The groom\u2019s legs nearly failed.<\/p>\n
Inside the helmet was not the princess.<\/p>\n
It was a frightened servant girl with tearful eyes, her mouth trembling behind the narrow opening.<\/p>\n
The cathedral exploded in gasps.<\/p>\n
The king\u2019s face hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cClose it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The groom stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is your daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n
The servant inside the helmet began to shake.<\/p>\n
The king stepped closer, voice low and dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is my daughter now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The groom slowly turned back to the girl.<\/p>\n
Her breathing was broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
The girl whispered, \u201cMara.\u201d<\/p>\n
The name meant nothing to the crowd.<\/p>\n
But it meant everything to one old woman in the front pew.<\/p>\n
The royal nurse stood suddenly, her hands covering her mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The king\u2019s eyes snapped toward her.<\/p>\n
The groom saw it.<\/p>\n
Fear.<\/p>\n
Not anger.<\/p>\n
Fear.<\/p>\n
The nurse walked forward, crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat child was born in the servants\u2019 quarters the same night the queen\u2019s baby died.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cathedral went dead silent.<\/p>\n
The king\u2019s voice shook with rage.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mara whispered from inside the wooden helmet.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made me wear it because my face looks like his.\u201d<\/p>\n
The groom stepped closer.<\/p>\n
Through the small visor, he saw it now.<\/p>\n
The same eyes.<\/p>\n
The same mouth.<\/p>\n
The same royal blood the king had hidden under wood because truth was uglier to him than any mask.<\/p>\n
The nurse\u2019s voice broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took the servant\u2019s baby and called her cursed because she was born poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mara cried harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said no prince would marry a servant\u2019s daughter if he could see my face.\u201d<\/p>\n
The groom looked at the king, disgust replacing fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were going to sell her life with your crown.\u201d<\/p>\n
The king lifted his chin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI protected the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d the groom said. \u201cYou protected your lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he reached up and removed the helmet completely.<\/p>\n
Mara stood shaking in the candlelight, face wet with tears, finally seen by the room that had been ordered not to look.<\/p>\n
The groom took her hand gently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was brought here to marry a princess.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at the king.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for the first time today, I see one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The groom\u2019s legs nearly failed. Inside the helmet was not the princess. It was a frightened servant girl with tearful eyes, her mouth trembling behind the narrow opening. The cathedral … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystories24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}