Undercover Princess

by Connie Glynn

  ‘No one is poisoning anything,’ Lottie chided. ‘We’ve put far too much effort into arranging every– … ELLIE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP EATING ALL THE FOOD!’

  Ellie paused with a chocolate roll halfway to her mouth, then slowly put it back down again.

  ‘As you wish, Your Highness.’ She gave her an over-the-top bow before heading to the door. ‘I need to go and get my guitar anyway; Jamie and I are gonna sing you guys a little song.’ She fluttered her eyelashes with a mocking, sickly-sweet smile on her face.

  Lottie gasped in surprise. ‘Jamie sings?’

  The thought of Jamie pouring his heart out in a song seemed totally unnatural for someone so serious and once again Lottie found herself painfully aware of how little she actually knew about the two of them.

  Ellie instantly turned back to her and gave her a sharp look that Lottie quickly realized meant, ‘He’s supposed to be your bodyguard; you should know he sings.’

  ‘You didn’t know your own bodyguard sings?’ The voice came from behind her and she quickly turned to see Saskia by the entrance to the kitchen, carrying a small table, and a posse of Conch House students behind her, all holding big bags of miscellaneous party items. ‘Seems a bit harsh,’ she added as she effortlessly set down the table.

  Saskia truly flourished in the Conch House environment. It was clear she was the dominant presence in the room, and obvious why she was head of year.

  ‘Well … no, I mean –’ Lottie scrambled for the right words but somehow found it even harder to think in the presence of Saskia’s questioning smile – ‘I didn’t know he sang in public … He’s usually so shy about it.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Saskia began placing things on the table, giving Lottie a little sideways glance.

  Lottie’s eyes flicked to Ellie, but she was staring at Saskia strangely, not dissimilar to how she’d been looking at all the party food.

  ‘What are you staring at?’ Saskia asked coyly, flicking her hair out of her face as if she were a mermaid emerging from the water.

  ‘Just admiring the view,’ Ellie replied casually.

  Saskia laughed a deep throaty laugh in response, a hand moving to her hip to smooth her dress over her thighs. Something inside Lottie bristled sharply at the exchange.

  ‘Go and get your guitar and treat us to a song – then I might forgive you for pecking at my food, pequeña pollo.’ Ellie smirked at the pet name and Lottie felt the prickly feeling intensify.

  With Ellie gone, Lottie suddenly felt self-conscious, surrounded as she was by mostly Conch students who seemed to know each other quite well, so she resigned herself to meticulously arranging the food and decor in elaborate Christmassy displays. She might not be in a Christmassy mood, but she still liked decorating.

  ‘You’re surprisingly good at stuff like that.’

  Lottie looked up to see Anastacia eyeing the snowflake patterns she’d made out of some paper doilies. It was hard not to take offence at ‘surprisingly’, but the fact she was getting any form of compliment from Anastacia made up for it. She wore a red dress and her chestnut hair was pristine as usual. She looked like something out of a Christmas advert and it made Lottie feel childish in the little reindeer headband she’d thought would be ‘cute’.

  ‘Thanks, actually I …’

  ‘You’re nothing like I expected you to be.’

  Lottie blinked in surprise, not sure how to respond. How exactly did Anastacia expect me to be? Does she think I’m a bad princess?

  Anastacia looked at Lottie seriously, her lips parted as if she were about to say something important, and Lottie was transported back to that time in the library when she’d felt the same determination radiating from her. ‘Lottie, I know –’

  ‘LET US ENTERTAIN YOU!’ Ellie burst through the door dramatically, all eyes instantly turning to her as she raised a guitar in the air like a trophy. She was followed by a particularly irritated-looking Jamie. He too had a guitar in his hand but seemed less than thrilled about it. Ellie gave him a sharp kick in the shin and he reluctantly raised a party horn to his mouth and gave it a comically unenthusiastic blow.

  And he plays guitar? Does he also do ballet and sing soprano? Lottie felt that wisp of curiosity about Jamie creep through her again.

  How did you become a Partizan?

  She turned back to Anastacia but she’d vanished, now suddenly at Saskia’s side.

