Crowns ~ Smosh

Four

"Line up!" Duke Raub barked, and the twelve princes and princesses scrambled into their line. 

"Things are going to be different around here from now on," Duke Bereta continued, pacing the line so that he looked at each and every one of them. "Starting with your attire." Duke Bereta produced a gray dress from his arm, and Duke Raub showed the boys their new gray jackets. The girls glanced down at their colorful dresses and back at the dull gray one, exchanging unhappy glances with each other. Their lives were so full of color that it was hard to imagine a life without it. The boys weren't nearly as bothered it seemed, but uneasy glances were still exchanged between them as they compared their colorful jackets to the dull ones presented to them. 

The dresses were uncomfortable, the corsets a little too tight, the material a little itchy. The boys were running into the same problem, the material scratched against their skin, and poor Noah was fighting against the urge to rip it off with all his might. 

"Alright," Duke Bereta called, bringing their attention back to him. "Ladies over here, with me, gentlemen over there with Duke Raub." Cautiously, they split up, going with their respective duke and exchanging uncomfortable glances with each other.  

The girls were lead into a circular room where Duke Bereta handed them fans, demonstrating how to use them. Mari felt like she was under a microscope. One wrong twitch of her fingers and she was lashed out at. The others were feeling the same way, poor Courtney was trying not to cry as Duke Bereta once again roughly corrected her movements with the fan. 

They boys weren't faring much better. Duke Raub was harsh as well, making them walk across the room a countless number of times, smacking their backs and legs with his cane when their posture wasn't perfect. David was sure that welts would be left on his back from all of the times that the cane hit him. He was sure that Noah was feeling the same way, and each of the brothers could see his knees trembling as it was once again his turn to walk.  

They thought that they were finally free once they were allowed to return to their bedroom. All twelve of them were crowded into the girls side of the wing, as Mari tended to the welts on the boys' backs. She was doing the best she could with the materials she saved from the last time Matthew hurt himself. She always assumed that the youngest would be the most clumsy, but no, it was Matthew who was randomly getting bruises that he wasn't able to identify where they came from. 

She was working on David, who had volunteered to be tended to last, when the door flung open. In walked Duke Raub, his servant, Sunny, trailing behind him, a clock cradled in his arms. 

"Charming," Duke Raub said as he looked around the girls' room. All twelve children stood still, afraid that even breathing wrong would anger the duke. "Sunny, remove this mess." Sunny stepped forward, removing a vase of flowers from a table and replacing it rather harshly with the clock that he held. 

"There will be some new rules around here," The duke continued. "Rule number one. Bedtime is now eight o'clock, no later. Rule number two. No more of this mixing, from now on, boys will stay in their respective bedroom and girls will stay respectively in theirs. Is this understood?"

"Yes, Your Grace," Twelve monotone voices said simultaneously. It had been less than a day and their lives were already changing dramatically. None of the twelve could understand how this brutal "training" would help prepare them for royal life.  And he left them then, slamming the door behind him.

Slowly the twelve moved from their spots on the beds and into the common room between the two bedrooms. They didn't want to get in trouble, they didn't know what he would do. 

"He's so mean," Noah whimpered, rubbing his arm where he got whacked. Mari pulled him into her arms, resting her chin on the top of his head. 

"Someone should talk to Dad," Mari suggested. "Tell him that we were fine before, and how we are being treated. Perhaps then he will put an end to it."

"Olivia should go," Joshua suggested. "He'll listen to her." And the twelve agreed. Tomorrow Olivia would talk to their father and try to win an upward battle. 

The clock chimed 8 times, and the twelve jumped to their feet, everyone running to their respective bedrooms and respective beds. 

"Go, go, go!" David called, opening the door to the boys' bedroom and motioning his brothers inside. Mari and David exchanging a look as they were both doing the same thing. Each of them were racing to their own beds when each of the bedrooms' doors slammed open. 

"Didn't you hear?" Duke Bereta asked, staring Mari down, as she froze in the middle of the bedroom. "Bedtime in now eight o'clock. Next time, don't be late." And the duke slammed the door behind him and Mari sighed before heading towards her bed.

On the other side of the common area a nearly identical interaction was taking place. David had been caught less than a foot from his bed, and he was getting a small verbal lashing and the same warning. None of the twelve could wait for tomorrow.

~*~

But tomorrow wasn't much different. Olivia had tracked down the king, just as the twelve had planned the previous night, and they were sitting together, playing a poor game of chess while they talked to each other. Somehow chess had become their father and daughter activity, even though neither of them really new how to play. 

"Dad," Olivia said cautiously as her father took another one of her pieces. "I need to talk to you." 

"What about?" The king responded, groaning as his daughter stole another pawn from him. 

"About Duke Raub and Duke Bereta."

"Charming, aren't they?" The king mused, studying the pieces laid out on the board.

"Very, uh, stylish, but they're changing everything. They want us to do everything their way," Olivia exclaimed, forgetting all about the chess game in front of her.

"As I asked them to," The king responded, muttering numbers to himself, like he actually knew what he was doing with the chess board.

"We were fine before," Olivia tried. 

"Oh that's not what I heard, dear Olivia," Duke Raub said as he entered the room, pushing a cart with a teapot and teacups placed upon it. "But perhaps you're right. There is so much work to be done, maybe I'm not the one for the task. What you really need is an entire team. Just two people, I suppose, aren't going to cut it. You'd need tutors, of all sorts, it is exhausting just to think about it. Perhaps Duke Bereta and I should just go." 

"No, Cousin, you must stay! My children need you," The king  exclaimed as he got to his feet, rushing towards his cousin. "I cannot embarrass them in front of the kingdom by bringing in groups of tutors. There is enough talk already!"

"If you really think that I can be of service, then I will stay, and of course Duke Bereta will stay with me." 

"Well that's settled then," The king said with a relieved smile. It didn't last for long though, as Olivia leapt to her feet. 

"But Dad!" She cried out.

"You must listen to the dukes, they know what is best for you! I don't want to hear anymore on the subject!" The king scolded his daughter and she looked up to him, choking back tears. 

"Yes, Father," Olivia said and pushed past him, trying to hide the tears rolling down her face as she retreated to her room, where she knew her siblings would offer some sort of comfort. She felt like she had failed her siblings. She felt like she should have done more, she felt useless. And most of all, she felt disregarded by her father.