C'est La Vie

Chapter 21: A dark and Gloomy Palace

Esme:

"Good morning Esme!" Imogen said whispering in my ear, "Huhhh.." I said drowsily, she pulled me upwards and then shook my arms to wake me up, "Imogen I'm awake you don't need to do your rituals.." I said jokingly, "Also why are you up so early?" "The sky's awake so i'm awake." she said simply. "Ok then.." Imgen then went over to Elisabeth's bed to tell her good morning. She was wearing a dark blue gown that had pretty golden patterns and her hair was in a half-up style.I decided to get up and then put on my beautiful black gown with gloves that I had worn at the ball in Duke Francis's castle. Then I put on my sapphire necklace and golden hoops. I turned around to see Elisabeth getting ready, she had a white gown on and some pearl jewellery, I did a spray of Jasmine Perfume and then I was done. Since Julian wasn't so bad I didn't take anything from him but I did grab a messenger bag that was leather, it had been hanging on the doorknob ever since it got here so I grabbed it. I decided to leave my curls down and then Elisabeth got up from the chair and looked to see if Genevive was in her bed,"I guess she's having a good time doing the Devil's Tango." I said awkwardly, noting her absence. "Yeahhhh-" Elisabeth said embarrassed"What do you mean?" Imogen said curiously. "Nothing!" Elisabeth said walking towards the door. "Let's go!" I put on heels and then grabbed my bag. We waltzed out the door happily. "You know this is the first drama-free encounter at a king's palace we have had." I said brightly. Once we reached the carriage, Imgoen and I stayed on one side so that Elisabeth would have room to sleep. Soon she dozed off and Imgoen and I talked about or lives for about an hour or so. But then suddenly the entire carriage lurched sideways and then my head hit the top of the carriage. "Sorry! We hit a rock!" I heard the driver yell from outside of the carriage. "Oh." SYlvia said waking up. "Looks like someone's up." I laughed, "Yep."Elisabeth said getting up. She looked out the windows to the glistening lakes and meadows, "How long of the trip do we have?' Elisabeth asked Imogen. "Four hours." Imogen sighed. "I'd ought to go to sleep again." Elisabeth said lying back down. "Elisabeth I don't know how you do it." I said looking at her funny "Me neither." Elisabeth said giggling. Soon our scenery changed to the farms overrun by cows, goats and sheep as we passed the carriage began to smell like manure and old grass "Ewww '' Imogen noted, her face contorted with disgust. "This is why I'm glad my family doesn't own farms." Elisabeth said, fanning her hand in front of her face. We then talked about King Viktor and all of his characteristics.

After an hour of talking I leaned back against the cushion and fell asleep to the sound of Elisabeth and Imogen talking.

