Emilie of the Royal Heart

Chapter 12: The Princess-to-Be Receives Cryptic Rock-Skipping Advice

Aurora made good on his promise to take her riding through Valley Appleseed. The ferry made port near the home of the first lord that they had to visit and after Aurora got to greet him and talk over a few matters, the lord offered up his stables and his finest horses as a token of his hospitality. While Emilie would've greatly preferred to go alone down the trails or even simply with Prince Aurora, she had no choice in the party selection and so she was unpleasantly surprised to see Sir Tiago saddling up with her and the prince and her three attendants and the lord.

The seven of them headed off down the marked trails through the lord's property. The landscape was peppered with apple trees, some on the eve of their bloom, others showing off their coats of pink petals. Everything was pleasant with the breeze flowing across the path when the horses trotted slow and still pleasant if they rode at a faster pace. They came across a pond next to some of the blooming apple trees and Aurora slowed their trek.

"We'll have to stop here," he called back to the rest of them, hopping off his steed.

"Is there something wrong, your highness?" the lord fretted as Aurora passed him as he strode.

"No," he replied, stopping beside Emilie's horse as he mused, "but our Lady Emilie has a penchant for pretty water, so we must give her a moment to admire the view."

Emilie didn't know whether he was making fun of her display on the ferry yesterday or not, and as such she didn't know whether or not to scowl at him or smile. She settled on pursed lips and a sidelong glance down at him. He simply raised his arms up to help her off her horse and so she let him take hold of her waist as she braced her arms on his arms until she stepped onto the ground.

The others followed suite and they all walked their horses down to the pond. Minnie offered to take hold of Emilie's horse so that she could walk along the water unfettered. Naturally, she accepted and afterward, she told the others that they could wander off a bit if they liked, seeing as she was still with Prince Aurora and the others. Her attendants thanked her and quickly went off to their own delights.

Emilie strolled along the pond by herself, picking up flat rocks and trying to skip them though she'd only ever heard of it before. Turns out she was pretty bad at it. She glanced over her shoulder and Aurora was busy conversing with the lord and Tiago was tagging along. She was glad she had a moment to herself and while she attempted to sit on the driest, cleanest patch of grass by the water, she started whistling again.

She was fairly happy to sit alone and struggle to remember the correct notes to her songs. For a few minutes, she forgot that the men were there. After a while, she decided not to be defeated by her perfect ineptitude at rock skipping and she got up again. She took a good moment to brush her skirts clean and she spared a look back at the others and saw Tiago glaring at her from across the way. Her body froze in the moment, but she tore her eyes away.

Was it the whistling? Was it the sitting on grass? There was no way of knowing what upset him so. Perhaps it was her mere existence or the fact that the Prince stopped the whole party for her. She wouldn't be able to figure it out by freezing under his gaze, so she stood back up and grabbed her pile of flat rocks to skip again.

And she was still a very bad rock skipper.

"Your stance is crooked."

Emilie gasped and stumbled back. Tiago was standing on her right. She pressed a hand to her heart as she looked back to the Prince and the lord, who had been far away on her left, where Tiago had been. Then she craned her head back to him and composed herself.

Tiago was a bit taller than her, but not taller than Cedric. He wasn't old like the rest of the Keepers, but in fact, he was somewhere around the Prince's age. He had dark olive skin and dark brown hair with a prominent, regal looking nose. His outfit betrayed his well-kept figure and Emilie was rather intimidated by him physically.

"I'm... I'm sorry, what was it that you said?" she gulped.

"Your stance is crooked, that's why your rocks aren't skipping," he told her in a silvery voice. His face looked a little too severe for him to be sincerely invested in her rock skipping technique.

"Oh. Thank you for your advice, Sir Tiago," Emilie responded in a voice that felt detached from her own body.

"I have the distinct sense you are attempting to steal something from the crown, Lady Emilie."

She dropped her rocks. They thunked on the ground. She blinked at him several times before her mind snapped back into its mechanism.

"I'm not sure why you would say something like that, but I swear to you, my interest in the Prince is genuine," she asserted and then, with added indignation, she said, "does Prince Aurora know you hold such vicious suspicions of his fiancee?"

"Yes. I have said as much to him."

Emilie tapped her fingers together in her anxiety. She didn't expect him to be so blunt. She expected to be able to use polite conduct against him, but this man was going to prove incredibly slippery.

"What was that you were doing earlier?" Tiago asked, his eyes seemingly perpetually narrowed down at her.

"What do you mean? The whistling?" she supplied. When he said and did nothing to confirm her conjecture, she whistled a quick tone and added, "you mean that?"

"Yes. You shouldn't do it anymore."

Emilie laughed this time, "what? Why? It's only whistling."

Tiago rolled his eyes and stared off into the distance. While he avoided looking directly at her as though she were some stain he wished to ignore, he said, "it is a nervous Zuhian pastime. It will simply remind everyone of where you come from. How low your status. How unlikely your affection for the Prince and how greedy and selfish you are instead."

"It's. A. Whistle," she huffed at him.

"Yes, well..." he droned, letting his eyes tip back toward her, "this is advice: if I were in your position, I would make a point to benefit less and do more for the Prince."

"What do you even mean to say with that?" Emilie furrowed her eyebrows.

"Do you know that he's been cursed?"

Emilie opened her mouth to protest that yes, of course she knew, but then her mind actually heard the words that came from Tiago's mouth and she stalled.

"Cursed?"

"So, you didn't know. That doesn't spell anything very good for you."

"I thought... wait..." she pleaded as she desperately tried to wrap her head around this new information, "I thought he might be ill. And that's why the Keepers of Tradition were so intent on finding someone right for him. But you're telling me that the Keepers believe him to be cursed? That's preposterous! Curses aren't real."

"Perhaps you should-"

"And that's why Rory didn't even want to tell me what it is the Keepers think is so important about his marriage, because he thinks it's preposterous too. He even called it silly!" she proclaimed victoriously.

Tiago took a swift step towards her and she clamped her mouth shut. His eyes were on fire as he hissed at her, "whether or not the Prince himself believes it, he is a doomed man. I will remind you that the Keepers can make life extremely difficult for you," he waited a beat, holding her gaze hostage before he said in a quiet voice, "I can make life extremely difficult for you. Especially so if we discover this love you swear for him doesn't reflect your true emotions."

Emilie tried to straighten up under his looming countenance. She pulled herself together enough to stick her chin up at him and say, "if you feel you must challenge me, then do so. But I will not prove an improper match for him."

Tiago exhaled long and hard before he stepped back from her. He glanced behind her at the Prince and the lord still talking and he moved past her to rejoin them. But before he parted from her presence, he left her with a chilling whisper.

"We shall see."