  Lottie had to stifle a laugh as Ellie forced two Conch kids off the seats in the centre of the room like it was her own personal stage. They grumbled indignantly and looked to Saskia, but she simply laughed her delicious laugh and gestured for them to move.

  ‘Sometimes I’m surprised you weren’t put in my house; you’re certainly resolute.’

  Lottie instantly went cold at this. Ellie was in her house and no one could change that. Ellie winked at Saskia and gave her that trademark side smile, making Lottie’s blood turn acidic. Why was this bothering her so much? She hated that she felt like this about Saskia, who was nothing but kind to her, yet every time she was around Lottie just wanted to get away.

  Everyone gathered around Jamie and Ellie as they prepared to play. They didn’t appear even a little bit nervous and Lottie envied how relaxed they were.

  ‘Play something Christmassy!’ called out one of the Conch girls, who was wearing a Santa hat.

  Ellie made a disgusted face, completely dismissing her. ‘No, we’re playing something for Lottie,’ she said bluntly as she twiddled with the strings.

  ‘For me?’ Lottie felt instantaneously nervous and happy. That unpleasant feeling in her belly diminished for a moment as she revelled in Ellie’s attention.

  Ellie passed a pick to Jamie and he stuck it in his mouth as he began adjusting his own guitar strings. There was something strangely alluring about the whole procedure, the shared concentration, the absolute assurance in what they were doing – two professionals engaging effortlessly with their craft.

  ‘We’re playing you a song from your country. Because you’re not home this Christmas we thought we’d bring home to you.’ Jamie spoke with that intense look he sometimes displayed and she knew it meant he wanted her to take this seriously.

  ‘Thank you,’ she replied hesitantly.

  The rest of the room exchanged tentative looks with each other, as unsure as Lottie of what was about to come.

  The room hushed as they got into position. They shared a private look and began. The first note pierced the air and the entire room seemed to shake. Lottie looked around but no one else appeared to have felt it. A collective chill ran through the listeners as Jamie and Ellie’s voices rang out in a haunting harmony. The song was sweet and painful at the same time, filling Lottie’s chest with a dull ache. Jamie’s voice was hypnotizing and Lottie found herself swaying, bewitched by the spell of the music. Everyone was silent and wide-eyed, captured by the unexpected intensity of the performance. Each chord on Ellie’s guitar plunged Lottie further and further into the enchantment. Her body began to prickle with pins and needles, the world around her fading as she shut her eyes, giving herself over to the song, letting it consume her completely.

  And then she could see it.

  The ancient Maravish lyrics came alive, thanks to the intensive princess lessons, and the story it told materialized in her mind.

  Her name was Ester – she was both a Portman and a Partizan – and her princess was Liana. She was the most striking and devoted Portman the country had ever known, and she and her princess loved one another in more and deeper ways than just professional loyalty. Lottie could envisage them both, wispy ghosts of the past floating inside her head. They were a vision of red and black; they were fierce and forthright and adored by all who knew them. Princess Liana demanded that upon her emergence Ester would be declared her royal hand so that they might rule together. But upon the night of the princess’s coronation and emergence, Ester was stolen from her bed in an act of war by a neighbouring country as a prop in negotiation. Instead of forcing her princ
ess to choose between her people and herself, Ester took her own life. It was such a powerful act of loyalty that the gods took pity on her and allowed one last message to be delivered from her to her princess via a white dove. In a blinding rage and with the spirit of her fiery Portman inside her, the princess had the entire neighbouring kingdom destroyed. Lottie could see the flames bursting from the castle, burning her skin as they blazed around her. And then the song ended.

  The ghosts blinked out of her mind and her eyes blinked open, plummeting her back into the real world to find herself reaching out, tears streaming down her face as she tried desperately to grasp at the vision and bring it back.

  Everyone was staring at her.

  33

  Lottie coughed awkwardly a few times.

  ‘That was … lovely,’ she said casually as she wiped her eyes, pretending nothing was out of the ordinary and she hadn’t just burst out crying over an imaginary ghost princess and her Portman. Everyone was staring at her as if she were some kind of freak in a circus show.

  Her mind raced desperately trying to come up with anything to make the situation less awkward.

