Dancing with Deception

Dancing with Deception (16 Part I)

Chapter 16 – Part I

For the next two days my mother dogged my every step, hounding me in her shrill voice until all my senses were drowned out by her high pitched reproach grating against my nerves every time she opened her mouth.

I began to feel like a shadow roaming the halls of a castle, silently flitting about with my eyes downcast. With my mother keeping me in her sights like a dog on a short leash, I had no choice but to avoid everyone and anyone I came across.

It pained me enough that Ella had been subjected to her hateful condescension, I couldn’t bear to hear her pass judgment on anyone else I cared about, to watch her douse the fire in their eyes with her words.

And at the top of the list of people to avoid was Prince Nicholas.

I knew with absolute certainty that any suggestion of favor he showed towards me would root my mother here like a stubborn weed. If she knew the extent of our friendship she would become even more relentless, and so I turned tail and fled at the merest hint of his presence.

It was a sad thing, stealing through the halls like a common thief in the place that felt like the closest thing to home, but better that then what I feared the most, that the castle residents would look at me, and see her.

Despite having grown up with only a few acquaintances for company, I’d never felt so lonely as I did in those two days, cowering away from friends and enemies alike.

My mother spent every moment trying to persuade me to stay, not understanding her efforts were all in vain; she couldn’t see that her very presence was the most convincing reason to go.

By the time the evening before the tour arrived, the company of Prince Alexander seemed like nothing more then a minor inconvenience compared to that of Lady Petunia.

As the time to persuade me ran out and it became obvious her threats were ineffective, my mother went so far as to approach the Queen, no doubt to thoughtfully point out how unsuitable a choice I was for the tour.

I left her to her machinations, hiding away in my room as had become the norm of the last two days. It was as I gathered my things together for the next morning that a castle attendant arrived at my door.

The Queen had summoned me to her private chambers.

My mother’s face was filled with gloating smugness as I passed her in the hall, trailing behind the castle attendant who’d delivered the summons, and while I didn’t believe the Queen would retract my invitation, I was filled with dread all the same.

The irony of the situation didn’t escape me. The last time I’d walked this path I’d been determined to get out of going on tour, yet with the mere arrival of my mother at the castle I was prepared to beg for the opportunity to go.

Funny how quickly things could change, I thought with no real amusement.