CHAPTER ONE: ESMERELDA
Esmerelda was a shy young woman who never felt at home in the court of her father, King Herrick the Bold. Her older sisters loved nothing more than to tease her whenever their Nan’s back was turned. Esme, as her father affectionately called her, liked to sit alone on the banks of the river and watch the leaves drift lazily away.
Her sisters would always find her though, and commence their brutal teasing. Sometimes they’d even toss her into the waters, and Esme would get in trouble for soiling her dresses, even though Nan was well aware how her sisters tormented her.
One warm afternoon as she sat in her petticoats, dress drying in the sun beside her, Esme leaned back against a warm rock, secure in the knowledge that her sisters’ daily torment was passed and she would be free to lounge in the sunshine until dinner some hours in the future.
She decided to remove her petticoats and allow them to dry as well, and as she lounged back, fully nude, eyes closed she gloried in the heat, both from the sun beating down and the devilish pleasure of being so publicly exposed — even if she was protected deeply within her father’s kingly estate.