The Prince (Harry Styles)

Chapter 13

I was seated at breakfast with Queen Anne, today was apparently a day full of etiquette and learning to be a princess. I loved learning about these kinds of things like, the way someone is to speak to a high ruler, a priest, even the common people like me. I just think all these things are interesting since I am not used to this life. I am used to a life of doing whatever the hell I wanted.

"Now, have you ever sewn before?" Queen Anne asked me with a smile as we entered the Queen's drawing room. 

"No, I haven't," I said twiddling my thumbs as I walked with my hands clasped together. 

"Today you are going to learn. As the Queen, I have to find other means of entertainment besides reading and listening to music. So I have taken up cross stitching. It's easy and allows you to talk without thinking of what you have to do. Knitting and crocheting are also common time passers."

I followed her to the chest she had behind one of the sofas. She opened it up and took out a hood with a cloth in it. There was a needle with red string on it stuck into the cloth. She handed me a blank one with a bunch of  X's in the cloth. I couldn't really tell what the image was supposed to be. 

"I'll get you started," she smiled to me. "You have a lot of green in yours so we'll start with green." I watched as she took out a green colored wad of string, sucked on the end and threaded it through the cloth hood I previously was holding.

"What you do is you make an x with string. All the green ones is where you put the thread," she said with a smile. She took a seat on the sofa in front of the chest and crossed her legs. She nodded to the spot next to her so I could ask for help if I needed it.

"How are you and Harry getting along?" she asked after a few minutes of silence, the only noise is us pulling needles through the cloth.

"Great, actually," I smiled to her. "He's a great boy."

"He is," she smiled. "My daughter has taken a liking to you as well. Gemma doesn't have many friends so it's nice that she seems to adore you."

"She's....unique," I laughed thinking about her excessive book collection and her odd gifts.

"Yes, she is unique. Say, is she happy? With Prince Louis and her getting married?" Queen Anne asked me suddenly. "I can't help but worry because I know she will marry him for the sake of her father, but is she happy?"

"She told me something that reminded me of myself. I want to marry for love, not fortune or anything, I want to be happy and she wants that as well. So I think it's safe to say that she isn't happy with the upcoming wedding between her and Prince Louis. Personally, I don't think it's fair that her younger brother has the chance to look for a wife and marry the one that makes him most happy when she can't marry for happiness," I said not once glancing at Queen Anne. In the corner of my eye, I saw her place her hoop on her lap and rub her hands together. She placed a hand over one of mine.

"Thank you," she said once I had looked up at her. "Gemma would never tell me those things."

"I just want my friend to be happy. She is such a bubbly girl, I don't want her to be tied to something that would make her lose her crazy attitude."

"The tradition of marrying daughters to other princes is becoming more and more difficult as the princes are now mostly related," she explained. "We have essentially married into every kingdom there is and it took us a long time to find Prince Louis."

"May I ask why it's important to marry into kingdoms instead of her finding someone she'll fall in love with?" I asked. "She's a bright girl and he seems nothing like her at all."

"I know," she admitted. "It is our duty as parents of a princess to marry our daughter to make bonds with other kingdoms. Fortunately for us, we have a lot of alliances. The only places we aren't alliances is the Perdu Kingdom and the Northern Gaelic Kingdom. We think it's the Perdu kingdom pushing our borders as they live in a small patch of land off the northern border. They were never happy with the amount of land they were given when they broke off of Ula. Gaelic is on the island opposite us, they are of a peaceful sort of people."