ᴡᴇ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ǫᴜᴇᴇɴs

Chapter 2: The Unknown Deceiver

The birds were chirping and sunlight was shining brightly through the thick silk curtains. I pulled the sheets off my body, stepping out of bed. I stretched and yawned, ready to see what today could possibly hold. A knock at my door pulled me out of thoughts.

"Good morning your majesty," A short, blonde servant bowed. "Here is your breakfast," She walked into my room and set down a tray of french toast smothered in syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar. A few strawberries had been placed on top. Next to the plate of french toast was a bowl of fruit, with peeled, cut oranges, apple slices and kiwi. There were also eggs, juice, utensils, and a napkin.

"Thank you," I replied, appeased.

"A message from the Queen; she said to finish your breakfast and then go downstairs for a formal tour. She also wants you to meet your ladies. Additionally, you are scheduled to review wedding details over lunch in the North garden later," She bowed before exiting the room.

~~~

Prior to heading downstairs, a few servants helped me put on my corset and get into my dress and heels. They helped me do my hair and make up before I left my room.

"Yes, you and Betty are supposed to go-" A girl started to speak but stopped when I walked in. "Your majesty," She exclaimed and abruptly turned around.

"Hi, I'm Evie," The girl chirped.

"Antoinette," I brought my hand forward for her to shake, and she politely did.

"We are your ladies," One of the four young women in front of me, a blonde one, smiled.

"My name is Elizabeth," She greeted.

"She's Georgina," She pointed to a second girl. "Veronica, and Josie," To the third and fourth.

"It's nice to meet you," I professed.

"We're supposed to take you on a tour of the castle," Evie explained.

~~~

The tour went smooth and quick; the girls showed me around all of the areas of the palace, along with the additional buildings on the castle grounds.

Soon it was time for lunch, I headed down to the North garden to meet up with Cheryl. But to my surprise, she wasn't there. Instead, another woman was. "Where is the Queen?" I asked, wondering why she would invite me and not show up.

"She had some last minute business to attend to, you're stuck with me for now!" She somewhat laughed.

"W-Who are you?" I was completely unfamiliar with the middle aged women that stood before me.

"I'm...the wedding planner," The dark haired lady set an uncertain tone with her own answer, and that greatly baffled me.

"Uh, okay. So should we get started?" I sat down at the table in the garden set up with sandwiches, cookies, drinks, and condiments.

"Yes, yes, let us sit down and begin. Now, a strategy I like to use when helping out my clients is really getting to know them. A little about your lifestyle, what you like to do...et cetera." She reached into her satchel and retrieved a notebook and black ink pen.

"Well what do you wanna know first?" I asked.

"What does your family do on a daily basis? And in which room do you usually plan things in?"

I was hesitant to answer at first. Why does this woman want to know such irrelevant things?

"What does this have to do with the wedding?" I interrogated.

"Well, Antoinette dear, in order to plan to accommodate you, your fiance, and both of your families, we must go over a little personal information to see what everyone would like to see on the big day," Her smile was a little too bright, almost as if she was forcing it. I saw something else behind her eyes, but I brushed it off, thinking it must just be my imagination.

"Okay, if you say so," I tensed.

"The question dear," She 'smiled'.

"Right...Well, back in Scotland, my family and I would usually take care of important things when they needed to be taken care of daily. And if we had days off, we would go horseback riding and do whatever else we wanted," I answered.

"And the room?"

"Our planning room...I don't know how to explain it...That's what we call it," I stammered.

"And what type of things did you plan? And what's the most recent planning meeting you've had?"

I stopped talking, panic and fear taking over me. Why was she asking such things?

"Who are you?" I trembled. This lady couldn't have been the one coming all the way from Italy to help plan. She couldn't have been...

"Answer!" She yelled, banging her fists onto the table, making me jump.

After receiving mummers and suspicious looks from some of the women in the garden, she fled. And I had a feeling that wouldn't be the last time I saw her...

~~~

I was sitting down, processing the event that had just happened, whispering from the people in the garden when the scene happened all around me, when Cheryl and a classical European looking lady made their way through the rose path to me.

"Hello Antoinette. Sorry, we're a little late," Cheryl sat down in the seat the...imposter had previously been in. The lady accompanying my soon-to-be wife sat down next to her.

"Hey," The redhead waved a hand in front of my face. "You okay? You look a little shaken up," There was concern laced in her voice as her eyes searched my face for clues.

"Umm, who is she?" I asked.

"The wedding planner," Cheryl faltered, taken aback by my sudden confusion. "I told you we would be meeting her..." She continued. "To go over the wedding..."

"But the wedding planner was just here..." I trembled.

Cheryl's eyes went wide with something I couldn't quite make out. Anger? Fear? Maybe confusion?

"Cher, a lady just left. She told me that she was the wedding planner..."

Cheryl abruptly stood up and walked over to a few guards that were chatting. "Lock down the castle immediately. I want ten guards searching for this woman. She won't get far."

But little did she know....
The woman was long gone.

~~~

That night, I decided to take a bath to calm my nerves. I put epsom salts and different essential oils into my bath before stepping into the steaming hot water.

I sighed as I laid down in the bath, relaxation taking over my body. I closed my eyes and began to drift into a shallow slumber.

I woke up about 30 minutes later, the water growing cold. I decided to step out, then put lotion on my body and brushed my hair. I went to my closet to get dressed, and picked out some nice sleeping lingerie that had been placed in my closet along with many other nice and definitely expensive clothes and shoes.

After I put on my chosen outfit, I walked over to the full-length mirror in my dressing room and admired my reflection fondly. I heard a creak of a door faraway and got scared for a second, but then I recalled that I had left one of my bedroom windows open so the wind could be the cause of the noise. No longer worrying, I was adjusting the lingerie, when I felt eyes on me. I looked closely in the mirror to take awareness of my background surroundings, my heart thumping loudly in my chest, still terrified after the afternoon's events.

My body relaxed when I saw Cheryl in the reflection. But then I decided to have some fun....

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Surprise next chap 👀