Chapter 566
An hour later, I sat in the bath tub while Nanny Nia worked on my hair.
She had placed the mixture of black dye on my hair and massaged the paste in.
Before we had begun, I made sure to look at myself in the mirror for a very long time.
I gently touched my fire red curls.
It was the way I had been for the rest of my life.
I thought of how it was the only other thing apart for my necklace to have a firm bond between my later mother and I.
Urma had told me that my mother had had red hair in fire curls just like mine and no matter how long she had tried to tame them, they never went straight or flat.
It had become her signature.
Wild and free.
I hated to do this but I had no choice.
Nanny Nia had stood with the mixed paste and asked me. “Jasmine are you sure this is what you want?”
I touched my hair one last time and felt the texture in between my fingers.
It was going to stop everyone from staring.
Going to stop me from over explaining.
And most of all, it was going to stop me from being reminded of what I was.
An abnormally.
Me dying my hair felt as though I was evolving into a new version of myself and the old Jasmine had died with her baby.
It was going to be a new beginning for me
I nodded. “Yes it is.”
And that was when she began to massage it into my hair.
The paste was cool and seemed to be a relaxant on my head.
I felt Nanny Nia gather all strands of my hair and soon it was all wet.
She kept on working on it and we were in the bathtub for almost two hours.
“How effective is this paste going to be?” I asked Nanny Nia as she massaged my head.
“Hildegard told me that it could last for a whole year.” Nanny Nia explained. “Apparently members of the royal family who began shedding their red would use this to dye their hair.”
“But this is black.” I pointed out.
“Well.” She continued. “This is just a coloring. There is a certain type of ingredient that is used here that makes the dye last. This same ingredient was used to mix red dye just so they could hide their hair turning black.”
I batted my eyes in disbelief. “Really?”
“Yes.” She nodded as she swiped off dye that had trickled down my ear.
“Surprising isn’t it. From what I know, there are two ways you can end your rule as King or Queen. The first is by death. You can be a ruler of all wolves til you die or when your time ends to rule the crown, your hair starts to become black.”
“So a lot of them try to hide it by dying their hair red so that they can remain on the throne.” She explained to me.
The wolf culture was truly very interesting.
I nodded. “And so what happened to them? Did they ever get away with it?”
“I don’t think so.” She said. “It always came out in the end. It’s an ironic isn’t it?”
“What’s ironic?” I asked as I gently wrapped my wet hands around my body.
The water had become now warm from me sitting in it for two hours.
“You’re dying your hair from red because you don’t want to remember who you are. While Kings, Queens, princes and princesses would have died to have their hair red.” She explained.
I thought about it.
She was right.
What I was throwing away member of the royal family would die for.
“All done.” She said as I heard her drop the container. “Now we can rinse it off.”
“Won’t we let it stay? To be sure that it stays longer?” I asked worried.
“That’s not what Hildegard said.” Nanny Nia said. “You can step out of the tub now.”
I obeyed her and soon I was sitting on her seating in the bath room with a towel to hide my nakedness.
She tilted my head towards the bath and began to pour warm water down my hair.
It felt very relaxing.
She did it expertly and avoided it going into my eyes and ears.
I took a risk and opened my eyes to see.
In the bathtub, the water was a now a pitch black as it flowed from my head.
After about five minutes rinsing the water out, Nanny Nia brought a towel to me and instructed me to rise.
She wrapped the towel around my hair and then led me out to the bedroom.
I was made to sit in front of the dresser and the moment Nanny Nia took off the towel, my hair came down.
I was looking right in front of the mirror and I saw myself.
My hair was pitch black and had beautiful curls just like my red had been.
I gently reached out and touched it to be sure it was real.
It was.
I put my fingers through my hair and looked left and right.
There was no single show or evidence that my hair had ever been red.
It was completely pitch black.
I looked like a whole new person.
“What do you think?” Nanny Nia asked as she placed her hands on my shoulder.
I gave a smile as I looked closely in the mirror. “It’s different.”
She gave a laugh. “Of course it is. You’ve been a red head your entire life.”
She sighed heavily. “If it’s any consolation to you Jasmine. With or without the red hair. You’ve never been an abnormally to me.”
My eyes gathered in tears.
First it had been Urma and then Eleanor, and now Nanny Nia.
I had never had a mother but somehow mothers had picked me along the way.
I got up and threw my arms around her.
“Ohhh.” She said sounding surprised.
She very gently embraced me back.
As I smiled through the hug, I gently opened my eyes and to my shock, none other than the Queen stood inside the room looking at me.