-The Human Girl-

Chapter four - The royal Duchess of Seattle.

Isabella's PoV:
Age fourteen.

We followed the Queen out of the room and into another set of corridors filled with portraits and tapestries. I kept my eyes wide open as we walked, making sure to remember all of the route for later on. "Here we are girls." Said her majesty as we arrived in front of a wide set of double doors. Two guards (vampires, I noticed) opened the heavy oak doors and ushered us through, giving the Queen a deep bow and a smile.

The room was gigantic, a proper 'great hall', with four long wooden tables going horizontally and a single, slightly shorter table going in the opposite direction at the far end of the room. The centre two chairs at this table were far more ornate than the rest, though they weren't quite throne standard, and I figured that these must be for the King and Queen.

We sat down at the head of the grande table; the Queen taking to the second most ornate chair with Jessica, Angela and me sitting to her right side. We were the first people in the room, but within seconds it was filling up with more and more Vampire courtiers — not a human to be seen. Thankfully no one sat down on our side of the table, so I assumed that this table must be reserved for the royal family and their humans.

As more vampires arrived I glanced along our row and noticed how everyone had sat down in order of importance — so then it was no mistake that I'd been sat down last. All the courtiers had a strict rule of etiquette to follow, starting with gender (Lord on the left, Lady on the right) then titles (going from the middle out, so with a Baroness and a Baron in the middle and a Lord and Lady at the separate ends) and then finally what appeared to be royal favour, making different courtiers switch places otherwise inexplicably.

Looking back along my table I felt a sudden wave of relief flood through me, since it didn't look like I would be required to sit next to anybody above my rank (in other words, a bloodsucking leach). I still wondered, however, who the King was going to bring with him. Probably his own human courtiers. I thought. Paige boys most likely.

Well I didn't have long to wait, since only a few seconds later the King came striding in with a smile on his face and far better looks than he deserved. Following after him was a group of five boys from the ages of about fifteen to twenty-ish, who all stood waiting patiently for the King to sit down before they moved. It wasn't hard to tell who each of the boys were, since there were two very clear groups that I could see. Two of the boys were vampires (Royals I thought) with muscly arms and gold eyes, statues of chivalry and God-like perfection — while the other three were decidedly more ordinary, humans in fact, with a simpler uniform of Cullen livery to wear.

The King sat down in the centre chair, next the Queen, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Then he turned to the eldest boy, a vampire, and said "Jasper, would you please call the princess down to the hall? I'm sure she'll be very pleased with the news." The vampire walked briskly out of the room and the King turned to me, a gentle smile crossing his pale features.

I blushed hard and looked back down at the empty plates confused. News? I wondered. What does that mean? A few seconds later the blonde haired vampire came back, followed by another stunning princess this time. The girl, who was really a woman, was the only person I'd ever seen who was able to make every other vampire in the room look ordinary, (which is a pretty mean feat when it comes to vampires). She stared at The King quizzically, so he motioned to me, giving us both the same kind of cat-got-the-cream look before he turned back to the Queen. The princess smiled happily as she waltzed over to the empty seat next to me, her shiny gold hair just visible from the gable hood she wore over it.

"Hello, I am the Duchess Rosalie, of Seattle. What's your name?" She spoke very softly, as if she thought I was going to bolt away from her. I took a few deep breaths to calm down my heart (which was probably how she knew I was so scared) before I spoke. "M-my name is Isabella of Forks. I am a maid-in-waiting to the Queen." I added on unnecessarily then nearly smacked myself in the head for saying something so obvious.

"But you're just a baby!" She gasped, shocked at my age. I blushed an even deeper shade of red and looked down at my plate. She must of thought I was a ward, sent to live here under the protection of the King after my parents death. I looked back up at her and made eye contact. "I-I'm not that young." I said slowly. "I know I look pretty small for my age, but I'm actually fourteen." She looked very surprised at this, but she didn't say anything more.

Just then a little bell rang and a group of servants suddenly appeared, all of them carrying large bottles of wine and several plates of human food. The hot food was set in front of us, making my mouth water as I ogled the amazing plates of venison and chicken, pork and beef. The Princess watched me with a bemused expression on her face, laughing at my reaction to all that food as she poured herself a large glass of wine. Looking closer at the goblet she was drinking from I realised with a start that it wasn't wine (obviously), but animal blood.

"What does it taste like?" I asked her hesitantly, cautious not offend her. "Delicious." She said, her eyes closing in relief as she sipped more blood from the cup. "It tastes warm. Not like it actually is warm, but more like you feel warm after you've had it." I cut a small amount of chicken from in front of me and put it on my plate. "So what does that taste like?" She asked in return, curiosity burning in her eyes as she examined the meat with a slight air of disgust. "Umm... It tastes sort of salty, but rich and not too heavy at the same time. It's got the same feeling to it that shawls and candles and winter nights under the bedcovers have, you know?" She looked surprised again (probably because of how much I'd said all in one go) but she smiled very wide, just like my mother used to.

"Your majesty—" I began, before she interrupted me. "— Please just call me Rosalie, Isabella."
"...Rosalie," I said again. "Why are you sitting down here, shouldn't you be at the top of the table with your Lady mother?" She grinned really widely and leant across the table towards me. "Because I wanted to talk to you."
I felt my eyebrows jump off my face. "Me? Why do you want to talk to me?" I asked again, not understanding anything of what she meant.

"Well, Isabella, I have more than one brother — and it looks like my older brother Edward is going to be engaged to an Italian princess very soon. The Italians are not as — how shall I say it? Mild? — they are not as mild towards humans as the members of our court. If the Princess were to marry Edward, which she probably will, I don't think the outcome would be very good at all. That's why I'm talking to you. If I can establish a link, a reason not to kill you, then it might just save your life."

I stared wide eyed at the Princess, trying to absorb everything that she was saying. "Uh, th-thanks your m-majesty." I stuttered, keeping my voice low enough for Angela not to hear. "You're very welcome Bella, but please, call me Rosalie." She laughed lightly, her voice sounding like bells. I smiled warily and chewed on my chicken. "Of course... Rosalie."

"Excellent. Well, it was very nice to meet you Bella, but I believe it's time for you leave." I glanced up to where Rosalie was looking and saw the Queen whispering to her husband, patting her skirts as she prepared to go. "Of course." I said politely, scaring down the rest of my breakfast and giggling as I did so. "Good bye Rosalie." Angela nodded at me and I took that as my cue to stand up, giving a quick wave to Rosalie as I left.