John Moore - Unhandsome Prince.pdf

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On a hot day in late summer, when puffy white clouds were floating in a hazy blue sky, when birds were
twittering in the trees and bees were buzzing around the flowers, when a gentle breeze was puffing the
dandelions and great black clouds of gnats were making themselves really, really annoying, the most
beautiful girl in the Kingdom of Melinower was standing in a swamp.
The swamp was fed by a clear and cheerful brook that ran slightly to the west of a cluster of houses and
shops. Hence the village name of Ripplebrook. The brook originated in the highlands to the north of the
village and vanished into the Sturgeon river some ways to the south, and for the most part flowed quickly
and merrily, but slightly below the village was a shallow bowl in the surrounding countryside, a lowlands
covering some several square miles. Here the brook spread out and became a swamp.
Many centuries later it would be called a wetlands. Great and ultimately futile attempts would be made to
preserve it. Its protectors would talk of the beauty of nature, of the birds that made their homes in the
wetlands, of the snakes and salamanders that lived in its waters, and of the importance of pond scum to
the ecosystem. But these were earlier times and this was a fairy-tale kingdom, and to the villagers of
Ripplebrook, the swamp was merely a swamp.
And it was an ordinary swamp at that. It was not one of those swamps where rare newts and butterflies
are found, where exotic lichens and strangely perfumed orchids grow. It was not even one of those scary
swamps, with craggy trees and twisting vines that grab at you and make you jump and send a tremor of
fear down your spine. The will-o’-the-wisp did not glow at night, luring unwary travelers to their doom. It
did not—and this is really pathetic—it did not even have quicksand. The Ripplebrook swamp was
nothing more than a completely boring and utterly dismal bog.
Caroline certainly did not think highly of the place. Nonetheless, there she was, barefoot and ankle deep
in black mud. Murky green water rose to her knees. Her plain white dress was soaked to the waist. Her
arms were muddy up to the elbows, and there were crusts of dried mud on her ears where she had
swatted at mosquitoes and great splotches of mud in her hair where she had pushed it out of her face. All
in all she was one tired, wet, muddy, angry, and mosquito-bitten girl, and now she glared at Prince Hal as
though this were his fault.
Not that the Prince was in any better shape. He had transformed with his old clothes back on, so at least
he wasn’t naked, and that was something to be grateful for. But there was mud under his clothes, so
they’d have to come off anyway. And he was soaked to the skin. He was dazed and disoriented, as only
one who has spent the last seven weeks as a frog can be. He had no idea where he was or how long he
had been there, or who this girl with the blue eyes, and the blond hair, and the mosquito bites could be.
So he spoke the first words that came into his head.
“Are there leeches in here?”
“Yes,” said Caroline. “So let’s go.” She grabbed him by the wrist and started leading him out of the
swamp. Hal followed along readily enough, having no better idea where to go. With his free hand he
batted at the cloud of insects. Caroline led him through a patch of cattail reeds and into shallower water.
Emerging from the water, incongruously, was a stack of wooden frames with netting. “What are these?”
Caroline stopped and looked at them. “Frog traps. I’d set them up, then beat the water with a broom
and herd the frogs into the nets. Sometimes I would get a dozen or more in one go. I bought the lumber
in town and wove the netting myself.”
“Very clever.”
“The traps saved time.”
She let go of his arm and just let him follow her. They came to a small island in the swamp, where a grove
of mossy trees gave some shade. Under one tree were two bushel baskets with woven tops. Caroline
lifted one of the lids. From inside the Prince could hear croaking.
“A lot of frogs,” he said.
“You don’t know the half of it,” said the girl. She lugged the basket to the water’s edge and tipped it
over. The frogs spilled out across the water and disappeared gratefully into its murky depths. “After I
kissed the frogs I’d put them in these baskets, then take them to the outlet of the swamp and let the
stream carry them away. That way I didn’t waste effort catching the same frog twice.”
 
“Clever,” said the Prince again. He helped her carry the second basket to the water’s edge and empty it.
Back at the tree he saw her staring at a sheet of paper. It had been tacked to the bark with tuppenny
nails. She tore it off and crumpled it. “What was that? May I see it?”
She tossed it to him, and he unfolded it. It seemed to be a strange design with small squares and check
marks. He looked at her questioningly.
“It’s a map of the swamp,” Caroline said. “When I started this, I drew a map of the swamp and marked
it with a grid. As I cleared out the frogs in one sector, I’d mark it on the map and move over to the next
square in the grid. Of course, some frogs migrated back into the empty areas, but not so many as you’d
think. I also netted the tadpoles and dumped them in the stream, to keep them from filling a sector with
new frogs.”
