The Tale of a Princess and Her Journey to Love

Chapter Six

Three long and difficult weeks have passed since the departure of Theodosius and Annalise. As promised, Theo had written to her, and thus far she had received two letters, which had quickly become some of her most treasured possessions. In the letters he wrote poetically about how much he was missing her, and had even referred to her as 'my love' on several occasions which warmed her heart and made her blush a deep rosy pink. She missed him so much, but there was not anything she could do about it apart from mope around which she thought was not fair on her family.

Fortunately Queen Isadora of Yemini was getting better, although she was still very weak and confined to her bedroom. The virus that attacked her system was thought to have been caught from when she petted some rare and exotic animals at a circus of wonders. She was expected to make a full recovery, which Ro was very relieved about.

Although she understandably missed Theo terribly, Princess Nijah had served as a willing distraction to take Aurora's mind off of things. They had spent a lot of time together and had become quite good friends. The foreign princess was a funny and confident character – when she was not around her brother anyway. In his presence her voice was muted and she always stood respectfully behind him. Apparently in Aubriemia women are only used as pawns for power, and their looks decided what rank of man they could marry. They had to be silent and very respectful to men who were very much so the ruling gender. Although luckily her father King Xin was different and treated his daughters and wife with respect, but Korian was a dissimilar story.

Aurora could not stand the man or his companion Sychelles who was always hovering around him like a fly to a carcass. Korian and Nijah were completely different people personality wise, and personally Aurora did not know what Rosilabeth saw in him. Well, actually, she did know - his crown and riches were like magnets to Rosilabeth. She was always trying to charm him and capture his attention, but Aurora saw his wondering eyes, which annoyed her greatly. Korian always found an excuse to touch Aurora, which made her feel very uncomfortable. At first she thought about complaining as she thought it was inappropriate, however she realised that he was the same with every young lady – especially her sister, so it must be normal behaviour in his country.

Excitingly Aurora was sure her brother Henri (the third child) was sweet on Princess Nijah, which she was very happy about. She would love nothing more then to see them happy together, as she knew that Henri would look after Nijah and treat her with the love and dignity she deserved. Nijah admitted to Aurora that once she returned to Aubriemia she would be forced into a loveless marriage and from then on only be good for producing children. Aurora was determined to save her friend from such a cruel fate.

Henri was always walking in on them both for no apparent reason or asking for strange things. He had intruded so often Aurora realised that something was capturing his attention, and as his eyes always drifted back to Nijah she knew she had found the object of his affections. It was understandable - Nijah possessed a beauty unlike anyone else in Alluvia, and her rich coffee skin attracted stares of envy from everyone young and old. Henri was known as the castle flirt and had quite a bad reputation for being with the ladies, so Aurora was pleased that he now seemed to be entranced with Nijah. He was getting older and needed to settle down soon. The way she became shy when he was around and the smile she could not keep from her lips told Aurora that Nijah was interested in her brother too. She just hoped they would act on their affection soon.

That day Ro was scheduled to have luncheon with her sister Rosilabeth, Princess Nijah and Lady's Carmen and Persephone after her two-hour pianoforte lesson. They were both pleasant girls from respectable families of high society, but mainly Rosilabeth's air-headed friends. Ro still found it very hard to sit in the company of such close-minded people who had never had to lift a finger in their lives.