“I’m sorry,” I said and pushed the delicate crystal fruit dish away from me. It tipped suddenly and spilled the fruit over the table. Now I had attracted the attention of the ladies across from me that shot icy glares Van laughed and Ian called for a server who came quickly and began cleaning the fruit. I scrunched into my chair and did my best to hide my face in the collar of my shirt. “It seems Prince Caspian is not attending, again,” Zane said in his quiet voice, diplomatically changing the subject. “So it seems,” Siegfried said, ignoring my embarrassment altogether. Van gave an exaggerated sigh and leaned back in his chair. “He never attends things like this,” he said. Then he smiled at me and placed a finger against his lips as if motioning there was a secret not to be told. He leaned forward to look at Siegfried. “He’s the opposite of you, isn’t he?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Siegfried said coldly. The discussion went on and I picked at the food that they had brought me next. I could see that the other ladies at the table in their fancy clothes and tight corsets were eating like birds. My stomach was rebelling, wanting to eat like a normal person, but I withheld. It was my duty as a writer to blend in with the crowd and observe so that I could write candidly later. After the food was cleared and the conversation died down Prince Siegfried stood again and addressed the crowd, thanking them for coming. Prince Orcello stood next and announced there would be a party at Castle Delphinium at 10pm that night for those who wanted to misbehave. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Ian growled at his antics while the crowd laughed at his joke. People mingled for a while but the hall cleared quite swiftly. Prince Ian had taken my hand and was leading me outside when he was suddenly pulled away by Prince Siegfried. I stood and watched the two talking, feeling numb again as if I didn’t belong. I felt a tug on my arm and turned to see Van standing behind me. “Let’s go get something to eat,” he said with a smile. “We just ate,” I said before belatedly adding, “Your highness.” It was sometimes hard to believe that Prince Van was nobility when he acted so carefree unlike the others. He grabbed my hand. “I know you’re still hungry. You couldn’t possibly be full after eating the paltry food that the Thiamat Kingdom serves.” I felt a tad angry. “What are you implying?” He became serious as he saw my expression. “I’m sorry for before, I didn’t mean anything by it.” His face was sincere and I realized that before he must have been joking like he always did. “Aren’t you being too friendly?” said a deep voice from beside us. Prince Ian stared at Van with such intensity that he let go of my hand.
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Van looked at Prince Ian and Prince Siegfried who had come up behind him. He scoffed but seemed to realize that he was outnumber and walked away, flipping his hair over his shoulder as he left. “Who is this?” Prince Siegfried asked, his light colored eyes fixing me with an intense stare. I was intimidated by his strong posture. “Yes, I haven’t properly introduced you Prince von Adler. This is Ms. Werner,” Prince Ian introduced me. I quickly curtsied. “P-pleased to make your acquaintance your highness,” I said, my lips quivering from nervous energy. Prince Siegfried snorted. “Aquaintance?” He looked away from me and back to Prince Ian. “I wasn’t aware you’d lowered your standards to commoners. Princess Ophelia is much better suited for you. I will see you at Prince Orcello’s gala tonight.” He then walked away without looking back. My shoulders began shaking as I straightened, my eyes cast down at my shoes. How embarrassing! How rude… I felt hot tears threatening to bubble up and I fought them furiously down. Prince Ian put a strong hand on my shoulder and I felt his warmth rush through my body. “Let me apologize on behalf of Prince Siegfried,” he said quietly. He led me from the dining hall and down the magnificent steps to the driveway. A line of prestigious cars had lined up and people were still straggling into them, taking off down the winding driveway to the main road. I recognized my driver from this morning waiting a little ways away. Prince Ian steered me away however, intending to put me into the car with the Equix flags. I pulled away. “I’m feeling a little tired,” I said quickly still feeling upset over the shocking behavior of the Crown Prince of Thiamat. My foolish pride had been used to the mostly congenial attitudes of the royal princes and I had been stunned rather nastily back to reality. Prince Ian looked at me with his steely brown eyes before giving a little sigh. The bodyguard from before stepped out from the car and brought me the box with my jacket in it. I took it, almost having forgotten about it entirely. Prince Ian grasped my hand as I turned away to leave and kissed my knuckles lightly. “Will I see you tonight?” I blushed. Though Ian wasn’t as outwardly passionate as Van he had his moments that still surprised me. I nodded before I realized what I was doing and then shook my head. “I-I don’t know,” I said. “Thank you for the meal!” I curtsied quickly and almost ran to my waiting car, letting myself inside much to the bewilderment of the driver who had been getting out to open the door for me. I belatedly realized how silly that must have sounded as I had been invited to the meal before Ian’s involvement anyway. It seemed I could do no right today. Sitting against the soft vinyl seats in the back I pressed my hands to my face. It was burning. I had been writing for years and never lost my cool so easily in a group of people like this one. Then again I had never been around royalty before! It was still so hard to believe that this was happening to me. I needed to get my head together and stop acting like a lovesick schoolgirl. I needed to call a friend.
