Lady Jane

Chapter 1.

The wind whipped past my cheeks as Rosie slowly gained speed. I close my eyes to feel my hair brush my shoulders and cheeks. I sigh in content and open my eyes again.

My smile immediately drops to see Father waiting for me at the gates of our house. He waved me over and I try my best to cover my flinch, steering my horse in his direction. I swung my leg around and jumped, landing with a cloud of dust from the gravel underneath me. Father coughed and swatted his hand around, covering his nose in the process. The stableman jogged to us and led Rosie back to the stable and I smiled at him in gratitude.

"How many times do I have to tell you this, Jane?" My Father said, disproving clear on his face, "We don't look twice at our helps. They're here to help us and do their jobs. Learn your manners."

I avoided my temptation to roll my eyes, as I will be scolded dearly for that. If I did so, Father will certainly give me the 'be more ladylike' scolding again. He led me into the house and my gaze travels to the white envelope with the royal seal on it, sitting next to Mother. I frown, marching towards it, determined to see what it is. My Father scowls right away, seeing the way I'm walking.

"A lady should never hurry to go somewhere. Always walk elegantly, gracefully. Chin up, back straight and eyes looking forward," I mock quietly, and my Mother hides her smile behind her fist. My Mother is a gorgeous woman, with long, brown hair, and big blue eyes. Her skin pale and always holding kindness behind her eyes.

She pauses her sewing and hands me the envelope. "It's from the palace, addressed to you."

I cringed and scrunched my face up. "I hate anything that comes from the palace, Mother, and you know that. I don't want anything to do with that horrid place," I say, knowing that it's going to anger Father terribly. But by which I said is true, I do hate the palace. With their ill graceful rules, attending balls and dancing, drinking tea from tiny tiny teacups, with their pinkies raised. I would rather drink from a jug than drinking like that.

I sneer at the white packet and tore it open, pulling the letter out.

━━━━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Lady Jane Alexander,

We are proud to announce that you will be competing in The One. There will be 19 other ladies and we wish you luck,

King Eric and Queen Anne

━━━━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I froze. I clutched the letter so hard I'm surprised it didn't tear. I read it again and again, my head going dizzy from the words swimming in my mind.

Other ladies might be celebrating this opportunity, but I felt like I sentenced to death.

"Mother, you can't send me! I-I would be no good for the Prince. I-I-I'm not graceful at all! I surely would make a fool of myself in front of everyone. I can't go!" I cry, pleading with her.

"I'm sorry, Jane. These are the rules and we don't have a choice. I know how much you despise the palace. If I had a choice, I wouldn't let you go," she said, her lips turned upside down and sympathy in her eyes.

"Enough of this rubbish! You should be honored that they have invited you. You better give a good first impression. If you marry the Prince, you will be a Princess and will soon be Queen! You shall go, and you will go. That is final," Father said, leaving no space for an argument, and stormed out, closing the door with a slam.

I didn't even bother to hide my flinch this time and hugged myself. I hear my Mother's footsteps getting closer and she wrapped my arms around me. I sank into her warmth and broke down. She dragged me back to the sofa and made me sit, handing me her handkerchief. I took it and wiped my eyes hastily, my sobbing turning into sniffing.

"There, there, Jane. It won't be that bad! Think of the food the palace must have! And the grounds! I bet they have an even larger stable than ours!"

Mother always knew what made me happy, contrary to Father. I looked up at her, not a hair out of place, and her hands clasped together in front of her.

"Mother, I will make a fool out of myself! I'm not ladylike at all."

"Jane, you don't have to be ladylike," she said, "Think of it this way. You can be as annoying as possible. Eat with your mouth open, laugh loudly, and eat like there's no tomorrow! They will surely send you home after that, and you don't have to stay at the palace."

The corners of my mouth slowly turned upwards and I couldn't help but grin. My sadness and anger turned to determination. I will make sure that Prince William's life will be torture when I arrive.

*

Hi hi!!! Thank you so much for clicking on my story and deciding to read it, (despite my bad writing lol), I really hope you enjoy this book. Although my writing isn't the best, I hope that I can improve through Lady Jane. Just a quick disclaimer, I am not trying to copy The Selection or any other writers. This is just something that I want to write about, though the idea is very similar. I hope that there is no hate in the comments regarding this situation, but if I do see anything offensive in the comments, regardless if it is targeted towards me or the readers, I will delete them.

Wen