The Golden Princess

By L.R Garner

Alice took a deep breath and faced the menace. As she did so Alwyn, who had also recovered his feet, rushed at her to drag her away to safety. He grabbed her around the waist but Alice swept him aside with a powerful, and almost casual, swing of her arm, sending him flying backwards.
The beast, which had started to advance toward her, stopped. As Alices power began to work on it, it gradually began to shrink and fade. She took one pace toward the beast and it disappeared completely. From where he was lying, Alwyn saw all that she did. This was not the Alice he knew. What he could see was a tall, strong, stone faced, hard woman with eyes that were glowing white. This was not his Alice!.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris NZ
• Release date: Feb 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493137725

L.R Garner

L. R. (String) Garner, born in Lyttelton, New Zealand, in 1932, spent the majority of his working life in the New Zealand Army. This included two periods of active service in Borneo and Vietnam. During his service, he has co- authored books such as Regulations and Standing Orders. On retirement, he wrote a number of short stories and entered them into competitions and received some nice compliments but no prizes. The Golden Princess was written over a period of ten years, a chapter every three months, for granddaughters and great-nieces in order to keep the spreading family in touch with each other.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The Lonely One

Once upon a time, in a land a long way from here, there lived a small girl who had just had her eighth birthday. Her birthday party had been very grand, with lords and ladies, generals and their ladies, and people from the government like the prime minister and other ministers and their wives, but there had been no children. There were lots of presents for her, and some were so valuable that she was not allowed to have them in her room. They had to be locked in a safe.

The girl’s name was Alice, and she had her own bedroom and lounge with a TV set, a disc player, and her own piano. She had been taken to a shop, before her birthday, which sold ribbons and lace, and she was told to pick whatever ribbons she would like for her hair and to tie around her dress as a waistband. Alice picked bright yellow ribbons which she then wore to go with her fair hair. She wore these all the time, and everyone started to call her the Golden Princess. At home, she was called Princess Alice or My Lady because her mother was a queen and her father was a king. Because she was the only child, she only had grown-ups to talk to, and they were always very correct.

Alice did not see a lot of her mother and father because they were always very busy going to the opening of new things or to dinners or to parades; they spent a lot of their time being dressed in beautiful clothes, ready to go out. They did try to see Alice at bedtime whenever they could but that was not always possible. Alice spent much of her time with her lady-in-waiting, Glenda; her tutor, Miss Graham; and her very own policeman, Mister Bobby because Glenda had told her that policemen were called Bobbies.

The house where Alice spent most of her time was away from the big city and was called the big house by all the local people. There was another house in the city where the king and queen spent a lot of time, and that was the palace. There was only one thing wrong with the big house and the palace—there were no other children. Alice was very lonely.

Not far from the big house was a park which had a children’s playground. Alice had been driven past this playground many times, and she had often seen children playing there, so she decided that she would sneak out one day and go to the playground on her own. In order to go to the playground, she needed an ordinary dress and some ordinary shoes, just like the girls at the park; she also needed to find a way to get past the guard at the back gate. She started planning.

First, there was the dress. In her wardrobe, there was a dress that she had worn last winter. It had long sleeves and fur around the hem and lots of sequins and beads around the top. Alice was able to unstitch the bottom of the dress with her little sewing scissors and then, by cutting off the sequins and beads around the top, it looked quite plain. There was also a need for a cardigan, but that was no problem because Scruffy Bear, who came from Australia, had a cardigan that Glenda had put on him because it was cold, and it was so big it went twice around him. Out came the scissors again and she felt a little sad as she cut the bows and sparkles off. Next, she had to find a place to hide these things. Down the passage leading past the big kitchen was the back door, and right beside the door was a storage cupboard. That would be the hiding place.

The next afternoon, when her lessons had finished for the day, Alice rolled up her old dress and cardigan and slipped away. Glenda was busy sewing and reading a book at the same time and did not notice that Alice had gone. Along the hall and down the back stairs, past the kitchen, to the back door she quietly walked. No one was about, so she quickly opened the cupboard and put her bundle down at the bottom and at the back where it would not be found. She was also able to check the back door to make sure it was not locked. She walked quickly back to her room where Glenda was still reading and had not missed her.

The following day, Alice did the same thing with a pair of slippers. She cut the fancy work off to make them look more like ordinary shoes and then hid them with the cardigan and dress in the cupboard by the back door.

