Chapter Three
There wasn't always an opportunity for Oliver to sneak Catherine to the ghetto to visit Joanna, thus Catherine and Joanna became unable to meet each other constantly. The two friends needed to always stay together and some communications are better done face to face, this was why it seemed like the written note deliveries done by Antonio wasn't much satisfactory to them. Catherine thought it was time to forget about Oliver and learn how to sneak out of her mum's castle of her own accord for she was willing to do anything just to spend time with her friend. It had been a while she met Joanna and as a matter of fact, she was starting to miss the interior of Joanna's home which was like the inside of a precious stone. She also needed to play inside Joanna's little room which was covered with pictures of Joanna's paintings. As a princess of England she had all the riches of the world, but she believed Joanna had things she lacked which included individuality and lots more, so she needed to mingle with the ghetto kid so that she could get a deep societal orientation from her. Catherine did all her best to resist the temptation of sneaking out of the Castle by her self to see Joanna, but because she was seldom busy, one day, she was forced to do so. She figured out a perfect way of leaving the Queen's castle without being noticed; Pasting the 'do not disturb' note in front of her door was the first thing she must do and after doing that, she would lock her room from the inside so that the guards would think she was inside. Then after a proper disguise as one of the little palace maids, she would sneak out of her room through the window and move to the Castle's gate in a tip toe, and pretending to be on an errand for princess Elizabeth her big sister, she would sneak out of the gate and walk straight to the ghetto in search of Joanna's home. She was a smart little princess and she would possibly locate Joanna's home because she had been there severally. She would walk to the ghetto disguised as a commoner or she would draw attention to her self and probably put her self in real danger. Catherine later put her sneak out plan into practice and it worked perfectly. Trekking to Joanna's home was stressful to her in the start, but as time went on, she got used to it.
Joanna had gone to their little farm in a far cry with Mrs Isabella to do some harvests and on their way home, Mrs Isabella diverted to the market to sell what they've got, while Joanna made her way back home. When Joanna arrived, she was shocked to see Catherine sitting on the door step all alone and there was neither a royal chariot nor Oliver waiting as usual, this was incredible. Catherine smiled at her and she held still because she was perplexed.
"Princess Cathy are you here all alone?" she asked.
"Yea, I have been waiting for a very long time. What's up with you?" Catherine responded and opened her arms to take a huge from her friend and at once Joanna walked to her in smiles and hugged her.
"I am well, thank you Cathy. Tell me what happened, who brought you here?" Joanna asked curiously.
"I did." Catherine replied.
"You came here all alone? You've got to be joking." Joanna said surprisingly.
"Yea i did. I thought the best way to make our friendship work is to learn how to visit without asking any royal guard for permission to do so." Catherine replied. There were foot steps approaching, Joanna held Catherine immediately and whispered,
"That could be mum, lets get out of here! There are new stuffs i need to show you." She took Catherine into her room, pointed at her new paintings which she hung on her walls and continued, "Check these out."
The paintings were so beautiful that Catherine couldn't take her startled eyes off them. She gazed at them for minutes in admiration.
"These are beautiful, I love them." Catherine commented.
"Take any one of them home-any one you like." Joanna requested.
"Mum will see the painting and ask me how i..." Catherine tried to resist.
"Tell her you did it your self." Joanna interrupted.
"I will tell her you did it and you came with me to see her because you want to do some beautiful paintings for her too." Catherine suggested.
"Nah Cathy, that isn't enough reason for me to just walk into the the queen's castle uninvited, the queen will be upset." Joanna responded fearfully and Catherine became sad.
"I am sorry Cathy, i wish i could." Joanna held Catherine and said sadly, and after a suitable interval, Catherine spoke up,
"what if i come up with a better plan. Yes a disguise can work! I disguised my self as a maid to possibly sneak out of my mum's castle, so you can as well disguise your self as the daughter of a duke to sneak in."
"Wait, is that why you are in a maid's local outfit? thought you wanted to amuse me princess." Joanna said and burst out laughing, Catherine joined the laughter too.
"Well, your plan isn't bad, but i have neither wears nor make ups that can make me appear like the daughter of a duke of England, that's really a problem." Joanna continued sadly.
"I will do something about that." Catherine responded.
"Hope you aren't planning to lend me your cloths because the queen will know you gave them to me." Joanna said wisely.
"Joan I have a plan." Catherine replied and there was silence. Catherine was busy looking round the room to see the things she missed and Joanna became the one who broke the silence. She went to her book shelf and brought out an ancient hymn book which her foster mother gave her. There was a song which she wanted to dedicate to their friendship and she wished to teach the princess how to sing it.
"Mum taught me this song and i wish to teach you too because i want us to dedicate it to our friendship." She said, opened the hymn book and handed it over to Catherine.
"Sing after me Cathy-
like God and his creations are bound by love,
So shall me and you be bound by our lasting love,
Indeed our strong bound shall last forever, we're forever in love.
Peace, love, unity, honesty involved.
Envy, hate, pride, unfaithfulness we should minus.
Selfishness, greed and discrimination, we avoid in disgust.
Feelings beyond friendship, like humans evolved-
our love transforms, it's as bright as the shining sun.
Our bound is an example of a true bound to the whole world.
Our Love only second to God's love for us.
We share our pains and we progress, we never halt.
Alice I am Prince Henry and you are my bride, we're forever in love."
Joanna paused and spoke up,
"I will remove the names in the last line and replace it with ours, so it should go like this; Catherine I am Joanna and you are my friend, we're forever in love."
