A Princess' Tale

Chapter Twenty-Two

"You have not yet told me what those pages were," Fayre said to me as we sat across from each other in the library.

I took a sip of my raspberry tea and smiled at her. "Notes of that man's plans. I handed them over to the captain. He is making arrangements to find the rest of the group and stop them." I had wanted to tell Fayre the truth about my great grandmother's diary, but I couldn't forget how she reacted when I first mentioned Beatrice. She had not wanted to believe the significance of brown eyes. Although I wanted to prove it to her, I decided to take a different approach.

"What did you ever think about the tales regarding Queen Anita?" I asked. "Most are children's tales about how magical she was. With unexplainable abilities, she kept Aristol safe."

Fayre raised an eyebrow slowly. "Those stories have no truth in them. As you said, they are children's tales to fascinate young ones with fantasy since reality is not as entertaining for them. There is no such thing as magic, Anna."

"Anita had brown eyes."

"Which explains why Beatrice had them and why Elouise does. It is in your bloodline."

I took another sip and nodded. "You might be right." You are not ready yet then, but you will be, Fayre. I must make you believe. My best friend needed to believe.

I needed patience, though.

"It is a lovely day out today," I stated, glancing out the window. "Shall we go for a walk?"

---

When night fell and Philip had succumbed to his slumber, I sat in front of the window of our bedchamber. The moonlight provided me with enough light to see the pages. I matched the pages with their missing passages and felt my pulse quicken as Beatrice's secrets unfolded in front of me.

She wrote about abilities she possessed—of fire she created with a snap of her fingers, of a golden light that shimmered above her palm, and using her mind to appear in other places.

"It is true," I whispered. "Magic exists."

Elouise hiccupped.

I used a dried peony to mark my spot in the diary and quickly walked over to the bassinet. Elouise stared up at me—wide and curious brown eyes glistening with the moonlight seeping over her.

"You are meant for such greatness, my sweet girl," I said as I reached down and stroked her soft round cheeks. "I will ensure you are ready for anything that may come your way. No harm shall ever cross you."

I retrieved the diary from the windowsill and hovered over Elouise as I picked a passage to read to her.

"Ashton Ward is a world of mystery to me. I question our connection. It cannot be a coincidence that the one destined to be my guard has brown eyes—" I gasped. "Another person with brown eyes?" Memories of the brown-eyed boy I had dreamed about flickered in my head.

I returned to the very first passage that had been torn, one I had overlooked as I hadn't seen mention of magic. It was where she had first met Ashton by the stables. Her father had known about Ashton as he was the son of Queen Anne's guard.

"Ward does not sound familiar to me, though," I said, lowering the diary.

Elouise was fast asleep now.

"This may lure you to sleep right now, yet I can only imagine your astonishment once you are older and discover this for the first time." My heart would not quit racing. I took deep breaths to steady myself.

Who were the Ward family? It did not seem plausible that I had never heard mention of them before.

There had to be a reason, and I knew it had to do with magic. So much of Beatrice's reign had been concealed. Not much was known about what had occurred during her days on the throne, especially with the Interloper War. I believed her magic had been discovered and it was covered up to prevent future generations from learning about it. Such as I had banned any mention of the plague to erase my brother's warning of it.