The Prince Candy never forgot

When you read the manga, does it make sense to you why Albert didn’t invite Candy to move in to his mansion after his identity had been disclosed? Moreover, what really made Candy want to return to Pony’s Home for good?

Remember the last two times she had returned to Pony’s Home? The first time, Anthony had died from the accident, and the second time, Terry had left England. Thus, my gut feeling was that Candy decided to return to her refuge, wanting to clear her head or sort out her feelings for Albert, now known as her guardian. For your interest, I have written a short story along this line called “It must have been love”. 🙂

Some might ask why Candy didn’t fight for Albert? Well, I suppose she would if she knew for certain how he felt about her. Since he didn’t say or do anything different, what else could she do? If you were Candy, what would you do?

From the Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) spoilers, Candy wrote:

I don’t know how to describe it but somewhere inside me, I knew that Albert was special.
What kind of thoughts does Albert have about us …
Argh, he’s driving me crazy …

I’m not sure when exactly Candy thought about Albert this way, but this monologue happened right after she blamed Albert in frustration that he had been keeping his true identity a secret from her. Hence, it seems to suggest that Candy wondered if Albert had any particular thought about the two of them, and this was driving her crazy. 😉

Because of Neil’s forced engagement, George instructed Candy to visit her adoptive father in Lakewood. Of course, Candy had no idea the kind man whom she was going to meet was Albert. In fact, Albert seemed very surprised too. He didn’t expect to meet Candy as William Albert Ardlay, at least not yet.

In “Daddy Long Legs” by Jean Webster, (SPOILER ALERT), Master Jervie proposed to Judy but got turned down because she felt so inferior and assumed Master Jervie was clueless about her poor background. However, Master Jervie thought Judy didn’t love him, which made Judy feel miserable and misunderstood. Roughly two months later, she wrote to her “Daddy” honestly about her feelings for Master Jervie, and not long after that, her “Daddy” finally invited her to meet him in his house.

Therefore, by the time Judy met her mysterious benefactor, she was overjoyed to learn that she had fallen in love with none other than the man who knew almost everything about her. He had proposed to her before, so that means he unconditionally accepted her and her background even though he was born in a prestigious, extremely rich family. Furthermore, they weren’t really related. Judy gave her benefactor the nickname, “Daddy-Long-Legs”, because it was more special than “Mr. John Smith” as he had instructed.

However, unlike Master Jervie, Albert hadn’t revealed any of his inner feelings to Candy before she found out about their legal relationship. Therefore, even though she wondered how he felt about the nature of their relationship, she couldn’t ask him directly. After all, legally he was the man who had adopted her.

Besides, Albert was no longer the vagabond Candy used to know. Not to mention that he was not only an Ardlay but was essentially the most powerful man in the entire family clan. Compared to Albert, Candy was merely a poor orphan with unknown origin (just like Judy, who couldn’t help feeling somewhat intimidated).

Nevertheless, as explained in Love Triangle (Part 7), Candy might have suspected that Albert had developed some feelings for her, and yet, so far he hadn’t taken any action about their legal relationship. The adoption remained a major obstacle between them.

Albert used the word ‘angry’ in his letter to Candy “I don’t blame you for getting angry”. I don’t think she resented him or bore a grudge against him, but she kept on teasing him as ” graaandpa” on purpose even though she was fully aware that he wasn’t happy about it. He knew he had wronged her, so he asked her for forgiveness. However, as someone has pointed out, Albert had been forced to hide his true identity since childhood, so it wasn’t like he had done it deliberately to harm anybody. Yet, as long as he was Candy’s legal guardian, she had every right to address him as Granduncle William. Her provocative behavior seemed unreasonable (even ungrateful) or out of character to me, but I have a feeling that she just wanted to vent, like she was suffering from unrequited love. Or, she was confused about her relationship with Albert, if not upset, thus appearing angry for so long.

Therefore, right after Albert implied that he was her prince, Candy burst into uncontrollable tears and nearly couldn’t stop sobbing. Do you think she cried with the release of her pent-up emotions as well as the happiness of reuniting with her prince at last after all these years?

Later, to reinforce that she had fully accepted him as her love, she ended her short letter by telling him “I have never forgotten Prince on the Hill”.

Then, after getting a prompt reply from him, she had seemingly calmed down and narrated in another letter, much longer this time, the entire event on Pony’s Hill. How much time had elapsed? About two weeks or more?

This tells us that Candy had possibly relived that day many times in her mind. 😛 She recalled every single detail, from the instant Albert had suddenly appeared to her at Pony’s Home till the moment he had to leave with George. Moreover, she called him “Prince on the Hill” or “Prince” again and again. 🙂

As a matter of fact, both of them understood the significant meaning behind this important confession. Candy said in this letter to her prince,

At any rate, how could you, Prince!
I have showed you my treasured badge and told you many times about the “Prince on the Hill” when we lived in the House of Magnolia! If my memory is correct, someone called “Albert-san” was listening to me quietly …

In other words, Candy must have explained to Albert why she had named that Scottish boy “Prince on the Hill” (because he was handsome like a prince from fairy tales?). She must have also told Albert that, as a little girl, she had been waiting for her prince to show up on Pony’s Hill again. In the manga, when Candy first related to Albert about her prince in the apartment, she told him that her prince was her first love.

Based on the fact that Albert was willing to let her know about this secret, it was understandable why Candy could openly demand Albert’s holiday as her present for her upcoming birthday:

Yes, the birthday of certain someone! (loudly!)
Well, I’ll cast a spell on the Prince on the Hill!
ala hela bla bla gela gola booone!
On the day, you come to the Pony’s Home to see “the girl who is whether crying or smiling pretty”! The present to the girl is “your holiday”! to stay with her a lot and talk with her a lot!

Note that a birthday isn’t just any day in a year. It must be a special day to Candy, so the fact that she wanted Albert to talk to her a lot on her big day means that she treasured his presence more than any tangible present, and she truly enjoyed spending time with him.

Why else did she want her prince to come? 🙄 She was so desperate that she cast a spell on him… lol. I think she was telling him that she missed him very much already. 😀

Guess what? In Albert’s subsequent reply to Candy, he wasn’t the least surprised that she wanted his company and exclusive attention. It was like her request was the most natural thing that happened between them. They acted like a couple, don’t you think? 😉

I’ll talk more later why Albert had waited for some time before revealing to Candy that he was her Prince on the Hill. Please stay tuned.