Without much ado, Catherine learned the song and when it was her turn to sing, she altered the last line and it went like this; "Joanna I am a princess and you are my friend, we're forever in love."
The two kids became so moved and enchanted by the song that they lay on their backs and sang it repeatedly with their eyes fixed on the roof, both switching their names in the last line of the song. They sang and sang with loud voices and they could be heard from outside.
"Who are those crazy little brats making noise in my apartment! thundered Mrs Isabella's voice and Joan and Cathy broke into immediate silence.
"Cathy remember what i told you about mum, she thinks its unsafe for you to come to the ghetto and she will totally freak if she finds out you visited me without the consent of the queen or your body guard. Leave through the back door before she comes in." Joanna whispered to Catherine. She Quickly took her out of the house through the back door and hugged her goodbye. When Mrs Isabella broke into Joanna's room, she found Joanna alone and with a mean face she looked around and asked.
"Where are the rest of you?"
"No mum, it was just me. I was using the musical instrument." Joanna replied nervously. Mrs Isabella gave her a stern look and was about to leave, but like she sensed something fishy, she suddenly halted and asked again,
"She was here, wasn't she?"
Joanna became more nervous and with a little shaky tune she responded, "Mum if she was here you would see the royal chariot packed outside."
"I mean Katrina, the nut job who wants to take her cloth when she is yet to complete her payment." Mrs Isabella corrected.
"No mum." Joanna replied after giving a deep breath of relief and Mrs Isabella gave her a suspicious look and left.
Then Joanna quickly went after Catherine with the intention of guaranteeing her safe return to the queen's castle. If Joanna could alter the fabric of reality, she would just give a command and a heavy wind would blow the princess back into the castle. The truth was that the ghetto wasn't safe for her. She was neither with a guard nor with a royal chariot and that was unspeakable. But the fact that she was in the outfit of a maid minimized the trouble that could come to her if care wasn't taken. After a fruitless search for her in the ghetto, Joanna finally met Antonio who reported that he saw Catherine in a royal chariot with his big brother Oliver and they were heading east. Hearing that, Joanna whispered to her self in amazement,
"Cathy is full of surprises. When did she…?"
"Yea the princess is full of surprises and she always misses you too for you mean a lot to her."
Antonio who heard her whisper responded in smiles and Joanna frowned a little and was mute for she was deep in thought and after a short interval, she spoke back.
"You've been reading her letters right? Knucklehead."
"Never." Antonio lied.
"I will tell her." Joanna insisted.
"About what? i did not read her letters." Antonio lied again.
"Tell me about the wild and i promise to keep my mouth shut." Joanna said with a plain face.
"What!" Antonio exclaimed surprisingly.
"yea, tell me about your experiences in the wild and i will tell Catherine nothing." Joanna said with a little smile on her face and Antonio gave up and confessed with his face downcast.
"You are right Joanna, i read the princess's letters. I can't take my eyes off her because she is beautiful. I want her to be the love of my life." Joanna chuckled in response and he continued,
"Please Joanna tell the princess that I love her."
"Let me give you a bit of advice, why not tell her your self. She's a human, a human with feelings too." Joanna advised.
"You mean i should tell her to the face that i love her? That's crazy."Antonio objected.
"Then write her a letter or something." Joanna suggested.
"Oliver will never deliver the letter to her." Antonio replied in disgust.
"You are the errand boy, aren't you? tell him the letter came from me and he will deliver it to Catherine." Joanna said and Antonio held her and pleaded,
"Joanna tell her three words; ANTONIO LOVES YOU and i will tell you all the tales in the world about the wild, i promise."
Joanna became mute for she was deep in thought. She knew Antonio was about to give her a difficult job for the first commandment binding her friendship with the princess forbade getting into relationship with a third party. But she knew how to bend the rules, making the rigid ones a bit flexible. She later accepted the offer and Antonio was resolved to give her the company she needed.
"Alright Antonio i will tell her. Time to keep up the end of your bargain. Do it right now!" she commanded.
"Cool Joanna, your wish is my command." Antonio responded delightfully.
"The forest behind the Chiltern hills is the best place to hunt because it is yet to get fully explored by the greedy hunters of England." He continued in smiles. "Close to the forest is probably the most beautiful garden in the world, oh i wish i can take the princess there, the garden is paradise!"
"Please Antonio take me there!" Joanna interrupted impatiently.
"The princess will go first cause I want to surprise her. You will surely tell the princess about the garden if i take you there." Antonio responded and Joanna kept calm.
"The forest is full of wild animals," Antonio continued his story,
"Leopards?" Joanna interrupted.
"Yes Leopards, lions, wolves- One day while we were in the forest looking out for meats to slaughter, a little wolf ran to us, then we followed it into a dense ticket and found its wounded mother which may have been attacked by fellow wild animals or something. We knew its mother will not make it, so we took the little wolf home and raised it..."
"Take me to your home, i want to see the wolf, i have never seen one before." Joanna interrupted again very impatiently.
"Joanna that's not possible cause we took the wolf to the wild life park few months after bringing it home." Antonio replied.
"I will love to marry a hunter when i grow up, he will take me to the beautiful garden close to the Chiltern hills and show me the wild." Joanna said for she was full of dreams and Antonio stared at her and wished she was the princess. She obviously enjoyed his company for she gave him all attention. She was free-spirited and was kinda cute, but one problem she had was that she wasn't princess Catherine. They continued their saunter and Alex kept Joanna busy with the story about the little wolf.