Rosalyn Osborne was a criminal, so they called her. Six years in prison changed her. No matter what others thought of her, she always knew her true self. She wasn't a criminal in her mind, but there was a public uproar when she was chosen for the Se...
The next morning started out as hectic as I had imagined. I was changed into an extravagant dress after my maids exploded with happiness. They'd been told to make sure I was camera ready for the announcement and they sure did their job. My hair was in an elegant updo, although my makeup was fairly simple. My dress was also simple, but it didn't lack beauty in any way.
Ups! Tento obrázek porušuje naše pokyny k obsahu. Před publikováním ho, prosím, buď odstraň, nebo nahraď jiným.
I slide on my ring and smile as I look at it. When I leave my room I keep my hand close to my side so that the layers of my dress can cover it properly. The other girls seemed so excited to figure out if they had been chosen. Today would change all of their lives for sure.
I felt guilty in a way to feed their false hope, so I walked faster to get away from the small crowd of girls. We all make our way to the same room I had been given my sentence in for the Report. There hadn't been many Reports this Selection, but I'd gotten out of each of them because I hadn't wanted to be in here.
I take a deep breath as I find my designated seat on the stage, in the middle of the line of chairs. There were a few girls seated already and the rest followed me. I'd never been so nervous in front of so many cameras.
I look over to North who watches his family quietly. He sits closest to Gavril with an empty chair beside of him where I would sit when he announced our engagement.
"We are on in 5... 4... 3... 2..." Gavril Fadaye begins and then puts on his award winning smile. "1... and Good morning Illéa! Today is a very big day for our Royal family and each of our final elite."
The King and Queen and the rest of royal family sat in the front row of the seats facing us, which made me even more nervous. I could feel my hand shaking uncontrollably at my side and my breath seemed to get caught in my chest.
"Would you like to say a few words before you propose?" Gavril asks North. The Selection was supposed to work where the prince would propose during the Report.
"Well, only that this has been an incredibly frightening experience from start to finish. It's very different spending the majority of my time with women from such different backgrounds and it takes time getting used to it. I've been scared his entire time that it wouldn't work out the way I wanted it to, but it finally has." He says with a smile. "Also, I will not be proposing to anyone today."
The entire room goes silent and the girls look at each other confused. I keep my head ducked to avoid eye contact with anyone.
"Oh?" Gavril prompts.
"I am already engaged." North says, a smile forming on his lips. A few of the girls gasp in shock and some seem on the verge of tears already.
"Will you announce who our new Princess of Illéa is?" Gavril asks North.
"Princess Rosalyn Osborne." North announced into the microphone and stands up to meet me. As I stand, I can still feel my hands shaking. Once I meet his eyes though, my worries were partially drowned out and I finally smile. North reaches out and holds onto both of my shaking hands then leans in to kiss my cheek. He whispers, "It's okay. I'm here."
I try my best to drown out the noises around me. I sit beside of North, still holding onto his hands.
"Here you have it, your brand new Princess Rosalyn Osborne!" Gavril exclaims excitedly and with that our channel was cut off. When the cameras for the TV had turned away, and the news reporters were all that were left, Gavril smiles at me and North and whispers, "Congratulations," with a small, but supportive smile.
North and I both stand and hook our arms together, walking through the small crowd of reporters and royals to get closer to the entrance.
I feel a hand tap me to gather my attention and I stop abruptly, pulling North back. I turn around and see Rho, smiling happily from ear to ear and throwing her hands around my neck.
"I told you not to doubt him." She whispers quietly which causes me to laugh as I hug her back. "I'll catch up with you later, bye." She says quickly and pulls away.
I hadn't even said anything, but I felt like I had a family of some sort. I smile happily as I make my way back to North and lean my head on his shoulder as we walk out.
"Where do you want to go?" North asks me as we walk with no direction around the castle.
"Somewhere we can be alone." I tell him. We had been around people all day and I was tired of it.
"Let's go to my room." He tells me and begins to walk me in that direction. "My butler shouldn't be there at this hour and I'm afraid of running into the previous Selected if we go to yours." North laughs nervously.
"I agree." I tell him. We walk up to his room and slip into it without anyone seeing us. North turns the lights on and I walk over, sitting on his bed.
"Would you like clothes to change into?" North asks me. "I have sweatpants you could use."
"Are you sure?" I question, feeling slightly guilty.
"Of course." North says, kissing my forehead tenderly. He goes back over to his dresser and pulls out clothes for me. "Here, I'll wait in the bathroom."
I thank him and wait for him to shut the bathroom door before changing. I take off my shoes and dress and slip into the sweatpants. They didn't fit me right, but when I tied the strings as tightly as they would go, they hugged my hips slightly. The t-shirt was large on me too but I didn't mind because the material was so soft.
"You can come back in." I tell North and sit back down on his bed.
He comes back out in some of his sweatpants and a thin t-shirt on. I find myself smiling at him as he comes closer to me and sits closely beside of me.
I turn and kiss him gently on the lips and then lean into his shoulder.
"Are you ready?" He asks me softly and picks up my hand.
"What for?"
"For our wedding?" He asks smiling sweetly.
"I haven't been so excited for anything." I tell him, looking up at him with a smile.
"Emily will be arriving soon too." North tells me. "I figured you'd like her to be here."
"Thank you." I say quietly. I couldn't wait to see Emily again. I was still worried about where she would go after this. We'd always talked about staying together forever and I couldn't hold my end of the promise.
"Rose?" North says softly and puts a hand on the side of my face so he can look at me. "Don't worry about things, love. We are going to figure everything out."
He kisses my forehead and I couldn't help but just nod and smile.
"Do you trust me?" North asks, with his lips still close to mine.
