The Princess Search: A Retelling of The Ugly Duckling (The Four Kingdoms Book 5)

by Melanie Cellier

  As soon as I arrived, I slipped off my shoes and wiggled my feet in the velvet soft sand. Tucking my slippers behind a rock to collect on my way back, I hurried down to the water to let the waves roll over my toes. Down here the wet sand was somehow, impossibly, even softer, and I wriggled my feet, letting them sink down until they were covered.

  Unfortunately, it was right at that moment I heard voices. As I pulled my feet free and turned to flee, several figures came into view.

  I sucked in a breath, churning filling my stomach. I recognized all of them. The viscount had three children, and there had been no love lost between me and my temporary foster siblings. A situation I should have been used to by the time I reached Catalie. And now, coming around a curve in the beach were Monique, the viscount’s eldest, Shantelle, his youngest, and their friend, Carmel.

  Carmel was the first to see me, her eyes widening as she nudged the other two. Both looked up, Monique gasping dramatically when she saw me. Immediately she stalked over in my direction, glaring as she came.

  “I had heard you were on the island, Evangeline, but I didn’t think you would dare show your face. Let alone follow us here.” She shook her head. “I should have known better.”

  I sighed. “I didn’t follow you, Monique. I didn’t know you would be here today, or I certainly wouldn’t have come.”

  “A likely story,” she sneered. “If you were thinking we would be forced to acknowledge you and introduce you to the royals, you can think again. I wouldn’t presume to introduce a thief and a liar to a prince or princess.” She had reached me now, and her eyes narrowed as she leaned in close. “An orphan with no family and no name.”

  I sucked in a breath. I longed to snap back at her. To rage and scream that she was the liar. To tell her that I had no need of her services to introduce me to Celine or Frederic or Cassian. But I knew from experience that saying any such thing would only make her worse.

  And I could now hear voices behind them on the beach. While they were still out of sight, her words had told me who I would find among them. The last thing I needed was for the royals to find me in a screaming match with the viscount’s daughter. It was beneath my dignity, anyway. Whatever the noble girl might think, I did have some.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again, Evie,” said Shantelle, diffidently.

  I forced a weak smile in her direction. She had never tormented me of her own volition, like Monique had done, but she had never backed me up, either. The youngest of the viscount’s children, she followed where her older sister led.

  “I didn’t expect to ever be back,” I said.

  “You should have stayed away. We don’t want you here,” said Carmel. She had always been a more enthusiastic follower of Monique than Shantelle. Perhaps because her parents were only wealthy merchants, and she valued her place in the inner circle of the noble girls. At least Marcus wasn’t with them. Unlike the viscount’s haughty son, Julian, who had seemed surprised by my presence on the few occasions he had ever noticed it, the viscount’s nephew had been a worse harasser than Monique.

  I had been fourteen when the viscount found me on a visit to the mainland and decided to take me in as a ward. I had been small for my age, used to being treated as a child. But I had grown up in my years on the island, and Marcus had seen me not as a homeless child but as a threat. At the beginning I had seen how he hung around the viscount’s family—part of it and yet not—and I had thought it a commonality between us. But when I had attempted to reach out to him in friendship, he had made his feelings clear.

  I was a usurper. Angling for a place on the island he thought should be his. After years striving to please his uncle, the viscount had chosen to take a nameless, homeless waif in as a ward, giving me the place in his family that Marcus had never quite been able to command. And all his years of pent up frustration and anger had been directed toward me.

  I had longed many times to tell him that the viscount was hardly likely to welcome him with anything warmer than obligation when the boy so clearly wished his older cousin gone and himself heir in Julian’s place. But saying such things to Marcus would produce even worse results than speaking truth to Monique. After I turned sixteen, there had been a look in Marcus’s eyes that told me I had better do everything in my power never to be alone with him. I had become so good at avoiding him entirely, that I had barely even seen him my entire seventeenth year. He had succeeded in his revenge, anyway, of course, gaining the outcome he had always most desired. My departure.

