OLD VERSION! DONT READ!

/Chapter Five/The Ritual Of Age/

Okay guys! I've passed my exams *happy dance* i have one athletics contest left on monday then I'm practically FREE!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll upload more frequantly :)

Oh, and this got to whats hot #97!!! It dropped loads now but oh well :) Thank you everyone :D! Enjoy and sorry it's so long :)

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Chapter Five/ The Ritual Of Age/

The night I spent alone was not the hardest one, I had little trouble falling asleep than usual. The morning sun shone through my window telling me I was to get up from comfortable bed and begin another day of preparation for the wedding from hell. What was I to do today? I thought to myself. Maybe I’d have a fitting for my dress, or have a rehearsal of the wedding. My wedding planner sent a message the other day that she wasn’t able to help me today, even though the wedding was tomorrow. It didn’t feel like it was tomorrow; the date should have been set a few days later than this since it was a lot of work. Typically, Alexander’s family depended on others to do the planning for them. I would have done it myself if I were aloud.

I got dressed for whatever day was planned for me and exited my chambers in search of a meal. It was very unsettling here still; I usually had to make breakfast for father in the early hours before he worked but now I don’t have to even lift a finger. I preferred doing things for myself as it was the only way I was sure things were done right. Call me a perfectionist if you please.

Once inside the dinning room, I sat down on the table. Huddled in a corner were a few servant girls, young and pretty, speaking in hushed voices. Luckily, my mother and father passed on their own accelerated senses to me so I could make out what they said.

“My lady must never find out about my lord, it will send her running to the hills!” said the smallest servant of the lot.

“But whose to say he has changed?! He might do the same to that poor girl. Can we really live with blood on her hands!?” said another.

“She has to find out for herself, then make an informed decision. It’s our jobs that’ll be on the line. She has a loving home to go back to, we don’t. If my lord found out we even breathed a word about the matter with him not around then…”

The servant speaking shifted her eyes from side to side but she saw me out of the corner of hers and quickly fell silent. The other two, puzzled, looked at the third as if to ask her to finish. She was clearly the oldest and wisest as they seemed to look up to her.

She turned to me and curtsied politely, “Forgive me my lady, I did not see you there. Would you like us to prepare breakfast?”

“Yes please, if it isn’t too much trouble.” I smiled. They all bowed before leaving me alone in the room to my thoughts. The smallest one trailed afterwards, paused for a moment to look at me then carried on walking.

What were they talking about? It obviously involved Alexander and I and it surely was not positive. It definitely involved the precious secret he had Beatrice harbouring for him. What did they mean, ‘it will send her running to the hills’? Only something horrible and gruesome would send anybody running…was that his secret? Did he…I don’t know. It would be hard to figure out what he’d done, I would need a bit of help.

The most brilliant idea struck me at that moment and I could have jumped out of my seat in surprise. How could I have not thought of that sooner? It should have been the first thing I’d do since I figured Alexander had a secret! A ritual! The ritual of Age! How could that have even slipped my mind?! The ritual of age was the ritual my mother would conduct all the time. It simply meant to retrieve a person’s memories-memories the person probably couldn’t remember-or thoughts by fire and a series of ingredients mixed and thrown in. Maybe I could retrieve the actually thoughts of those maids…or maybe Alexander’s exact memories! Yes! That would be a successful way to find out his secret. I did say I would find it out, but I expected I had to do more digging to retrieve it.