The Seventh Prince

Chapter 6

By now it was February and Alice had seen Luke a few more times. She still thought he was strange. She tried her best to ignore, but she knew that in less than four months she would have to marry him. She was sitting alone in her room early in the morning. When it was finally late enough, she headed downstairs for breakfast.

"Good morning," she said to her sisters, most of whom were already at the table. Marie came in and then Faye began the meal.

"Where's mother and father?" Tessa asked, something that Alice had been wondering as well. Tessa looked around the table. "And Piper?"

Faye paused in an awkward way that made Alice feel uncomfortable. Alice thought that Faye just wasn't going to answer even though she clearly knew but Nora spoke up instead. "Piper's sick."

Alice breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't happy about Piper being sick, but the way her older sisters were looking at each other made her think it was something more serious than Piper just having a fever. Tessa looked relieved too.

"So where are mother and father?" Tessa asked, again. 

"Mother's upstairs with Piper," Daisy said. "And father is..." She looked to one of the others as she herself didn't quite know where he had gone.

"Father went to get a doctor," Faye said curtly.

"A doctor?" Alice said, much louder than she'd intended to. She quieted down. "Why a doctor?"

"Piper's sick," Nora repeated as if the answer was obvious. But then her voice became hushed, "Like, seriously sick."

Tessa immediately ran upstairs and to Alice's surprise not one of her sisters told her no or tried to stop her. Alice wanted more information on what in the world exactly was going on, but she could tell none of her sisters wanted to talk. She had to ask one more question though, "Like serious enough she could die?"

Marie stood up and walked out of the room and when Alice saw Faye gently nod her head, Alice did too.