Time to Stop 300-word flash

A princess and her maid rescue themselves

Time to Stop

“I’m tired of waiting,” Princess Dawn decided. She walked to the small window of the tower. She examined the drop to the ground.
“But your Highness, you must wait for a prince to rescue us!” her only companion, a young servant girl named Eleanor, insisted.
“If he was coming, he should be here! My father, King Dunder, has taken his latest social experiment too far.”
“But it’s tradition for princesses to be rescued by men…”
“Nonsense! We’re smarter than most men and have more common sense. Let’s rip strips from our gowns and things and get ourselves out of here.”

For some time, the sound of ripping fabric filled the small room. The blankets and bed linen were done too.
“Make a good firm knot to join each strip to the next, Eleanor. We should have enough length to make it.”
While her companion was making rope, Dawn took her scissors and began to remove some of the chinking from the stones that formed the window edge.
At last, things were ready for their escape. Dawn wrapped food in rags and tied it to her waist. She wedged one of the makeshift rope’s ends firmly into the slot between the stones she had made.

“You go first, my dear,” she said to Eleanor.
“Your Highness, that would improper! I’ll anchor up here and you go first. When you are safe, I will follow.”
Dawn grasped the end of the rope, climbed over the sill and began going down.
“I’m on the ground!” came Dawn’s voice from below. The servant girl then descended
“It took you long enough!” a fatherly voice said.
They turned. There stood the King, looking pleased. He embraced his daughter and bowed to Eleanor.
“I was right, real ladies can take care of themselves.”