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[goingtodorking]

Karen has no idea what to be for Halloween. She's sitting cross-legged in front of the clothes box, surrounded by piles of Disney Princess costumes and fairy-wings. But she doesn't want to be a Disney Princess or a fairy. Those things are fine when you're a little girl, but Karen's nine, now. She wants to feel more grown-up. Sometimes, she

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[other_valentine]

Hester didn't mean to stare at the young girl as she put on the strange, frivolous dress. Hester had hated motherhood, knew herself to be a terrible mother, and did not understand how children could be so childish.

But the girl playing with the dress, so content, woke up memories in her that went beyond Wren. It brought her back to Dunroamin, though she wasn't ready to go back there.

Aware that she was staring, she adjusted her scarf and sunglasses, made to step around the girl and rummage through the clothes box. "Excuse me," she said, gruffly.

[goingtodorking]

Still stirring her fingers through the dresses at her side, Karen barely glances up at the woman, shuffling to one side on her bum.

[other_valentine]

The child didn't ask any questions and got out of her way. Hester appreciated that. So, she smiled to herself as she rummaged through the clothes box and pulled out...

"You have got to be kidding me," she said, before she could stop herself.

It was a tiara. A glittering, silver tiara. She really, really wanted a clean bra, but no, the clothes box had seen fit to give her a tiara. And it was her size.

"You have got to be kidding me," she said again.

[goingtodorking]

Humming to herself, Karen, combs through the pile of clothes beside her. If she's going to be a princess, she's going to be a really pretty one. And she's going to need all the right things.

[other_valentine]

Hester knew that the clothes box was giving her a message. Leaving aside the silliness of assuming that a clothes box could think, and leaving aside her extreme reluctance to play along, she wondered if this was the only way she could get a bra out of this thing.

Besides, the child was quiet. What harm could it do?

She held out the tiara to Karen. "Can you use this?"

[goingtodorking]

"I've already got a few of those," says Karen, but she reaches out and takes the tiara with a little smile. She turns it over in her hands, examining it.

"This one's very nice."

[other_valentine]

"Yes, it is," Hester said, giving the tiara another glance. Because it was real. But then, who was Hester to say about what the clothes box chose to gave out, so long as it gave her the bra she needed. "Do you like to play princesses?" she asked.

[goingtodorking]

"I like to play spy-dudes and Devil Princess," says Karen. "But I like to read books and draw and practise swimming too."

It suddenly seemed very important to make that distinction.