"Esme.."Elisabeth said quietly in my ear, "uhh.." I said groggily. "Come on we are 30 minutes away from Viktor's palace.." Elisabeth said tapping my head. I scowled and then got up. I helloooooooo quickly brushed my messy hair then re-tightened my corset. My dress wasn't the most scandalous but it was quite showy and elegant, which was why I like it. I put my hair up in a braid, which I then twisted into a bun. After I put on some pretty rings- leaving my ring fingers bare. Finally I did a spray of Jasmine perfume and then put on my black heels. "All ready to go!" I said feeling more awake. Elisabeth grinned, she took out her pony-tail and brushed her blond hair. Imgen just put on some lace gloves and dotted on some lipstick. "Eee! A real challenge!" Imogen said excitedly, "Woah-slow down!" I said laughing. Suddenly our carriage stopped and I gasped, King Viktor's palace was huge. And quite intimidating. It was made of iron and had dark greys, reds, and blacks. We stepped out of the carriage and then since I knew King Viktor was going to be hard to fool, I quickly jammed my arm on the steel part of the gate and gasped loudly as it cut my arm leaving a trickle of blook down my arm and onto my black gown. Elisabeth looked at me with her mouth agape, "You-you." she said pointing to my arm, "It's fine- he's hard to trick." I said letting the blod continue running down my arm for a more dramatic affect. "And-use your french names, but you don't have to act overly french." I said continuing, Elisabeth nodded and then knocked on the gate. Suddenly the door opened and then a boy about Imogen's age appeared, "Greetings, name and reason please." He said stonily. I winced, was everybody in the kingdom like this? "Lady Louise-Louisa Alaire." I said quickly bursting into a curtsy, "Lady Effie Clement" Elisabeth said quickly, "You?" the boy said laying his gaze onto Imogen "Lady Belle Dupont." Imogen finished, "What is the reason for this unplanned visit?" The boy said looking at us icily, "Our carrriage crashed." Elisabeth sputtered, "And we have some minor injuries!" I added showing him the cut that ran down my arm that was still bleeding. The boy nodded then said, "I will alert the king of your presence. Please remain where you are." then he proceeded to slam the door in our face. "Ugh! Rude!" Imogen scoffed, "Did you see that boy? He was like stone!" Elisabeth exclaimed, "I'm scared-no child should be that cold!" I continued. We talked for about another 15 minutes until the metal gates creaked open again. There was a man with a silver crown upon his head. He had jet black hair and eyes so dark-blue I thought they were black, and he was pale. Sickly pale. He was tall and muscular and made me feel like and ant compared to him, "Greetings." he said cooly. "I'm sorry to interrupt your evening but our carriage crashed, and-and we were wondering if we could stay in your.." I looked around "Your splendid castle until our carriage is fixed?" I said hopefully, "No." he said curtly. "Huh-wha-what?!" Imgen spluttered. Nobody had ever said no before! "You heard me the first time. Since you three must be from noble french families, you must have brough some money with you. Enough to at least like in a home for a little." he smirked, "But sir-" Elisabeth protested, "I will be kind and let your over to the castle for occansional tea times and parties-but do not mistake my castle for your home." Then he slammed the iron door back in our faces again, "The nerve of that asshat!" Imogen bellowed. "Whatever, lets try to see if we have money to possibly rent out a small room at a boardinghouse." I sighed, we went back into the carriage and then I laughed, "Oh-why I forgot I had Duke Rolan's stuff!" I said happily, "And I have the pearls Francis gave me and the broken chain of gold!" Elisabeth said happy that she had accidentally kept something, "Ooh-what did you take from Duke Rolan?" Imogen said peering closer to the bag, "A golden vase-probably worth 1,500 pounds!" Then she looked over Elisabeth's broken betrothal necklace, "Hmmm-probably worth 6,000 pounds." Elisabeth thought for a second, "We need to ration this money for food, transportation, clothing, shelter, and running water." she exclaimed, "So the most we can stay is 2 months until we run out of money." I nodded. We changed our heels into boots and then grabbed our bags. We decided to walk into the nearest village on foot, after all, it wasn't that far and the weather was ideal. Once we reached the village we decided to go sell the golden vase so we could pay the rent for our room in a boarding house and get some much-needed food. We walked up to the shop that sold and bought gold, "Hello, ladies." The man said as we walked up to the shop. I dug into my bag then grabbed the golden vase and then plopped it onto the counter. His eyes widened greedily as he saw the shiny gold, "We would like to sell this." I said smiling, "Hmm. I'll be generous and take it for 500 pounds." he said, placing a bag of coins on the counter, "No-higher." Elisabeth said, "I'm being kind, take it or leave it." The man said rudely, Imogen stepped up to the counter, she flipped her curls, "Pardon me sir but this vase was worth 4,000 pounds, so we are the ones being kind- the lowest we will go is 1,500 pounds." she said curtly, "No- how do you know that it's worth what you say?" the man leaned closer- I could smell the stench of his clothes. Rotten eggs. "Hm- lets see how much are you selling this silver vase-1,000 pounds. Gold is much more rare and beautiful." She looked into his collection of vases, "So this vase would actually be worth much more, now be grateful and buy it for 2,000 pounds or else we can find our business elsewhere." She then slammed the vase down on the counter. The man was quite taken aback but then placed another bag of coins on the counter, "1,000." the man. Imogen rolled her eyes then grabbed both the bag of 500 pounds and the bag 1,000 pounds. They saw her and he tried to chase after Imogen but she was too quick for his fat ass and we ran away laughing until our stomachs hurt. "That-was hilarious!" Imgen said, jingling her coins, "Here, you take a bag and you take a bag and i'll hold my coins in the pocket." she handed me a pouch full of coins, "Also be careful for pickpockets so hold the bag in your hands firmly." Elisabeth said. We nodded and then walked off together in search of food. We reached a bakery that was beautifully decorated and we looked through the fresh pastries, "I'm famished-" I announced once we walked into the bakery. I got a turkey sandwich that had croissants as bread. Then I also got a raspberry tart. We sat outside and ate our food, "This is delicious!" I said waving around my sandwich, "Are you sure it can beat this?" Imogen said holding up her beef wrap, "And this?" Elisabeth said, taking a bite of her chocolate croissant that was topped with strawberries. After we finished eating we quickly gave the bakery some coins to pay for their delicious food, and then got some fresh lemonade. We took sips of the lemonade while exploring the village, "My back hurts.." Imogen said as she adjusted the bag, "Hmm... we should find a place to stay before it gets dark.." Elisabeth said absentmindedly. We explored around the village a little bit longer but then suddenly Imogen said, "Oooh- I see a boarding house. Maybe we can stay there for a little." "Remember to ration money!" Elisabeth said smiling. We went to the boarding house that was quite tall. We were greeted by an old woman who resembled a crow, her bun was so tight it pulled back her face taut and her eyes were sharp and stern. "Uh miss?" I said walking up to her, "Madame Belon." "Do you have a few- or a room open?" Elisabeth said running her fingers through her hair.''I have one small bedroom open, it has two twin beds, can you manage to share?" Madame Belon said looking at us "We can manage," Elisabeth said desperately "Follow me." We went through a couple hallways until we reached the stairs. "30 pounds a night." she said "Yes ma'am." we walked up a large staircase that made my legs tremble "Here's the room." She said handing us a key. "Thank you!" The room was quite small but there were a few pictures of the previous queens and kings of germany and a flower vase on the nightstand. The doorway was so short we nearly had to crouch to get in and the walls were slanted. There were two tiny beds that had a singular frilled white pillow and white comforters with sage green throw blankets, there was a dark blue couch that barely fit in the corner and then a tiny nightstand that was in between the beds. There was also a circular porthole window that was tiny but through it you could see the bustling town. "She was not lying when she said the room was small." Imogen said placing her bag down on the couch. "I'll be generous and take the tiny couch." I nodded and then placed my bag on the bed that was next to the window. I ran my fingers over the creamy, yellow paisley wallpaper. "I guess this isn't the worst.."Elisabeth said thoughtfully. I looked out the window to see the sun setting. "I'm exhausted from all of that moving, we need to wake up early tomorrow to take baths and visit King Viktor." I said yawning. I changed into my cotton nightgown and then fell asleep to the sounds of the people below us.