Traitorous Troubles

Part 1: The Beginning

As I hid my shaking hands in the folds of my skirt, I wondered if all the noble ladies ever feared having to clean the Prince's suite? "Amelia Forthwright, please step forward," announced the head housekeeper, Ms. Imua. I slowly put one foot in front of the other, making sure to keep my head down, I didn't want to get toilet duty again. She handed me my schedule, gulping I quickly glanced down to see what I had this month. 'Library, kitchen(cooking), and the Prince's suite.' My eyes bulged like those little keychains. No way, there is no way I have to clean his suite, I thought, the last girl was thrown in the moat for just being seen by him. Numbly, I stumbled to my hole-in-the-wall-room. I would need to hurry if I wanted to finish cleaning before dinner, since Ms. Imua had taken hours going over rules that we heard each month.

That night as I was sitting in the mess hall, my best friend or as close to a best friend as you can get in a place like this, came up to me. " So, Amelia who do you think got stuck with the old maid card this time," she asked, plopped her tray right down next to me, smiling mischievously.

"Sadly, I got Prince Charming," I replied, gagging slightly at the thought of him ever being charming. Rowan sadly, didn't think the Prince was that terrible, being blinded his looks like almost every girl in this entire castle. She rolled her eyes and concentrated on her food, which might I add looked so green, it could be mistaken for something in the Hidden Valley Ranch commercial.

The next morning as I was walking in the dark, dank servant hallway. I couldn't shake the feeling of anxiousness, even though all I had to do was make sure I cleaned the room well and wasn't seen, I felt as though something terrible would happen.

Finally, I finished walking up that monstrosity of a staircase, every time you took a step the rotten wood creaked and oozed a slippery substance that looked suspiciously like mold. The prince's door looked like something out of a dungeon, heavily fortified with steel and three rusted iron dead bolts. Luckily, this morning I had remembered to pick up the keys from Ms. Imua, or else I would have had to walk all the way back down the stairs. Gently, I slid the keys into the locks and quietly opened the secret door. But I ran into a wall, only this wall was wearing a nice cleanly pressed suit that must have taken hours to iron. He grunted and narrowed his eyes at me, "What do you think you're doing," he growled, blasting me with hot air.

Narrowing his inky black eyes, he asked, "Remember the last girl?" Squeaking, I thought of being thrown into the icy water that looked as though a giant was constantly blowing on it, turning it into a whirlpool of waves.

The Prince smirked at me and whispered, "Maybe we can make a deal. You see, I got caught up in this debt from a game of poker, only it isn't money they're after, they want me to get information about the Duke D'Angouleme. So, I've decided I'll just have you spy for him, unless you want to be thrown in the darkest depths of the moat, because that can be arranged."

My whole body shook by the time he was done, and I shakily replied, "I will do it, Your Highness, but don't you have spies meant for this?"

He looked shocked I had the nerve to questioned him, but nevertheless answered, "Yes, but I don't want my father to know about this or else he might renounce my inheritance." I just nodded and started up on cleaning, I would be late for breakfast already as it is. The air whooshed by me, as he walked out and I could almost feel the triumph radiating from him in waves.

That night I quietly crept into the library to research the Duke D'Angouleme, I figured I might as well know a little background information if I was going to be spying on him. Thankfully, no one was in here which meant I could do my research peacefully without the risk of getting caught. The library was like an old friend that you got in a fight with and didn't know how to apologize to. When I was younger before my mother sold me into servitude, I would ride up to the library everyday and just skim my fingers along the books till I found one that was interesting. Which was pretty hard, since that was the only public library in town so all the good books were either checked out or had to be thrown away from so much damage.

Eventually, I saw a book which caught my interest it was dusty and smelled like moth balls, from the poor librarians trying to keep it from being eaten alive. 'The History Of The Royal Houses' was the title and I had a pretty good guess that it would tell me exactly what I needed to know.

The words floated up to me, 'The D'Angouleme family, signed a treaty with the King Christian the III, stating that should the royal line died off his family shall take over as the ruling family.'

Gasping, I slammed the book shut, the sound echoing across the mosaic walls. Is that why Prince Damian wanted me to spy on him, to see if he's a threat to the crown, I thought, no, it can't be that, he said he had a debt to pay off, unless he's lying and didn't tell me the whole truth.' Yawning I head upstairs, simultaneously deciding to deal with the secrets tomorrow.