Two in the afternoon couldn't have come soon enough. I had memorized the alphabet from A to Z. I was proud of myself to say the least. Trish had even helped me, too. She helped me recall the letter names and I couldn't wait to sit next to Harry and spit them out to him.
"Ah, Emerald, having a good day?" the king asked me upon seeing me.
"I am, thank you, sir," I said going into a curtsy just the way my mother showed me. "You?"
"It's a good day, thank you for asking," he smiled to me. "Anne, where is our son?"
"He was with you," she said quietly. "I was in our state room reading."
"He does this often, Emerald, I apologize," King Desmond sighed glancing at his watch tirelessly. "Every time, Anne, every single time. He's late."
"Give him a few minutes," she whispered to her husband. "Gemma, would you have any clue where your brother is?"
"I haven't seen him today," she said to her mother. "I saw him at dinner and that was that."
"That boy," the king exhausted pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Has anyone seen Em? She's not in her room?" a voice yelled down the hall. The voice sounded shaky from running. I raised my eyebrows raised in confusion at the yelling voice. I looked at the king and queen. Queen Anne had an amused look on her face while King Desmond just shook his head with a frown on his face.
"Where—Emerald," Harry stopped giving me a smile. He straightened out his clothes and fixed his hair.
"You were late looking for Ms. Price?" he asked with wide eyes. "A guard escorted her down about thirty minutes ago, Harry. Where is your brain?"
"Sorry, Dad," he mumbled looking at me with a flushed face. I smiled at him and straightened up as he came back over to me, his arm gently resting against mine. I looked up at him and he smiled down at me.
"You ready?" someone asked. King Desmond nodded offering his arm to his wife and stood up straight. Harry too bent his arm for me to take which I gladly took. I turned around and felt bad for his sister, she was all by herself.
"She's fine," Harry whispered to me. "We usually walk in ourselves."
"It doesn't seem fair to her," I murmured. "You have someone to walk in and she doesn't."
"She'll be getting married in the next few months, I think she's fine," he smiled to me. I nodded and brushed some hair out of my face and straightened my blue gown.
"Please rise," the guard announced. There was a loud shifting in the room as people rose from their seats to greet us. "Your Royal Majesty, King Desmond and Her Majesty, Queen Anne." He announced as King Desmond and Queen Anne walked into the throne room to their seats. The way it looked, it felt like a wedding procession.
"Nervous?" Harry smiled.
"Very," I said with a stifled laugh. "Am I supposed to be nervous?"
"Depends," he smiled. "We don't do anything but sit there," he grinned. The guard looked to us awaiting our nods.
"The crowned prince of Ula, Prince Harry and his companion, Ms. Emerald Price," the guard announced. I went wide eyes as I looked at the guard as we began walking forward.
As we walked down the center of the throne room, I noticed its grand thematic presence. The ceiling seemed to go on for miles, but in reality, it was only about the same height as the room itself. The walls were painted red and draped with red. Gold accents hung under the red drapes near the red thrones at the front of the room. There were two chairs seated next to one another on a podium of sorts. Directly to the left and right of the thrones were two chairs on one side and a single one on the opposite. On either side of Harry and me were rows upon rows of people throughout the kingdom. I glanced back up at the ceiling and thought it was almost dizzying. The amount of gold detail on the ceiling was remarkable. A large chandelier hung in the center with two smaller ones hanging off to the sides.
Harry and me reached our seats and stood in front of them as Princess Gemma was announced into the throne room. She had a bright smile on her face as she walked down the aisle to her own seat.
"Ready for two hours of boredom?" Harry asked leaning over to me.
"I don't know," I chuckled.
"Be prepared to want to sleep," he smiled. "I am always close to it."
"Well, I guess I'll be keeping you awake then," I laughed. "With my mindless chatter."
"I look forward to it," he grinned.
We were instructed to take a seat by his father. I crossed my legs and placed my hands on the arms of the chair and looked at all the people in the room. I was surprised at how many people were staring at me. A little girl off to the side was pointing at me and talking to her mother excitedly. I didn't think I was that exciting, really.
"How do you think I did this morning? For our lesson?" Harry whispered to me as a woman came up to the podium.
"You did good," I smiled to him.
"Really?"
"I'm not lying," I stated trying to sound convincing. "A,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z," I listed with a smiled on my face. Prince Harry's grin grew on his face and he bit his bottom lip.
"You learned the alphabet," he smiled to me. "How? Besides me of course."
"No need to be smug," I said waving a finger at him. "Trish helped me study them over."