  A revenge all too ably assisted by the girl in front of me. Monique had been incensed from the beginning at the idea that she should treat a nameless nobody as anything even approaching a sister. A small, vicious part of me felt glad to note her growth spurt. She wouldn’t fit into any of the dresses I had made for her anymore, and the one she had on in their place was clearly inferior in quality. I tried to remind myself such thoughts were beneath me but didn’t quite succeed.

  A familiar voice I had hoped never to hear again rang out, and I blanched, all thought of Monique’s gown driven from my mind. So Marcus was with them, after all. Another more measured tone sounded, and I sighed, some of my instinctive anger and fear lightening. Julian was here, too. He had no doubt come on account of the princes, Marcus trailing inevitably behind. Like his father, Julian was unlikely to notice the small jabs and pricks offered me by his sisters and cousin. But his presence was as effective as that of the viscount or their mother for protecting me from anything too outrageous.

  Another voice sounded, and the band across my chest tightened for another reason. Their cruelty used to hurt me, but I now recognized my current fear came from a different source. I no longer feared their humiliations for my own sake, it was what they might say about me to Celine and the others that made me quake. That was the true reason I had been hiding since our arrival.

  “You should leave. Now.” Monique’s hiss only seconded my own opinion. I couldn’t leave fast enough as far as I was concerned. She took my arm and tried to shove me toward the trees, but we were too late. A small clump of young people wandered into view.

  Monique still faced me, her back to them, but she saw me freeze, my eyes darting over her shoulder.

  “You heard me,” she whispered. “I won’t besmirch their dignity by introducing you, so you might as well run along right now.”

  “Evie! There you are!” called Celine, and Monique stiffened, her eyes going wide.

  I couldn’t resist a small smirk in her direction as I pulled myself free of her grip and ducked around her. There was no escape now, so I meant to make the best of the situation.

  “I’ve been busy on a project,” I told the princess. “I think you’re going to love it, too.”

  “Ooh.” Celine abandoned Marcus who walked beside her and danced across the sand toward me. “A project! That sounds fun.” She flashed me a broad grin, a bizarre counterpoint to the death glare I was receiving from Marcus behind her.

  The expression only lasted a moment before he smoothed out his features, but I saw Frederic look quickly between us. The crown prince didn’t miss much normally, but I wished him a little less perceptive on this occasion.

  “What do you think of Catalie?” I asked, a wicked thought flashing through my head. “Do you like these beaches?”

  “Oh, they’re divine, of course,” said Celine. “You’d have to be a monster not to love them. I even saw a turtle earlier.”

  “They’re even nicer to swim in.” I carefully kept my eyes away from Monique. “The water is so lovely and warm, and it’s so refreshing after the hike over here.”

  “I want to swim!” said Celine immediately as I had known she would. The bright water was too alluring to resist.

  “Why don’t we all come back tomorrow?” I suggested. “For a swimming expedition. We could bring a picnic lunch and everything.”

  “Oh, yes, let’s!” Celine was already gazing longingly at the water.

  “I don’t think…” Monique
sounded slightly panicked.

  “The reefs make it perfectly safe,” I earnestly assured the royals before turning to the slightly older girl. “What’s the matter, Monique? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to swim in the time I’ve been away?”

  “Of course not,” said Monique.

  Celine cast a bemused look between us, but merely said, “Oh, excellent, it’s settled then, I can’t wait.”

  Monique coughed and sent me a glare I knew didn’t bode well. “My issue is not with swimming, Princess Celine.”

  Liar, I thought.

  “My issue is swimming with this girl. I’m afraid you’ve been deceived. This girl is a liar and thief, without family or position.”

  Chapter 7

  A shocked silence settled on the group as if she had reached out her hand and slapped me. Marcus’s look of satisfaction made me itch to give him a real slap, but the rest of the locals looked merely uncomfortable.