  ‘I’m just … really homesick,’ she said, wiping her eyes again dramatically and sniffing before excusing herself to the balcony so no one could see how shaken she was.

  ‘Right …’ Anastacia’s voice echoed sarcastically behind her and mocking laughter followed.

  Lottie grabbed the side of the balcony and gulped down as much of the fresh, frosty air as her lungs could take. She exhaled, the puffs of breath a mirror of her internal fog of confusion and panic. The light outside was pale blue, the dwindling sun hidden behind thick masses of curling clouds that mirrored the frost over Rosewood Hall. Everything around her was blue and white, as though they’d sunk into another world and were submerged in a strange muted version of her school. She looked down at her bleached knuckles, her hands gripping the balcony ledge.

  What was that? What just happened?

  The image of Liana and Ester burned in her mind as she squeezed her eyes shut. Suddenly ‘homesick’ wasn’t so far from the truth. In that moment she wished more than anything she could be back in Cornwall, cuddled up reading about other people’s exciting lives, far away from any of the madness herself. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this world.

  ‘Lottie?’

  Lottie quickly wiped her eyes again at the sound of Ellie’s voice. She turned to see her and Jamie standing by the double doors to the balcony.

  Slowly Ellie stepped over the ledge and Jamie moved to follow.

  ‘I’m fine, guys. You don’t have to come out –’ Jamie wrapped a large red blanket from the Conch dorm round her shoulders without saying anything. ‘Thank you.’ Lottie pulled the blanket round her, not realizing until then how cold she really was.

  ‘Can we have a moment alone?’ Ellie said softly. It wasn’t a question, and Jamie nodded before returning to the festivities and closing the glass doors. It was the first time Lottie had really seen Ellie take a tone of authority with him.

  ‘Ellie, I really am fine –’

  ‘What happened in there?’ Ellie asked.

  Lottie paused at the frankness of the question, then rubbed her forehead in thought. The truth was she didn’t know what had happened and she didn’t know how to explain it, but she knew it was important. Everything felt important since she’d started at Rosewood.

  ‘Do you ever think …’ Lottie shook her head and looked out over the school. ‘Do you ever think that there’s something weird about Rosewood?’

  Ellie followed her gaze, a soft smile creeping on to her lips while her eyes remained distant. ‘All the time. It’s why I like it.’

  Lottie watched Ellie’s face for a moment before taking a step nearer and resting her head against her shoulder. They stood like that, intertwined, until Ellie huffed and turned to face her. ‘Lottie, I’m really sorry.’

  Lottie blinked in surprise. It was so rare that Ellie ever said that word and it was unclear what she was apologizing for.

  ‘This is probably the worst Christmas you’ve ever had. Stuck at school away from home. It’s not the same.’ Ellie made a remorseful face and Lottie sniffled out a giggle at how silly it sounded.

  ‘I don’t really care about Christmas,’ she said, ‘and it was my idea to stay here.’ Lottie pulled the blanket tighter round herself. ‘I stopped really caring about Christmas after my mum went anyway.’ Lottie hadn’t known how true this was until she’d said it. It was why she was so scared to go to Maradova and see what Ellie’s family Christmas was like. A Christmas with a full family. What if it wasn’t like she’d imagined it?

  Lottie was pulled out of her thoughts by Ellie making a growling sound.

  ‘I’m supposed to be the one who doesn’t care about stuff like that,’ she griped, rubbing Lottie’s head affectionately. ‘You’re supposed to love things like Christmas and carols and all the tacky stuff that goes with it.’ Lottie laughed and Ellie gifted her that little side smile. ‘Anyway, I was going to give this to you later, but …’ Ellie pushed her hair back as she pulled something from her bag. ‘I want you to have this now; it feels like a good time.’

  She held out a poorly wrapped box with the word ‘Lottie’ scrawled across it in black marker.

  ‘Ellie, you shouldn’t have. I really –’

  ‘Just open it,’ Ellie said quickly, looking away.

  Lottie considered the gift for a second, then pulled the paper back thoughtfully. Inside was a large rose-gold velvet box with a dazzling embroidered sun on the lid. The little gems along the sides reflected the blue light in a milky moonlit glow.

