Chapter 6: Compassion Shown

For the next 6 years little changed. Gerti continued her lessons. Wan Chin and her became good friends. Gerti would trust him with her life. She learned alot from him, not just self-defense, but in respect. She learned that not everyone was the same and that was a good thing. She also learned that Wan was his family name and began calling him Chin.

Snow White grew older and more fun to play with around the palace gardens. Snow White confided with Gerti on everything. Everyone else now called her Gertrude, but to Snow White she let call her Gerti. Gertrude was now 16, and had become quite the strong young woman. However grown she was, she played like an older sister with Snow White.

One afternoon she was playing in the garden with Snow White. They were picking apples. Snow White was playing on the low branches. Swinging and picking leaves. Gertrude was helping her pick the best apples. While trying to pick the taller apples Snow White fell from the tree, Gertrude caught her, but Snow White had gotten scrapped by branches on the way down. Snow White began to cry. Gertrude held her close.

"Did you know, that when you get a scrap, it only enhances your beauty?" Gertrude said.

Snow White looked at her skeptical.

"In a friend of mine's culture when a bowl is broken, you fill the crack with gold. The gold shows the great journey that the bowls been through. It's journey makes it even more beautiful. When you look at flowers in a garden, which is the prettiest? It's hard to choose. When you're in the forest, and you find a flower, is it not the prettiest because it chose to bloom despite the struggles that it faces in the forest? So too are you the most beautiful when you decide to perserve through the scrapes of life." Gertrude explained.

Snow White was so enthralled by Gertrudes stories, that by the time Gertrude had finished, she had also been able to clean up Snow White's scrapes and dress them, without resistence to the pain of touching them. Gertrude finished with a kiss to Snow White's head.

"It's almost dinner time, you better go wash up" Gertrude told her.

Gertrude went to clean up, a simple dress and hair down would do for playing with Snow White, but not for dinner with her father and betrothed. She retired to her room. Her maid servant came in, in addition to Chin she was one of Gertrude's most trusted friend, and the one she told everything to. Her name was Angelica, and she had beautiful blond hair. She began to braid Gertrude's hair in the most intricate ways. She garnished Gertrude in a lacy dress that was a light blue. It was most becoming, but Gertrude found it too much over the top, as a princess she was worth no more than Angelica who stood next to her in a plain dress.

Adorned in her royalty, Gertrude attended a "family" dinner, it was fairly uneventful. Horatio smiled at her more than usual. She worried it meant that her father was pushing for a sooner wedding date, but it did not end up being discussed. After dinner, she went for her evening walk. Horatio caught up with her, which was odd.

"This is for you" he said pulling out a handful of flowers. "They're from the dark woods North of here. Snow says that you believe that the flowers that bloom in advisary, who decide to be beautiful despite what is around them, are the most beautiful. I have to agree. Gertrude, I want to thank you for the kindness you've always shown Snow White. I know that being a step mother is never an easy position to be in. And with a marriage that is to be forced on you. Thank you for blooming even in these difficult circumstances".

Gertrude felt her cheeks begin to flush on her. She had believed this man to be a burden she had to bear, but could they at last be friends...not just future husband and wife? he had shown compassion for her plight and acknowledged the courage and grace she has shown in it. Perhaps, things didn't have to be so sour.