Undercover Princess

by Connie Glynn

  ‘Welcome, Princess,’ six sweet assistants trilled as they walked through the door, curtsying in their puffy powder-blue uniforms and white aprons. It was like stepping into a cloud kingdom; the white marble floor melted into the white walls, giving the impression that they were floating. They’d been shown to the bright consultation room by the notorious grandson of Madame Loulou Marie, Léon Marie. He had a pouf of white hair and a flamboyant grace that reminded Lottie of a peacock. He proceeded to bring out a bespoke selection of dresses, carefully chosen for the two of them. As planned, the staff of Madame Marie’s believed that Ellie was Lottie’s ‘guest of honour’ at the ball and required a dress of equal elegance.

  ‘Princess Wolfson,’ he’d declared with an elaborate bow, ‘it has been my most aching desire to one day be privileged to dress you. I’ve heard such –’ he lingered to raise his eyes at her theatrically – ‘tantalizing stories about you.’ He blinked and stood straight as if fully registering Lottie for the first time. ‘Hmm,’ he mused, a hand on his chin. He bent down low, his face coming awkwardly close to her own, and his icy-blue eyes in darkly lined sockets staring into hers.

  ‘Yes?’ Lottie asked tentatively.

  Léon’s eyes shifted over to Ellie, then back to Lottie. ‘You’re not quite what I was expecting, Your Highness.’

  Lottie gulped nervously. What exactly were people expecting? She hoped it wasn’t someone ‘less ordinary’.

  ‘I never like to be predictable,’ she said with as much indifference as she could muster. This seemed to do the job as a glint appeared in his eyes.

  ‘Day and night!’ he called out abruptly, making both girls jump in surprise. ‘Day and night … night and day. You two resonate opposition and unity, day and night. It’s perfect.’

  Lottie sat perplexed as Léon continued to bring out dress after dress. He glided around them with so much drama she felt as if she were watching an Olympic figure skating performance.

  ‘Is this a freaking Cole Porter production?’ Ellie hissed. She was less than thrilled about the whole excursion, finding little joy in luxury dress shopping. She’d been a bit off all day, worried about going back home, so Lottie was trying her best to be as happy and positive as possible. The only thing that seemed to be softening Ellie’s mood was seeing how much joy Lottie was getting out of it.

  ‘Yes, and I love it!’ Lottie squealed, beaming back at her, eyes sparkling.

  Ellie rolled her eyes, but her smile gave her away. ‘Let’s just be quick, OK? We only have about forty-five minutes before Jamie comes bursting through the door all paranoid that we’re in danger.’

  Ellie spoke with a clear hint of exasperation, and Lottie had to admit there was a truth behind her words. Jamie had become both distant and almost oppressively protective since school had ended, and Lottie couldn’t blame him. Which made her feel even guiltier for not telling either of them about the Valentine’s Day message. She figured that because nothing had happened since, and as long as she was there to take Ellie’s place, then it would be OK. All things considered, being allowed a little frivolity after all the messages and her argument with Ollie seemed fair.

  Once Léon was completely satisfied with the dresses he’d chosen for them, he clapped his hands twice and two blue-clad girls appeared either side of him, holding gem-covered boxes.

  ‘There’s one final item to add to the equation,’ he said. He picked up the box to his left and tossed the lid over his shoulder dramatically, revealing a pair of exquisite black heeled shoes with fierce yet delicate twinkling embroidery along the sides. ‘These will be for our little goddess of night.’ He thrust the box into the hands of the girl who stood in front of Ellie and grabbed the other box. ‘And these,’ he said, eyes widening like a mad scientist revealing his mysterious experiment, ‘these are for our ray of sunshine.’

  He lifted the lid slowly and Lottie gasped when she saw the treasure contained within. Lottie did not consider herself much of a shoe person, but inside the box were the most beautiful pumps she’d ever seen, white with veins of rosy gold that twisted and twirled amid hundreds of individual tiny glimmering crystals. The shoes quite literally glowed; the light seemed to emanate from the material itself. Lottie’s mind instantly recognized this same sensation from the first time she saw her family’s tiara, as if the two items were fashioned from the same magical substance.

