Stay True

Chapter 7

Eve yanked the curtains open, letting in the warm sunlight. She skipped back and forth, an undergarment in her hands on one trip, a pair of slippers the next. "Clara! Wakie wakie!" she trilled playfully. Clara groaned and burrowed back under the warm covers. For once Eve's perpetual perkiness was just annoying rather than uplifting. The sunlight was streaming through the windows in a blaze of light and heat. Clara reluctantly bared herself to it, but then retreated back into the dark and comfort of her world under the blankets.

"Clara! Come on, I mean it. You need to get up." Eve started yanking on Clara's arm.

Clara grumbled a bit but eventually came out. "Now what on earth are we doing that requires me to be so awake?"

Eve resumed her hurrying about, and Clara flopped back on the bed. "Today's our rehearsal for the big discovery. We've got to make sure the hair is good and tangled, the dress is ripped, and everything looks convincing," Eve said. Clearly, she was quite excited. She pulled Clara off the bed into a slouchy but still upright pose. "I'm just glad we got some weight on you," Eve said. "You were far too skinny before. Now you have got curves, and you look all the more like Melanie! It's perfect."

Embarrassed with the attention and the scrutiny, Clara made to head back to bed. But Eve towed her away towards the screen so Clara could get dressed. By this time, Clara knew how to work the corset, though she still needed help tightening it. She put it on over the shift and stepped out again. "Eve, I don't have a dress. Are they going to find me in my underwear?"

Eve smirked. At Clara's glare, she quickly said, "I would never have suggested this, but when I hid Melanie I didn't take her clothes. I did not want her to be cold in the coming months! You know autumn's just beginning, we got you around the middle of spring."

"So you didn't take her clothes, but nobody knows what she was wearing under them, so naturally they will need to find me with my underclothes on the outside." Clara paused her thinking and thought back, counting the months. "Is it really fourth month already? Wow..."

"Yes, Colin's birthday is tomorrow, actually," Eve said. "But we can't celebrate much, or at least not with you. You are being found!" Clara had resumed the glaring. "The King will want you in his presence for the rest of the day. You can feign exhaustion and go to bed early, but you will have to dine with him at the very least."

Clara rolled her eyes. "Fine. He is my father, after all. I've just never met him." It was difficult for her to be so cavalier about something like that, her own family member that she did not even know, but Eve did not notice.

"So, Clara-" Eve snapped her fingers in front of Clara's face. Clara started, fluttering her eyelids. She had begun drifting off again. "Clara!" Eve said. Clara nodded sleepily. "You will need to be completely ready for tomorrow, and we'll likely have to leave you in the woods tonight. The prince knows where you will need to go so that he can find you. Colin will take you there at midnight." Eve finally stopped. "Do you understand?" she asked slowly and loudly. Clara bobbed her head blearily. "Okay. And maybe skip the corset, I think that if you were stuck in the woods this would be one of the first things you would get rid of. Yes?" Clara made a noise that signified noncommittal.

Eve gave up and pushed Clara into the chair in front of the vanity. Clara's eyes kept sliding shut as Eve teased, yanked, and thoroughly tangled Clara's hair. A sigh escaped her lips, but when Eve asked what it was about, Clara simply replied with, "Oh, it is nothing. I'm just a little nervous."

Eve laughed. "Don't be! The King loves you. He will want you to be with him for a while, but after the first few days, you can go back to your routine with me. We can actually go down to the field to watch the knights; you can go on horseback rides again; everything will be fine!"