The Heiress Queen (Season Series Prequel)

Chapter 5

The palace was still quiet in the early morning light, with few servants and even fewer courtiers in the halls. Isabelle didn't bother to stifle her yawn as she retraced her steps to her room, in no rush to return now that she'd been instructed to stay there. The maid who was guiding her kept stopping and waiting, clearly impatient that her charge was taking so long. Isabelle didn't much care, instead choosing to examine each room and hallway as they came upon them, sketching a mental map of the palace in her head.

The debutantes' wing was markedly more alive than the rest of the palace, with giggles and titters filling the air as the other girls prepared for breakfast. Isabelle thanked her lucky stars that Lissa had smuggled her some food, especially as she was now to miss both breakfast and lunch for having sassed the queen. It was a small price to pay if it meant she could keep her ring, but she didn't like the way the queen had so easily given up, threat or not.

Absently thanking the maid when she tugged open her suite door, Isabelle froze in her tracks when a burst of chatter and giggles greeted her from within.

"What are you doing in my room?" she demanded, blinking at the trio of girls settled in on her sitting room furniture. Their conversation died as soon as she'd entered, the two identical blondes turning their big, blue eyes to the brunette seated across from them.

"We're your ladies-in-waiting," the brunette said, standing and brushing the wrinkles from her dress before she curtseyed. "I am Alicia and these are Laura and Marjorie."

Laura and Marjorie, the very nearly identical blondes rose and curtseyed in unison, exchanging looks as they ran their eyes over Isabelle.

"I don't want any ladies-in-waiting, thank you," Isabelle said, crossing her arms. Alicia, the brunette who was probably nearer to Isabelle's age than the others, pursed her lips before forcing a pleasant expression onto her face.

"Her Majesty the Queen assigned us to you as you neglected to offer the position to anyone from Kentshire," Alicia said, clasping her hands demurely before her. "We are under instructions to help you dress and prepare for your events and accompany you when necessary."

Isabelle couldn't fight her scowl as she inwardly cursed the queen. Of course she hadn't brought anyone from Kentshire because she hadn't been asked to. The royals must have anticipated that the de Havilands would be difficult and the trio of young women standing before Isabelle were no doubt there to act more like spies and jailers than true ladies-in-waiting.

Isabelle ran her eyes over them, racking her brain for the family trees she'd studied extensively at Saint-Mary's. Alicia had a strong chin and straight nose, with a smattering of faded freckles that she'd probably doused with buttermilk night after night in an attempt to fade them. Her dress was fine enough, hinting that she was from a well-titled house, but Isabelle didn't recall reading her name on any of the royal family trees.

The twins, however, she placed without a moment's hesitation. They were the queen's nieces, the daughters of her youngest sister and the only set of identical female twins anywhere near the royal line. If the gossips at Saint-Mary's were to be trusted, Laura and Marjorie's beauty was their one and only redeeming feature. Strip them of that and they were little more than self-centered brats with less than half a brain between them.

"Very well then. I would like breakfast in my suite," Isabelle said, deciding that if these girls had been assigned to her in order to make her stay less pleasant, she would make their lives less than pleasant in return.

"Forgive me, but we are your ladies-in-waiting," Alicia said, watching as Isabelle crossed to her bedchamber, "We aren't servants to be ordered about, we are here to help you-"