The False Princess

The False Princess Part 8

The next morning Demetria woke with a throbbing headache, and a parching thirst that drove her out of the warm bed and to the nearby table and its pitcher of water. She drank deeply, then slumped to the floor.

Her whole body hurt, her head worst of all. And she was alone.

Through the shuttered windows, she could hear the courtyard stirring to life. A dark barked, doors creaked as they were opened, and she could hear the quietly called commands as craftsmen and soldiers began their day's work.

Was her father at work already? What would he be doing without her in the field or watching Eleina? The thought of Eleina sent another pang through her chest, the sound of her tiny voice shouting 'no' echoed through her head.

She bent her head into her hands, against the pain of her headache or to hide the tears, she wasn't sure.

How long she sat there she wasn't sure, before she heard Hanna and Muria in the outer room, building the fire and opening the windows.

She stood quickly and met them at the door.

"Good morning," she said with a smile.

Both maids laughed. "If you say so." Hanna pushed past her. "You are to go riding here any moment, so you'll be wearing a riding boots and dress."

Demetria did not know what any of those things were, but she soon found herself trundled into a rich dress and boots made of softer leather than any she had ever seen. At some point she would stop being amazed at the luxury the baron's family found ordinary, but she could see no end in sight.

Kallia arrived soon after, though now she wore clothes more fitting for a maid, and she smiled when she saw Demetria's expression. "I will go to Drestin as your maid," she said, "so I will play that role here. The longer we behave in our proper roles, the more natural they will become. Have you eaten yet?"

Breakfast was more bread, but served with honey and butter instead of cheese, and Demetria devoured it. But not so quickly that Kallia could not take time to correct Demetria's posture every time her shoulder dipped so much as an inch.

"You're building new habits," Kallia said after correcting her the seventh time. "It's annoying now, but it just means you'll pick it up that much faster."

Demetria felt the frustration grow with each correction, but her hunger kept her quiet. She was too hungry to repeat the mistake of not eating the night before. But the feeling of failure only grew.

Breakfast was followed by a riding lesson, which Demetria found she enjoyed far more than copying the alphabet the night before. For almost an hour, Kallia led her on what she was promised was a gentle mare named Tess around the courtyard, before deciding she was ready for a brief ride along one of the forest trails.

A cool wind was blowing down out of the mountains, and the songbirds were singing loudly in the bright morning.

Calm as it all was, however, Kallia had to give chase and snatch Tess' bridle when she spooked at a bush.

"I'm sorry," Demetria said as they made their way back. All the joy of riding had vanished as Tess bolted, replaced for an instant by fear, and then by shame. She knew what she should have done, but in the moment, she'd been too terrified to act.

"You didn't fall, and you aren't hurt," Kallia said. "So, on the whole, your first riding lesson went rather well."

Demetria took a deep breath. Tess was behaving a little better now, and Demetria kept a tight grip on the reins in case she saw another fearsome bush.

"What if I can't do this?" she asked. "What if I can't learn it all in two months?"

Kallia shrugged. "You can," she said. "You will."

"And what if once we're in Drestin, you realize you are wrong?" Demetria turned to her. "What if I learn enough that we make it there, but after a week or two, Kylian suspects that I'm not who I say I am? Or what if I don't make mistakes, but his family decides I'm not good enough?"

"Let me worry about that," Kallia told her.

Demetria snorted and glared at her. "If they think I'm lying, I'll be the first dead. But you said last night that Kylian is the problem, the one who wants war. What if I killed him?"

Kallia's head whipped around. "Keep your voice down," she hissed.

"It would solve your problem, would it not?"

Kallia scanned the pine and fir trees around them, her eyes darting to every shadow and hollow. "Don't mention that," she said. "You'd have no chance of getting out alive."

"But Kylian would be dead," Demetria pressed. "And with him, the chance of war. Who cares if I make it out or not?"

Kallia turned to look Demetria in the eyes for a moment. "Are you saying you don't care if you make it back to your family?"

The words sent a pang through her, but Demetria swallowed it. "I want my family to be safe," she said. "If there's a war, I doubt they will be safe, and one day the conscriptions will come for Eleina. If I can ensure the war never comes..."

"Don't be stupid," Kallia said. She grabbed Demetria by the arm and gripped it tightly. "I mean it. Do nothing like that without talking to me first, do you understand?"

Demetria nodded, but Kallia squeezed her arm harder. "Swear it."

"I swear it!" Demetria pulled her arm away.

Kallia shook her head. "It would solve nothing, anyway. If you killed the crown prince, Drestin would likely invade just in retribution. So don't do that."

They rode in silence until the castle came back into view through the trees.

As they approached the gate, Kallia laid her hand on Demetria's arm. "You are learning a new life," she said. "Everything you say and do is different. You even breath different. This first week is going to be discouraging. You'll feel you're making no progress at all. But in the second week, things will come together for you. Just hold on."

"Now," she said as she gathered up the reins, "sit up straight in the saddle, and give the guards a small nod as we pass them."

Demetria nodded and did as she asked. But she knew there were more ways to kill than simply knifing someone in the middle of a feast. If she could find a way to make the prince's death seem like an accident, she might pull this off even if she couldn't transform into a noblewoman completely.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I struggled a little with this and a few of the next parts of the story. Obviously, Demetria has to go through some training as she learns how to be a lady, and if this was a movie, I'd shoot a quick training montage and move on. But this isn't a movie, so we've got a few scenes to write, and that means conflict, so I ended up focusing a little more on how Demetria feels about this prince she's supposed to be marrying.
Let me know what you think!