That night there was the royal wedding and feasting like the kingdom had never seen before. There was musicians and jugglers, singers and bards, and even jesters scampering around. When the King gave the Queen a long passionate kiss there was a stampede for the outhouses., where even some of the most battle hardened soldiers emptied their stomachs. Many of the Ladies of the court wandered back in looking rather pale and ill. None of this was noticed by the King. His eyes were only for the queen.

Now you can imagine that that night the Queen was so drunk that she forget she had a headache. As a matter of fact she was that drunk she did not even realise what was happening. So to her surprise, nine months later a child was born.

Thankfully for the midwives attending the infant took after his father, the King. Had it taken after the Queen they would have happily drowned it. The wet nurse was ready to hang herself rather than look after a thing that resembled the Queen. Fortunately none of this happened.

Time moved on and before you knew it one year had passed since that time down in the cellars. Of course the Queen had totally forgotten about the promise she had made. Her life for the last year consisted eating and sleeping. She had grown so big that there was no room in bed for the King so a second bed was placed near hers.

Many a wife thought that this was a great idea to get a troublesome husband out of their beds. Once out of the marital bed there was suddenly a lack of marital duties performed. This was a period of time the called the dark twin bed ages. Some husbands banded together and invented what they called the ‘King size bed’. This bed was much wider and many husbands reclaimed their marital rights. But this is another story altogether.

Right on time the wizened little man presented himself for his promised reward. All year long he had been waiting for this, to claim what was his due. It had taken weeks for his fingers to heal after that night. Even now there was some scarring still evident.

“I am here for my promised reward,” said the man. “You may present me to the guests as Rumpelstiltskin.” A smile lit up his wrinkled face at the thought of the festivities to come.

As mentioned earlier, she had completely forgotten about her promise. Now suddenly the thought terrified her. What if he was to let on to the King the truth about those nights. Surely the King would be so angry at being deceived that he would torture and kill her. Or even worse, deny her food until she faded away into nothingness.

As all these terrible thoughts ran rampant in her head, suddenly a plan was formulated. Not only was she fat, ugly and lazy but also without the slightest twinge of conscience, and as devious as a sewer rat.