Harry just smiled at me and sat back against his chair and crossed his leg over the other. I looked at the woman in front of the King and Queen and noticed she looked like she came from my area. I didn't recognize her, but the way her clothes were, it made me think she was a farmer's wife. Listening to her plea, she was trying to get money to send her only child, a son, off to school so he could better his life. I would give her the money in a heartbeat. Everyone's child deserves the world.
I was distracted because I felt Harry's fingers begin lightly tracing along the surface of my hand. I glanced down at our touching hands and he was drawing an outline to my hand mindlessly. His skin caressing mine felt weird. Not like a gross weird, but a weird like my stomach was in knots from just a simple touch of the skin. My heart rate was accelerating and my mouth had gone dry. I wanted nothing more than to touch him back, but refrained from doing so in front of the many people sat in front of me.
"You know," Harry whispered. "Most people would hold hands if the other person began tracing lines on their hand."
"I'm not most people," I replied coolly.
"No," he said. "You're not."
I smiled and looked at that little girl from earlier and saw her leaning on the bench in front of her watching me in awe. Her long black hair cascaded in messy ringlets down her back and expanded outward. Her brown eyes watched me as her hands rested underneath her chin. She reminded me of, well, me. She wanted to be a princess and I couldn't help but smile at her. I waved to her and her grin grew and waved back.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked me.
"Waving to a little girl," I smiled looking back at her. "She was looking at me."
"She wants to be you," he said pointedly. "Every girl does."
"I know," I nodded. "I'm lucky to be here."
The throne room session went on quite slowly, as H had promised, and I couldn't wait to eat dinner. My stomach was grumbling despite having been fed adequately these past few days. Harry gave me a hand to stand and I took it.
"Scuse me!" a voice said quietly coming up to us. "Hi Prince Harry and the very pretty lady," the little girl from earlier said. "Thank you for waving. Here," she said handing me a yellow daisy.
I dropped Harry's hand and dropped down to her level and took the flower from her and smelled it. It smelled heavenly, I've always loved yellow daisies.
"Thank you," I smiled to her. "What is your name?"
"Calliope," she smiled. "What is yours?"
"Emerald."
"That's pretty," she smiled. "Are you a princess?"
"No, I'm just lucky to be here," I smiled. "You should probably go back to your Mum, she must be frightened as to where you've wandered off to," I said.
"Em, we should be going to dinner," Harry reminded me. I nodded and gestured for him to give me a minute.
"She disappeared," she sighed.
"I'll help you find her quickly then," I said and outreached my arms and picked her up. Harry furrowed his brows in curiosity wondering what I was doing.
I walked out of the throne room into the entrance way where I saw a bunch of people talking. A woman with three children was talking frantically to a guard and was crying. I walked over to the woman and placed Calliope down on the ground.
"Excuse me," I interrupted. "Is this your daughter?" I asked the woman. She looked down and smiled widely and picked the young girl up.
"Thank you, Ms. Price," she gasped and gave me a hug. "Oh, I am sorry. I just thought I lost her."
"It's alright, I am not royalty or anything," I smiled. "Have a good day, Calliope, thank you for the daisy."
"Bye Emerald," she waved resting her head against her mother's shoulder. I felt fingers lace through mine. I looked up and saw Harry standing there with a grin.
"Come, before my father has an aneurysm," he whispered in my ear. I nodded and followed him. I picked up the excess fabric of my dress and followed him quietly still fully aware of our laced fingers. I didn't mind, but it made this feel more real. I also felt as if this was too fast, the whole going into a relationship thing.
"Harry, Ms. Price, where were you?" King Desmond asked taking a seat at his place.
"I'm sorry, father, Emerald was helping a child locate her mother," Harry explained. "She was frantic in the entrance."
Both the King and Queen smiled at his response and gave Harry a look. I don't know what this look meant, but it made me feel very nervous. I felt more aware that I was being scrutinized by my every action here. I was expected to screw up in front of people, but had I? I wasn't sure if I had or not. Was it a good or bad thing that I helped that girl?
"What is that you've got there, Emerald?" Queen Anne asked gesturing to my hand.
"The girl, Calliope, had given me a yellow daisy," I said with a smile. "It's beautiful."
"That was kind of her," Princess Gemma smiled. "Why doesn't anyone give me gifts?" she asked.
"Maybe because you're not new," Harry replied taking a sip of his dark wine. "Emerald is new here therefore she would garter more attention than plain old you."
"Mum," Gemma whined. "Harry's doing it again."
"Harry," Queen Anne scolded with a look. "Don't make me ground you."
"You can't ground me," he said with wide eyes and a blush creeping up on his face. "What about Emerald?"
"You would only be allowed to see her in lessons and the throne room," she said glancing at her husband for an approval.