The hardest part was to work out how to get out of the back gate. The following day, when all was quiet, she, once again, slipped away and went to the back door. This time, she went out, around the side of the house, past the kitchen windows, to the driveway, and to the back gate. The drive was lined with gardens and trees on each side, so it was easy to sneak down the drive, hidden by the flowers and tall rose bushes. She saw the gateman in the small guardhouse. He was reading a paper and never saw her tiptoe to the gate and ease it open a little bit, just enough so that she could slip through to the street. Alice was very pleased with herself, but she quickly went back through the gate and skipped all the way to the back door and up to her room. This time Glenda had missed her. ‘Miss Alice, where have you been? I looked everywhere for you.’

Glenda always called her Miss Alice when she was a bit angry. ‘I’ve only been skipping, Glenda. I’ve been right down to the kitchens and back, and I didn’t even see anyone,’ said Alice.

‘Very well, but please tell me next time you want to go skipping,’ Glenda replied.

Alice was now ready for her adventure. She had to wait for a nice sunny day; otherwise, there may not be any children at the park to talk to. Two days later, everything was just right. The day was warm and sunny, and after her lessons, Alice found Glenda drowsing with a book on her knee. ‘Glenda, Glenda,’ said Alice, ‘I’m going skipping again.’

‘Very well,’ said Glenda, drowsily, ‘don’t be too long’.

The adventure began. Alice went quickly down to the back door, changed into her old dress and cardigan and slippers, and took out her hair ribbons. She put her clothes into the bottom of the cupboard and then was out of the back door and skipping down the drive. At the gatehouse, she carefully crept close to make sure the gateman was not watching; then she was through the gate, running down to the park.

There were several girls playing at the park when Alice arrived. ‘Hello,’ they cried. ‘What’s your name?’

Alice decided she had better not use her own name, so she said, ‘Katie’.

‘Where do you live, Katie?’

‘Just up there,’ said Alice, pointing back up the street.

‘Do you mean in the big house, Katie?’ asked one girl.

‘Oh no,’ said Alice. ‘Just in a caravan.’

Then they played together on the swings, roundabouts and see-saws. Later, the girls were called home for their tea, and they all disappeared very quickly, leaving Alice alone.

Alice ran back up the street to the big house, and as she was just squeezing through the gate, she was startled by a man’s voice. ‘Hello, young lady, where do you think you’re going?’

‘I live here,’ said Alice.

‘I see. Do you think you’re the Golden Princess?’ asked the gateman. Alice tried to explain to the gateman, but he would not listen. Finally, he called out to someone inside the gatehouse.

A policeman came out, still putting on his jacket. ‘What’s this then?’ he asked. ‘You come along with me, young lady.’ He took Alice by the arm and led her to his police car, which was just outside the gate. They drove down the road to a police station, which was not very far away, and went into the police sergeant’s office.

‘Hello then,’ said the sergeant. ‘Who have we got here?’

‘She says she is the Golden Princess,’ said the policeman.

The sergeant leaned over his desk to have a good look at Alice. ‘Princesses don’t look like that, do they, Constable?’

‘She isn’t wearing gold ribbons either, Sarge, so it can’t be her,’ replied the constable.

The sergeant called out in a loud voice to another constable in the adjacent office. ‘Constable Brown, do we have any princesses missing today?’

A voice replied, ‘Not today, Sarge, but we do have a missing boy if that is any help.’

Alice tried to explain but nothing sounded quite right. Finally, the sergeant said, ‘All right, young lady, we’ll send you up to the big house and see if anyone up there knows who you are, but I hope you are not telling fibs.’ He picked up a telephone and asked for a car and driver to be sent to the front door of the police station.

Alice was told to sit on a chair in the office and wait for the driver. The constable left. She was now very worried as she had been gone for quite a long time, and she was sure Glenda would be looking for her. The driver finally arrived, and as he walked in the door, she saw it was her own Mr Bobby. She flung herself at him and hung on to him and tried to tell him what had happened. He patted her shoulder and told her that everything was all right now.

When Alice arrived back at the big house, she found Glenda, Miss Graham, and her mother, the queen, waiting for her. Everyone was pleased to see her back, but there was some stern talking from her mother about running off like that. They did tell her that Mister Bobby had told the other policemen who she was, but they wanted her to see what could happen if she did such a thing again.

There was then a lot of talk about how arrangements could be made for Alice to have some friends to play with. It was decided that when it was fine, Mr Bobby and Glenda could take Alice to the park to play with her new friends, and she could also go to the local school and join them for music lessons each week, but her other lessons would still be with Miss Graham. Alice was very pleased.

