III:Trēs

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Within moments, the maids were there with Frederick smirking behind them. Looming like a statue, he moved aside, holding the giant door open for them. Lavinia was quickly swept up in the hustle, a maid grabbing her arm here, another tutting over the state of her hair there. Collectively, the group pushed her out, leading her through the royal hallways and into a grande bathroom.

It was gorgeous, with linings of gold, silver and pristine white. The bath tub was huge, almost big enough for two, Lavinia speculated. Some of the maids began to filter out, with a few tuts and sighs. Had she been anyone else, she would've felt humiliated. Even now she could feel the heat of embarrassment flare up on her cheeks.

She pushed all the thoughts aside, and focused on the smaller maid nervously trailing up to her with a bundle of clothes in her arms. The maid was jittery, eyes jostling to the few remaining maids every couple of seconds, as she stumbled up towards Lavinia.

The maid thrust the clothes into her arms, scattering away without a word, and through the large doors. Lavinia squinted at the weird display, clutching the clothes close to her chest. Her brown eyes scrunching as she looked at the only remaining maid.

She appeared stern, rigid in every movement she made. Her tightly bound hair was only just beginning to grey, a glorious shade of red made up the rest of it. The maid crossed her arms tightly, looking at Lavinia dismissively. "Get changed in the uniform, tidy yourself up and arrive back to the waiting room in under 15 minutes. You have a lot to do." She ordered, twirling around on her feet, and firmly shutting the bathroom door closed as she left.

Lavinia paused for a moment, disorientated. She'd had a vague idea of what being a personal maid to the Prince would entail, from the moment she looked at the notice board. But being judged by several different maids, and then shoved into one of the royal bathrooms was not one of them.

She looked down at the clothes, gently placing them on the white marble counter. Laying them out in order. The maids had given her a fairly long black skirt, a brown corset top with a white undershirt, and a golden broach. That was when she ran into her first problem of the day. How the hell was she supposed to put all these on.

It was a rather rugged attempt at best, but she managed to pull on the clothes, tying the corset roughly. It squeezed her lungs uncomfortably, as she poked the broach through it. It was a simple thing, just a golden circle with a small star inside. To show her status as a personal maid, nothing more, nothing less.

Within moments of putting it on, the maids from before burst through the doors, giggling about something said between them. Lavinia braced herself for the oncoming comments. No one said a thing about how she looked but she could hear the scathing comments through their sneers. 

A rush of movement, and the girls were upon her, typing up her corset again and brushing out the mess of her hair. Some of them were fairly pleasant, gently going through the motions of helping her dress. Others however, were more violent, tugging her this way and that.

Clearly, she was going to have problems.

---

What felt like hours, was only minutes, and soon enough Lavinia was standing outside a black ornate door. No one had bothered to come with her, only a few maids showing her the way and quickly vacating. Like inside the Prince's office was a lion waiting at bay to devour her, the minute she opened the door.

Lavinia shrugged her shoulders. He probably wasn't half bad, if you got to know him. With a steely determination, she bashed on the door. Once, twice and a third time. There was no answer.

She ground down her teeth in frustration, knocking on the door even louder and faster than before. She knew he was in there, Frederick had told her so. According to the Head of Staff, it was about the only place in the castle he used.

If she listened closely, she could hear the shuffling of someone in there. Obviously, he was going to ignore her existence. But if he thought she was just going to give up, he had another thing coming, she thought as she picked up the pace of her knocking.

Finally the door slammed wide open, almost knocking her off balance, as she took a quick step back.

The first thing she noticed were his eyes. They were a freezing crystal blue, so pale in the right lighting it could almost be confused with the white surrounding his irises. She was quickly snapped out of her reverie by his stoic, deep voice.

"What is it that you want?" Delvin demanded, clearly annoyed with her already. The Prince, because of course this was the Prince, lent an arm against the doorway, towering over her with a glare. He was dressed in the usual royal uniform, golden shoulder pads with tassels, white tailored jacket. With stars as his cuffs.

He exuded royalty. Royalty and power.

Delvin Vespertine was gorgeous, and that was a fact Lavinia learned quickly. She put on her best grin, and nodded at him. "Hello, my name is Lavinia Armertris, I'll be your personal maid from now on-"

She interrupted by her ramblings, as he turned on his feet, slamming the door shut again. All pleasant thoughts of him vanished, and she angrily bashed on the door again. Violently, Delvin opened the door again, but this time Lavinia was prepared.

"Leave." He ordered, running his hands through his unruly snowy white hair. Within moments he was ready to close the door shut on her again, but Lavinia forced her way through. Blocking the door with her own body, she crossed her arms tightly. 

"Can I help you?" Lavinia gritted through her teeth. She wasn't going to let this petulant Prince stop her from doing the one thing that was going to give her money. Delvin rolled his eyes, making his way back into the office with a huff.

"No. Leave," He reiterated darkly. If he thought that was going to stop her, then he was sorely, sorely wrong. Lavinia smirked, Delvin Vespertine was clearly intent on being her second problem of the day. He didn't know who she was though, and god, she could tell she was going to have fun showing him. Lavinia wouldn't be swayed by his good looks.

No, Lavinia was going to do her job, whether he liked it or not. Prince Delvin Vespertine, had no idea of the storm that was about to hit him. 

----

Delvin was the master of the magic tower and he was going to murder his parents. Not the most typical of things to admit, but there it was. It had been ingrained into his mind for so long that admitting it almost felt normal. The anger, indignation and betrayal festered in his heart since he turned eight.

Being the Crown Prince had just made that feeling ten times worse. The expectations shouldered onto him at such a young from snotty nosed nobles, that pushed their daughters onto him for marriage. They longed to get him on strings, so they could puppet him for their own delusions. But he knew, he knew everything. That naturally came with being one of the most talented kids of his age.

Duke Kylan of house Grendaline was molesting his youngest daughter, grooming her at such a young age in an attempt to control her and push her closer to the Queen. This was just one of the many friends and enablers of his mother.

Duchess Maylein of house Ivantos, had stolen and embezzled money from one of the many churches across Vespertine that gave out food to the needy. She aided his mother in offshore and inshore tax evasion.

There were many on his hit list. He kept a tally in his room. So far he had only gotten ride of a handful. But his main target was his mother. He could never forget the wounds she'd left on his body. A woman like that had no place ruling his country. If he waited for her to die, so he could step up as King. Well, that simply wouldn't happen. Oh, she'd die, but she'd find another person to take his place well before he even had a chance to become King.

So he had to act fast. Fast but subtle. His reputation as Prince was already shit. If it became any worse, the moment he'd turned King he'd be executed by the public. He needed their opinion and favour if he wanted to rule.

Yet, Delvin had spent far too much time swamped up with minor diversions. He had his goal. But here he was, firing yet another maid his mother had directly sent to spy him. How annoying.

He only hoped that this new one wouldn't be as boring. 

Author Note: 

Hey ya'll, how are you doing? Hope you're doing good and you liked this chapter! 

Lots of love, 

Sam.E 

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