This was clever enough that the Prince didn’t even bother to say so. “How long have I been here?”
“Seven weeks.” Caroline took the map from his hand, tore it in half, and let the wind carry the pieces
away. “Water under the bridge, now.”
“Seven weeks,” murmured the Prince. Aloud, he said, “And you are . . . ?”
“Caroline,” said Caroline. She lifted the hem of her muddy dress and made a solemn curtsey. This was so
unexpected, given the context, that Prince Hal could think of no other response than to give an equally
solemn bow.
“Hal,” he said. “I’m afraid we haven’t been properly introduced . . .”
“But we’ve already kissed,” said Caroline. “So let’s get on with it.” And she trudged back into the
swamp.
By this time Hal’s head was starting to clear. He had tumbled to the fact that she was angry with him for
some reason, and that conversation was not going to be cheerful. So he remained largely silent. And it
was only a short, but buggy, walk to the edge of the swamp from the island. “I cleared this area of frogs
last month,” said Caroline. “That’s why the mosquitoes are so bad.”
“Of course,” said Hal.
She pointed to some shallow ditches. “I dug those to drain that section. The frogs just moved to deeper
water, but the higher concentration made them easier to net.”
“Good Lord! You did all this yourself? It must have been an enormous amount of work.”
“It was.” She led him up a rise to a small cottage. The mists that rose from the swamp were considered
unhealthy by the villagers, and the rents for cottages that lay on the swampy side of the village were
correspondingly low. Caroline’s was the lowest rent of the lot. The thatch on the roof was wearing thin,
and the door sagged on worn hinges. The cottage was nothing more than a single room, with a dirt floor
and a small fireplace. There were no windows, nor a bed, merely a bundle of ticking on the floor, with a
blanket. There was a single stool for sitting. And just inside the door were two oaken buckets of water.
Early on Caroline had realized that each day, as she returned from the swamp, she would be too tired to
fetch fresh water to clean up. And so each day she would set aside a bucket of water before leaving for
the swamp. And each day she would set aside a second bucket of water for the Prince.
It became a ritual. Optimistic at first, she was certain each day that she would be returning before evening
with a handsome prince, and so every morning she set aside water, soap, and a towel for him. As the
days went by, and each successive frog turned out merely to be a frog, she clung to the ritual with grim
determination. Not setting out the second bucket would be conceding that she wasn’t going to find her
prince today. And if she wasn’t going to find her prince in that swamp, then what was she doing out
there?
Now she set one of the buckets outside the door and handed Prince Hal a robe, a bar of soap, and a
towel. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, but a girl needs her privacy. You’ll have to wash outside. Then we’ll
go to the village, and I’ll call for a meeting of the town council.”
“What’s this?” said Hal. He was looking at the towel—soft, fluffy, cotton, and new—and the bar of
fancy, milled soap. Caroline had a threadbare piece of linen and a small chunk of brown tallow soap.
Caroline suddenly realized how tired she was. She sat down on the stool, pulled her dress up slightly, and
inspected her feet and ankles for leeches. Not finding any, she let the hem fall back down. “Well, Your
Highness, there were a lot of girls looking for you at first. I think every girl in the village came down at
 
least once to try her hand at catching and kissing a frog. Amanda told us that a maiden’s kiss would
break the spell and whoever kissed the right frog would marry a handsome prince.”
“I know how the spell works,” said Hal, a little tightly.
“We were all in it together, Lisa and Tiffany and Christine and, well, everyone. We’d have parties here in
the evening, because my place was closest to the swamp. Two of my girlfriends—Ashley and
Brenna—brought the towels and stuff, so you’d be able to clean up after we found you.”
The Prince looked around. “Where are they all?”
“They all dropped out a month ago. After Amanda died, there was no one to keep goading them on.”
“The sorceress is dead? That was her name, Amanda?”
Caroline nodded. “Took a fever and died a couple weeks after your unfortunate encounter with her. Oh,
she teased us all with stories of how we could marry a handsome prince and help rule over the kingdom.
But after she died, most of the girls stopped believing the story. Or decided that even if it was true, it was
impossible to find one frog in all that swamp. I kept at it, so they left the towel, soap, and robe with me.
And here you are.”
“Well,” said Hal. “Thank you.” He put the fluffy towel and perfumed soap in her hand and took the old
towel and homemade soap. “These will be fine for me.” Caroline accepted the exchange wordlessly and
shut the door behind Hal.
The Prince banged on the door, and she immediately opened it. “I have just one more question for now.
It seems to me that you’re angry for some reason. What is it?”
“You’re not handsome,” said Caroline, and shut the door.
