The next morning, I awoke to a letter that had been sat atop the nightstand next to my bed while I had been asleep.
How it had gotten there I was unsure, but it planted a small seed of paranoia in me, making me worry about the security of my own room.
I nervously opened it while releasing the breath that I had unconsciously been holding in, once I began to read.
"Miss Beckett,
Please, forgive my absence since last we met. Something, important, has come up that urgently needs my complete attention. And, as it is for now, I shall be leaving the palace for the kingdom walls immediately. Regrettably, I am not due to return until the day before Thomas's birthday celebration. But when I do, I shall make seeing you my top priority.
I had wished to tell you all this in person, but you were sleeping so soundly that I dared not wake you.
I have found an answer to our, problem, but would rather reveal to you the solution upon my return and once I am finally in your presence again.
I will see you soon,
Henry"
"Henry?" I thought aloud, "How did he manage to sneak into the apartment, let alone my room, without waking me or Cordelia?"
Knowing it had been Henry that had unknowingly invaded my space while I slept made me feel somewhat better about it. However, if he had done such without notice, then that meant others could have as well.
"Is something amiss, Emma?" Cordelia yawned, shaking me from my thoughts.
"No, nothing that matters." I smiled, then stood up and made my way over to the entrance of the apartment. "Just had a bad dream is all."
As I turned the knob, nothing happened and the door stayed in place, meaning it had been locked the entire night. That was, unless Henry had a key of his own that he had used to enter the room unnoticed. Though, with it being so close to Cordelia's bedroom, there was no way she wouldn't have heard him enter since she had ears like that of a dog and slept so light.
Not only that, but him making his way through the palace, and down our hall, without a soul seeing was impossible. There must have been another way that he had entered, one which at that very moment had seemed practically nonexistent.
Not soon after the both of us had wiped the sleep from our eyes and gotten ready for the day; I, and all the other suitresses, had been summoned by none other than the queen to join her and her court in the queen's room.
As I made my way down the hall, Rheda and Sheera stood at the end waiting for me so that we three could walk together.
"I am not looking forward to this." Sheera moaned. "All of her courtiers will be there, which means they will all be pushing for many of our dismissals. From behind closed doors of course."
"As do those slimy ass-kissers." Rheda chimed in, "Be careful of what you say and how you respond to their questions, Emma. Many of the remaining girls, besides us, have mothers in the queen's court, and they will do anything to shake your composure and ruin your chances if they can."
"I suppose it is a good thing that mine has yet to be invited." I chuckled to myself, only to gather raised brows from both cousins. "Forget I said that."
Though the three of us had become quite comfortable with one another, well mainly them getting to know me and me them. I had still remained chaste when it came to divulging information about myself.
Because, despite how kind and reliable they were, I was quite scared of them as well. They were such strong women, cunning too, yet despite that, they made it easy for me to want to tell them every little thing about me. Which all could have led to my swift expulsion in the competition, if for some reason they weren't as kind as I had thought.
My trauma, my unstable familial relations and reasons for being here were for me and Cordelia to know, and no one else. The more I kept to myself, the less chance there was for anything to go wrong.
Unless Georgiana decided to tell someone, or everyone, everything that she knew about me and my family. Which, as far as I had known at the time, was something she could have already done.
As we followed the others through the vast palace, I noticed that a few of us had gone missing.
"It seems there are fewer of us today." I looked over at Rheda, waiting for her to spill the information she had most likely already gathered on the situation.
"Oh," she paused, then grinned, "Yesterday evening the queen and Prince Thomas had dismissed five girls, leaving only eleven to face her today."
"Eleven?" I nearly stopped walking out of shock. How had there only been eleven of us left when a little under a month had passed since we had first arrived?
"Why so many?" I finally forced out.
"Because from what my maid has heard, the queen made Prince Thomas get rid of all the girls that he hardly cared for." She lowered her voice and continued on in a hushed whisper, causing both Sheera and I to get closer, "Now, this is only merely speculation on my part. But I believe she did as such because of what she stated in the letter that she sent out the a few nights ago."
"I see," Sheera replied, "the princess trials."
I now understood why the last few weeks had been only centered around us meeting Thomas. He was filtering out all of the girls he had not managed to make a connection with. But to dismiss five in one night was rather harsh, though Thomas was not to blame since his mother had very clearly rushed him.
However, if the cousin's speculations were correct, the next trials were only going to reduce our numbers even further. Which confused me still. This whole process had started to seem like it had been rushed. As if something unexpected had come up or that they had been trying to wed him as soon as possible.
I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, however. This new development had only left me against ten others. And if my assumptions of where they stood with Thomas were correct, those other ten were going to be hard to outshine.
Once all eleven of us gathered at the massive white gilded doors, I looked around to see who all had been left.
Georgiana Fairefax, Emberly Craven, Bridget Selby, Eloisa Langston, Noor Kilburn, Rheda and Sheera de Marre, Merona Harton, Marjorie Ashton and Castellana Dampierre were all that had been left. Many of which I had hardly seen since the unmasking, let alone knew much about.
Though, the one thing I did know was that they all had been absolutely beautiful. Many of which in very unique ways. It was no doubt that only the best had remained, however, our best was surely to be no match for what her majesty had planned for us.
"Why they kept many of the lowborns, I do not understand." Georgiana rolled her eyes.
She stood to the left of me, off in a group of her own comprised of her, Castellana and Marjorie.
"To keep the lords happy, I am sure." Castellana snickered, "Do not fret, they are only here for show since they have no other worth than that."
Some of the others cut their eyes at her comment, but I tried to pay her no mind.
"I think you'd be better off not underestimating your opponents purely based on their parent's titles." Rheda chuckled to herself.
"Says the freak that they only kept here out of morbid curiosity." Castellana spat. "Do you actually think they'd let someone like you, with such an obscene complexion, marry into the royal family? Why they entertain your presence I will never understand."
My head snapped in her direction, "Probably the same reasons they keep your ignorant, small-minded and positively boorish ass here."
Georgiana's eyes grew wide at the evenness in my tone, then turned to hide her struggle with containing her laughter.
Castellana looked me up and down, brown eyes blazing, before she spoke, "And who asked you, second born? You are the last person who should be speaking since you shouldn't even be here."
A small chuckle left my lips as I looked her directly in the eye. "So, you do not deny it."
Her eyes widened at the realization of her neglect to refute my insults. Making me wonder if perhaps she might have actually been a terrible person down deep inside and it wasn't all for show.
Before anyone else could speak the large doors opened, causing everyone to snap to attention.
Mrs. Dansbury stood before us with disapproving eyes as if she had heard everything that had been said. "Good, all of you are here." She looked over each of us, "If the eleven of you will please follow me, the queen is waiting."
Despite being firm in my defense of Rheda, my anxiety had started to, once again, get the best of me and I couldn't help but worry if I should have worded my response better. I had let my anger at Castellana's vile comments get the better of me and called the daughter of a duke, ignorant, amongst other things.
And I had known she was most certainly going to make me pay for such disrespect in the days to come.