  ‘They’re for me?’ Lottie couldn’t hide the wonderment in her voice, and yet even as she asked the question she felt as if the shoes were calling to her, like they were meant for her.

  A broad smile appeared across Léon’s face. ‘They are only for you,’ he replied. ‘Custom-made to your measurements. They won’t fit anyone else.’

  Lottie took the box ceremoniously. She felt the moment – and the shoes – deserved a sense of ritual. She was sure she could hear the box twinkling as it moved.

  ‘Thank you so much! I love them!’ She beamed at him and he returned the look with a soft nod, before clapping his hands again as if turning off the spell.

  ‘Right, my little birds, see to it that these delightful young ladies are taken care of.’ And with that he turned dramatically to exit the room. The two ‘little birds’ immediately began undressing Lottie and Ellie with speedy efficiency. It lasted about ten seconds before Ellie nearly elbowed one of them in the face and promptly booted them from the room.

  ‘We are perfectly capable of dressing ourselves!’ Ellie shouted before slamming the door.

  When she turned back she faced a displeased Lottie, arms firmly crossed over her chest disapprovingly. Something was definitely bothering Ellie, but Lottie had no way of figuring out what it was unless she opened up.

  ‘Don’t give me that look,’ Ellie said, mirroring Lottie’s stance. ‘I’ll play along with the dress-up game, but I’m not gonna be someone’s doll.’

  Lottie rolled her eyes and began flicking through the dresses on the ‘day’ hanger. They all had gorgeous heroic-sounding names like ‘Celestial’ and ‘Solar’. One of them stood out from the others, seeming to glow in a similar way to her shoes. It had a small blue tag declaring the name of the dress to be ‘Summer Calm’. She gently pulled it out from the rack and watched in awe as the fabric swished gently like liquid silk.

  ‘Ellie, look at this dress – it’s perfect!’ She turned excitedly to Ellie but froze as she caught a glimpse of her friend’s face. She was staring straight into the air between them, fingers lightly tracing the tip of her locket. There was no hint of sarcasm; her bravado had cracked and behind it was a very lost girl.

  ‘Ellie … what’s wrong?’

  There was no point in asking if she was OK; Ellie would just lie. Lottie needed to be blunt or she’d risk losing her.

  Upon hearing Lottie’s voice, Ellie returned to the room. She hesitated for a moment and Lottie was sure she’d shrug it off.

  ‘It’s just …’ she began slowly, clearly uncomfortable, ‘Jamie and I had an argument before we left the hotel.’ She relaxed her shoulders as she spoke, as though she were releasing the plug on her emotional bathtub. ‘He wanted to escort us – he’s so convinced something bad is going to happen – and I ended up losing my temper and saying something really stupid, and it came out all wrong. I’m just so sick of it, of him having to always …’ It was rare for Ellie to trip over her words, an indicator of how upset she was. ‘I said if he found me so difficult, why didn’t he just leave?’ She turned away abruptly. Lottie was about to respond with some comforting words when Ellie added dismissively, ‘Whatever. You wouldn’t understand.’

  Lottie’s heart sank. Not because she was offended but because she was right. For all the good it did having Ellie confide in her, Lottie couldn’t really help because she didn’t understand Ellie and Jamie’s relationship. Her mind tumbled back to witnessing their spat after they’d found the message under her mattress. If she was going to be of use to her or Jamie, she needed to be part of the inner circle; she needed to know what they knew.

>   ‘Ellie,’ she said firmly, ‘you have to tell me how Jamie became your Partizan.’

  43

  Ellie cringed at the question, pushing her hair back as she turned to inspect the dresses laid out for her. She coughed, clearly trying to regain her composure.

  ‘I don’t know if we should get into this,’ she said cagily, flicking through the dresses.

  Lottie ignored her attempts to avoid the topic. ‘It’s just, well, you two get so – and he’s so young!’ She was tripping over her words, but she didn’t know how to phrase it. Ellie and Jamie got so moody and serious around each other, and they were so close in age. She knew Partizans were trained from birth, but she didn’t know where Jamie had come from. It just didn’t make sense in her head and if she was going to understand Ellie and Jamie better, she had to know.

