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Snow White was no princess. She was not the step-daughter of the Wicked Queen. She was merely a palace serving-maid.

The Wicked Queen had some cause to cast a jealous eye upon Snow White, for as she had blossomed into young womanhood, the King had cast an appreciative eye of his own upon her, and that more than once.

So it was that the Queen called her Huntsman, and ordered him, "Take Snow White far out into the woods. Do as pleases you with her, but bring me her heart afterwards." She gave him a box, lined with red velvet.

Sadly, Life is not a Fairy Tale, and the beseechings of a young innocent hold little weight against the orders of a queen, or the lusts of a royal huntsman. There was not escape into the deep woods, no cunning cottage, no magical guardians. It was not a doe's heart that returned in the box.

The Queen had Snow White's heart roasted, and dined on it eagerly. Power and guile had once again overcome innocence and naivete. The Queen was, once again, the Fairest in the Land. Snow White's story does not end with a Happily Ever After.

There is more to tell of the story of the Wicked Queen.

The heart was sweet to the taste, and made sweeter with a cup of wine. There was, however, an unpleasant, slightly bitter aftertaste. This was alleviated with a second cup of wine. Yet still the bitterness persisted. The Queen cleansed her palate with fruit, both fresh and dried. She tried sorbet and iced creams, then sugar-plums and chocolates. She tried cakes, pastries, and confections, fish and fowl, beef, pork, and lamb, oysters, hummingbird tongues, and lobster drenched in butter. She tried garlic, onions, peppers and curries. She tried cordials and liqueurs, absinthe and vinegar.

All provided some relief, but scarcely would she swallow, when the bitterness would return.

At first hourly, then on the quarter-hour, and then continually, the Royal Kitchens received requests from the Queen's Chambers. Many were difficult to fulfill. Some merely required merely quantity. The Mirror on the Wall began to show the Fairest in the Land disappearing under puffy cheeks, double chins, and swelling belly, expanding hips, flabby arms, legs, and breasts.

As consumption became more consuming, niceties such as bathing and dressing began to be forgotten. The Queen's bloated and unwashed body began to stink, her breathe to reek. Late in the evenings, her ladies-in-waiting might find her, unconscious in a chair, rolls of fat peering through the dressing-gown she had been wearing since the morning, an unchewed fragment of victual dangling from her lips.

At last, the Queen's own heart betrayed her, unable to force blood through the lard-encrusted arteries anymore.

The King remarried soon thereafter, a lovely young Princess from a neighboring Kingdom, simultaneously establishing treaties which brought his subjects peace and prosperity for decades to come.

That was a nice story. Well, in the original fairytale Snow White punished the Queen by making her dance in red hot shoes. In this story the Queen also got punished. I think it was her guilty conscience that made her constantly feel the bitterness. She punished herself. It's almost like Lady MacBeth who went crazy after the murder of Banquo and would constantly see his blood on her hands. wink