Giselle Schneider was a long-time friend that I had met at an event back in Corsac. I had been covering a movie premiere and Giselle had been the leading lady in the indie film. Somehow the two of us hit it off as I interviewed her and we had become close. Since then Giselle had become an enormous star and hadn’t returned to Corsac, but we still kept in touch over e-mail and phone calls. I bitterly thought that she would suit the prince’s taste more than I. She had beautiful long red hair and the most intense green eyes. She also carried herself in the likes of old fashioned actresses with immense grace and poise. “Hello?” came the lilting voice on the other end of the line. “It’s me Giselle…” I began but was cut off immediately. “How come you haven’t called me in days? Did you get an assignment? You know I worry about you.” I smiled. Giselle sometimes became a bit of a mother hen. “Yes, I did in fact…” I paused for dramatic effect. “I’m at Isola del Paradiso right now.” I heard nothing for a moment and became worried. Then Giselle cleared her throat. “How in the world did you manage that? Even I wasn’t invited this year…” “That isn’t why I called,” I said skirting the subject. I expertly shifted the subject to her and lay back in the pillows of the hotel room bed. She was shooting a holiday themed movie and everything had been delayed. I listened to her gripes. In public Giselle wouldn’t dare act like this but she was a petulant child on the phone with me and I enjoyed it. It worked magnificently to distract me from my problems. At last she became quiet and again began pestering me about the Royal Ball. “I can’t say anything really, not until my articles are released.” I said coyly, wondering in the back of my mind if Werner intended to publish them anyway. Giselle didn’t have to work hard to milk the information out of me. I was dying to spill some of the more intimate moments that I hadn’t disclosed to Werner. I felt the tension rush out of me and I found myself laughing as I talked to her. It was nice to have some down time from all the stiffness of being around royalty. She agreed about my complaints and sympathized with my stress and laughed at the silly moments like a good friend and when we hung up I was feeling refreshed. I drew myself a bath in the enormous tub in the bathroom and after pouring copious amounts of bubbles in I climbed in myself and soaked up the warmth like a sponge. I had hit the peak of serenity when there was a knock on the door. I blinked out of bliss and glared at the bathroom door as if it was at fault. The knock came again and I realized that maybe it was important. I quickly stood and hit the shower, hissing as scalding water came rushing down on me. I rinsed off all the bubbles as quickly as possible, starting the drain. I hopped from the tub and grabbed at my fuzzy robe trying to pull it on over my clammy wet skin. It was difficult but I managed to do so. I didn’t even check my hair as I hurried to the door yelling “Coming!” I opened the door, frazzled. I was met with stunned silence and then laughter. It was the second time today I wished that I could fall through a hole in the floor.
Nathan stood there with a bottle of wine and a room service cart behind him. He also was currently laughing at me all too forcefully. I briefly thought of shutting the door in his face but he stopped laughing and jiggled the wine in his hand as if to entice me. “Why are you here?” I asked, still not moving from the doorway. He sighed. “Can’t I come in?” “I don’t let strange men follow me into my room,” I quipped twisting his words from the first day. “I’m not dressed anyway.” “I’ll wait,” Nathan said with a smirk. I felt heat rising in my face and almost slammed the door on him. I managed to close it gently and got dressed as quick as possible, a pair of my favorite comfortable jeans and a loose blouse. I could hear Nathan whistling from outside the door and felt embarrassed again. It felt like a midnight tryst even though it was only 7:30pm. I briefly considered locking the door and going back to my bath but I was too curious about why he was here. I sighed and let him in at last. “Did someone send you to check on me again?” Nathan settled into the room quicker than I liked and looked at me quizzically. “Someone?” “You said someone gave you instructions the first day and last night you were waiting for me again. I assumed you’re on assignment too.” I turned just in time to catch a rare blush cross his face. He looked away and busied himself with opening the wine. “I suppose you could say it’s an assignment,” he said. “But it’s really not important. Are you hungry?” Glancing in the mirror on the armoire doors I gasped as I saw that my hair was all tangled from dipping into the water. There also were still soap bubbles in the back. I wiped my hands through them but only succeeded in getting my fingers soapy as well. Nathan gratefully didn’t notice. “Here, try this,” Nathan said holding up a forkful of pasta to me. I felt self-conscious suddenly as if we were a couple, acting so friendly to one another. I ignored the pasta and pressed a different issue instead. “Nathan, why were you the one to greet me at the hotel?” His smile faltered. “Well, Ms. Werner,” he said, purposely stressing ‘Werner’ like he always did. “We both have things we don’t need to discuss.” He pointedly looked at Prince Orcello’s coat that was draped over the sitting chair. I followed his gaze and my wrist burned hotly at the memory of Van’s lips upon it. I grabbed it subconsciously and then felt Nathan’s eyes upon me. He looked the same as he did the night he had showed up outside my door. What was that expression?