  ‘Most Partizans are young,’ Ellie said calmly, but Lottie detected a hint of regret in her tone. ‘They need to be unassuming and blend in so it’s preferable that they’re the same age or similar to their master.’ She paused and Lottie thought she might end the conversation there but she stopped flicking through the dresses and continued. ‘They usually finish their base training at about thirteen and will be picked based on suitability; they get to know their family and master over their last three years and at sixteen they’re fully registered. It’s a very rigorous procedure. It’s a bit mad really.’

  Lottie took a deep breath, preparing to ask the obvious question, but Ellie’s face became distant and sad and she couldn’t locate her voice.

  ‘Jamie …’ Ellie’s voice trailed off and she shook her head and turned to Lottie, a determined look replacing her previous melancholy. ‘Jamie is different because he’s been with us since he was born.’

  Lottie had guessed as much from the pictures she’d seen of them as children in the palace.

  ‘I’ve seen photos of her, his mum,’ Ellie said. ‘She was a Pakistani immigrant living in the city.’ Ellie rubbed her eyes with one hand in thought before continuing. ‘I don’t actually know how, and I don’t know why, but she got into the palace. She was heavily pregnant and sick and apparently she begged my parents to take her child and, well … they did.’

  Although Ellie was not the most elegant storyteller, Lottie found herself enthralled: the fancy setting around them melting into images of a desperate woman determined to save her unborn child.

  ‘What happened to her?’ Lottie asked without thinking, but the answer was obvious and she braced herself for the terrible response.

  ‘She died after giving birth,’ Ellie replied bluntly.

  ‘And his dad?’

  ‘No one knows and no one cares; he’s probably dead too.’ There was a hint of irritation in her tone and Lottie couldn’t place what it was aimed at.

  So that was it, she thought. Their response to an orphan baby was to turn him into a personal assassin?

  Something didn’t fit right with that story.

  ‘So … you made him a Partizan?’

  Ellie turned to her, looking furious at the world, a storm raging around her that was ready to strike anything that moved. ‘I didn’t make him ANYTHING. My parents did!’

  The silence that followed was stifling, filling the air with a static energy. Lottie looked away, ashamed for asking something so stupid.

  Slowly Ellie released a long breath and turned to the dresses once again.

  ‘I hate them,’ she said bitterly, a coldness in her voice that Lottie had never heard before. ‘No one should have their life decided for them when they’re born. Everyone should get to choose.’ Her fists balled at her sides as she said the words. This was not just venting anger; this was an agenda. Lottie watched her and realized she was witnessing a private side of Ellie. This was a secret that she trusted Lottie with and yet Lottie was still hiding something big from her. She wasn’t helping anyone by keeping secrets.

  ‘Ellie …’ she began, thinking about the Valentine’s poem. ‘I’ve been keeping something from you. I don’t think it’s fair to hide things from you. We need to trust each other.’ Ellie looked up, her cold expression replaced with inquisitiveness. ‘On Valentine’s Day, in my cupcake of all things, there was another message.’

  ‘What?’ Ellie asked in alarm, her anger replaced with concern. ‘What did it say?’

  Reluctantly, Lottie recited the cruel rhyme to Ellie, shuddering at those final lines: ‘Watch your back, Princess. I’m coming for you.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Ellie’s voice rose slightly as she spoke and Lottie flinched.

  ‘Because,’ Lottie whispered, ‘I don’t want your family to take you away.’

  The tension seemed to melt from Ellie, and a sad, achy smile appeared on her face.

  ‘Lottie, I won’t ever let anyone separate us. But I don’t like the idea that you’re in danger. I can’t be responsible for that. I –’

  ‘I’m not scared, Ellie, and you shouldn’t be either,’ Lottie lied. ‘I would have told you guys if I was worried, but I’m not, that’s why I don’t want anyone to make a big deal out of it.’ She forced out a determined smile, scaring herself with how good she’d become at lying. ‘I’m fine, so we don’t need to tell anyone.’

  Ellie hesitated. ‘You promise you’re OK?’ she asked, a pained look on her face.

