This old Celtic tale is sometimes called "Cherry, The Maiden Of Zendor"...
Cherry was a silly young thing who loved loved to laze around. As a result of this her father eventually told her to go to the town square and sit there, supposedly, to ask those who came along if they needed a maid to serve in their households. Now, Cherry, besides being very indolent, was a very pretty girl, so a prosperous and fine looking gentleman, a lord, happened to take notice of her.
He said that he had a vast estate not far away and that he was in need of someone to take care of his young son as his wife had passed away a short while ago and his housekeeper was elderly and not spry enough to handle an active little boy.
Cherry eagerly said she would like the job. She pleased the lord for her duties were light and Cherry was happy too for the lord's home and property were very grand. The one thing that her employer insisted that Cherry do was to rub a special ointment into her young charge's eyes every day. This Cherry did faithfully although, the elderly housekeeper, who seemed to detest her, reminded and reminded her, very gruffly, never ever, ever to forget to do it. (The ointment was made of goose grease and four leafed clovers. Cherry didn't know this and it wouldn't have made any difference if she had, because Cherry was not a student of faerie lore. If she had been she would have known that four leafed clovers are extremely, extremely magical and that the ointment was to help the child, who was half faerie, his mother being a human mortal and his father being a faerie lord, to develop the sight, the ability to see into all faerie magic.)
Well, Cherry and the lord became very friendly and, even quite affectionate, so that Cherry would dream and dream of becoming his wife. But, then on a warm day as she was drawing a bucket of cool water from one of the estate's wells she happened to look down and what a sight she saw reflected in the water! Why, at the bottom of the well was the handsome faerie lord dancing with many elegant looking ladies! Cherry was shocked and called angrily down into the well that he should stop his loose antics! Immediately, the faerie lord stood beside her. Sadly, he told Cherry that she must leave that day and never return. Cherry wept and apologized profusely, but it was no good. She had to go and she never saw the faerie lord, his son or his beautiful estate again.
Hello. I'm writer Antoinette Beard/Sorelle Sucere. Welcome to my blog, which is dedicated to all the loving, intelligent, brave, wise, strong, gentle, kind, sweet-and-geeky, humble-and-patient, --- whether they have hands, paws, hooves, wings, fins, or even, --- yes, flippers, --- and to all eager readers and hard-working authors, everywhere.
Meanwhile...
I love all creatures. I consider them, all of them, to be sentient beings... I write thrillers, fantasy, mysteries, gothic horror, romantic adventure, occult, Noir, westerns and various types of short stories. I also re-tell traditional folk tales and make old fairy tales carefully cracked. I'm often awake very early in the morning. A cuppa, and fifteen minutes later I'm usually writing something. ;)
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