"That would be sufficient if you were grounded."
"Dad!" he gasped. "You're not seriously considering grounding me, are you?" He asked looking between the two. "I am not being grounded for saying my sister is not new."
"One week," Queen Anne said taking a bite of her salad. "Don't push it to two, Harry."
"Tha-"
"Just listen to your mother and be quiet," I interjected before he made this worse for himself. Queen Anne smiled at me as she chewed her salad.
"She's a smart one, Harry," she smiled pointing her fork at me. "Maybe it would be wise to listen to her. Do your parents ground you?"
"No, we just get extra chores," I said. "Usually it involves a serious amount of physical labor. Mostly of my father's doing," I nodded. "I don't usually get grounded, so I haven't had that problem."
"No groundings?" she asked with a smile.
"No, I listen to my mother," I smiled.
"Brown noser," Harry mumbled taking a drink of his wine once again. I knocked my knee against his and gave him a look.
The food was absolutely marvelous, I think it was better than last night's even. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, and assorted vegetables. Harry was next to me brooding over his grounding. I felt bad for him, I mean he was twenty years old and was grounded for teasing his sister. Plus, me being here surely didn't help the matters.
"Dinner was fabulous, ladies," King Desmond smiled to the cooks as they collected our dishes. "I'll be going to my study, Anne."
"Alright, Emerald, a minute, please?" Queen Anne asked me motioning for me to come to her. I nodded and walked to her.
"Yes, your majesty?" I asked politely.
"Just so you know, Harry won't be grounded more than tonight," she laughed. "Don't tell him that. I just like to get a rile out of him. I'm sure he'll sneak out of his room some time tonight."
I let out a slight laugh and nodded to her. It amused me that she was teasing Harry. He seemed like someone who could be teased easily, someone who was easy to play jokes on. Clearly, he was not amused.
I left the dining room and my arm was grabbed and pulled to a body. When I opened my eyes, I came in contact with the familiar green eyes. Harry. He smiled to me sheepishly as I came to realization that he wasn't going to hurt me.
"Hey, I'm sorry about getting grounded," he said softly. "I didn't mean to do that to you. I didn't think my parents would really ground me when I'm twenty. I'm so sorry, Em."
"H, don't worry about it. I mean it, everyone gets in trouble. I'll most likely find something to do tonight. Trish won't have to rush for the ball gown tonight or anything. Read a book or something, I'll be fine. We can talk tomorrow morning," I smiled to him. He let out a loud breath of air that sounded as if he had been holding it in for a while.
"You are seriously amazing," he grinned to me as he shook his head. "Why are you so understanding? Most girls are emotional and cry and hit. Why not you?"
"I don't have anywhere to be?" I asked more of myself than him. "Seriously, there's plenty for me to do. Besides, I'm sure you'll think of a way to disobey your parents. You seem like the kind of person to do that," I smiled with a wink. "See ya later, H."
"Bye Em," he waved as I began walking back to my state room.
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was about six thirty when my ladies maids came wandering into my room with fabrics, needles, and sheets of paper. They all had smiles on their faces as they talked about the dress. They wanted to do a large traditional ball gown or something. They were speaking so fast I wasn't able to catch on.
"Emerald," Trish clapped. "You listening?"
"I honestly got lost," I said wide eyed. "I heard traditional ball gown and that was that."
"What colors do you want?" she asked me. "We have these ones right now, but there are thousands of other colors downstairs. We only grabbed these because they would look beautiful with your beautiful dark hair and bright blue eyes."
"I don't know, you've been making dresses longer than I've been alive, Trish. What do you think?" I asked her kindly. I trusted her judgment, I had no experience with dressing to match my looks.
"Girls, what do you think?" Trish asked her daughters. They gave her a shrug murmuring I would look good in whatever. "See, this is the hardest thing because we want you to stand out. This is the first time everyone will formally meet you. Yes, they met you today, but they didn't get to converse with you. We want something so extraordinarily beautiful that you will just pop."
I stood up from my chair and walked over to the fabrics looking them over. There were pinks, golds, greens, blues, yellows. I had no idea where to look first, the amount of colors was so dizzying I had to close my eyes and focus on them one at a time. I traced my fingers daintily over a turquoise colored fabric. It was so soft to the touch. It wasn't as soft as silk, but it was something I wanted to wrap myself in.
"Emerald?" Trish asked.
"This color," I said turning to her. "I want this color, please. Something about it—"
"Is unique," she smiled. "You're just like your mother, you are. That green dress you wore last night, she said the same thing." I smiled at her glad she understood where I was coming from. I glanced down at the fabric with a smile on my face.
