“Ok, Fine.” Sniffed Xavi, clearly not used to being bossed around. “I’ll go and see if I can find something suitable.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll go and find something for her.”
“I’ll help too,” chimed in Elise, who had just appeared, freshly scrubbed from the marble room.
The three of them drifted away into the dress wardrobe, leaving me with a clearly disgruntled Louis.
To give him his due, he did a marvelous job with my makeup, including the red lipstick I’d asked for. It was so much more dramatic than I had expected, but I could hardly complain after I’d asked him to change his whole palate. My eyes had been swept with browns and beiges, and he’d brought out cheekbones I didn’t even know I possessed. I looked so elegant, regal, and sure of myself. More importantly, I looked nothing like Grace.
“Charmaine,”
I turned to find Elise waving at me from the dressing room.
I thanked Louis and went to her.
“Close your eyes,” she giggled.
“Why?”
“Because I know you’ll say no to the dress, but I think once you see yourself in it, you’ll love it.”
I doubted it, but I did as she asked. The dress felt heavier than I expected, and I began to worry that they had decided to turn me into a meringue. Elise would pick the fluffiest most over the top dress imaginable, but I was hoping that Jenny would rein her in a little.
“Shoes!” said Elise, picking up my feet and putting them into a pair of shoes with more heel than I was used to.
I stumbled as she dragged me back into the main room.
“Open your eyes.”
I did as she asked, and as I did, there was applause. Behind me in the mirror, I could see Xavi and her team clapping and cheering. I could see Jenny crying and Elise jumping up and down with excitement. In front of them all, I could see me. At least, I thought it was me. My dress shimmered with a hundred thousand diamonds, all sewn onto a nude-colored dress. Light bounced off in sparkles, dazzling my eyes. I looked stunning. I watched as my reflection opened her mouth into a perfect “o” shape. I could barely believe it was me standing there. A princess had never looked so beautiful. I lowered my gaze down to my shoes. Elise and Jenny had picked out some glass slippers to go with the dress and, uncomfortable as they were, they matched perfectly. For the first time, I thought I might actually be able to pull this off!
I was under strict lockdown until I was to make my grand entrance at the ball at ten minutes past seven precisely. After all the time it had taken me to get ready, I still ended up with over an hour to spare. As my parents didn’t want anyone to see me until the correct time, I was told to go to my room.
As I closed the door behind me, glad to have the time to collect my thoughts, I noticed a small envelope on my bed. I picked it up and read my name on the front. Inside there was a scrap of paper on which was written: “A lucky charm for a Lucky Charm” in a hurried script. It was signed with a C. It could only be from Cynder. I turned the envelope upside down and out fell a silver bracelet. I held it up to the light. It was a simple silver chain with a charm in the shape of a carriage. I fell instantly in love with it, preferring its beautiful simplicity to the ostentatious diamond earrings and tiara I was wearing. I slipped it onto my wrist, just as Jenny walked through the door.
“I know you’ll be eating a huge banquet later, but I thought you’d want something to keep you going.” She threw me an apple. “Try not to smudge your lipstick.”
I gave her a grateful grin and bit into the apple.
I spent the last hour going over the photos one last time with Jenny, and then the sound of music told me it was time to go.
“Ready?” asked Jenny
“As I’ll ever be.”
Even though it was Jenny who would take me down to the back entrance of our huge ballroom, it was my mother and father who would escort me out to the masses.
The room next to the ballroom was tiny, no more than a place to get oneself ready for a grand entrance. This royal family was big on grand entrances! Mother and father were already there with my father’s chief of staff, who was busily consulting his watch and checking his clipboard.
“Ah, here you are. You look perfect,” smiled my mother, giving me the lightest peck on the cheek. If only she could see the utter dread I was feeling inside me. Louis’ makeover had me looking a lot more confident than I felt.
From here I could hear the chanting outside the palace. They were still protesting. I briefly wondered if Cynder was with them. He was a Mage after all.