  Celine’s look of horror was almost comical, but the worst expressions were Frederic’s and Cassian’s. I couldn’t read them at all. Was I about to be sent back to the capital when the Tour had barely started?

  But as I gazed at Frederic, I remembered the spark of connection between us earlier on the boat, and a matching spark of defiance rose inside me. I was eighteen now, no longer a child. And I was done slinking away, running from others’ hatred.

  I forced a tinkling laugh from my tight throat. “Oh Monique, I love you, too.”

  I shook my head at the royals playfully. “You’ll have to excuse Monique, we were foster sisters once, and she always did love to tease me.” I rolled my eyes.

  Walking over to Frederic, I placed my hand lightly on his arm. His muscle jumped under my touch, giving away that he wasn’t quite as calm as his face suggested. “What do you think, Frederic? Shall we all come back for a swim tomorrow?”

  A gasp of outrage sounded from Monique, and I wasn’t sure what had enraged her more, the casual way I addressed the prince, or my dismissal of her insults. She had always liked to be the one in control of the situation.

  My eyes pleaded up into the prince’s, so close to mine now. Play along, play along—please!

  He answered without taking his eyes from mine. “A swim would be most welcome, I must admit.”

  I breathed an inaudible sigh of relief and gave him a tiny smile.

  “Excellent,” said Cassian briskly. “I’m sure the viscount will excuse us when we are in such excellent company.”

  “Yes, indeed,” said Julian, speaking for the first time since they had all appeared. “A dip can be an excellent refreshment on these warmer days. We are eager for Your Highnesses to enjoy all our humble island has to offer.” He smiled. “And I daresay we will be more than ready to cool down after our sparring practice in the morning.”

  Frederic gave him an answering smile. “My brother and I are looking forward to it. I have heard something of your skill with a blade even in the capital, and we are both eager to try ourselves against you.”

  Julian looked pleased, nothing in his mannerisms suggesting he had even noticed the earlier altercation. Monique, her mouth hanging open, looked between her brother and the princes. Her lips slowly closed as she knit her brows. I had never seen her at such a loss.

  Celine, looking back and forth between Monique and me, said, “But what about—”

  “Don’t worry, Celine,” said Frederic, interrupting her. “We’ll be finished sparring in plenty of time for your picnic and swim.”

  Her eyes snapped to him, and her look turned thoughtful. She didn’t attempt to finish her thought, which had clearly not been about the swim, instead breaking into lively chatter about the plans for the next day.

  I swallowed, grateful to all three of the royals, although I was aware the danger wasn’t over yet. I wouldn’t always be around to laugh off Monique’s accusations, and I couldn’t see her leaving it there.

  But for now, she seemed to have accepted that the tide had turned against her. And when Celine slipped her arm into mine for the walk back to the manor, Monique dropped to the back of the group.

  Celine made me promise I would bring my project up to her room for immediate perusal, so for the first time I found myself stepping once more into the viscount’s house. The elegant building included many pillars and long open breezeways, built for the casual culture and warm climate of the islands. I had once loved the building almost as much as I loved the island’s beaches. But it carried too many unpleasant associations now.

  I flagged down a local servant who started and gave me a second look. “Miss Evie?” she asked. “I heard a rumor you were about somewhere.”

  “Yes, here I am,” I said, forcing a smile. She had been a chambermaid when I had been here last but appeared to have moved up in the world.

  She saw me looking at her dress and nodded. “That’s right. I’m lady’s maid to Miss Shantelle now.” She grinned at me. “And I only wish I had the gowns you used to make to put her in. She’d be looking so good all the time, I’d have found myself a better position by now.” She winked at me.

  “What better position is there on Catalie?” I asked dryly. “Lady’s maid to Monique?”

  The girl shuddered. “Gracious me, the ideas you come up with.”

