The Shoemaker's Daughter
Chapter 2:
When they arrived back at the castle, Amber took off for her room, worrying about not having enough time to do her hair and makeup. James helped Sofia out of the coach and offered to walk her back to her room, but Sofia refused. She was still a little embarrassed about what had happened earlier, and thought if she spent too much time around James, the rest of the castle would catch on to what had happened. Not to mention she had to calm herself down too, which would take some privacy.
"Sorry James, but I don't want to take up any more of your time. I'm sure you have other things that you have to do, right?"
"Well, I do have to take Rex for a walk, but…"
"Great! Well, I'll see you at the party. Bye!" Sofia blurted out and ran off towards her room, leaving a confused James standing by the coach.
Sofia made her way quickly to her room and shut the door behind her. Exhausted, she slid to floor and tried to make sense of everything that had happened at the village. She had kissed James. That did happen, didn't it? She put her fingers to her lips and blushed crimson red as she remembered the sweet sensation of his lips on hers. Yep, thatdefinitely happened. But, what would her friends and family think about her kissing her step-brother? They would disapprove for sure! Was it bad to have feelings like this for someone who was supposed to be nothing but a family member?
"Hey, princess! How was the festival?"
"Ahh!" Sofia screamed, bolting from her seat on the floor and landing onto her feet. She looked to where she heard the voice and noticed that it was just her pet rabbit. "Oh, Clover. It's just you."
"You okay Sofia?" Clover asked worriedly. "Why are you so jumpy?"
"Clover… I think I did something bad."
Clover looked at her in disbelief, "You? Something bad? Come on, kid, why would you think that? The amulet didn't curse you again, did it?"
Sofia shock her head. "No, it didn't…"
"Okay, then whatever you did must not have been that bad. What did you do?" Clover asked while chewing on a carrot.
"….I kissed James."
Clover spit out the carrot all over the floor, "Wait a minute, you did what now?!"
"Yes, Clover, I kissed James. What should I do?" Sofia asked him pleadingly.
Clover thought for a while, "Well, is it really that big of a deal?"
"What?" Sofia stared at him with a confused look on her face. "Of course it is! People are bound to think it's wrong if we like each other. I mean, we're related."
"Not by blood though, you just happened to have parents who got married." Clover argued, "Besides Sofia, do you love James? I mean, really love him?"
Sofia blushed, "I do…"
"And how does he feel about you?"
"He loves me, I think." Sofia answered, thinking back to how James acts around her. "He always does nice things for me like holding the door for me or pulling out my chair. And he's always telling me how pretty I am and that he loves hanging out with me. He asked me to dance with him, and today he kissed me too…"
"Then it shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks," Clover stated, shoving another carrot in his mouth. "If you guys like each other, than I say go for it."
Sofia smiled. "You're right Clover. If other people don't want to support us, that's their problem. I mean, I really hope that they'll support us, but I'm not going to force myself to love someone else just because they can't accept our relationship."
"Yeah, you go princess!" Clover nodded approvingly.
"Besides," Sofia continued, "the amulet hasn't cursed me since it happened, so it must not think I've done anything wrong! I'm going to go talk to James!"
Sofia headed for the door with a new found confidence, but when she opened it there was someone already there about to knock. Unfortunately, it wasn't who Sofia was hoping for. Instead, Princess Amber was waiting out in the hallway holding two different dresses in her hands.
"Sofia! Oh, I'm glad you're still here! I can't decide which dress I should wear tonight for Hildy's party. What do you think?"
"Um….this one." Sofia said, pointing to a sparkly, gold ball gown with blue curly cue designs printed on it.
"Yes, I think that one will be perfect too!" Amber nodded in approval. Then she looked down at Sofia's dress and frowned. "Sofia, why haven't you changed yet?"
"What do you mean? I was planning on wearing this to the engagement party too."
"Oh, Sofia, you can't do that!"
"Why not?" Sofia asked innocently, looking down at her gown. It looked fine to her.
Amber nearly fainted. "It's filthy! There's dirt from the village all over it! Not to mention you already wore it out in public! No, no, you must change. Here I'll help you!"
Before Sofia could protest, Amber had dragged her back into the room and straight to the closet. She rummaged through the clothes hanging up and eyed each potential dress thoroughly. According to Amber, the dress had to be 'Perfect, but not too perfect'. Sofia just sat at her vanity, waiting for Amber to finis