Labyrinth

Tea Party

"Lady Rosemarie, is it true that you received a letter from the Royal palace?" Isabella, the Lady of the House of Zaris asked bringing everyone's attention to me.

Since I'd leave my house this morning I had already prepared for this question to be bought up.

It had been 2 days since I got the letter and rumours had already spread in the noble society. Even for someone like me who was a daughter of a Duke, receiving a letter from the Palace was a big deal. It meant two things, either good or bad news. But people weren't interested in the contexts of the letter, they just needed a topic to gossip about.
In the past two days I'd already heard from the maids and servants on the type of gossip that was going around in the downtown bars.

They either think it's about something bad I did or something too good. But what they didn't know was that even I, the one that received the letter, had been left with a ridiculous excuse of talking about the political states.

And today, after this tea party, the people would officially know the contexts of the letter because I'll reply to the question just like how I had prepared for these past two days.

For today's tea party that Lady Anastasia had organised, only the Ladies from the four Houses were invited. That is, me, Lady Gabriella Zari and Lady Isabella Zari of the House of Zaris, the young Lady Sofia Jordan of the House of Jordan and lastly Lady Anastasia Phili herself.

Lady Sofia was the youngest among us with two elder brothers and she was well known for her gossiping skills. Maybe it was because she was young she couldn't shut up.

Lady Gabriella and Isabella were non-identical twins. They weren't interested in gossips as much, I bet it was their parents who wants to know about the letter more and made them ask.

And...

Lady Anastasia, she seemed not at all interested in any gossips or rumours. She really was an odd one.

I took a deep breathe as I looked at each of their curious eyes.

"Yes, it is true that I got a letter from the Royal palace."

"Really??!" Sofia exclaimed as she put her cup of tea down to listen more closely.

"Why, yes," I continued, "they didn't write the reason for my presence but his highness the Prince seemed to want to have a conversation with me about the northern estate's political and economic states."

"Political and economic states?" Gabriella asked with obvious confusions.

"I think he wanted my opinion on it since I'm most likely familiar with them, you know?" I tried to make sense as much as possible to avoid any kind of suspicion.

"Ah, I see..." Gabriella seemed disappointed.

"Haha, I can't even imagine having to do all that, it must be tiresome being a Canden, Lady Rosemarie." Isabella said.

"Oh no, I'm quite alright actually..." I said taking a sip.

This reaction was what I had expected from them but...there was something that was bothering me.

Lady Anastasia's silence.

Usually, she was the most talkative one of us, but today she was quite, way too quite.

I glanced over her but she was already looking at me.

"Lady Anastasia, these sweets are really delicious." I said nervously, giving an awkward smile.

She smiled back, a very very suspicious smile, as if she knew every last secret of mine and said, "Hmm, is that so? But you haven't even touched anything except your tea, Lady Rosemarie."

Oh...crap.

"Uh... I..."

I tried to think of something to say back but she cut me off, "I was just kidding!"

She was definitely suspicious of me.

"Come to think of it, The crown prince is probably single no?" Sofie said, everyone's attention towards her now.

"That must be true! I never saw his highness with any woman before and he is of our age!" Isabella contributed.

Minus Sofie, because she was 3 years younger than us.

"It's a shame, considering all the rumours about him being ravishing!"

We had never seen any royals in person, well, I did but let's just pretend not to have for now.

"The general that is always with his highness is good looking too! What was his name, General Aether? I heard he is in his early 20s!"

At this point it was just Sofia and Isabella talking.

I probably shouldn't tell them he was the one that wrote me the letter right?

I took another sip from my tea.

"Oh imagine how lucky the woman who would marry them will be, to see them everyday..."

I don't know about the women and lucky part...

"Lady Anastasia, your brother is quite the handsome man himself." Gabriella said out of nowhere.

Lady Anastasia laughed, "You think so? I wouldn't know since I see him everyday, he looks like a donkey- I mean he looks normal to me."

"Oh but...he probably has eyes for someone." Isabella said as they all stared towards me.

Wh, what?

"Oh he does? I didn't know." I say trying to join the conversation, maybe they wanted me to talk about guys as well.

But they didn't change their expression whatsoever.

"Lady Rosemarie, do you have someone you like?" Anastasia asked suddenly.

Huh? Someone I liked?

I looked down at the cup of tea in my hand. Someone I...liked. I did have someone I liked but I don't know if it's the right word anymore.

Noah's words ran into my mind as I felt a heartache again.

"Oh my, I apologise for my lack of manners, you don't have to answer it if you don't want to Lady Rosemarie." she smiled at me again.

We chatted a bit more, about random stuff, the latest fashion, trends, who liked whom and all the girlie talks, like normal teenager girls. It was nice to have such a quiet and relaxing time with them after all the drama that has happened since the past few days.

The feeling of being 'normal'. I loved it.