Grey Bear, a Love Story

The frightened little girl stood behind her mother's skirt as they waited in the great hall.  She was glad to be out of the cold, but missed the company of her father.  She had spent the summer days with him in the market, weighing  vegetables, keeping the flowers looking fresh.  But the harvest was through, and father was too busy cutting firewood to watch after a little girl.
So this morning she was scrubbed clean and had to wear her faded blue dress which was washed, pressed, and kept in mother's cedar chest.  Now she stood, feeling quite awkward in shoes, overwhelmed by the wasteful decadence of a stranger's room.  Soon they were ushered in by a rude man to the kitchen where the little girl would spend her days at the kitchen table while her mother cooked for a family she never saw.  
One day, the warm kitchen became the object of curiosity to the daughter of the family.  She become even more curious about the little girl at the table, who seemed to be about the same age as her.  The cook's daughter had been strictly instructed to speak to everyone, even the little girl her own age, with respect.  But the 'yes ma'ams' wore off quickly as the two became aquainted.  Whenever something more exciting than the cook's daughter came along, the little girl of the family flitted off ~ generally leaving behind her favorite toy ~ a magnificent grey teddy bear.
The cook's daughter had no toy as special as the teddy bear.  Her mother had made her a rag doll.   But one eye had been lost after a day at the market, and she was really quite shabby.  But the grey teddy bear was superb!  He had soft brown eyes that made her heart melt every time she saw him.  She longed to take him in her arms and just hold him all night long if she could.  She wondered if the little girl ever did.
Sometimes, she felt sad for the grey teddy bear, when the little girl would forget him in the kitchen, on the floor toppled over, as she went on to the parlor for games, or the garden for tea.  The cook's daughter would slowly walk over from the kitchen table and sit the grey bear up, and smooth down his hair.   Mother would always scold, but she would just say that she only wanted him to be happy.  He looked so uncomfortable.  One day when the little girl left the kitchen, and the grey bear overturrned on the floor behind her, the cook's daughter slowly slid off the kitchen chair to make 'her' grey bear more content.  But this time she couldn't put him down. He felt so good in her arms, like an old friend she had known all her life, and loved too.
That night she dreamed the grey bear and her were really together.  That his soft brown eyes twinkled with magic and he came alive.  They danced all night long in the forest, and sang songs.  The little girl felt so safe and warm in his arms.  The spot in her heart that she was so afraid to let anyone in to, now belonged to the grey teddy bear.  Her heart was his, and she decided, it always would be.  Because to be safe and warm once, can last through a lifetime of cold nights alone.  She knew then, she would always love the little girl's grey teddy bear.
For a while, the cook's daughter even felt as pretty as the little girl, with her brand new dresses, and bouncy little curls and bows.  When she found grey bear alone again the next morning, she held him high in the air and twirled him around the kitchen. They danced  and she began to sing him a song.  Then she held him as tight as she could, as if he had always been hers and hers alone.
Just then mother came up behind her and took the grey teddy bear from her arms and set him back down, quite awkwardly, by the panty door.  The cook's daughter's eyes welled up in silent tears as she looked down at the floor.  Her face flushed with embarrassment and pain.
She had forgotten herself and returned to the kitchen chair.