Elizabella's family, while holding a yearly family event, were murdered by a bomb detonation in one of their getaway homes. After much investigation, the perpetrators were found to be long time friends of the family. The possible motive was jealousy and greed over rumors of her marrying the next King of Edalelia. The two Princes confess that they like her, she turns them down while telling them she was already dating someone they have not met before.
Knowing that they lost to someone who was not a Prince, they leave her home and get drunk with their pride hurt. After getting drunk, they find their way back to her home, where they are quickly led in so no one outside could see their state. They were then led to a room to sleep it off possibly, but are still not tired at this point.
Elizabella, wondering if she should see them after their awkward conversation, decides to be a good hostess at least and see how they are doing. She tells the servants to call the palace and inform them of their state while trying to sleep it off. They then begin to question her and her taste for this other guy. One Prince visibly looks drunk while the other appears sober.
In the end, frustrated with their conversation, she tells them that at least he never forced her on anything, implying that they wished to force a relationship with her when she only saw them as her older brothers. Her words make them snap and tell her that they will show them what being forceful meant.
They grab her by the arm and force her on the bed, where she threatens to scream for help. They do not seem to care and continue to rip her clothes while she screams, and the servants come in to take them off her, where she is then led to her own room to question if there is truly anybody that she could trust on her side. She feels this way mostly because who she once thought were her friends turned out that they were only close due to greed. On with the story!
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After some time passed with Elizabella trying to calm down, she eventually felt well enough to get ready for bed. Her maids came in and helped her get dressed for bed. Back at home, she was used to being a doll while everyone fussed over her. When she moved in with her aunt and her family, she wanted to appear more like them, so she had her maids not help her doing menial things.
Now it felt like she was back at her father's home with how much the servants and maids hover over her every move. Before, when she was trying to calm down, Walliams had prohibited anyone from coming in by telling the maids that she was resting a bit while she digested her food.
She had eaten quite a bit before dinner and then again with the family. The servants all knew this, so they let it go. Upon entering her room to help her get ready, they noticed that she looked like she was not feeling well but attributed it to her being tired after her marriage.
They quickly got her curls in a braid after having her washed and her face. Her glasses were off during this time, so her new palace maids could see her eyes for the first time. They were a little stunned to see that her face was more delicate than they had originally thought, making them stare and blush a little.
Normally, her glasses cover half of her face and had a film over them that made them appear thick. Now everyone in the kingdom believes that she suffers from light sensitivity, so she wears her glasses all the time. When she had them off, it was as if her sense of presence was amplified, even if she just stood there.
The new maids thought that it was a pity that not many people were able to see her true face. They also wondered how she could eat so much when she was petite. At this moment, when she was dressed in her nightgown with a tired demeanor, she looked very fragile. Who would believe that she had a bottomless pit for a stomach?
Once they finished, they let her go to bed by herself. Walliams had waited for them to leave in her living room and made sure that they left after he closed the door. He has a room inside her apartment that was normally used for a servant.
Historically, a Princess would have her most trusted maid in this room. Elizabella was given this exception when they found out that Walliams was already a Shadow Guard. It is always a better option to have your Shadow Guard near their master at all times. Her other servants and guards would rest with the other palace staff. She did have two other maids from her father's house trained to be better palace maids.
Sleep was difficult for her on this night as she had already slept part of the day, and she was still a little restless over her conversation with the King. Life was beginning to look even more complicated at each passing day living in the palace. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.
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The King and Queen slept better than they had in years. It was all because the King was cured. Even the results of all the tests he took were still not that optimistic about living a long and healthy life. It seemed that his illness had left a graver impact on his body than they had expected.
After years of sickness, the King's body had taken its toll. Even if he was now well, they felt that his body would not last longer than ten years. This news made them feel appreciated that they even had more time.
Earlier that morning, the news of his imminent death was still lingering in their thoughts. Now the news changed that he would live ten more years. Who would not be happy and sleep well?
The next issue would be to make sure that the Crown Prince grew up to be a good King. If they had just ten years to train him further properly, then that is how long the King thought he would need to pass him all of his knowledge.
The Crown Prince was even married, so they did not have to worry over this. The only thing was that the King was beginning to be a little suspicious over how they became engaged. At this point, he realized that even if foul play had happened back in the past, the young couple would have had nothing to do with the plot.
Especially since originally, his son was not supposed to be the next King if everything had gone according to plan. After the King's older brother's death, Prince Zander was not given the privilege of being the next Crown Prince. If he had lived, Prince Zander would be the one marrying the late Baron's granddaughter.
Life is never as expected.
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The next day, Elizabella had received word that a charity event would be under her name and the Crown Prince. This charity event had been planned since before they married. It would be the first formal event that they would be attending together as a married couple.
After their first week of marriage, the event would happen, just that they had to plan ahead of time. As one of the hosts, she had to make sure that she knew who the guests would be and what exactly they would be talking about.
The charity would be partnering up with a research hospital that studied mental health. They had to invite experts to give short ten-minute presentations on certain illnesses and how they would benefit from extra funding. Because it would attract more awareness to the topic and help increase funding, they had decided to have it be a live broadcast.
They had to make sure who they would invite to help them promote their cause. News of the event had already been leaked online, and people were already starting to get excited over the topic. They wondered who would show to the event and leave their comments and thoughts on the homepage that had posted the news.
After seeing all the online traffic, Elizabella thought it would be a better idea to have a site dedicated to the event. That way, they could also showcase other researchers who would not attend due to time restraints. She immediately got started on it by having Walliams set up the site and had someone contact the hospital for all of their researchers to write up an article that they could show on the webpage.
This did not need much of her time, so she continued with what else she could do to make the event better. The palace had helped her with all the guests as she still did not know many people in the upper circles. Looking over the list of the invites, she noticed a name that made her stare.
Earl Miles and his family.
"Is this not Margarette's family?" thought Elizabella as she remembered that her last name was Miles. "It makes sense that they would be invited to the gathering. If she comes, I hope that guy does not make a fool of himself. This will be broadcast live. I should make sure to keep an eye on him."
Elizabella started to think that maybe she would be getting a headache when the event started as she was sure that the Crown Prince would take this opportunity to meet his girlfriend. She really hoped that he would not get caught in front of the audience. She sighed once before looking over the list and trying to memorize the list of invited families.
The Crown Prince had also been privy to the list of invites. He stared for half a day when he saw that the Miles family would be attending. He had anticipated her coming but was still stunned to see her family's name on the list. He had never responded to her last text and wondered if he really should answer or wait and see what happens on that night. He was certain that he would need to confront her about his feelings if he did not respond.
The Crown Prince had never told her about his plans on marrying Lady Aphra, so he did not know if he even had the right to ask her to wait for him until they turned twenty-one. This was starting to become more complicated than he had anticipated in the beginning.
He started to wonder if it was even possible to meet her at the charity event when many reporters and camera operators were everywhere. He sighed, wondering what he should do as he laid back in his chair and looked up at the chandelier. As a Crown Prince, he had many responsibilities that he needed to abide by. Making sure that his marriage did not fail was one of them. Or at least not getting caught.