Two Princes

10. Fast Car

"ELIZABETH!"

She winces. She knew something like this would happen.

Margaret looks on in dismay through the doorway between kitchen and living room as Bartra paces around wildly, and Elizabeth sits primly on the ottoman, head bowed. The fingers of her right hand twist and toy with the opal ring on her left. Veronica, seated out of view at the breakfast table, glances worriedly toward her big sister, and Margaret busies herself, quickly whipping together the ingredients for Elizabeth's favorite white chocolate chunk cookies.

Bartra drags a hand through thinning, greying hair, panting now with the exertion of the energy he has expelled, ranting at his daughter. He stands in the middle of the room with his back toward Elizabeth, his eyes fastened on the fireplace and the pictures lining the mantelpiece. There is Elizabeth, five years old, clinging to the top of the very first tree she ever climbed. Margaret, Elizabeth, and Veronica dolled up, each wearing a wrist corsage, smiling together before a father-daughter dance. The three girls crowded around a laughing Bartra in an undated photo taken out in the vineyard, surrounded by baskets overflowing with bushels of grapes. He sighs, looking over the memories, and lowers his hand, his shoulders slumping with age and with the weariness of a father who worried all night for his daughter.

"Elizabeth." His voice is softer now, kinder, and he sits down in the chair that matches the ottoman and leans, elbows on knees, taking one of her hands in his. "Elizabeth. You really scared me."

"I know, Father."

"Margaret told me you stayed with a friend. Is that right?"

Elizabeth gently bites the inside of her bottom lip. "Yes."

"Then I will trust that you were safe, and that you knew what you were doing."

She looks up then, blue eyes wide.

"But." He speaks firmly. "But. Your decision to leave without a word, to me or to Arthur, was neither wise nor polite. I am disappointed."

Blue eyes well with tears... "Yes, Father."

Bartra gets up and rests a hand briefly on the top of Elizabeth's head, and then strides quickly out of the room. Elizabeth bows her head for a moment, and then gets up and flees to her room, shutting and locking the door. She throws herself down on her bed and stares blankly at her phone as it lights up with a text:

Meliodas

Hey. Just want 2 C if U R OK.

She nibbles on her bottom lip and types a response.

Elizabeth

Father's mad.

Meliodas

He'll come around. He loves U.

Elizabeth

Yeah...

Meliodas

Do U need anything?

Elizabeth

Guess not. C U @ school Monday.

The phone buzzes in her hand as Elizabeth moves to set it on the nightstand, and she glances at the screen, her insides contorting painfully at Arthur's name. She still hasn't spoken to him since she ditched dinner. Is he mad?