  I chuckled, and she joined in before abruptly sobering. “And who is it you’re after, Miss Evie? The young people have all arrived back, and Miss Monique looked real fierce.”

  “I’m here to see Princess Celine, actually,” I told her. When she hesitated, I added, “She’s expecting me.”

  “Oh, well, that’s all right and tight, then. They’ve put her in the rose room. I suppose you still remember the way?”

  I nodded, wishing I didn’t, and climbed the stairs to find Celine’s room. It wasn’t the nicest of the manor’s guest rooms, but it was the most feminine. I supposed the nicest had gone to the princes, and possibly the Earl of Serida who I had a vague feeling was some sort of distant relative of the viscount. Islanders were funny about their own.

  I blew out my breath as I mounted the last step. That had always been my problem, of course. I wasn’t one of them. I tried to push the thought aside. My usual strategy of ignoring the past was harder to maintain in the face of so many memories.

  Celine pulled me inside the room, almost slamming the door behind me. “Well? Did you bring it? I’ve been dying of curiosity over here. And that includes whatever was going on down at that beach. Why did Monique say those awful things? Were you really sisters once? And why do you want to go swimming? I saw your expression, you had something in mind.”

  I held up my hands, laughing in protest. “I can’t possibly answer so many questions at once. How about we start with the most important one?” I walked over to her large, neatly-made bed, and unwrapped my parcel.

  “I want us to go swimming because of this.” Turning around I held out my latest creation for her to see.

  Celine’s eyes grew round. “Is that…?”

  “A bathing costume, yes,” I said.

  “But that’s…I mean…” She hurried over and examined it more closely. “We don’t have any swimming beaches in Lanare, but I’m sure this isn’t what we swam in last time we were on the islands.”

  “No, it wouldn’t have been,” I said. “It’s my own design.”

  “I knew you were a genius, Evie,” said Celine reverently. “Please tell me you made one for yourself as well.”

  I bit my lip and then nodded.

  “It’s going to be a triumph,” Celine breathed. “Can I try it on?”

  “Of course, that’s why I’m here. We need to make sure it fits perfectly.”

  I knew exactly why Monique had not welcomed a swimming expedition with the young royals. Men on the islands happily stripped down to their underclothes to swim, many swimming bare chested. The women, however, were not so fortunate. Most of the local commoner women happily dove in wearing their clothing. They would pull the front of their skirts between their le
gs and tuck them securely under their waist sash at the back, creating the effect of giant, puffy drawers.

  Lanover was the most relaxed of the kingdoms and the culture on the islands was even more relaxed than the mainland. Even young, unmarried girls were permitted to show their lower legs in such a way while swimming. But the noble girls were not as free. Since long before I arrived, the fashion was for noble girls to wear loose, full-length, full-sleeve swimming gowns in a chemise style but made of wool. They were hot and heavy and unattractive. Weights sewn into the hem kept the skirts modestly around the ankles but also proved a significant obstruction to floating or swimming. It was a ridiculous costume, more covering than the usual style of day clothes, and I had to admit it was a testament to Monique’s swimming skills that she could swim at all in the ridiculous outfit.

  To make the situation even worse, there was nowhere on the beach for them to change, so the poor girls had to wear the hideous costumes on the walk down. Early on in my time on Catalie, I hadn’t ever visited the beach. But once I began to explore and observe the young people swimming, I quickly adopted the local style rather than the awkward imported style of the nobles.

  But for some time, my mind had been working over an entirely different sort of design. I hadn’t thought I would ever have use for it, and so had tucked the thought away into some distant part of my mind. But seeing the island again had brought it rushing back, and I had been working tirelessly over the two costumes since our arrival.

  “Now that I’m here,” said Celine while I helped her into the garment, “it seems obvious you must once have lived here. I can see several aspects of the islander gowns that you incorporated into a couple of my designs.”

  “I try to take inspiration from everything I see, and then mix it with something else to turn it into something of my own.”