That evening, when Alice was in bed, Glenda told her that Mr Bobby had seen her going to the back gate, and he watched her all the time she was at the park. He had also told the police sergeant who she was before she was taken to the police station. Alice thought Mr Bobby was a little bit mean for letting her be frightened by the gateman and the policemen, but she promised she would be good from now on—and she was—well—until her tenth birthday she was, but that is another story about the Golden Princess.

CHAPTER TWO

The Princess is Missing

Alice came skipping along the corridor and into her room where Glenda was busy knitting. ‘Alice, the queen wishes to see you. She is waiting down in the great drawing room.’

‘Do you know what she wants me for?’ asked Alice.

‘I think I know, but your mother will explain,’ said Glenda. ‘Run along now. She is waiting.’

Skipping and hopping along the corridor, down the stairs, and along another corridor, Alice arrived at the drawing room quite puffed, but she enjoyed skipping. Entering the room, she gave a little curtsy to her mother, just as Glenda had taught her. All ladies curtsy to the queen when they meet her.

Glenda had said, ‘It is protocol.’ Alice did not know what a protocol was, but she knew people did lots of things at the big house and at the palace because it was protocol. Adults did lots of things which were hard to understand when you are eight years old.

‘Alice dear,’ said the queen, ‘your father and I are to go on a tour of several countries soon, and we cannot take you with us. We have arranged for you to stay with your cousins down at the coast. We will be away for about three weeks, so everyone including Miss Graham and Glenda will be having holidays while we are away. You should as well.’

Alice was not very happy having her mother and father away for such a long time, but she enjoyed being with her cousins, so she was not really unhappy about it either. The queen then said, ‘Glenda will take you on the train to your cousins on the same day that we leave, and then she will go off to her family.’ Alice decided that it would be nice not to have school lessons for a while, and she was looking forward to sharing a room with her cousin Mary-Ann because they both loved to talk when they were in bed.

When the day arrived, Alice put on her newest gold dress and ribbons. There was much hustle and bustle, with suitcases being loaded and cars coming and going until finally the king and the queen left. Alice and Glenda followed them in one of the big black cars, with a young policeman called Bert as their driver. The king and queen turned to the airport while Alice’s car went on through the city. There was a lot of traffic and all was well until, suddenly, all the traffic had to stop quickly and a large truck in the next lane lost his load when the ropes broke. A huge box slowly tipped over the side of the truck and crashed down on to the car in front of them and jammed itself between the truck and the car.

For a moment, there was silence; then a lady in the crushed car started crying for help and a baby started crying as well. Glenda, who had trained as a nurse, hurried to the car to help, but the car’s doors were all jammed, and she could not open them. Young Bert, the driver, said, ‘I’ll get you in.’ Then he jumped on to the back of the damaged car and kicked the back window out. While this was happening, a young policewoman came running to help, and both Glenda and Bert asked her to look after Princess Alice while they helped the lady in the damaged car. Glenda got the first-aid kit from the royal car and, with Bert’s help, she slid back down the damaged car and disappeared inside, through the back window, just like a rabbit going into its hole.

Bert called the big house on his little radio and told them what had happened. He asked them to ring the cousin’s home and tell them that the princess and Glenda would be on a later train. The police woman said she would take Alice away from the accident and into some shops during the wait; and when they were ready to go, they could contact her on her police radio by dialling 504.

When Glenda slid into the damaged car, she found that neither the lady nor her baby, in the back seat, was hurt. They were just scared, but the lady was stuck in her seat and could not reach the baby. Glenda calmed them down, took the baby from her carrycot, and held it until the crying stopped. Glenda realised that although she was able to get into the car, she could not get out again; she would have to wait until the rescue people came and got them all out.

The traffic was blocked due to the accident; it took the police quite some time to clear the traffic in the surrounding streets in order to get the cars and trucks that were held up to back out of the street where the accident took place. This was so they could get a truck with a crane on it to come and lift the big crate and put it back on its truck so the lady and her baby and Glenda could be rescued. Finally, it was all done. They even had to get some firemen to come and cut open a door of the damaged car to get everyone out. The lady and her baby were taken home in a police car, and her car was towed away to a garage. All the traffic started moving again.

The police who helped clear the accident praised Glenda for her kindness and courage, but now she had to collect the Golden Princess and be on their way. The senior policeman spoke on his radio. ‘Hello, 504, the royal car is ready to go, so please return to the street.’ There was no reply. He called again and again, but there was still no reply. He then called the police station on his radio and said they cannot get 504 on the radio and asked them to trace them. The police station could not get any answer either, so they called all the policemen in the area to find Constable 504 and the princess. Gradually, all the policemen called back to the station and said they could not find Constable 504 or the princess. The princess was missing!

