Amelia's POV:
Amy had helped me prepare for the ball and after her twisting and turning me, I think it’s safe to say that I am very dizzy. She had my mother force me to have my hair up so that it looked like I was of higher standard, not like a house maid. A maid?! Even Amy agreed with mother and she knows I hate having my hair down. My dress was on and I have to say it looks even nicer than my blue dress. It has gold and swirling patterns all over it. There’s a corset which isn’t too tight but it just barely allows me to breathe. The mask is beautiful. It has the same design as the blue one but instead is in white and has gold swirling patterns all over it. I cannot believe that mother chose it for me! I was expecting that she would buy me a huge puffy dress with has big sleeves and all frilly. I have to say that I am impressed with her choice!
“The carriage is arriving soon so you must be quick as I’m sure you wouldn’t want to keep the prince waiting. Do you?”
“No mother...”
“I thought not. Now go before you’re late!”
I ran towards mother and flung myself at her.
“Stay safe honey. You look beautiful by the way. I can tell you now that the prince shall not miss you. He shall see you and will not be able to compare you to any other.”
My mother sounded so proud to me and it made me upset that all of this effort was going towards nothing. I stood back and held her at arm’s length. I was going to betray her by completely ignoring the prince and not even initiating contact with him.
“Don’t cry dear. Everything will be okay, you’ll make me proud and I know it.”
She pulled me towards her again and started stroking my hair. When I was younger she always used to do this to me and I always calmed down. She’d stopped doing this as I got older. It felt nice to have my mother this close to me. I felt safe in her arms.
“Don’t ever leave me...”
Right now I felt so fragile in her arms. I could feel myself turning into a little child again. Small and new to the world, so easy to break. My mother could sense this and she hugged me tighter.
“I’ll never leave you, Amelia, you are my world and nothing would be able to stop me from loving you and caring for you.”
I nearly started crying I felt so guilty. She felt as if I would put our family’s problems to an end. But I knew that that wasn’t going to happen. I’m not going to marry the prince; I don’t and won’t ever love him. I’ve never even met him so how am I supposed to marry him. I don’t even know whether he would want to marry me!
“Goodbye mother. I’ll be home soon. Wish me luck.”
“Goodbye Amelia. The whole world’s luck shall be on your side as I know you never let me down. Now quickly go before the carriage misses you.”
My mother waved her hands for me to leave and shooed me out of the room and watched me walk to where the carriage usually picks us up. As I waited for the carriage to arrive I wondered what the ball would be like. I could hear the clicking of horse’s hooves on the pavement and I turned around to see my normal carriage. Not the horrible scrummy old carriage that picked me up yesterday. The carriage was all white and the wheels were gold. The normal driver was there and he smiled at me. He got off the carriage and held his hand out towards me.
“Good evening miss, we must leave if you want to arrive to the castle in time.”
“Thank you.”
I reached out for his hand and he helped me onto the carriage. He shut the door and I could feel the carriage start to move. I placed my hands onto my lap and started twiddling my thumbs wondering what the night would bring. Whether the ball will be fun and enjoyable or whether I’ll be pulling my hair out after a couple of minutes. The interior of the carriage was like what I was used to, not like the one from yesterday. The cushions were there and the walls were painted in white with small delicate gold swirls. Mother loved the colours white and gold. The ride was very peaceful and I soon found myself gazing out of the window. The trees were slowly passing by. There were birds in the sky and the sun was slowly being lowered down and was hung over the horizon. The sun was letting the sky turn pink with small strips of red and orange striped through the sky. The clouds were so fluffy and floated in the sky and they held so much beauty that I was left mesmerised. The ride was starting to make me feel a little queasy so I shouted out to the driver.
“Can you please stop so that I can stretch my legs?”
I felt to carriage come to a stop and the driver opened the door.
“I’m sorry my lady, but your mother said that under no circumstances are you allowed to step out of the carriage until we reach the castle.”
“What? That is absurd!”
“Miss, we are very near the castle any way so it won’t be long.”
“Fine... Let’s try and get there as quickly as we can then.”
He shut the door and I could feel the carriage start to go forward again. Then after a couple of minutes of complete boredom I felt the carriage come to an abrupt halt. I felt the nerves start to kick in and the door swung open. I hopped out and the castle in front of me was so beautiful that it took my breath away. It was the most breathtaking sight I had ever seen.
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