If there was a competition to win the prince's heart and become the queen wold you enter? it seems like a simple answer, but not for Emily.
Emily is a six, which means she has been looked down upon and shunned by society for her whole life. her mot...
"Wake up Emily or you're going to be late for breakfast" at the mention of food I jolt up and look over to the girls laughing at me. Well what can I say? I love food.
"Ok, ok i'm up" I say standing up and walking over to the bathroom to start getting ready.
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Half an hour later I say goodbye to the girls and exit my room, only to come face to face with Grace. She looked worried and slightly mad.
"Hi Grace, what's up?" I ask looking around to see that the group of girls are already making their way down to breakfast.
"Don't you know?" She ask's with an exasperated look, I just shrug in response. "Prince Cayden's going on a date today" she whispers as though someone might over hear.
"Who with?" I ask thinking over the last couple of days, this must be his first date. It kinda upsets me that Grace isn't the first.
"I don't know" She says sadly and turns to follow the group.
Like every other morning we line up and walk into the dinning hall separately. Looking around I sigh at the fact that everyone is still wearing short white dresses, I guess that's why Anne wanted me to wear something a bit more colourful. We ended up compromising. As I walk in ,last as usual, I quickly curtsey and move over to my seat. The breakfast is served and I eat in silence not really feeling up to talking.
"Do you know who has a date today?" I hear Grace ask Elise. Honestly I couldn't get the same question out of my mind. Obviously I'm not jealous like everyone else seems to be, I'm just curious.
"I don't know" she replied looking over to Amber.
"I have no clue. Who told you that he had a date anyway?" Amber asks adding to the conversation. I know it's rude to eavesdrop, but...
"Sadie Archer" Grace answers. I have to think for a couple of minutes before I recognise her name, she was the one who would alway sit in the corner of the women's room silently just watching everyone. Elise always get's creeped out by it, but I think Sadie is just shy.
After only eating half of my breakfast, I get up and start to exit the dinning hall. Turning to the royals I give them a small curtsy then leave. As I'm about to make my way up the stairs and towards my room I hear my name being called.
"Emily", I turn around to see Cayden jogging towards me.
"Hi Cayden" I reply once he's a few steps away.
"I was wondering if you want to go for that walk now?" He asks. Well I have nothing else to do so why not.
"Yeah ok" I answer and take his arm that he offeres me.
As we make our way down the long corridor I once again take in the contrasting cream walls and red carpet. Everything here looks so expensive. When we pass a certain painting I can't help but stop and start to laugh.
"Is that you?" I ask through laughter looking at a painting of a highly well dressed boy around seven sitting at a tea party with a little girl.
"Yes that's me" he laughs along and I think this is the first time I've seen him genuinely happy. It suits him.
"Wow I think this is my favourite painting" I state confidently.
"Really?" Cayden questions, amusement clearly evident on his face.
"Definitely" I say with determination evident in my voice. Looking into his perfect eyes makes me completely lost. Sometimes I feel like I could just stare into them forever and still not know what secrets they hold. Wait.. no, no, no stop Emily, you need to pull yourself together. With that momentary laps behind me I turned back towards the painting still feeling the Prince's intense gaze.
"Shall we head to the gardens" Cayden offers and I happily accept wanting some fresh air to clear my clearly confused head.
The gardens are by far the best place in the palace. The fresh air smells sweet and all around are arrangements of different coloured flowers. Pure heaven. Seemingly unable to contain my happiness I let a foolish smile take over my face and a slight giggle to punctuate the air.
"Do you like it?" Cayden asks as though someone could possibly dislike it.
"Of course, who couldn't?" I exclaim practically pulling Cayden down the path. Enjoying the peaceful silence, we continue walking down the stone path for what seems like a lifetime but in reality is only about five minutes. For some reason what Grace said at breakfast lingers in my thoughts.
"The girls couldn't stop gossiping about you during breakfast" I state in an even tone, quickly adding "like they always do". Immediately I earn a low chuckle. Thinking back I realise this is the most he's ever laughed.
"And what were 'the girls' gossiping about?" he asks with an amused smile.
"The usual; about how handsome you are, but today they seemed to all be a bit on edge because of something one of them heard" I answer and think about all the mind numbing conversations we have every morning, in the women's room, at lunch, in the corridors and at dinner. Basically all the time.
"And what was that?" he inquires, clearly wanting to hear what I was hinting at. Waiting a bit to reply, taking in the beauty around us, we continue down the path.
"That you plan to take a girl out for your first date today" I reply trying not to sound too interested.
"And what did you say?", Cayden stops walking causing me to look back at him with a confused look.
"Nothing, I just secretly hope that it would be with Grace or anyone except Alice. I can tell she just wants the crown and would be a terrible queen" I finally release some of my pent up feelings towards Alice.
"Do you think you would be a good queen?" he unexpectedly says, ignoring my subtle suggestion of Grace while taking a step closer.
"No" I reply honestly without even needing to think."Whoever you choose needs to be strongwilled and understand what it's like to have nothing but also be loving, caring and look the part; poised, polite and be there for you. The country needs someone like that-and you do too" I nervously ramble on as the distance between us decreases. "You know Grace is all those things and more", I try helplessly to change the subject away from me.
"no" Cayden lowly grunts.
"No?", I'm confused.
"I don't think we would work" he expands trying to clear up my confusion. Still baffled he continues, "Because Im starting to have feelings for someone else". Choosing to change the subject he asks "why do u think I brought you here Emily?".
"I don't know. Umm.. because you were bored" I guess avoiding his probing eyes.
"This is my first date. It's you" Cayden answers his own question with such determination.
Before I can even react I feel his arms gently move to hold me and his lips tentatively meet mine. Shocked at the sudden contact I'm unable to respond and end up just dumbly standing there overthinking everything. How the hell did this happen? I'm suppose to be going home. What's going to happen now? Why is my heart beating so fast and Why am I not stopping him? With all these unanswered questions we pull away from one another. My feet move on their own and rush me away as I hear him calling my name.