The radio operator at the police station called his senior sergeant and said they had lost the Golden Princess. The senior sergeant called the inspector and told him of the matter. The inspector called the senior inspector and the senior inspector called the superintendent, who had lots of gold braid around his hat, and they all packed into the radio room, hoping to hear that the princess was found. All the policemen and policewomen and all the police cars were now sent out to search. Even the detectives, who just wore ordinary clothes, were sent to help.

Detective Evelyn Cross was a friend of Constable 504, whose name was actually Victoria Bertwhistle, and she decided to start where the missing pair were last seen. She stood on the street and looked about.

That is where the accident was, she thought, and there is the nearest shop. There would have been a lot of people about and they would have crowded around to look at the Princess—so, Victoria would have taken her into the nearest shop. Evelyn walked into the nearest shop, which was a big store with several floors above. She asked the first shop assistant she saw, ‘Did you see what happened in here when the accident happened outside?’

‘Yes,’ said the assistant. ‘Everyone rushed to the door to look, and there was a lot of pushing.’

‘Did you see anyone come in the door, such as a policewoman?’

‘Oh no,’ said the assistant. ‘There were so many people that we could not see anything really.’

Detective Evelyn thanked the assistant and walked slowly towards the back of the shop. Hmm, she thought, I wonder if the security people saw anything.

A senior assistant saw Evelyn and came to her, asking if she needed help. Evelyn showed her police badge and asked if she could speak to a security person.

‘Certainly,’ said the assistant. ‘Come with me’. They went to a counter where the lady used a telephone and asked for a security man to come to the counter.

‘Oh, I see,’ said the assistant and then hung up the phone. She told Evelyn that the security people were all up on the third floor, near the manager’s office. She asked Evelyn if she would she like to go up there to speak to them.

‘Yes, I would. Thank you.’ Aha, thought Evelyn, I wonder if I’m right.

Evelyn was shown to the lift and up she went to the third floor. When she got there, she walked over to a railing and was able to look down into the main part of the shop where she had just been. It looked a long way down. The manager’s office was quite close but down another corridor. Evelyn walked to the corridor where she was stopped by a security guard. ‘Yes, madam, can I help you?’ he asked. The guard was standing in the middle of the corridor to stop Evelyn from going past him. She showed him her police badge. ‘I believe you have Princess Alice here. Is that right?’ The guard looked very carefully at her police badge, just to make sure it was a real one, and then said, ‘I think you had better talk to the manager.’ He spoke into his small radio and called another security guard to come and escort Evelyn to the manager’s office. The second guard said, ‘Follow me, please’ and led her to a door which said ‘Manager’. He knocked, but there was no reply because there was a lot of laughing and squealing going on inside and no one heard the knocking. The guard smiled at Evelyn and said, ‘I think perhaps we should just go in.’

It looked like a big party was going on inside the office. There were trays with drinks, cakes, and biscuits; beautiful dresses were hung everywhere; and coats, hats, and toys were lying all over the place. There were ladies and some men watching what was happening on the floor, and Constable 504 trying to use a telephone. There were two people on the floor, playing with toys—the manager and Princess Alice.

Evelyn held up her police badge and coughed to get their attention. She had to cough quite loudly before the manager looked up. ‘Oh! I say, is it time for the princess to go already?’ he asked.

Evelyn replied, ‘It is way past time, and a lot of people have been very worried.’

Victoria put down the telephone and said, ‘I think it’s my fault’ and held up her police radio. Evelyn could see that a cord had been pulled out so that the radio could not work. ‘When we came in, there was a lot of pushing and shoving before we got up here, and the radio must have been damaged then, but I didn’t notice until now. I was just trying to ring the police station.’

Evelyn used her radio to call the police station and told the operator that the princess was found and all was well, and that they would be on their way in a few minutes. The radio operator told his senior sergeant, who told the inspector, who told the senior inspector, who told the superintendent with the gold braid on his hat. They all were very relieved that the princess was finally found.

The manager said they were all pleased that they could look after the princess for a while, and they had a small gift for her. One of the shop ladies brought out a box which looked as if it had a doll in it. The manager said, ‘We would like you to have this because it was you that the makers were thinking of when they made it.’ It was a doll box and printed across the top was THE GOLDEN PRINCESS. The doll inside was all dressed in gold, and it even looked a little bit like Alice. The lady who brought the doll in said, ‘The people who made it even got special permission from the king and queen to call it the Golden Princess because everyone knows that you always wear golden-coloured clothes, and that’s why they made the doll.’ Alice was very excited and thanked everyone for the party and for being so kind, and she just loved the doll. The two policewomen then led Alice away to the lift.

