Castle of Lilies

Chapter 6

Lillia's PoV

Boy, did she play a mean darn game of checkers.
She won five times in a row. And after that I gave up after laughing at every smart comment she made like "Did you see that Lillia?" Or "How amazing am I at checkers?" Or most often "What did I tell you! I play a mean game of checkers!" All of these most often been given the response of a grunt from me as I sat opposite her and her smug face. Then as the sun had gone down Ginger had asked me if I'd wanted to sleep in her bed again, but knowing it would only make the secret that I was in love with her harder to keep a secret, I politely declined and for a brief moment she had looked disappointed but I had gone to my room too quickly to see if it was and I had climbed into my bed and it had been cold without her by my side.

Now sat at breakfast I was determined to keep the promise to myself to keep my distance from Ginger. Just in case I can't keep my mouth shut and blurt out my secret, which would be embarrassing.
And so now I sit next to Ginger at breakfast, her knee often brushing against mine as we eat, and each time it does I feel a spark of electricity shoot up my leg which I attempt to ignore but fail miserably.
Then throughout all of Ginger's etiquette lessons I stay at the back of the room, not saying a word.
By the end of the day Ginger keeps looking at me suspiciously, and I feel like she's on to me but I don't stop, knowing that if I gave in and smiled at her and she smiled back then I would break and tell her.
So I ignore the glances I get and the smiles she sends me and the attempts to hold my hand as we walk through corridors.

Genevieve's PoV

Lillia is simply annoying me now.
At first it was worry that something was wrong because she wasn't returning my smiles or laughing as much as normal, but now she's resisting all my attempts to smile at her and hold her hand like we normally do. She's basically ignoring my existence or at least as far as she can being my personal maid. So now I'm just annoyed at the fact that she won't tell me what's going on to make her be like this. I mean just yesterday we were laughing and joking whilst playing checkers, but then this morning it's like she's changed into a different person. If she would just tell me what the heck is going on then I could help her and then she'd go back to being the laughing, smiling girl I'm hopelessly in love with.
Only as I hear a Duke from beside me clear his throat do I realise that I'm practically murdering my chicken with my fork as my anger at the situation rises. My mother says concerned from opposite me, her bleached blonde hair swaying as she does so, "Gen dear, are you okay?"
"Fine." I grate out through my teeth, "Please can I be excused from dinner, I'm suddenly not hungry."
My father nods and I shove my chair, causing it to scrape on the floor as I do and the sound echoes through the hall as I leave, with Lillia following behind me.
Storming towards my rooms I open the door and as soon as we enter she goes to her room and this just angers me even more because she doesn't even say goodnight anymore, so in my state of anger I go to her room and slam the door on her. Then I pace around my room, muttering to myself as I do, going over everything I know about her, trying to figure out what would cause her to be like this. Her mother's death anniversary? No, her gravestone said October and it's March right now. Maybe I said something to offend or upset her? This makes me think over the entire time I've been with her, going over all the conversations we've had, all the people we've been around, in case they said something. Then my mind goes to the morning when she woke up in such a good mood and said she had a revelation but couldn't tell me what it was. Then I told her about the lady-in-waiting proposal, so maybe she's thinking about that. Yes. It's probably that that's got her down. She's probably overthinking it as she does. Yes. Relieved I have a possible explanation I climb into bed and attempt to sleep.
I wake to see my clothes hung on my wardrobe door and a note from Lillia saying:

Hello Princess Genevieve.
I am going for a walk around the gardens. I'll be ten minutes.
Yours,
Lillia

With the time dated at 07:12, I look at the clock, 07:15. Taking the clothes I get dressed and sit on my window seat, trying to spot Lillia in the gardens that I can see from my window.
Checking the time again my clock says 07:21. Smiling I hear footsteps coming down the corridor and I turn to see my door opened and Lillia walk in dressed in grey jeans, a pink crop top and a pair of flat pink shoes. She's done her hair simple, with just two braids joined at the back of her head. She spots me and says in a dull tone, "After breakfast your parents wish you to visit a place in the town. And then this afternoon you are to be at the orphanage on the outskirts for the present giving."
Then she goes into her room and closes the door.
My mood crashes and I can tell that today is going to be hell not having the normal Lillia with me.