It was judgment day at the palace. Everyone felt the importance of the day. The maids bustled around in conspicuous quiet. They polished the gold until it shown and cleared away every speck of dust. After all, the palace needed to look the best. The butlers stood tall and straight at the door. The pages lined the back of the throne room, alert and ready for any order from the king. 

The people in the town felt the greatness of the day. It was the one time in the year when the king heard the hardest cases in the land, and his word meant the difference between life and death. People lined up a week beforehand to have their chance to see the big occasion. The lawyers spent long hours briefing their cases. Each wanted to impress the king with his logic and evidence. Those involved in the cases shuddered in fear or secretly hoped they would be released. 

A subdued quiet was over the palace as the crowds came in. The magnificence of it awed people. Lawyers felt their arguments did not hold water. Even the servants trembled a bit for those involved in the cases. It was indeed an auspicious day.

Princess Beth wandered through the flower garden, humming a sweet melody. The gardener smiled at her. At four-years-old, she did not grasp the significance of the day. In fact, she was caught up in her own little world and did not know that anything unusual was going on in the palace. She skipped amongst the garden walks. Stopping and clasping her hands to her face, she squealed. The prettiest pink flower had blossomed in her garden plot.

Carefully, she picked it and cuddled it close. “Oh,” she gasped, “It’s so beautiful!”

She hurried back to the palace and through the halls, shielding the flower from any harm. She opened the side door into the large throne room and slipped in. Halfway into the room, she stopped. Her eyes widen as she looked around. People crowded the back of the room. A table sat in front of the throne. Two men dressed in black suits stood before it. Seating behind the table, a dignified man in a white wig and long black robe held a hammer. Princess Beth looked this way and that. Her father was nowhere!

The man in the white wig and black robe brought the hammer down sharply onto the table. Beth jumped at the thud.  She turned and fled the room. She raced down the long hall and into to the dining hall. Surely, her father was there. He could not know what was going on in the throne room. The dining room was empty. Princess Beth checked all twenty-eight chairs around the long table.  

She ran upstairs. Maybe he had gone to the private rooms? She looked in his bedroom. He was not there. She looked in her bedroom. He was not there. She looked in the sitting room. He was not there. She even looked in the bathroom, but he was not in the private rooms.

She raised herself on tiptoes and looked out the hall window. She saw the garden wall. That was it, he must have gone out for a walk. 

Princess Beth dashed outside. She ran through the garden walks, past the beds of flowers. She peeked around the hedges at the gazebo. It was empty. She ran to the stables. All the horses were there but no king. She ran back toward the pond. Her father was not there. Slowly, she walked back toward the house. Her head hung down. She couldn’t find her father anywhere. She bumped into the gardener.  

“What’s the matter,” he asked.  

“Have you seen my father?” Princess Beth asked.  

“No,” the gardener answered, “He hasn’t been in the garden. Isn’t he in the throne room.” 

Princess Beth shook her head. She felt like crying.

“Is he in the library,” the garden asked. 

Beth’s face brightened. She had forgotten about the library. Of course, that’s where he was. He liked to study. She turned and ran into the library as fast as her little legs could take her. No one was there. Beth looked puzzled as she walked through the rows of books. Her father was nowhere!  

She opened the side door into the great hall and slipped through it. Maybe, her father was watching everything going on in there, and she had not seen him before. Surely, he would not leave someone else in there. She tiptoed along the wall, behind the guards, behind the ministers, behind the pages waiting in readiness. She looked at everyone in the room. Her father was not there. She edged toward the other door, sliding her feet around along and being very careful not to knock any of the statutes that lined the walls. She did not want anyone to know she was there, especially the stern-looking man in the wig. She reached up her hand and turned the door handle.

The man in the wig brought the hammer down and uttered two sentences. Princess Beth wheeled around. As the two men walked back toward the waiting crowds, the man in the wig turned toward her. 

She dashed over to him and climbed up onto his lap. Pulling off the wig and spectacles, she exclaimed, “Daddy!” 

He leaned over her and kissed her. “Were you looking for me,” he asked.

She nodded her head up and down. “I went all over the castle looking for you,” she said. “I couldn’t find you, and I was scared of the man in the wig.”

“But it was me,” the king said, “and now you found me.”

Princess Beth snuggled down into his arms, a happy smile on her face as she showed him her pink flower.