Against an army

Playing detective

" God Juliet, the prince is so handsome. I have never seen him that close"

" stop exaggerating Lily, he doesn't look that good. Though I must admit he has a rain-maker smile"

"  You saw him smile?" lily asked and then continued with her comments

" you're so lucky Juliet, I would give anything to get as close as you got to him" Juliet just smiled.

" Wait, the tall guy was the prince?" Riann burged in startling the maids who immediately went back to work as if nothing had happened after eaves dropping their gossip.

" Juliet, Lily, I heard what you were saying. Now tell me, was that the Prince?" The maids turned shyly to look at her. Lily, putting her napkin down came closer to Riann

" Oh dear, what can I say? Prince Ace was here in flesh. It was my first time seeing him that close too. He is handsome, isn't he?" Lily said in a dreamy tone.

"She is giving too much credit to him Riann, don't mind her. She just has a crush on him, that's all." Juliet said while wiping the dishes from the dishwasher

" Well, I didn't see him at all. I only saw him from afar and wondered who he is. Turns out he is the prince." She moved to the fridge and picked out a freezing cold mango juice

" Juliet, did you really overhear nothing?" she leaned on the counter as if fishing for a deeper gossip.

" I mean, anything. Even just a word, that would be enough clue" She sipped her juice as she looked intently at Juliet who was thinking hard.

" Well, there was this thing they said about silencing people whose names I did not quite catch but I couldn't hear more." Riann put her drink down and started pacing in the kitchen. What could silencing mean? she smelled an even bigger situation than she had anticipated.

" Juliet, are you sure you heard nothing else at all? Perhaps it could help me connect some dots."

" No. They kept quiet when they saw me approaching. I really couldn't listen much, I am sorry."

"No, it's ok-"

" Riann!" Montero's deep voice roared and got everyone frozen.

" Father?" said Riann nervously turning to her father who was standing in the entrance looking at her like she had done something so terrible.

"How long long have you been standing there?" She asked sounding unsure of what she even was talking about.

" To my office. Now!" He commanded calmly and then started towards his office.

" He heard. We're dead " she said before following her father out wordlessly, her brain  running very quickly, trying to process the information she just got from Juliet.

'We need to find out Riann, we should find out what the meeting was all about' she said to herself silently as she followed Montero in the office.

" What did I tell you about sticking your nose into political matters?" he said as soon as he heard her close the door behind her.

He turned to look at her. He really was angry and worked up but that only served to make his daughter curious about what was going on.

" I'm sorry father, it was wrong to ask about it, I won't do it again" she said remorsefully staring at the floor. He looked at her  intently and came close to her.

" Riann, look at me" He commanded but she  didn't look up.

" Riann...!" He called " Look at me." He commanded again, then she looked up.