"Your Majesty," said Sir Gradral. "It's a letter from Clatoise."
The Emperor briskly wiped his palms with a napkin and grabbed the letter from his hands, peering at it. "What do those rascals want now?"
All the women and I watched as the Emperor tore open the envelope, grunting as he read through the contents. "Damn it, Irvin," he muttered under his breath.
"Is something the matter, Your Majesty?" Elora asked, concerned.
The Emperor looked at his mistress's distressed expression and smiled to ease her worry. "Rest assured, darling, it's nothing to bother about." But we could all see how the Emperor's eyebrows had furrowed as he had gone over the letter.
I shifted in my seat as I whispered to Christabel, "Is my father on bad terms with this 'Irvin' he speaks of?" My conclusion was that Irvin was a very important person to have riled up the Emperor like that.
Christabel shrugged. "I'm not really sure. The Emperor never really talks about diplomatic relations with the rest of us. He usually keeps it to himself," she sighed. "Though if my memory serves right, I do believe that he once mentioned an argument with King Irvin of Clatoise."
"What did they quarrel about?" I was indeed very curious.
"Not sure… Probably about some trade agreement or something."
I noticed that Christabel didn't enjoy talking about state affairs, so I took the hint and stopped prodding at it. It seemed that the other mistresses were quite worried as well and had put their cutlery down. I, myself, didn't find my own plate appetizing as well.
"Then, Your Majesty, we'll take our leave," Yesenia spoke amidst the tense silence. "I have good reason to believe that you may have some business to attend to, so we shouldn't keep you waiting. Come on, girls," Yesenia gestured to the other mistresses to stand up. The guards who had been lining the walls of the dining room moved forward to gently pull back the chairs on which we were seated on.
I felt as my chair scraped back from the table which provided me with a lot of space to get up. Everyone stood up and curtseyed to the Emperor who was busy discussing something with Sir Gradral and just waved for everyone to leave him alone. I followed the mistresses as they shuffled out of the dining room. The door shut behind us and for a moment, we all stood silently in the palace hall.
"Well, that didn't last long," Lorelei said. "What do you think the letter conveyed?"
"I'm curious as well," a woman who wore a gold-rimmed monocle said. "His Majesty seemed quite perturbed."
"Oh, Odette," Elora said in her high pitched, nasally voice. "Be a dear and shut up, will you? The Emperor said not to bother, so we all should take his advice and leave the matter alone. After all, he is capable enough to take care of it himself."
"In this case, I'll have to agree with Elora," Yesenia said. "It's not our place to mind about such matters. We should be content enough by serving the Emperor."
"Save your words, Yesenia," Christabel glared. "If you think we're all happy enough by serving the Emperor every day for the rest of our lives, then I'd advise that you speak for yourself."
"How dare you speak to me like that?" Yesenia turned red.
"Hey, hey, hey," Lorelei broke up the hostile atmosphere. "Let's all just be on our ways. Christa, you're with me." She tried to laugh it off while pulling Christabel to the end of the hall, away from the others. I, too, had nothing to do except for attending another lesson which was due any minute now, so I followed Christabel and Lorelei as well.
"Christa, what gives?" Lorelei asked, agitated. "What if Yesenia reports your words to the Emperor?"
"She won't."
Lorelei looked at Christabel worriedly and muttered something under her breath. Then shifted her attention to me. "Your Highness, what is the matter? Did you perhaps forget something?"
"Nothing, really." I played with the ruffles on my dress. "I was wondering if any one of you could keep me company? I have some paltry tasks today so maybe if you..."
Lorelei and Christabel exchanged meaningful glances and Lorelei turned to me to say, "I apologize Princess, but there is something we've got to get done at the moment. Another time, maybe?"
Christa gave me a sympathetic smile and waved me goodbye as she and Lorelei disappeared further into the palace.
Great. I was left standing alone amidst the large palace hall. Now I had nothing to do but attend Sir Andre's class. But I could also just go and hide somewhere till noon, maybe Martha won't come to find me and perhaps I won't have to attend the dreadful lesson.
I ambled along the walls of the palace hall, stopping briefly to inspect the hung paintings and portraits on the wall. It was weird. I've been here for three days and not even once when I roamed the palace did I spot any pictures of the Empress. It made me wonder what really happened to her and did the Emperor possess no more affection for his dead wife? Is that why he kept so many mistresses around?
It was all very strange.
"Your Highness, what are you still doing here?"
Oh, it was Sir Gradral again.
"Don't you have your lessons at this time of the day?"
"Wait, how do you know?" I asked, shocked.
He chuckled. "Miss Martha informed me. She said I should see over you after breakfast to make sure that you do indeed attend your lessons because you have a tendency to 'sneak out'."
I gave him an awful stare.
"Her words, not mine." He smiled ever so slightly. "Come on, Sir Andre must be worried sick."
I pouted as I was reluctantly led away by Sir Gradral into the torture room. "Ah, one more thing," Sir Gradral said. "I've commanded the guards to keep a special eye on this door, in case you decide to 'sneak out' again. Alright, see you later, Your Highness!" Even though Sir Gradral bowed very low, I could still tell that he was trying very hard to stifle a laugh. What a ruthless guy.
✿
"Like a swan, Princess! LIKE A SWAN, FOR GOODNESS' SAKE!" Sir Andre cried as he demonstrated the dance while I tried to follow it. "Oh Lord, someone fetch me a glass of water. It feels as if I'm about to faint."
I fell on the floor. Yep, dancing definitely wasn't for me. "Sir Andre, believe me, I'm trying my best," I wheezed.
"It isn't good enough, Your Highness," he sighed dramatically. "You've got less than two weeks to improve yourself. All I can do is teach you, not make you do it. You have to put in much more effort if you don't want to embarrass yourself on the big day. And there's no way you can decline the dance too, as it's Wisterian tradition to perform it."
Two weeks. Now that I think about it, that isn't a lot of time. It's impossible for me to acquire acceptable skills in such an art in such a short period of time. What if I can't do it? What if I really do demean myself in front of such high-class nobles. I felt tears gather in my eyes. I hid my face behind my hair, trying not to show my weak side to anyone else.
"Sir Andre," Emery spoke up. "I think the princess deserves a break. She's worked really hard today after all."
I peeked at Sir Andre and noticed that he was about to tell her off for speaking up, but then he shut his mouth and looked at me as if really considering her words. "Oh, alright," he sighed. "But I need you to promise me to give it your best shot at tomorrow's lesson. I want to see a major improvement from you, Your Highness." Then, Sir Andre moved closer to me so that he could tell me privately, "I know you have so much more potential."
Dazed, I was led outside by Emery as it was obvious that my legs had gone all weak.
Emery shut the door. "Princess," she said when we were outside, "do you want me to help you?"
I squinted, not quite getting the meaning of her words. "Help me?"
Emery twirled, and when I say she twirled exactly like a swan, I mean it. She gave the most graceful twirl I had ever seen and it certainly did leave me stunned.
"I," she smiled, "can help you master the dance before the ceremony commences."