“Right, you go here,” said the chief of staff, grabbing my arm roughly, and positioning me beside my father. I linked my arm with his and waited for my mother to join us. Instead, she stayed back.
“Elise will walk in with you, Your Majesty,” he said to my mother. So Elise was going to be formally presented too. That was fine by me. It took some of the heat off. As if she had been summoned by magic, Elise appeared at the door behind us. She looked stunning in a long, pale blue dress, her hair bouncing around her shoulders in large curls and the daintiest tiara on her head. She gave me a thumbs up and linked arms with our mother behind me. A fanfare sounded signaling that the double doors were about to open. I gulped and snuck a look at myself in the mirror. I looked exactly how I felt. Absolutely petrified. I tried to rearrange my features into an expression more benefiting the occasion and waited. A loud voice on the other side of the doors shouted out.
“Lords, ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for His Majesty, King Aaron, and Her Royal Highness, Queen Alice.”
The chief of staff looked down at his clipboard in confusion.
“Change of plan,” he said, pulling me quickly to one side so my mother could take my place. She took my father’s arm just as the doors opened to the applause of the congregation. When the doors had shut behind them, Elise ran forward.
We both looked to the chief of staff for instruction, but he just shrugged his shoulders.
“Lords, ladies and gentlemen, please stay upstanding for Her Royal Highness, Princess Elise.”
Elise clapped her hands together and gave me a kiss. The chief of staff seemed to have recovered from the shock of not knowing what was going on and pulled me back out of the way.
Elise turned and placed something in my hand.
“I thought you might like to wear this,” she whispered before turning around and stepping through the doors. The applause was louder this time. There was no denying that the people loved her. I wondered if anyone would even notice when I walked through the doors. Elise was a tough act to follow.
I looked down at the small object she’d given me. A small silver rose glinted in my palm. It was a small pin that Grace had worn on some of the more important occasions. She called it her good luck pin. If I ever needed good luck, now was the time. I carefully pinned it to my dress, just as the doors opened for the last time, and I walked out to my future.
Bright lights stunned me, and the noise was deafening as I stepped out into the grand ballroom. I’d not been expecting photographers, but judging by the flashes, they were out in force. I blinked a few times and tried to see the people. Before I’d had time to figure out what was going on, a rough hand guided me to a spot near the front next to my parents and sister. A long line of men stood waiting to meet me.
The first stepped forward and reached out his hand. He was a small man with a curled mustache. I wracked my brain to come up with his name, but I couldn’t even remember his photo, let alone what he was called.
“Lord Jonathan Ashbury of Ratterham.” The chief of staff said beside me. I breathed out in relief. If he was introducing them all, I wouldn’t have to remember any of their names.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Lord Ashbury,” I said, reciting the words I’d been practicing with Jenny. “I do hope your journey was a good one.”
“All the better for meeting you at the end of it,” he replied smarmily and kissed my hand, leaving a wet
mark on it. I wished I’d have thought to wear gloves if they were all going to do this. I couldn’t help but think how unsanitary it was going to be, being slobbered over by a hundred different men. I was supposed to spend a couple of minutes with each one, asking a polite question and deciding whether I liked them enough to ask them to stay. After twenty seconds in his company, I knew Lord Ashbury would not be staying. He bowed and moved over to kiss Elise’s hand. I had placed my own hand behind my back to surreptitiously wipe his drool on the back of my dress when someone passed me a handkerchief. I glanced over my shoulder to find Jenny standing there. She must have dashed up to her room to get changed because now she was wearing a lovely violet dress with flowers along the neckline.
“Sir Barney Drake.”
I remembered him if only for his name. No one called Barney should ever be a sir. I held out my hand and smiled. It was going to be a long night.
