The Prince and His Butterfly

Chapter 5: Beckett

Chapter 5: Beckett

It had been a week since I had first met Reed and the other girls. They had come back after getting items from their respective homes. I had seen the servants bring up suitcases, following the girls to their rooms. Reed was laughing and talking with Candidate 11, Camille, the fake one. How could she even be friends with her? Unless my opinion of Reed was wrong…

Da increased my responsibilities. I had to sit in on any Council meeting and had to give my opinion on every issue he deemed was worthy of my opinion. Which was all of them. It was terribly boring, but I would have to do this with Reed—no, my Queen—when I became King. Less work, I hoped.

The Candidates’ rooms were a floor below mine. If I strained my ears late into the night, I could hear their hushed giggles and small shrieks.

I looked through the floor plans, then at Camille and Reed’s room placement. In hindsight, it may have seemed stalkerish, but at the moment, it had just been a way for me to know her better. After all, they weren’t allowed contact with me, nor were their parents allowed to stay with them, or even be in contact with them until the night before the Ball. They were less eager to approach me without the mothers urging them on with hand flurries and the fixings of hair, which I was highly thankful for.

According to these maps, my room was directly above Camille’s, which was attached to Reed’s.

Gods, I was becoming a stalker. But it was better than focusing on the other thing.

I wrote letters to Da, Matilda, Justinian, Edmund, My Mother, Reed, anyone that meant anything to me. I tried to shake of the fear as I closed each letter, the wax burning my fingers at times. I stared at the ceiling. I tried naming the stars after the Queens and Kings of Waneta. I played the game from the old age, Scrabble. It was an exact copy of the game in the Royal Vaults. I fixed my bed so Edmund didn’t have to.

At the end of the first week, I was bored out of my mind. I had resorted to reading books, something I had not voluntarily done since My Mother’s death. I had to keep my mind off of Reed and it somehow, didn’t I?

Late one hot night, Edmund—who had been briefed in everything and anything he could know about me, including my secret—came knocking on my door. It startled me awake, and I pulled my dagger out from under my pillow. As a Prince, there were threats to the Crown—essentially threats to me—so I had to be prepared for the worst at all times. Especially now. The person behind the door knocked.

“Sir, its Edmund,” A ghostly voice whispered. I didn’t let down my guard.

“Password?” Sweat trickled down the line of my back and into my eyes. Gods, why was it so hot?

“Butterfly.” I let out a sigh of relief. I had changed the password the night after I had met the Candidates. Reed reminded me of one, but that wasn’t the point. It was my Mother’s favorite animal and the symbol of peace in Waneta. I blinked sweat out of my eyes again.

“Come in.” I sheathed my knife. A sliver of light crosses his face and made him look older than his 12 years. He looks at me darkly, and I know what he’s going to say before he says it.

“It’s time.”

҉

He leads—and fights—the way through the woods with a flashlight. He stops by a wooden shed, where he was ordered to leave me, and turns around.

“I know we haven’t known each other long Principe,” He begins. “But I feel indebted to you. You save my Mother and Sister from poverty and have given me an opportunity of a lifetime.”