Ripplebrook was not a very large, nor a very rich village by any means, but it was big enough and
prosperous enough to have a Town Hall with two stories. A very nice one, too, all done in local stone,
with a slate roof and blue-painted trim. Upstairs housed the tax records, the birth and death records, the
surveyors’ records, and the deeds and titles to the surrounding farms. Downstairs was where the town
council had its meetings, when it was deemed necessary to have meetings, which was not all that often.
On Thursday nights it had bingo.
But today the council had called a special session. Old Twigham was leading the proceedings. He was
thin and white-haired and kept bees. He was always elected to the council, and the other members
deferred to him, by virtue of the fact that he was the oldest resident of the village. The remaining
councillors were from the village’s more successful merchants, for few others had the spare time to serve
on committees. The council members were all seated on one side of a long, narrow table. Twigham sat at
the center of the other side. To his left was Caroline, now freshly scrubbed, in a clean dress (her only
other dress), with her long hair tied back. She looked very pretty, except for the welts caused by
mosquito bites. And she looked very determined.
At Twigham’s right arm was Emily. She was the daughter of Amanda, the recently deceased sorceress.
She was pretty, petite, and a year younger than Caroline. And she was not happy.
“Handsome,” Caroline was saying again.
“What’s wrong with Prince Hal?” said Emily. “I think he’s sort of cute.”
“Cute is not handsome. The deal was to marry a handsome prince.”
“I think he looks fine.”
“He’s short. To be handsome you have to be tall. Tall and handsome are synonymous, practically.”
Emily looked out the window. The Prince was waiting, out of earshot, in the courtyard of the Town Hall.
He was talking with a gaggle of curious girls, and more were arriving by the minute. “He’s not that short.
He’s almost average height.”
“Below average is not tall. He’s skinny, and he has zits.”
“Lots of teenage boys are skinny. And we all have some zits!”
“Not that sort of skinny. He has no build at all. His chin recedes. And his ears stick out.”
 
“Oh come now! His chin recedes but a little. Make him grow a beard if it bothers you. And he can grow
his hair long to cover his ears. Guys with long hair are sexy anyway.”
“And look at his nose.”
“His nose is just . . . his nose is . . . lots of teenage boys are skinny!”
Councilman Durley interrupted at this point. “Emily, you’re dissembling. If a young man is handsome,
he’s handsome even without a beard or long hair. Yes, I’m sure we all recognize that handsome is to
some degree a matter of personal taste.” Durley, in his salad days, had fancied himself something of a
ladies man. He now had two rather good-looking boys of his own, and thus felt himself qualified to speak
on the subject. “But still, I am equally sure that we’d agree that our honored guest would not be attracting
much attention from the girls were he not a prince. If he were but a common lad, well, I expect that the
word to describe him would be more along the line of . . . um . . .”
“Dweeb,” said Councilwoman Tailor.
“Yes. Quite so. And then there’s the question of inheritance.”
“What?”
“Prince Hal is not the heir apparent. He is the third son and not in line for the throne.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” said Emily. “The deal was to marry a prince. There was
nothing about ascending the throne.”
“Yes, there was,” said Caroline.
“Caroline is correct,” said Tailor. “Your mother talked about this constantly, Emily. She spent
considerable time alluding to Hal’s handsome appearance and his right to inherit the throne.”
Councilwoman Tailor was a widow. Her own two daughters had devoted the better part of a week to
kissing frogs. The councilwoman herself had slipped down to the swamp one night to kiss a few. She did
not admit this.
Emily had been packing to leave town when the council summoned her. She had two years to go on her
apprenticeship and was growing more and more impatient at what she felt was an unreasonable delay.
She pounced on the councilwoman’s words. “Alluded, perhaps yes! But Mummy never actually said that
the Prince would be the heir. For that matter, I don’t think she actually said what he would look like.
Maybe Mummy thought he was handsome. Maybe she was speaking in a relative sense. You can’t hold
someone to an agreement like this!”
“We certainly can,” said Councilman Dunbury, who was an attorney. “I have given the council my
opinion that Amanda’s words constituted an oral contract. I’m sure she never expected that a single
enchanted frog could be found in all that swamp, that she’d never have to make good on her claims, but
there it is. Your mother was a powerful and respected sorceress, but she was not above the law.”
“Oh, sure,” said Emily. “You can spout off judgments like that all you want, now that my mother is dead.
You wouldn’t be talking like this if she were here.”
“No doubt she’d be turning all of us into frogs. Nonetheless, for a contract to be valid there must be an
exchange of consideration—that is, both parties must contribute something of value. Caroline contributed
her labor—a great deal of hard, unpleasant labor—and deserves something of value in return.”
