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“You do look quite striking, ly, as if she had seen into the Queen’s insecure heart

The Queen again exa of herback at her She re had reht It was possible that she did look like herthere in the sa day

The dress was of the deepest red, and so to mute its brilliance It was embroidered with a lavish pattern of blackbirds, and bejeweled with sht The Queen’s heart leaped, then quickly sank Hoonderful it would have been to have her mother here with her today Hoonderful it would have been to have had her there at all

The Queen knew herthat decorated her father’s home But as a child, she would stare at it, in awe of the wo for her e her into her ar in circles, the jewels that adorned both their dresses catching the light while they laughed

The Queen broke away fro with the tassels of the curtains at the far end of the room For all the joy in her eyes and her heart, the Queen knew the poor child’s feelings of loss There irl, an inconsolable feeling

The Queen frowned, knowing that there was nothing she could ever do to replace the King’s first wife How could Snow possibly love another woman as much as she cared for her own mother? How, especially, could she care for someone like the Queen, whose life up till now had, at best, been a string of mediocre achievements surrounded by boredom and bleakness?

As the child played and Verona tended to her, the Queen’sin her father’s mirror shop Her father’s reputation as an expert craftsrown so wide, and his artisanship so well-respected, that the King himself felt it his duty to visit he who had been called the finest craftsman in all the lands

After exaifted a mirror of his own, he was ushered outside where the Queen was fetching a bucketful of water fro ordered his attendants to halt

“Who is this girl?” the King asked

“The Mirror Maker’s daughter, Sire,” an attendant replied

The King asped, and dropped the bucket at his feet, soaking his boots right through to his stockings

The Queen looked up nervously, expecting a harsh rebuke, perhaps even i simply smiled And then he spoke to her

She thought he was teasing her when he told her how lovely she was That of all her

father’s creations, she was the finest

“Please, don’t say such things tobetween a curtsy and a bow as she struggled to avoid his pale blue eyes