After meeting about twenty of the men, one of them on my maybe pile was introduced. Daniel Laurient’s smile was as beautiful and genuine as it had appeared in his photo. He moved up towards me as his name was called and took my hand in both of his, shaking it with exuberance. He was the first not to try and kiss it. I liked him immediately, and I could almost feel Jenny grinning behind me. I was surprised she’d not prodded me in the back.
“How was your journey, Mr. Laurient?” I asked politely.
I’d asked the same question to all of the men so far because it was the only question I could think to ask. They had all responded with variations of “good.”
“It’s was awful, Your Highness. I had to fight bears and climb mountains. At one point, I thought I was never going to make it when I slipped into quicksand.”
“That’s awful. How far away do you live?”
“My house is just outside the palace gates, Your Highness.”
I looked to see if he was being serious. The sparkle in his eyes told me he was not. I couldn’t help but laugh. Daniel Laurient had firmly taken himself from the maybe pile and landed in the yes pile. Now, if only I could find four more to add to it.
I didn’t have to wait long. The very next guy was also one of the ones from my maybe pile. I remembered his name, Leo Halifax. He was also a local in town and the only one I’d actually heard of. He was an entrepreneur and philanthropist, and his name often cropped up in talks about charity events. He was also one of the most attractive men I’d ever laid eyes on, with the most stunning amber eyes. He didn’t make me laugh in the same way Daniel had, but he was attentive and the first to ask me questions about myself. As I placed him into my yes pile, and he moved forward to talk to Elise, I began to feel much better with how the evening was going.
Unfortunately, my run of good luck didn’t hold out. By the time I was at the ninetieth man, I’d not picked another. No one else had stood out the way Daniel or Leo had. My feet were also hurting in my glass shoes, and my stomach was rumbling from eating no more than an apple since breakfast. I wanted nothing more than one of the dishes Cynder made for me, but that was not going to happen.
As Mr. Instantly Forgettable Ninety-One was introduced to me, I did the unforgivable and yawned. Thankfully, he didn’t notice. He was too busy staring at my breasts. Next!
I smiled and nodded politely to the last few, noting Luca Tremaine, the prince I’d had a conversation with Cynder about earlier. He was as good-looking as he had been in his photo, but I only flipped him over to the yes pile because I was seriously running out of men. I was supposed to pick at least five, and I’d only managed three. As my father came towards me to take the names of the men I’d chosen, I quickly scrambled around in my brain for two more names. As I recited the names of Daniel, Leo, and Luca, to the chief of staff who wrote them down to pull them out of the crowd to sit near me at the table, I tried really hard to think of two more. “Alexander DeVille,” I blurted out. I couldn’t really remember the guy at all, but I liked how his name sounded. “And... um...”
“Xavier Gallo,” My father said to the chief of staff who took it down and then left to round up the men.
Xavier Gallo? I remembered the name, but his face hadn’t stuck in my mind. I vaguely remembered him as having jet black hair with too much product in it, but beyond that, I had nothing.
I wondered why my father had picked him out. He wasn’t one of the princes, I knew that much. There were a total of five princes in attendance, and I’d already picked one of them—Luca. The others were all at least twenty years older than me, and I’d dismissed them immediately.
Thankfully, dinner was to be served before dancing, something I was grateful for. My feet were already chafing inside the glass slippers, and my stomach was tying itself in knots with hunger. The meal was a chance for me to get to know the five men I’d picked in more detail. After the meal, I could choose to dance with them or choose some others if I didn’t like them.
We moved from the ballroom to the banquet hall where a dozen tables were set out to seat over two hundred guests. Hundreds of items of the royal silver cutlery were laid out in perfect formation with crystal glasses at each setting and thousands of white lilies providing centerpieces for the tables.
I had never felt so nervous as I was seated in the middle of the head table. Elise was to my right and my mother to my left with father next to her. The five men would be seated nearest to me, while still keeping a boy-girl formation.
I noticed that Elise turned a deep cherry red as Leo was seated next to her.
