"Once upon a time there was a prince, but this prince was spoiled and greedy. His people feared the day he would become king. They hired a sorceress to test the prince. She disguised herself as a beggar and on a cold stormy night went to his castle to beg shelter. She offered him a rose in exchange for some food and a bed for the night. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, he scorned her gift and tried to send her away. She tried once more to appeal to his mercy and said, "Please I ask only for some bread and a simple place to lay my head." He turned her away twice more and finally the sorceress shed her disguise. Stunned by her beauty and afraid of her powers he begged forgiveness. "Why should I listen to your apologies when you would not listen to my request for a simple place to stay?" she asked. And so saying she wrought a curse on the spoiled prince turning his once handsome outside to match the evil heart that was inside..."

The storyteller looked down at his daughter fast asleep. He got up slowly from his chair by her bed. He often told her stories at bedtime some he made up and some he gotten from his grandmother. He never read from a book in that special hour before his Bellanna drifted off to sleep. He smiled the eight year old had exhausted herself in the excitement of moving from New York to London. As he watched his daughter sleep he felt the familiar pain that came from losing his Jasmine. He suspected he would always feel that pain when he watched his daughter, so like her mother. Maurice turned and quietly left the room turning on the night lamp and turning off the light.