  ‘Ellie, this is beautiful.’ Lottie’s voice came out a soft whisper as she took in the box.

  ‘It’s for the tiara your mum gave you. I noticed how you just keep it in your bag or your bedside table so I thought you could keep it in here.’ Ellie sounded shy as she said this, making Lottie smile even more.

  ‘It’s like us,’ Lottie said, grinning at Ellie excitedly. Ellie looked confused. ‘A crescent-moon tiara with a sunshine box. Total opposites that go together,’ she explained.

  As she said it, all Lottie’s worries dissipated. She looked down at the box again, taking in the beautiful image on the lid. She wasn’t worried about the message, or her exams, or the ball. With Ellie by her side she was sure she could do anything.

  ‘Come on – let’s go back to the party,’ she said, grabbing Ellie’s hand.

  ‘Actually …’ Ellie said, pulling her hand back. ‘Why don’t we just spend the rest of Christmas together in the Ivy dorm?’

  Lottie beamed at her, not wanting to say out loud how much she didn’t feel like spending Christmas in Conch House.

  ‘I’ll even steal some mince pies for us.’ Ellie said, winking.

  Lottie squeezed Ellie’s hand. ‘That sounds like the best Christmas ever.’

  34

  It was 9:30 p.m. on 31 December, and Lottie, Ellie and Jamie were making the most of the extended curfew for holiday-stay students by taking a late stroll around the rose garden by the main hall. It was freezing cold, the grass underneath them crunchy with its icy coat. Lottie pulled her heavy wool-lined Ivy cape tight round her shoulders.

  ‘Look!’ she cried, pointing up at a huge firework exploding in the distance over the walls of the school. It lit up the grounds in a gorgeous pink light and she couldn’t help moving towards it.

  ‘Lottie, wait.’ Jamie reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back. ‘Do you hear that?’

  His voice came out in a cautionary whisper, instantly prompting Lottie and Ellie to mirror his silence. He held a finger up to signal them to stay silent and Ellie took a small step towards Lottie. Lottie stayed as quiet as possible, trying to hear what Jamie was hearing and wondering if they were in danger. A muted rustling came from a tree nearby and Lottie held her breath, her heartbeat increasing.

  This is it, she thought. Whoever left that message is coming for us.

&n
bsp; Slowly, crouching low, Jamie took five purposeful steps in the direction of the noise and before Lottie could register what was happening his arm reached out behind the tree and roughly grabbed their would-be attacker. Jamie kicked his leg out from under him and within seconds he had the figure on the ground with their hands pinned behind their back.

  ‘PLEASE DON’T HURT ME! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’

  ‘Raphael?’ Lottie said in confusion. Jamie didn’t let up on his grip.

  ‘Jesus Christ, Jamie! I was just coming to get you guys and then I thought it would be funny to scare you and –’ Raphael yelped as Jamie pulled him up. Raphael rubbed his arm and chuckled to himself as he took in Jamie’s serious face. ‘I realize now that wasn’t my smartest idea …’

  Jamie considered him for a moment, then looked over at Lottie and Ellie. Lottie shrugged, trying not to laugh, partly because she’d been so terrified, and partly at how ridiculous the whole thing was.

  ‘You never were one for thinking things through,’ Jamie said sternly.

  Raphael burst out laughing. There was something in his movements that seemed off, which Jamie picked up on.

  ‘Are you feeling OK?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘I’m fine, I’m fine! We’re doing something fun and I didn’t want you guys to get left out.’ He grinned at them, his charming smile slightly too bright.

  ‘I guess you guys are having a pretty wild time then,’ Ellie chuckled, taking a step towards Raphael. ‘I’ve gotta see this. Lottie?’ She turned to Lottie, grinning.

  Another firework went off in the distance, this time it turned the ground red.

  ‘Let me lead the way,’ Raphael replied as the crimson air fizzled around them.

  They walked to the outskirts of Conch House. Night had fully enveloped the school and the fiery lanterns by the doors were blazing enthusiastically like little dancing figures on each side of the entranceway. There was a commotion at the gate, accompanied by wild fits of laughter and muted conversation.