Delicate Oath

Two | The Dress

Odette Sinclair

My birthday was coming in a matter of a few weeks, maybe even less than that but I have never had to answer so many questions in my life. In all of my soon to be 19 years of living, this year I have felt so interrogated. When a princess turns a certain age, the Queen and Princess take care of everything but with the past few years, I'm left to do it all with the help of Emily.

"For your birthday, what color scheme are you thinking of?" She asks, laying out a few books filled with swatch colors. Corals, grays, lights, darks; any color of the rainbow and some more are shoved into that tiny book.

Looking at my choices, I pick up a section of a book full of creams, golds, and rose golds. Most I've seen in balls with other royals, others I've had the pleasure to see all the time, at each party, one in particular catches my eye, a beautiful yet soft rustic copper. I've never seen this color used anywhere. No ball, coronation or gathering held the neutral colors, everything being the same- so boring. But this? Now this is something new.

"How about this Em? You think it would be exciting against the others we've seen?" I giggle. Most balls I go to with Emily, I sneak her in. Letting them call her 'Lady Burberry.' To us it is extremely funny but to my father, he's not the greatest fan.

She takes the book out of my hands and inspects the color I chose. "I agree. It's not everyday you see a ball with those colors. We will get right to it." She smiles and writes it down.

"Now, for drinks?" Now we both look at the chart in front of us. Giving us a few lines, giving us a max of 6 different drinks.

"Definitely champagne and whisky for the men. For the rest of the lines, I really can't think of anything in particular that the guests may like. Should we put juice on there for the kids?" Emily chuckles at my sudden small outburst of trying to decide on drinks.

"You do try to set it equal Princess, but think of things that you want and give them an option or two" Emily chuckles.

"Someone has to. A princess needs to keep her guests happy" She nods agreeing with me.

"But a princess also needs to make sure she is happy too" She whispers. A smirk lays on her face as she starts to walk down the hall. I let out a small chuckle but by the sound of it, I'm not sure if it's fake or real.

"A princess doesn't matter this time Em. I'm getting married to a man I don't know, nor is he my mate. What kind of happiness is that willing to give me?" I lay my hands in front of me as we walk.

"Wait, what? You're getting married? Since when did this take place?" As long as I've known her, I've never heard any irritation in her voice. I don't even need to look into her face to know the look of annoyance is there either. It practically radiates off of her.

"Since a couple days ago. Father told me that he went to Zuthya for business. I thought it was for normal trading business so we started talking about it but when I pressed further into it, well, it turned into finding out I was getting married." We walk into the ballroom and she stops, making me turn to look at her.

"Who are you getting married to?"

"You know Emily." I give her the eye look. I love her but if she really can't figure it out by my eyes then she might need to learn to read them.

"You're getting married to HIM? That thing? That CREATURE?! Odette, is your father crazy?" She smacks her hand against her head, "That man needs to pick out better men, or even better, wait for your mate to find you."

"That's what I told him! He didn't listen and told me that this is what a princess must do. That my mate doesn't exist for me nor does happiness quite frankly." I roll my eyes at the last part before sitting on the steps of the stairs.