childhood home, Will began to forget about her. He became friends with one of the scullery maids, a very pretty girl named Katie. They fell in love and were married. Will was promoted to head cook and Katie became a maid to one of Alexandra’s twelve children. She and Will had four children. Their oldest daughter was named Ella. When she was fourteen, she met Prince Edward, Brianna’s only son. Will and Katie were shocked when she said that she loved him. They cautioned her, repeating the lesson that Will had learned years ago: it is better to be friends with a person before you fall in love with them. That way you know it’s true love.

The End