  ‘I promise.’ Lottie felt the dread in her stomach flex as she said this, but she kept smiling.

  The sound of singing cut off their moment, music chiming from Lottie’s phone in her bag. She rushed to pull it out, wondering in the back of her mind if it might be Ollie. But, as if he knew he was being talked about, Jamie’s name flashed up on Lottie’s phone with a message reading:

  You have ten minutes.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, grabbing both pairs of shoes from the table. ‘Let’s try on these clothes before we get rescued.’

  Lottie happily pulled on her dress, then watched in confusion as Ellie kneeled down on the floor in front of her, reaching out to put Lottie’s slipper on her foot.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Lottie asked, pulling her leg away instinctively.

  ‘I’m being your Prince Charming!’ she said, winking as she grabbed her ankle. Lottie felt her cheeks go hot as Ellie slid the shoes on before hurriedly pulling on the first dress she’d picked from the hanger. The two girls stood in front of the mirror side by side: storm and calm, night and day.

  A feeling of rightness slowly began to return as Lottie took in the sight of them together. She had to admit they both looked silly – neither one done up properly to be in clothes of this sort – but somehow, standing next to Ellie, it didn’t matter.

  Ellie picked at a non-existent mark on the hip of her dress. ‘I suppose this outfit will do, though I’d rather be wearing a suit. Are you happy with yours?’

  Lottie turned to look at Ellie directly. ‘Very happy,’ she said, grinning. ‘In fact, I’d quite like to never take them off.’

  Ellie smiled back and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, their bodies and clothes merging in a pattern of black and white. They held each other until Lottie said what they’d both been thinking.

  ‘I shouldn’t have kept the poem from you and Jamie.’

  Ellie was silent for a moment and Lottie could feel her hands fidgeting.

  ‘I know,’ she whispered, her gaze falling on Lottie’s reflection in the mirror without meeting her eyes. ‘There’re a lot of things I shouldn’t have done too.’

  44

  They arrived at the palace in the afternoon, the day before the ball. There was something painfully familiar about Lottie’s flight to Maradova. Although the circumstances were different, she was once again avoiding Jamie and sitting next to Ellie on the other side of the plane. She just couldn’t look at him in the same way since learning about his past. A terrible guilt filled her – she hated keeping secrets from him when she now knew so much about him. Her life now appeared to have become built around secrets and lies: the lie that she was a princess, the secret of Edmun
d’s message, the lies to Ollie, and now this new lie that the poem meant nothing.

  The air was possibly even colder than her first visit and the sky looked as if it were threatening to snow. She suddenly understood Ellie’s mockery of the term ‘summer ball’.

  She expected to be met at the palace by girls who looked like they were in fancy dress, and to be deposited in an untouched and extravagant room and generally feeling out of place.

  It was nothing like last time.

  Lottie was greeted at the door by the queen, whose billowing embroidered gown danced around her as she came rushing down the corridor so fast she nearly knocked them over. Lottie was amazed that she managed not to yelp in surprise when Queen Matilde pulled her into a tight embrace, but instead she found the scent of lavender that surrounded the queen soothed her and she relaxed into her arms as if being greeted by her own mother.

  ‘Our little pumpkin princess, we’re delighted to have you back!’ She held Lottie by her shoulders, taking in the full length of her.

  ‘Thank you for having me,’ said Lottie.

  It was the only reply she could think of that would be appropriate, but she felt silly saying it. The queen smiled at her. They really could have been mother and daughter, her cascading golden locks and blue eyes matching Lottie’s appearance far more than they did Ellie’s. Anyone who didn’t know better would easily mistake her for the real princess.

  ‘I hope our Eleanor has been behaving herself.’

  Ellie rolled her eyes and pulled Lottie out of her mother’s grasp. ‘Mum, would you please stop harassing my Portman?’ she teased, dragging Lottie down the corridor as she stuck her tongue out petulantly.

  Jamie took a step to follow them but was stopped by the queen. Lottie swiftly lost sight of him as Ellie took her on a long, winding journey through the sea of portraits of previous rulers to her room, a brisk reminder of how otherworldly the palace was.