The Lost Princess - A 'Selection' spinoff

CHAPTER 9

Elora massaged her head, trying to focus on the words on the page before her.

Was she too harsh on the girl?

No.

She was just as bad as the other girls, perhaps even worse.

Atleast the other girls had sent a 'take care' note to their maids after they saw the fake video they had recorded.

But Aurora - nothing.

She'd simply whiled away her time before appearing in the solar.

That doesn't explain why she looked so disheveled, a small voice in her head seemed to say.

She didn't listen to that voice.

She wasn't oblivious to the steady glares Katherine sent her way either.

She tried ignoring them, but those looks seemed to pierce her soul, making her feel guilty, when she kept telling herself that there was no need to feel so.

She had been hoping for Aurora's company. She had waited for many minutes before resigning herself to the fact that she wouldn't be coming. The swooning and gossiping of the other Selected girls made her want to scream in frustration.

That made her headache even worse, and maybe that's why she had been so mean to Aurora.

But those tears that welled in Aurora's eyes...

Why did they affect her so much?

No, they didn't, she told herself.

She had been cruel simply because she felt betrayed and disappointed in the girl.

And in herself.

That she had been fooled so easily by a chit of a girl.

Elora was shook from her thoughts by a young pregnant woman serving her tea.

"Millie," she said, recognizing her old maid's daughter. "How are you doing?".

"Quite well, Your Majesty," Millie replied.

Millie's mother had died a few days before Eric was born, after delivering a stillborn child.

"I thought you were only supposed to grow horizontally when you were pregnant. Not vertically," Elora joked, when she noticed that the young woman appeared taller than usual.

She could see the other tittering girls glance at her in surprise - she almost never smiled in their presence, but she had known Millie for a long time.

Infact, Millie was the first child Elora had held in her arms, much before she became a mother herself.

Millie laughed before she answered. "A young Lady who was rushing here saw me struggling with my ankles and bare feet, and gave me her slippers".

Elora felt the color in her face drain as she heard Millie speak and point to her toes.

"She said she was coming here... In fact, I was hoping to see her here, but... well I don't think she's reached yet," Millie said, craning her neck hopefully.

"How did she look?" Elora managed to ask in a steady voice.

"Black hair, a blue shirt. She seemed to be in quite a hurry," Millie said thoughtfully, handing the Queen her cup of tea carefully.

"Thank you," Elora said dismissively.

She was sure that Millie had described Aurora - she was one of the only people who still dressed in shirts, most probably to hide her bruises.