Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale by Kristen Niedfeldt Page B

equal confidence, “Twenty-eight and it’s yours.”
    She set the vase back down on the table.
“I’m tempted to just walk away.”
    He shrugged. “If you’re willing to risk
losing my very last vase, what can I do? Perhaps none of these
other people will snatch it before you change your mind and return.”
    “That’s right,” she noted, rolling her
eyes. “I forgot about all of my imaginary competition.”
    Roderick smiled and then continued to
press her, “So what will it be? Twenty-eight or will you walk away?”
    Eager to be done with the exercise, she
willingly relented, “Fine. You win. I’ll pay twenty-eight pieces for it.”
    Handing it over, he observed, “Actually,
I’m not the only one who won.  I know you gave in much too easily because you
want to be done with this, but we still both won. I wanted to make a profit,
which I did. And you wanted my price to come down, which you successfully
achieved. It’s a bit of a game, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out. The more you
practice, the better you’ll play. Which is why it’s your turn now.”
    He waved her forward to take his place,
but when she traded with him, he didn’t take hers. Instead, he started walking
toward the door.
    Confused, she called after him, “Where
are you going?”
    “To go get Maria,” he responded as if it
should have been obvious.
    “What for?” she asked, although she
dreaded hearing his answer.
    He leaned back through the door to
explain, “To help you practice, of course. If you can successfully sell to
Maria, I’m fully confident you can survive anyone in the market.”
    And with a final smile he quickly closed
the door behind him, leaving her no chance at all to object.
     

     
    The next day, the sun was beating down
so intensely, Liesel feared she might actually melt right where she sat in the
marketplace. She feverishly fanned herself as she waited for a new customer to
approach. Glancing up, she could tell from the sun’s position that she still
had half the day left. She groaned. She wished she could hurry the sun along.
    Selling during the morning had been
slightly better than the day before. She hadn’t earned as much as she would
have liked, but at least no one had stolen anything. At least as far as she
knew.
    For the hundredth time that day, her
idle thoughts strayed to Roderick. Now that man was a riddle. At her father’s
decree, he had regarded her with scorn, but now he was her greatest ally. He
should have hated her, but instead he was only showing great kindness and
encouragement. She could tell he had a naturally cheerful disposition, which
probably aided his transformation, but she was still surprised by such sudden
loyalty. Perhaps as a peasant he had to be more practical than emotional, and
couldn’t waste time being angry when there were chores to be done.
    Regardless, she could only conclude that
he had an unnaturally good heart. Unless her father had bribed him to be nice
to her … but no, that seemed unlikely and Roderick seemed too genuine.
    She sighed. She still didn’t want to
marry Roderick and be a peasant forever, but she felt the pricks of regret in
her heart that he hadn’t been born a prince. Perhaps he could have softened her
to the idea of marriage, and this disaster could have been avoided altogether.
He certainly had the looks of a man who would have caught her eye …
    But such thoughts were futile so she
forced them again from her mind. Roderick was a peasant. A very fine peasant,
but a poor man nonetheless. She still had no intention of resigning herself to
such a life.
     

     
    Roderick took a short break from his
work that afternoon to escape to the marketplace. He quickly found Liesel in
the same place he had taken her the day before, but he kept his distance so he
could watch as two women drew near to her. Liesel forced a smile and bartered
back and forth with them for a while until an agreement was finally made.
    As the money changed hands, Roderick
nodded