When they got down to the bottom floor, all the people saw the princess and crowded around to look at her, so the manager organised a procession with two security guards in front, then the princess with a police lady on each side of her, and then the manager with another security guard behind. Alice used one hand to hold her beautiful doll and hung on tightly to Victoria with the other. The procession marched out the front door where Glenda and Bert were waiting. They all had to help to get the princess to the car as there were so many people crowding around. The people were all smiling and waving to her because they did not see the princess very often.

As the princess, Glenda, and the shop staff approached the car, they saw Bert was arguing with a man in uniform. He was a parking warden, and he was going to write out a traffic ticket because the royal car was in the wrong place. When Glenda saw the argument going on, she interrupted Bert and stood in front of the traffic warden. In a loud and angry voice, she said, ‘I am Lady Worser, lady-in-waiting to the princess royal.’ Pointing to Alice, she said, ‘This is the princess royal, and you are in our way. Leave us at once!’. The traffic warden was shocked to think that he had been delaying someone royal and backed away very quickly. The people watching all clapped for Glenda as not many people like traffic wardens.

Once in the car, they drove off, waving back to the people who were still waving to the princess. The station master was waiting for them and soon had them on the train and on their way to the coast. When they had arrived at her cousin’s house, Alice told them all about the accident and her visit to the shop and having a party and receiving the beautiful doll. Everyone laughed when she told them about Glenda scaring off the parking man with her angry voice. That was how the happy three weeks of holiday began. Alice loved being with her cousins and was very good all the time, and that is how holidays should be. However, her tenth birthday was still to come—but not for some time yet!

CHAPTER THREE

The Princess Should Learn to Ride

‘Glenda, what is it like to ride on a horse?’

‘Well’, said Glenda, ‘it feels as if you are very high off the ground, and sometimes they are hard to stop, especially if you are a small girl and have not got strong hands’.

‘Do we have any horses, Glenda?’

‘No, not really. We can go to the stables if we need to use one. Are you interested in learning to ride?’

Alice did not answer that question. She was thinking; then she asked, ‘What about the one that father rides when they have the parades?’

‘That one belongs to the army, and they take it away after the parade is over,’ said Glenda. ‘Are you interested in learning to ride?’

‘I don’t know’, said Alice.

Alice had been reading about people who rode horses all the time because cars had not been invented. Some of the ladies sat on their horses sideways, and they looked funny. The horses looked nice, and they always stopped for you if you fell off. Well, in the story they did. She wondered if they were really like that or if sometimes they ran away when you fell off. ‘Glenda, when will we have the Horse Guards at the gate again?’

Glenda looked in her appointment book and at the calendar and said, ‘We have some visitors coming in two days’ time, and as they are special people, the horse guards will be on duty. Why do you ask?’

Alice thought carefully. She was not sure whether she liked horses so much that she would get on one, but she would like to have a close look at one. ‘I want to go to the gate and see one. Would that be all right?’

‘I’m sure we can do that. Just remind me on Thursday morning, and Miss Graham and I will take you down.’

Thursday morning seemed to take a long time to come, but it did. Alice went into the picture gallery, which was at the front of the big house, and looked out There were the Horse Guards just coming along the road. All the horses looked the same, and all the men were dressed the same, with shiny helmets and shiny shirt things as well, and they all held swords in their hands. They looked very smart. They stopped in front of the gates and lined up. Then two horses went towards the gate and turned around, and they all waved their swords at each other. The rest of the horses turned away and went back to where they had come from, leaving the two horses at the gates.

Alice raced back to her room where Glenda was and said, ‘The horses are there now. Can we go and see them?’

‘Very well’, said Glenda, ‘we will get Miss Graham on the way’.

So they went down the passage and met Miss Graham, and together they walked down to the front gates. As they got near the gates, Alice could see that the horses seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. Finally, they were standing beside one of the horses. It was big. Alice had to look up to see the soldier on top. The horse stood still, and the soldier did not move either, not even to say hello to the Golden Princess.

‘Glenda, I think we can go now,’ said Alice.

‘Let’s look at the other horse before we go,’ said Glenda. ‘I’m sure Miss Graham would like to see it as well, would you not?’ And like the first one, it did not move, but while they were watching, a fly landed on the horse, and it wiggled its skin to shake the fly off. Alice wondered what would happen if it wiggled under where you were sitting—maybe you would fall off.