Walking Beauty.part three

Basil examined the pigeon holes. Sureenough, there was one marked Princess Talia. He reached in and pulled out ascrolled parchment with a waxen seal.

“You’ve got mail,” he said as he handed it to her. He asked theporter for Princess Talia’s address, and was directed to room 7 on staircase14.

Sally offered to walk the princess to herroom because, as it happened, she was her neighbour. Basil took his leave ofthe girls, and Talia gave him a nod that was so slight that perhaps only a trueprincess could have managed it.

Sally tried to make conversation on the wayto staircase 14. She asked Talia where she went to school.

“I didn’t,” said Talia.

“And who are your parents?”

“Why the King and Queen.”

“Of which country?”

“This one ... or at least I think so. I’m not really sure aboutanything anymore. Sally do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

Sally blushed. “Go ahead,” she said withsome trepidation.

“Don’t you feel a little bit odd here? I mean, it’s pretty unusualfor a girl to be a student. At least, I always understood it was something boysdid.”

Sally laughed: “No I think it’s perfectlynormal. I mean, maybe in our grandparents' time it was a little more unusual,but now - why girls are smarter than boys, aren’t they?”

“Well yes,” said Talia. “I agree with you about that of course.”

She opened the door to her room with thekey that the porter had given her. If Sally had hung onto any doubts aboutTalia being a real princess, she lost them now. Her room was five or six timesthe size of her own. It was filled with the rich scent of roses. A four-posterbed was strewn with rich coverlets and silken cushions. One wall almost lookedas if it was a window onto a garden, but in fact it was draped with a tapestrydepicting trees and birds. The actual window was a large bow one, with a seatlooking onto the quad. The floor was covered with a flowery carpet. Sallywandered in after Talia.

“Can you play that?” she asked, as Talia ran her fingertip over theornate frame of a harp.

“Of course,” said Talia. “I have the gift of music.” She sat on thestool, and her fingers began to playfully pluck a tune. The music seemed tochase the frown off her face and she looked like she might be capable of beingquite pleasant.

Sally picked up a jewelled ornament fromthe table. “May I?” she asked, and Princess Talia answered, still playing, thatshe had no idea what it was.

“Why it’s your mobile phone!” exclaimed Sally. It was the most ornateone she had ever seen. Talia did not seem to register the comment.

She was lost in the music. Sally quietlyleft the room and lay on her bed next door listening to the delightful notes asthey rang from the fingers of her most peculiar neighbour.

“Well,” she thought. “I’ve met a princess. Not bad for the first dayof term. I wonder if we shall be friends?” And although they came fromcompletely different worlds, and the princess, no doubt, belonged to aglamorous set, Sally felt certain that it was no mere chance, but fate, thathad brought them together.