by Shelby Hild
“What are you most excited for?” Brayleigh asked as she strode forward. It was almost as though Brayleigh was trying to be civil and have a real conversation with her.
“What?” Vivilyn asked. There could be so many things that Brayleigh was referring to and she didn’t want to come across dumb.
“For the reading?” Brayleigh replied, with one eyebrow slowly raising.
“What reading?” she asked. Hadn’t Louise said it was Teatime?
Brayleigh rolled her eyes.
“The one that we’re going to?” Brayleigh lifted one hand and pointed in the direction of the parlor and the sub-library. “The one where Prince Bryton and Prince Ethan are reading from their favorite classical novels?”
“I’m not—” Vivilyn began, before screaming pierced the air.
“Not again,” Brayleigh said under her breath before stepping to the side of the hallway.
Vivilyn saw Ally brace herself to start running.
Instead, given the recent reminders that Ladies don’t run towards danger, they run away from it, Vivilyn remained with her slow but steady pace forward.
It took everything in her to not run straight towards the shrill noise. Her entire body tensed up. She had to count in her head the seconds for each step because otherwise she knew she’d unintentionally speed up.
Lance pushed through the group and ran forward toward the screaming.
That is what guards are supposed to do. That’s their jobs. That is not what a lady of Rank does.
“Interesting,” Brayleigh said, her face dropped slightly as though she was disappointed. She stepped back towards the center of the hallway. “Not going to go chasing after the danger this time?”
“Why would I go after the danger?” she asked, her excessive hand motions probably gave away how uncomfortable she was at not trying to help whoever was screaming.
“Because that’s kind of your thing?” Brayleigh said.
They had gotten close enough to the screaming to be able to understand the words Lady Clara was yelling.
“Get it away from me,” she yelled. “Don’t let it hurt me.”
As they grew closer to the door, they saw Freya, Natalie, Daisy, and Rose stood whispering outside of it. Vivilyn saw Fiona making her way from the other side of the hallway.
“What’s going on?” Brayleigh asked as they drew closer.
“Something set Clara off,” Rose said.
Brayleigh brushed past everyone. Vivilyn followed her closely, wanting to be able to help if possible.
“Don’t let it escape!” Lance yelled as soon as Brayleigh opened the door.
“What is it?” Vivilyn asked as the two of them scooted in and shut the door behind them.
“Only the largest spider this side of the Alosa River,” Lance said. The smile on his face countered completely by the tears streaming down Clara’s face. “It could likely take down a bird.”
Clara shivered in the corner of the room she shared with Irene, standing on top of a tall table next to the bed, backed as far into the corner as she could get. She held her roommate firmly in front of her as though Irene would guard her from the insect.
“Where is it?” Brayleigh said. She looked around the room as though the spider would jump out at her. She lifted her chin and looked down near her foot while she lifted what appeared to be a dirty shirt with the toe of her shoe.
“Last we saw it,” Lance said gesturing with one hand, “it was making its way around the desk near the door.”
Vivilyn looked towards the desk and saw the creature causing Clara to make such a ruckus on the side of the bookcase directly next to the desk.
“It’s a Papa Grey,” Vivilyn said excitedly, as she leaned closer to it.
She hadn’t seen one in years, since her father found one in the orchard when she was about ten.
“I don’t care what it is,” Clara said. “I just want it dead and out of my room.”
“We’ll get it out of here,” Lance said, as he approached the bookshelf with a large piece of paper he’d grabbed from the other side of the room.
“I wonder if there’s a Grey Lizard in here too,” Vivilyn said as she helped Lance move the spider onto the paper. “You normally find them together. It’s a really cool relationship the creatures have together. The lizard herds smaller insects into the spider’s web and they—”
“I don’t care!” Clara shouted, moving backward as though she was about to climb the wall to get even farther away from the ground. “If there is, then I’m going to need that out of here too.”
A knock sounded on the door, before it opened to reveal Prince Ethan and his uncle. It startled them enough that the spider scurried off the paper and higher up on the bookcase.
“Is everything okay in here?” Prince Bryton asked, as Prince Ethan stepped in the room.
“Yes, Sirs,” Lance said, bowing. “We just happen to have a Papa Grey incident.”
“Since when can you identify spiders, Lance?” Prince Ethan asked, stifling a laugh.
“Well, since Lady Vivilyn identified it, Sir.”
Prince Ethan looked at Vivilyn, head slightly tilted as though he was thinking.
“You can identify spiders?” he asked. The shock was evident in his voice.
“My family works with plants,” Vivilyn said. “We need to know which creatures are helpful and which ones are pests. Of course, I can identify some spiders. And a spider that pairs up with a lizard tends to be easily memorable. Especially since they’re harmless.”
“Harmless?” Clara squealed. “That spider has murder in its eyes, and it stared right at me. I can’t sleep until it is out. And if it has a lizard partner—”
“We’ll get them both,” Lance said as he approached the bug with the thin piece of paper. “You don’t have to worry about a thing, Lady Clara.”
He ushered the spider gently on the paper and then skirted around everyone in the room to get it outside before it could jump off.
