Your skill as a writer shines in this story, @litguru. You add depth to the character, Aida, by giving her an athletic, bold personality. The story almost verges on cliche, but then it does not follow a fairy tale model. It is rescued from cliche by the novel twist you add: Aida happens upon the prince bribing the witch.
A few questions arise in the reader's mind.
- If this dress is fitted for a royal figure, how can it be fitted on Aida? Usually a seamstress will have a model of the figure, exact proportions, so the dress will fit the intended properly. Fitting the dress on someone else doesn't work unless the second person has exactly the shape and dimensions of the intended.
- How does the prince know Aida? It seems that when they meet in Aida's house it is for the first time. And yet, he is so taken with her that he bribes the witch to make a prophecy. Some hint about a prior sighting would make sense in the story.
These questions are trivial. The story is beautifully crafted. Thank you for sharing it with us, @litguru.
Thank you, @theinkwell team, and happy new year!
You bring up some good questions that I asked myself and then decided not to add the answer for the sake of brevity and laziness 😌
For the first question, my idea was that Aida and the princess were roughly the same age and figure. So the mother, who is a brilliant seamstress, already knew this from prior interaction with the princess. This would've been great to add because it would have emphasized Aida's 'princess-like' qualities too.
For the second question, I did not have a definitive answer in my own mind. One idea that came to mind is that the prince sighted Aida somehow through her mother's work with the royal house. Aida herself does not seem to be as keen on dressmaking as her mother, so she was likely unaware of the business transactions with the secretive royals. This leads to another question, why did the queen send her son to pick up the outfits and not a servant? Perhaps the prince insisted on doing so for his own purposes (chiefly to woo the unsuspecting girl). As I mentioned, I did not have a clear answer. So, rather than get tied up in knots (or stitches), I left it out. :D Adding a sentence or two would've cleared up some matters but hangovers happen :(
Your comment makes perfect sense, and when I spruce this story up later, I'll make sure to add these details. Thank you! 🖊