Amelie (ON HOLD)

XVII

"Mama!" Enrica interjected with a shriek.

"What?!" Florentina protested. "It's a natural thing, Enrica. It happens to everyone. And we all know that if the girl doesn't lose maidenhead on her Coming Out Ball, she will have to wait until she is married, and I was not going to wait until the wedding."

Pevensie covered her snigger with her hand and gave me a playful look that made me have to bite my lip to cover my own laughter.

"I assume that Amelie feels the same way. Don't you dear?" Florentina turned to me and I was caught on the spot.

"Um, what sorry?" I coughed.

"Please. I know my son and I know of his.... Endeavours." Oh god, this couldn't be happening. One look at Enrica's face told me she was going to throw up.

"Well, I don't think we're... um... it's not really... I guess that..."

"Your Majesty." Pevensie interjected to help me out. "I was wondering whether we should go with the yellow gloves or white whites. What would your expertise suggest?" in that moment, I thanked all the Gods above for Pevensie.

"I think the yellow ones still." The Queen went off topic and replied. "We wouldn't want to ruin the yellow."

Pevensie nodded and gave me a sympathetic smile. I knew she was also trying to help with this dress extravaganza.

"Who told you yellow was all the rage?" Enrica then asked curiously. Florentina looked at her daughter and simply replied.

"Delphine, she helped me shop for the whole thing."

Enrica gave me a look that read 'of course she did'.

I held my breath and fisted my hands, holding back on rolling my eyes. Why wasn't I surprised? What Enrica had told me yesterday let me know that Delphine wasn't a person to mess with, but that was years ago, and, in my mind, I thought she would have matured. Obviously not.

The doors opened and a voice travelled across the room.

"Your Majesty, I was wondering on whether you wanted these flowers pink or –" Aziel stepped into where we were, and his eyes widened. "... yellow..." he looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Aziel." Florentina smiled contently. "What was it?"

Aziel looked down at his papers and coughed. "Erm, pink or red?" he composed himself, eyeing my attire up and down with a grimace on his face.

"Red." She answered. "It'll work best." Aziel nodded and wrote something down on the stack of papers he had in his hand. "Don't you think she looks lovely, Aziel?"

Aziel stilled and looked back up at me, dithering whether it was a trick question or not. "She looks very..." he looked at Enrica who shrugged with widened eyes, "Radiant." He finally answered. "Like a... sweet... lemon cake."

I tried to hide my frustration and urge to rip the dress off, but Florentina smiled contently.

"Who helped you pick the dress, Your Majesty, if you don't mind me asking?" Aziel then questioned.