When Samuel emerges after a lengthy period of time, I join him, and he turns and looks at me silently. I can see from his face that he doesn’t approve, and I know I’ve lost my last friend, someone who’s been with me through thick and thin.
Though I know it’s for the best, my heart still hurts. I push ithe feeling down and lock it up. That emotion isn’t going to help me so I squash it down and ignore it. It’s how I survive.
At least it seems he’s still willing to do as I say--as I asked him to--and that’s all I need from him now.
We re-join Melody and Julian among the loyal nobles, and Samuel introduces my fake persona. While we’re exchanging inanities and I’m strengthening my web of lies as a nobles’ daughter, we hear a huge commotion approaching from the back. Coming through the rooms and getting closer and louder. People laughing, cheering, and yelling—it's as if a celebrity is coming.
Anna!
Could it be? Is she finally back?
I slip through the crowd away from everyone I know and head to where the noise is coming from. I hide in the shadows at the edge of the crowd and wait. As confident as I am in my disguise, I will take no chances. For if the worst were to happen, if I was found out in the middle of this crowd, I would never be able to go back. They would never let me go, never let Anna be queen.
I have to stay dead and gone, forever.
Anna arrives through the door, and my mouth goes dry. I can see glimpses of her through the crowd, a tall regal figure, flowing golden hair, graceful movements, the flash of a joyous smile. She’s just as I remember her, taller, yes, and older, more mature, but in soul, spirit—the same.
This amazing, angelic creature is much more fit for the crown than a broken, scarred person like me.
She’s the essence of what a real queen should be; graceful, reliable, trustworthy, dependable—royal.
There’s some movement on the opposite side of the room; a small, plain door opens from which the most significant person in this entire country emerges. Duchess Mari Tilmore, a more refined and elegant woman you will never find.
My favourite Aunt, she was blessed with wisdom and a way with people—Anna takes after her so much. Especially now she’s all grown up. All grown up and ready to take the throne.
People part before each of the Tilmore women as they make their ways through the crowd to each other. They meet in the middle of the room, light glinting off the tears in their eyes.
From what I can decipher from the whispers and murmurs of the people around me is that Anna has been in England since the assassination of the royal family. This is the first time mother and daughter have been reunited in 9 long, lonely years.
I see Samuel on the outskirts of the royal women, keeping people back to stop them swamping the mother-daughter pair that is causing their excitement. I catch a strange glance passed between him and Aunt Mari; turns out I really need to get up to date with everything. From what I’m seeing, there’s some romance in the air between those two. Which doesn't surprise me, I noticed Samuel kept stopping himself from using her first name while he was talking about her.
They’d make a great pair.
Aunt Mari, Anna, and Samuel head back towards the door the duchess appeared from—to do nine years of catching up in private—and I return to Julian and Melody. They are talking to some people I recognise, old government officials from when my parents were in charge. Older now but still the same—stiff and stuffy.
I never really got along with any of the government people, I was too young and full of childish energy and mischief. Time to change that. I introduce myself as Raven, a minor noble and last of her family.
“Ah, yes, I’ve heard of your family. Such a tragedy.”
This from the old Treasury Minister Travall who remembers no such thing—poor man with his thinning white hair and wrinkled skin. Time has not been kind to him.
“Are you here to join our little loyalist band?” A kind faced, grey-haired noble asks in a jolly voice; Duke Erwood. I always liked him, whenever he saw me, he’d sneak me treats and laugh at my tricks. A kind, sweet old man—these times are much too hard for one like him.
“Call it what it is, old man, a revolution.” A younger man says in an annoying screechy voice, “Once we take back the crown, we will put a Lamonia on the throne again—be it but a half-blood.”
I bristle at the rude way he addresses Duke Erwood, not to mention the disrespectful way he talks about Anna, his future Queen.
“You know,” My soft voice cuts through the conversation, a dangerously sharp edge to it, “If you talked like that when the throne was still ours, you would have been flogged.”
Nobody talks about Anna like that! Who is this ill-mannered, insolent man?? The conversation stops at my comment and he eyes me over. He’s smart enough to realise the threat I pose, and I watch with barely concealed glee as the coward shows his worth and balks.
I’m broken out of my stare when Julian elbows me roughly and breaks the silence with a complete change of subject.
“I thought the next in line's name was Tilmore?”
Duke Erwood lights up and covers the cowards retreat with a brief background on Annas heritage.
“While it’s true that Princess Anna’s last name is Tilmore, she is of the Lamonia line. Her mother, the duchess was married to the King’s younger brother but got remarried after he betrayed the country by trying to steal the treasury. Alban Tilmore died protecting the royal family in the Castovias coup. It is also rumoured that the disgraced royal had something to do with the coup that killed his brother, but no one knows for sure.”
There will always be rumours, true or false, but this one may actually have a glimmer of truth to it. It would fill in some of the holes about how the traitors managed to completely take over the palace in such a short period of time.
“How do you plan on returning the crown to Miss Tilmore?” Melody inquires interestedly, “Do you just announce that the true Queen is alive?”
Duke Erwood shakes his head sadly, “Unfortunately, it’s not that cut and dried, ma’am. The Lamonias were assassinated by the current rulers, the Castovias; so that they could take the country. What we need is proof of the Castovias guilt and treachery before putting the princess in the spotlight. They’ve already orchestrated the murder of one royal family—and gotten away with it. What’s to stop them from finishing the job?”
Melody stares at the duke with a shocked and horrified expression; even though I had told her all about the murder of the royals, it obviously didn’t sink in. Either that, or it’s more believable coming from the duke.
“Since the princess is back home, I assume you have some sort of plan to obtain this proof you speak of.” I inject quietly,
“Yes, and no, young lady. We assume that there is some sort of proof of the Castovias betrayal, but unfortunately no one here has any clue what this proof is or where to find it.”
I frown dismayed; I expected to have to find proof of that sort myself, but on hearing about the underground loyalists I had assumed they’d have more information than I do. Or a plan. I guess it really is true what they say--if you want something done right, do it yourself.
I shake my head in sympathy, “If we can help in any way, please don’t hesitate to ask. We have to save our kingdom.”
The duke smiles at me and answers politely, but I can see by the looks on all the faces around me that no one really believes I can do anything to help. Nothing essential anyhow. Just wait until I put Anna on the throne and take down the Castovias—we’ll see who’s useless then!!
The rest of the day is filled with mindless talk and futile hopes—too much like political palace discussions for me. I’ve never missed that part of being a princess. Politics have always driven me mad, all that double talk and legal speech have never seemed very useful to me.
I stay in the background for most of the rest of the conversations. Letting Melody and Julian fill in the gaps in their knowledge while I try to figure out how to sneak into the palace.
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