Stay True

Chapter 8

Unfortunately, the eminent feast gave Eve an excuse to make Clara practice her linguistics. Clara scowled and frowned her way through an entire hour of accented tongue twisters, trying to retain Melanie's slight accent. She nearly gave up, but Eve pressed her on.

"Come on, Clara. One more time. Red leather-" Eve would begin.

"Yellow leather. Red leather..." And on it went, until Clara could say anything like Melanie. Just in time, too, for the day that Clara had eagerly been awaiting the end of had slipped away until there were only two hours left until the feast. Clara and Eve heard the clock chime the half hour and were startled out of their practicing.

"The feast! We only have two hours!" Clara exclaimed.

Eve stood abruptly and towed Clara to the bathtub. "You need to get ready. I will fetch your gown. I assume you can draw your own bath?"

A bit startled by this treatment, Clara only nodded mutely while Eve rushed off. Clara was not even sure Eve caught the look before attending to her duties.

Clara bathed quickly, dried, and was struggling to lace up her corset over her own shift when Eve returned with a wonderful gown. It was a sort of shimmery ivory color that would set off Clara's skin and hair nicely, and when Clara stopped in her string-tugging to look closer, she found that the surface was embroidered with hundreds if not thousands of tiny, brilliant crystal beads. They shimmered and made the dress look almost as if it were made of a cascading waterfall of fabric. Clara reached out to feel a sleeve and the dress itself even felt like water.

Eve adjusted the corset properly and helped Clara slip into the dress. It clung to her perfectly, the latest style, but still reminiscent of an older cut, classically old and new. It became Clara's instant favorite. She almost could not bear to wear it out of her room for fear something terrible would befall it with her natural clumsiness. In her head, she began referring to it as "the dress". Definitive the. Even though she had only had it for maybe an hour, she loved it.

Finally, it was time for the feast. Clara looked resplendent in her new gown and Eve's expert cosmetics. As she was walking towards the dining room, a purple-and-gold bedazzled Eve in tow, Colin ran up. Clara raised an eyebrow at him. He stopped abruptly and looked Clara up and down, blushing slightly. She looked so wonderful, but he-

"Are those gold boots?"

Colin squeezed his eyes shut in embarrassment. "Yes. I would not have been allowed to go to the feast otherwise..." He trailed off as he saw Clara and Eve both giggling into their hands. "Oh, hush up, you two." He handed Clara the necklace he was carrying. "This is for you, Clara. From the King."

It was a delicate white flower hanging from a long, fine chain. Clara immediately slipped it on. "Shall we continue to the feast?" she said, making sure her accent was in place.

"I'm impressed! You really sound like her now," Colin said. Clara glanced around for anyone who had heard, but the last people to have passed were already far away from them.

"Colin! Be careful!" Clara hissed. Colin raised his hands defensively and mouthed, Sorry.

Clara smiled at him. "It does not really matter. But I cannot be late to my own party!" she said in her best impression of the princess. And with that, she swept past him into the dining room. Colin and Eve followed her a bit more slowly, and as Colin opened the heavy door for Eve, they nearly ran into Clara. She had stopped just inside the door, for the sight in front of her was a remarkable sight.

The room when Clara had dined with the King before had been lovely, if a little too open. There was room for easily three hundred people to stand comfortably, but with only the one long table the room had seemed forlorn. Now, there were the promised hundreds of people; nobility hovering by the drinks, knights laughing and pushing each other into things, servants roving about with pitchers, and the King, sitting at the head of the tables and surveying it all. There were three tables instead of just one, arranged in a "u" shape, and they were groaning with sides of beef, entire roasted boars, and ducks and chickens. There were also many small platters of strawberries, cranberries, blueberries, and gooseberries. Clara was overwhelmed and stood frozen, trying to take in the sheer amount of it all, when Sir Karl came up to her and handed her a goblet. He seemed to have had a few cups of mead already, and he was slurring his words slightly.