“I’ll be back for the lizard while you’re at Teatime, M’lady.”
Vivilyn overheard some of the women telling him as he ran by what a hero he was for saving Clara from the spider.
“Since everything is now fine here,” the king’s brother said, “we will be on our way.” Prince Bryton and Prince Ethan left the room and were out of sight by the time Vivilyn exited as well. Clara climbed down from the table loudly enough it was audible in the hallway.
“What’s going on?” Entra asked, exiting her own room after all the chaos had calmed down. “I thought I heard screaming.”
“Guard Lance just saved me from a giant, murderous spider,” Clara said, as she shut the door to her room.
“Giant?” Freya retorted, lifting a hand to her mouth to hold back a laugh. “We saw it and it was tiny.”
“It was the biggest spider I have ever seen,” Clara continued. Her face scrunched up in disbelief toward Freya.
“It was smaller than a gnat,” Brayleigh said.
Clara’s eyes started to fill up with tears as the other women laughed. She looked over to Vivilyn, eyes big, as though she was pleading with her to say something.
“It was definitely bigger than a gnat,” Vivilyn said, being honest.
Papa Greys were larger than most spiders that got inside buildings, but they never really grew too large. They had to be big enough that a lizard the size of a pinky finger couldn’t easily eat it. Otherwise, the Grey Lizard would just eat it rather than the two having a mutually beneficial relationship.
Clara clenched her teeth and then stormed past the rest of the women, except she turned to the left instead of toward the rooms the rest of the women were making their way to.
“It was bigger than a gnat,” Vivilyn said. She felt as though she’d made a mistake by not siding with either Clara or the other women about the size of the spider. A real lady would have, wouldn’t she?
The rest of the women continued on through the hall.
Chapter 12
> It wasn’t long before everyone split up, some of them stopping at the parlor, some of them at the sub-library, and the rest continuing on to the kitchens.
“Thanks a lot,” Clara said, as she pushed passed Vivilyn into the room.
“I didn’t do anything,” Vivilyn said, hands up in a defensive gesture.
“Exactly,” Clara spat. “You could have backed me up.”
“I said the spider was bigger than a gnat!”
“Yeah, but your face made it seem like it wasn’t much bigger than one.” Clara forcefully dropped herself into one of the chairs with a slight plopping sound.
“It was a Papa Grey,” she said, her voice slightly higher in pitch as she tried to defend herself. “They only grow so big.”
Clara turned completely away from her with a loud hmph.
“It’s okay, Vivilyn,” Irene said as she moved from talking to someone near the door to set a calming hand on her shoulder. “She’s terrified of spiders and it’s her lady time, so she’s a bit extra emotional right now.”
She gave Vivilyn a small smile before moving over and sitting next to Clara.
It didn’t make Vivilyn feel any better, but she smiled back at Irene.
Now I’m alienating people who’ve been nice to me. What else am I going to do wrong through this?
She took a quick moment to look around the room, since it was one that she hadn’t been to yet. There had been no reason for her to.
The parlor was similar in coloring to the rest of Crysteal Manor, except rather than blues and silvers, it was blues and golds. Three circular tables were set up to one side of the room and the other side was completely empty.
As everyone filed into the room, there was plenty of excited talking. Vivilyn sat down at the table farthest away from the one Clara had plopped at.
Louise, Jolene, Marisol, and Darissa all entered the room together, laughing loudly. Vivilyn had a pang of envy for how relaxed they all appeared. They were all Ladies. They all knew how to act without second thought. How could she even hope to be like that?
Entra sat down next to Vivilyn, sitting straighter than a pole with her ankles crossed elegantly under the chair.
“I’m shocked that this is one of the first outbursts getting blamed on someone being on her lady time,” Entra said, with a slight laugh.
“One of the first?” Vivilyn asked.
Darissa saw Vivilyn across the room and waved excitedly before starting to pull Jolene in Vivilyn’s direction.
“Yeah, Ladies Dierdre and Jillian got into an altercation the week they got sent home,” Entra said.
Darissa slid into the chair on Vivilyn’s other side. Jolene, Marisol, and Louise filtered into others around them. It left two empty chairs at their table.
“Are we talking about when DeeDee and Jill fought?” Darissa asked leaning forward.
“What did they fight over?” Vivilyn asked.
“No one knows,” Entra said, with a shake of her head. “But they actually hit each other, so we’re pretty sure that’s what got them sent home.”
“I heard it had something to do with one of those mysterious notes that randomly appeared back in Ettravil,” Jolene confided. “Similar to what happened with Serinta and Natalie, except they didn’t just separate.”
The conversation was cut short when the door opened and Queen Boudica and Princess Elissa entered the room. Everyone stood and curtseyed to the women.
Vivilyn swore her heart stopped for a moment.
Teatime with the royal women? That is not what she was prepared to do. Why hadn’t she been informed these two would be here today? As she looked around, her nerves grew even worse as she realized the only open seats were at her table.
She was not ready for this.
Malcolm hadn’t taught her exactly how to act in this situation.
No one had told her how to react in a situation like this.
