The Reluctant Prince

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

           Guests were already starting to mill about and gather in groups around the ballroom as Nick and Andrew entered a few minutes after Catherine and Emily. Emily saw them enter and waved the two men over to where she and Cat were standing near the throne dais.

“Princess Catherine, Lady Emily,” Nick said, approaching the two, as he and Andrew bowed. Normally he called them by their first names alone, like he did with Izzy and Ellie, but, due to the setting they were in, he made sure to address them by their titles. Friendships aside, if the wrong person overheard him naming them informally, he could be in a lot of trouble.

“Oh, please,” Cat rolled her eyes, “at least call me Princess Cat. The only people that call me Catherine are my sister and my mother.” Nick assented, promising that he would pair her title with her nickname whenever he addressed her in a situation where her title was necessary.

“Anyways, the two of you look beautiful tonight,” Nick complimented and Andrew nodded in agreement.

          The two young women stood regally in front of Nick, reminding him that they were no longer the little girls that he had left thirteen years ago. They had grown up from being seven-year-old girls with no aversion to mud and a bit of a tomboy streak to being young women with grace and poise. Grace and poise, he remembered, that were trained into them from the time they could walk.

          Catherine wore a traditional lilac ball gown with a corseted top that burst into its numerous skirts just above her hips and a scooped neck led prettily into capped sleeves over her shoulders. It was a very plain dress, which was a bit unusual for Catherine, until the detailed embroidery on it was noticed. In royal purple thread, intricate designs were stitched into the bodice and the bottom of the skirts. Emily, on the other hand, was dressed in an emerald, empire-wasted, sheath gown that matched her eyes and made her dark hair stand out. It was also scoop-necked but, instead of forming capped sleeves, it formed a simple strap on each shoulder that crisscrossed against her back. The dress, like Cat’s, was very simple in that it only had beading a couple of inches wide along the waist line.

“Thank you, Nick. But wait until you see our sisters; they are absolutely stunning tonight,” Emily gushed.

“As they always are,” Andrew smiled. The girls smirked and a knowing glance passed between them while Andrew didn’t seem to notice. Nick saw all of this and knew that that look was not for nothing—growing up in the castle with them and their older sisters had taught him that much—and was about to ask about that exchange when he was interrupted.

“Thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate our daughter and Lady Eliana’s birthdays,” King Henry said from the throne dais.

          Everyone immediately stopped conversing and came to gather in a group in front of the platform before curtsying and bowing to King Henry and Queen Margaret. Emily and Cat smiled at Nick and Andrew before picking up their skirts to join their families on the dais while Nick and Andrew took their spots—along with the other bodyguards—in front of the few stairs leading to where the king and queen were standing, facing the crowd before them. After the girls reached the top of the stairs, they walked to their respective spots: Catherine to stand with her brothers to the right of their parents and Emily to stand with her parents to the left of the king and queen. Once everyone finally settled into their places, Henry spoke once more.

“Again, thank you for coming to this celebration of two wonderful young women. Two young women that, in a matter of years, will be ruling you. Scary thought.” Everyone laughed in response after Margaret lightly hit her husband in the chest with the hand that had been snaked through his arm. From what Nick knew, though, Eliana and Isabella—should something happen to both sets of parents—would be prepared enough to begin ruling tomorrow.