Luca was directly in front of me with Xavier two seats to the right of him (with a young lady between them) and Alexander two seats to his left. I was disappointed to see Daniel sitting the furthest away. He was too far for me to make conversation with him without raising my voice, and of the five, I thought he’d be the most fun.
The first course was brought out straight away. It turned out to be soup, and all those lessons about how not to spill soup on a ballgown would come in handy seeing as the choice was tomato.
I slipped my aching feet out of my glass slippers, confident that no one would notice under the table and began to relax as the bevy of waiting staff brought out large tureens of soup. The first was placed on our table in front of my father. As with every royal occasion, he was the first to be served, then my mother. Once Elise and I had been served, everyone else would get their soup. The waiter ladled the soup directly into my father’s bowl.
After filling my mother’s bowl, he moved along the table to me.
“How are you holding up?” I recognized his voice immediately— Cynder.
“My feet are killing me,” I replied so quietly that only he could hear. “Glass slippers.”
“You look beautiful. Any man here would be lucky to have you.”
He whispered it closely in my ear as he bent forward to ladle the hot soup into my bowl. His breath tickled my neck, giving me goose bumps right down my arm, and then he was gone. He’d moved on to serving Elise. It was then that I realized I’d not thanked him for the charm bracelet.
I picked out the correct spoon, thanks to Jenny’s meticulous teaching and began to sip at my soup in the most ladylike fashion I could muster. I was so hungry, I’d have happily picked up the whole bowl and drank it from there, but I didn’t. I hadn’t said a word to anyone in ten minutes, and I was beginning to get the feeling that people were wondering why not. Jenny had taught me to listen politely to people and then ask more questions. The problem was, everyone was already involved in conversations with other people. Elise was chatting with Leo. My mother was currently laughing over a joke Daniel had just told, and Luca and Xavier were chatting with the women on either side of them, whom I recognized as staff members at the palace. This had been set up by the chief of staff who had handpicked young ladies from the staff to sit at the head table with us. This had two benefits: The ladies were told to be friendly but not overly friendly to the men, so the focus of attention stayed on me, thus eliminating any chances of the men deciding on someone other than me, and it gave the st
aff members who worked hard a reward for their service. I couldn’t help think it was all rather unfair to the male members of staff, who still had to work. It looked like one of the women hadn’t got the memo as she was flirting shamelessly with Prince Luca, who was lapping it up. The only member of my five not chatting was Alexander, who, like me, was paying more attention to his soup than anyone around him. I scoured around for something to say.
“Are you enjoying your soup?”
He looked up, startled to have been spoken to. I remembered him from the line up now. He’d mumbled an incoherent answer to my question and stared at his shoes the whole time. He wasn’t the worst of the bunch by a long shot, but I couldn’t see any kind of lasting relationship between us if he couldn’t even speak to me. Not that I was doing any better myself.
“It’s nice,” he said and then went right back to it, leaving me yet again with no one to talk to.
Here I was, the star of the show, and I couldn’t get anyone to talk to me. I couldn’t think of anything in my training that would help me in this situation. I began ladling the soup into my mouth faster now, desperate for the first course to end just so the bustle of changing courses would cover up the anxiety I was beginning to feel.
Just then, I felt a pair of eyes on me. I looked up to find Prince Luca staring back at me with a sly smile on his face.
I smiled back shyly. He was definitely a good-looking guy and marrying someone who was already a prince would be a bonus, and yet, I couldn’t get Cynder’s words out of my mind. Nor could I rid myself of the image of him flirting with the lady next to him, who I was sure worked in the kitchens.
Talking politics had never been my strong point, but asking him about his country seemed like a good place to start a conversation. With us both being members of royalty, at least we had something in common.
“Prince Luca,” I began. “How are things in Thalia these days?”
“They are as well as can be expected, Your Highness; however, a bond between our countries could only cement relations between your kingdom and mine.”
Charm (A Cinderella reverse fairytale) (Reverse Fairytales Book 1) Page 6