"Mum, we've never used that fabric," Doniya said crossing her arms. "It's new."
"We'll figure it out," Trish said. "Emerald deserves to look like the princess she will be."
I blushed and looked down at the floor. I kicked the floor with my bare foot as they talked about the gown. I didn't really understand all this dress talk they were talking about so I kind of tuned out thinking about tomorrow. I was looking forward to the morning and talking with Harry. That is if I don't see him prior to the morning.
"Emerald, if you would come over here so we can measure you," Trish said beckoning me toward her. She twisted my hair and put a clip in it so they didn't have to fuss with my hair.
"How big are we doing the skirt, mum?"
"Princess big," Trish said rubbing my shoulders gently. "We want her to look like someone who stands a chance as our next queen. Not many of the other girls who come through these doors walk out having gone to a ball. By the looks of it, Emerald will be here for some time."
"I will?" I asked turning to her.
"You will," she smiled. "You don't treat Prince Harry like anyone but a person, he likes that. Allison, the last girl, she was awful. When we made her first gown, she demanded the cleavage be as tight as it could be so he breasts would stand out. There wasn't much we could do, she didn't have anything to flaunt." I let out a giggle at the end. "It's true!"
"I'm sorry, but why would anyone want to shove their breasts in a Prince's face? Even I know that is disrespectful whether or not it was in front of the royal family or not," I said shaking my head. "Modesty does people wonders, my mum told me that."
"And she learned that from me," Trish smiled. "Your mother taught you well. Now, I am guessing you want to cover the girls?" she asked.
"I would, yes," I confirmed.
Trish took hold of a tape measure and began measuring me in all areas. Some areas I was confused as to why she was measuring there, but I knew it would be helpful. I glanced up and saw the mirror in front of me. I almost didn't recognize myself from this morning even. My long ringlets were now washed out, dried, and my hair was wavy from being brushed out. My face didn't look as tired as it had last night.
"Emerald, you okay?" Trish asked. I looked down at her from the stood I was standing on.
"Yes, just lost in my own thoughts," I said quietly.
"You're beautiful, remember that," she said taking hold of my hand and patting it gently. "Just remember, if you don't win Prince Harry's heart, I'm sure you'll win my son's. I'll make sure you have him over any boy your father chooses."
"What is your son's name?" I asked sweetly. I was curious, if I were to not end up here, I might as well know my other suitor's name.
"Zayn," she grinned. "He's so handsome—"
"Here we go," Her daughters groaned as they continued going back and forth between measuring and writing numbers down.
"Shush," she snapped to the girls. "He's handsome as I said. He looks just like his father, but he has the most beautiful brown eyes. Oh, he's a painter as well. King Desmond and Queen Anne have bought a few of his pieces over the years. It helps bring in money especially around the holidays."
"As much as I love my brother, I would prefer not to talk about him while I'm working," Doniya snapped to her mother. "He's great, a little self absorbed, but I love him."
"Self absorbed? Your brother—"
"How many self-portraits has he painted?" She asked. Trish stayed silent. "I stand my point."
"Some people should be proud of their genetics, maybe he is proud of his," I shrugged. Trish smiled up at my gratefully and rubbed my back. "I'm sure your son isn't self absorbed."
"Thank you, Emerald," she smiled. "Girls, should we go work on the dress at home? Your brother and father are probably starving."
"Sounds good," they nodded standing up.
"Emerald, would you like some tea before I leave?" she asked. I nodded slowly. "Don't be embarrassed, sweetheart, it's my job to get what you need."
"Thanks, Trish."
I waited silently as she made my tea in another room. As I waited, I decided to sit out on the balcony for the evening. She brought it back to me, placing it on the table directly next to me, I thanked her once more.
I looked down at the new pajamas they had set out for me for the night. I was wearing red silky pajama bottoms. I never in my life had worn trousers so the experience was odd. Especially with the cloth rubbing against my silky smooth legs. It was a foreign experience right there.
I also had on a top with thin straps over my elbows. I was comfortable, more comfortable than I would be in a nightgown. I loved the nightgowns nonetheless, but I preferred this a little more. It made life easier to curl up in my chair and just stare out into the glow of the moon. The wicker sofa I was sitting on was comfortable and reminded me of home. The furniture there wasn't as glorious as the stuff inside of my room, but this, this was simple and it was home.
I heard a rustling from inside my room. I turned to see what was happening and saw someone in a red Gard's uniform walk into my room, remove their hat.
"H?" I whisper yelled.
"Yeah, shh," He scolded quietly. "I decided to sneak in while your guards were doing rounds. I have a schedule so I'll have to sneak out in a few hours. But hi, Em."