“But she gets to marry a prince! So what if he’s a bit of a dweeb . . . ?”
“All right now,” said Twigham. “Let’s not be disrespectful to the young man. He is royalty, after all.”
“My point exactly,” Emily said to Caroline. “How many of us commoners get to marry any sort of a
prince at all? You should look upon the glass as being half-full rather than half-empty.”
“My glass is full of swamp water,” said Caroline. “And I’ve been wading in it for seven weeks.”
Durley stood up. “It is clear that—”
“It is clear that it is time for a break,” said Twigham.
“First I want to say that—”
“Break time,” said Twigham firmly. He rapped the table three times with his knuckles to signify order.
“I’m calling a recess. We will meet back here in half an hour. Emily, you will remain here with me.”
Twigham’s standing in the village was such that few were willing to flout his authority. Caroline was the
first to leave, going out to join Hal in the courtyard, throwing a resentful glance back over her shoulder at
Emily. Durley followed, then the rest of the council. As soon as the door closed behind them, Emily
 
turned to Twigham and wailed, “They’re all picking on me!”
“You’re absolutely right,” said Twigham.
Being a teenager, Emily was not used to having adults agree with her. “I am?”
Twigham had produced a pipe from one jacket pocket and a pouch of tobacco from the other. He
proceeded to begin that complicated stuffing and tamping thing that pipe-smokers do when they need
time to think about what they are going to say. Apparently he was a fast thinker, though, because he
stopped with the pipe only partly ready and set it down. “Emily, your mother was a skilled sorceress,
greatly respected throughout the kingdom, and in this village. But she was not well liked.”
“You liked her.”
“People were afraid of your mother, Emily. At my age there is little to fear anymore. You learn to take
the long view.”
“She did have a bit of a temper,” the girl admitted.
“Brigands and highwaymen tended to give our village a wide berth, once they learned a prominent
magician had set up shop here. So we got some advantage from it. Often, though, Amanda was able to
run roughshod over people’s feelings because they were afraid of her. But Emily, that affair of the frog.”
Here Twigham stopped talking and started working on his pipe again. Emily sat silently until he got it lit.
He took a long pull, let out the smoke, and started again. “Amanda made fools of us all. I don’t know
whether you’ve noticed, but every family in Ripplebrook has at least one girl. Every one of those girls
would like to marry a handsome prince. Well, your mother led them all a merry chase. The girls were all
out there slogging through the mud, kissing frogs, and generally looking ridiculous. And by extension,
making their families look ridiculous. You know how it is in small villages. People remember every slight.
Some can hold a grudge for generations. Now the town council has an advantage, and they think that it’s
payback time.”
“Okay, fine. I can understand that they didn’t like Mummy. I can understand that they’d all be ticked off
a bit. But my mother is dead! Any chance they had for retribution is gone. This has nothing to do with
me. I didn’t turn the poor guy into a frog.”
Twigham picked up his pipe and started to tamp it again, but immediately put it back down. “Emily, if the
villagers decide that Caroline deserves compensation, they will take it out of your mother’s estate.”
“No! They wouldn’t!”
“I think they would. They’re talking about it already. Your mother had her craft to protect her. You are
still an apprentice and have none. They know your mother had a tremendous store of magical books,
worth a pretty penny. They’re liable to confiscate the whole lot. Dunbury will collect his fee for making it
legal. And if I know Durley and Tailor, they’ll take a percentage for themselves before handing the
crumbs to Caroline.”
“Caroline!” Emily practically spat out the name. “She makes me so mad, the way everyone lets her push
them around. It isn’t enough for her to be the most beautiful girl in the village. And the most popular also.
Now she wants my library.”
“Hmmm. Emily, when the Smiths had typhoid fever, and we had to quarantine the house, who went
inside to tend their baby?”
“Caroline,” Emily said reluctantly.
“At the village faire, who volunteered to organize the charity auction?”
“Caroline, yes, yes, I get the picture. She’s beautiful, she’s popular, and she’s a saint, okay? But
Twigham, I can’t lose my mother’s library.” Here the girl stood up and pounded her small fists on the
table. “I can’t! I can’t!”
“Calm down, my dear. I understand.”
Emily unclenched her fists but remained standing. “Do you know how Mummy was able to apprentice
me to a first-class wizard like Torricelli? It’s not easy, you know. The top magicians only take on a few
new kids each year, and competition is tough. But every magician in the Twenty Kingdoms would like to
get a peek at Mummy’s library.” Emily finally sat down. “Twigham, without those books, I’ll just be
another sorceress wannabe, studying under some third-rate spell hack.”
“I understand perfectly,” said the old man. “That’s why you should bring Caroline to the city with you.”
 

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