Vivilyn tried to focus on her breathing. One deep breath in, one slow breath out. Repeat. Repeat. And repeat again.
It did nothing but make her slightly lightheaded.
She was not prepared at all.
“Welcome, Ladies,” the queen said, her voice light and kind, “and thank you for being willing to join us on such short notice. Sit, sit, please. Today marks the first of the official ‘trials’ within my son’s Enchanted Trials.”
She moved her hands down to emphasize her asking them to sit.
Vivilyn hadn’t entirely realized there were actual trials to go through. Everything that had already occurred seemed to be a trial enough.
Explosions? Check. Spies? Check. Scary shadowed shapes in dark hidden rooms? Definitely check.
“As we get closer and closer to the final choosing,” Princess Elissa said over the scraping sounds the chairs made as the women moved to sit back down, “which right now might seem far off, but we promise you, the time will speed by, you will start being instructed in different tasks that will be expected of you as a member of the royal family.”
“And eventually queen,” the queen added. “Which is no light task, I warn you. I’d even wager that being queen is more difficult than being king. If it wasn’t, then the men would do it.” The queen laughed at her joke and the women all followed suit. “A queen is not just someone who has babies and stands by and looks pretty while her king makes all the decisions. No. A queen helps her husband make those decisions. She recognizes differing viewpoints and helps the man determine the most effective path to help as many people as possible.”
“She’s supposed to help shoulder the burdens of the country,” Princess Elissa added, “and even with everything else she does, she has to remember to smile.”
“It’s not a position for the easily wearied. It’s not a position for someone who gives up easily.”
The queen looked to each and every Lady in the room. Vivilyn felt as though the queen was reading into everyone’s very souls. Could she see the doubt in Vivilyn’s heart? Vivilyn held the queen’s gaze firmly, trying to show a strong front.
When she finished looking at everyone, the queen continued. “You will have to make hard choices. Never will you be able to think just about yourself. It’s not about you or even just about your family. It’s about the whole of the kingdom.”
“Before we move on to the more difficult part of this afternoon,” Princess Elissa said, as she raised her hands. “Let’s relax and have some tea!”
Behind them, the door reopened and people streamed in, all holding trays of small finger foods or teapots and cups.
Queen Boudica and her daughter moved toward the table where Vivilyn sat. As all the other women at the table started to stand, Vivilyn hurried to follow so that it wasn’t obvious she hadn’t been standing to begin with. The queen gestured for them to remain seated, and Vivilyn again was a few seconds behind.
Teatime was stressful.
All the rules of eating with royalty flew from Vivilyn’s mind. Her stomach twisted itself into such knots that she was only able to nibble on a lone cucumber finger sandwich and sip at a single cup of tea. She didn't even catch what kind of tea it was, though she noticed it had a pleasing hint of honey to it.
“Is everything alright, Lady Vivilyn?” Queen Boudica asked, as she set her own cup of tea down.
“Y-yes, ma’am,” Vivilyn said, her voice sounding shaky even to her.
“Are you sure? You’re not eating much. Is your stomach feeling alright? I know when I was participating in the King’s Trials, I so often felt like I’d be sick. Something in the richness of the food had my stomach constantly upset.”
The queen turned to the closest server.
“Excuse me,” she said, “could you get Lady Vivilyn a cup of the honey chamomile, please?”
She shifted back to talking to Vivilyn. “It always helps calm my stomach, perhaps it’ll do some good for you.”
“Thank you,” Vivilyn said as the server set another cup in front of her. Chamomile never did much to settle her nerves, but
the queen was sure to order it for her, so what could Vivilyn do but drink it?
The rest of teatime didn’t help to calm her nerves in the slightest. But she tried to hide the tensions she felt. It wouldn’t do to have the queen even more focused on her.
“Now,” Queen Boudica said, standing up at the same time as the princess. “Since we’ve all finished eating, let’s move on to activities!” The queen clapped in excitement. “We’re already split into teams, except Lady Trina, if you could move over here so the tables are a little more even.”
Vivilyn did a quick count and with the addition of Trina to their table, they all had seven people.
“Each team will be given a situation that can and will arise when you are part of the royal family. Together you will come up with a plan to handle the situation however you feel best,” Princess Elissa said, as she held up eight cards. “Each of these cards has a prompt on it and some information that should be helpful in creating these events. You will present your ideas after being given some time to deliberate. During your presentation, either my mother or I will throw in some sort of complication because no event goes off without an issue.
“So, if each table will choose one person to send up and pick a card, we can get this show on the road.”
“Oh,” the queen said, raising a finger up as though she had just remembered something. “And whichever team does the best will get to go on the next date with Prince Aiden.”
Everyone started talking at once. Excitement at the prospect of possibly winning the next date filled the air. Vivilyn remained quiet, though. The knot in her stomach tightened even more. She looked around her group.
We have a good variety of people, she thought. I’d say we probably have as good of a chance as any.
Except for you being part of the group, the voice that seemed to be strengthening her self-doubts filled her mind again. You won’t bring anything valuable. They’ve been at court most of their lives. Maybe it’ll be something that involves growing something. That’s all you could help with.