The Fake Princess

8. Just friends

I ended up getting sick after visiting the Prince. After playing in the water, the doctor said that I got sick from being in the water and not properly drying before heading out into the cold. He had me bed bound and the maids were constantly fretting over me.

I normally got sick a lot but I always overcame it because I have a pretty good immune system, as Laxor would tell me. I wasn't worried about my sickness, it was just a simple cold and would go away in a couple of days.

However, everyone in the mansion has been freaking out. In their eyes, I am Asteria, the sickly girl with the deadly disease. In reality, she died from having a poor immune system. They must think that I might die soon. I think that they're overreacting, but it's nice to be worried over by so many people.

It was night when I woke up from my nap, since I was sick I did not have to study with my teachers. I woke up with a pile of letters and gifts on my table. I got out of bed with a blanket around me, curious to see what was left here. I grabbed a candle and lit it up and then sat on the chair.

All the letters were addressed to me. I opened each one, letters were never really sent to me. I saw that they were from people I never heard of before, all of whom were wishing me good health. I wondered how they heard of my sickness. I wondered if Asteria had always gotten these letters or if they trickled down to none.

One of the letters caught my eye. It was addressed from Princess Lavinia. This must be Cassian's older sister he briefly mentioned. I quickly opened her letter and a cloud of good smelling perfume hit my nose. It wasn't too much, just the right amount of perfume. I looked at her penmanship, light and graceful which is the opposite of my hard and scratchy.

I heard that you got sick after visiting my palace. I hope you recover quickly. I wish to invite you to tea one day before you play with my younger brother.

I smiled, happy to see that she wants to have tea with me. I looked through the remaining letters to see that I was invited to another tea party from a girl with the last name Warren. I believe her family is a part of the great three duchies. It would be smart to start befriending people so I'm not alone, especially within the duchies.

I went to write a reply to her when a sudden chill overcame me and I dropped the frilly quill. I sneezed twice, the sound louder than the rolling quill. I got up from the chair to fetch for the runaway.

I happened to trip over the rug and my long blanket. I fell onto my knees and two sounds echoed the room. One sturdy and one...

"Hollow?" I wondered aloud. I looked underneath me, a rug that lays underneath the small table. I sat on the other side of it and lifted the rug. The floorboards didn't seem that different, the tile was the same.

I knocked on the tiles in front of me until I found the hollowed sound again. I bit my lip, looking around the room my mother grew up in. This... is no coincidence. Why would there be a single hollowed out panel on the floor? Surely she knew of it.

I grabbed the quill. I looked for an opening of any kind, but couldn't find one. Well, I'll make one. I used the quill's point to jam it underneath the corner of the tile and pushed down, using it as a lever. A couple tries resulted in a loose tile.

I managed to get my fingers underneath it and pulled the tile off. I placed it on the rug where it wouldn't make noise where the guards will hear. I looked at the hole and tears danced in my eyes.

Journals, tons of journals were neatly stacked. Were they my...? I grabbed the first one on top and opened it. I traced my finger over the author's name, my mom's real name. Annalisa.

She hid her journals. I looked down and see that there were more things. I reached in and saw some letters were folded and tied together in a red ribbon. There were small trinkets further down, underneath the rest of the tiles. It wasn't deep, but rather wide.