**THE PRINCESS SERIES is part of the GOLDEN UNIVERSE, and considered a sequel to THE GOLDEN QUEEN/A BRAZEN LOVE**
♦YOU MUST HAVE READ THE GOLDEN UNIVERSE NOVELS AND THE BRAZEN NOVELS TO READ THIS SERIES!♦
Cordelia, the Princess of Totresia, has alw...
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♪ Baby, wake the fuck up, time for you to grow up Don't you know that life is rarely ever fair? ♪ {Clairo—I wouldn't ask you} EXPLICIT warning—for the song
By the time Cordelia made it to her bed that night, she'd imbibed so much champagne and red wine that her belly filled with uncomfortable bubbles and her mind drowned in fountains of scarlet liquid.
The Presentation was no party for her; no, she wasn't drinking for pleasure, for toasts, for anything positive. She'd removed herself from the festivities the moment Antoine spoke for her, and had no intention of mingling with her contenders. Instead, she snuck her drinks out onto the patio, and her ladies-in-waiting took turns guarding the doors to ensure no one—in particular Antoine, Marguerite, or anyone from the royal family—would come fetch her to make a spectacle of herself inside. A handful of debutantes had wandered out and given her the stink eye, but in her worsening inebriation, she rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose at them.
And when Clarisse woke her the following day, she groaned, slapping a hand to her heated, sweat-covered forehead. "What... time is it?" She tried to open her eyes to peer at her clock, but she realized she was lying on her stomach, one leg hanging from the mattress, a slither of drool dribbling from her mouth.
"Time for you to rise, Highness." Clarisse, unused to seeing the Princess in such a state—Cordelia was never out of sorts, not even in private—pulled down the covers to allow some air to skid up Cordelia's sore legs. "And to prepare for the long day ahead of you."
"Long day?" The Princess wiped her face and cringed as she heaved up, with immense difficulty, into a seated position. She had her sights on the clock across the room, but her eyesight was too blurry to read the time. "Why?"
Clarisse lifted from the mattress, causing Cordelia to nearly fall sideways, off the bed. "I wanted to let you sleep. But Marigold..." She proceeded towards the vanity and gestured at a stack of papers that Cordelia hadn't remembered seeing last night.
Not that I could see anything when I stumbled in.
"Marigold?"
Queen Marguerite's chief lady-in-waiting was, to put it mildly, bossy. She not only served the monarch's wife but also oversaw all other ladies-in-waiting, and had the right—according to Marguerite—to issue them commands.
Cordelia rubbed her eyes and, upon seeing the clock—ten?—she sat up straight, ignoring the dizziness overcoming her. "Let me sleep? It is ten o'clock, Clarisse! You let me sleep several hours too many!"
Though Clarisse had turned her back to gather up the documents from the vanity, Cordelia could tell from her hunch of the shoulders that she'd made a face. "Oh, I tried to wake you, Highness." She spun around, her lips in a half-smirk. Meaning she was amused, but aware that if she showed that amusement too much, Cordelia would be furious. "You moaned at me and bared your teeth. And I could have sworn you wished to claw my eyes out, even with your eyes closed."
