The Prince's Curse

Chapter 17 - The Castle

~Chapter 17~

*The Castle*

"Prince Ashton, the flight will be landing in about 3 minutes, would you and your associate mind buckling up?" The flight attendant asked, walking over to them, bending slightly at the waist before addressing Ashton.

"Yes, thank you," he nodded to her before doing as she requested. He watched as Luke kept his eyes on her, marveling at her little curtsey and staring as she walked away. Ashton gave him a curious look. He'd come out of the bedroom only a couple minutes ago, acting like nothing had happened between them. Luke decided he wasn't going to bring it up again and he'd go along with whatever mood swings the prince went through.

"I've never seen someone do that in real life, it's just..."

"Normal?" Ashton supplied with a smirk. He'd thought it was weird when no one did that to him at school, but it was nice to fall into that routine again and have things return to the way they should be.

"Far from it," Luke scoffed.

"Buckle up,"

"Yes, Your Excellency," Luke teasingly sang.

Ashton tsked, shaking his head.

"You do know that you're going to need to address me properly when we arrive, and that's not how to do it,"

"Please, do enlighten me," Luke said in a pompous accent.

"As a prince, you shall refer to me as 'your highness', the same would be for another prince or princess. My mother, the queen, is to be called 'your majesty' or 'your grace'. She prefers 'your majesty',"

Luke nodded, absorbing the information. That wasn't too difficult, he could remember that.

"Now, I have a couple of close friends who visit regularly, they are dukes, and are to be referred to as 'your grace'."

"I thought your mum could be called your grace?"

"Hm, yes, that's correct, good job." Ignoring, or maybe not noticing Luke's confusion, he continued. "Earls--also known as Counts,--and Countesses shall be called by their title and homeland, for example 'The Earl of Eastover', or 'The Countess of Bridgerdon'. The same is to be done with Lords and Ladies. Emperors or Empresses are 'your imperial majesty', but we haven't gotten any of those so should not need that,"

Luke opened and closed his mouth like a fish.

"Maybe I just won't refer to anyone at all,"

Ashton barked out a laugh as the plane wheels touched the ground, jerking him forward as it began to slow.

"Perhaps that would be best,"

The plane slowed down and once the seat belt sign was released, Ashton stood up, brushing his white and orange Hawaiian shirt to remove the wrinkles and sticking his hands inside the navy trousers he'd gotten when he first arrived, before his makeover.

Luke wondered what Ashton's official prince outfits looked like. If he'd gotten slacks and button downs as 'casual clothes' for college, he wondered what his prince uniform or whatever would look like. He was excited to find out soon.

Ashton walked over to the door of the plane, nodding as the pilot and copilot saluted him as they walked off.

"Thank you for flying with us, Your Highness,"

"My pleasure, Marv, thank you, Frank."

He walked off, motioning for Luke to follow him.

There were a few people waiting for them on the tarmac. It was a very bright day; the sky was clear and blue, and someone stepped forward, offering Ashton a pair of sunglasses as he squinted against the sun. She also had a hat, a coat, and an umbrella, but he waved the rest away. He took the glasses with a smile, watching as the girl in an all grey dress with a black belt around her waist curtseyed before getting back into line with the rest of what Luke assumed was servants. There was one man dressed similarly to her, with grey trousers and shirt with a white belt around his waist, and the rest of the men standing were dressed in all black. Maybe guards?