Innocence

Chapter One

PART ONE - EVANGELINE

Autumn 623 AE

“Evangeline, Dear. Put the whetstone down, please. You’ll hurt yourself”, Mother asked me. I’ve known her tricks to make me like a real lady, since I was a child. Started from asking me to admire her embroideries, until helping her with her poems. I might be innocent, but I am not that stupid. After all, she was my mother, and I only have one. I sharpen Father’s sword, that afternoon. I remember that afternoon so well, like I remember how to open a door. Mother and Nilsa were stitching their embroideries, as we all gathered for drinking the tea near the garden. While Ethan and Father discussed about their previous hunting trip, I did a favour for my father by sharpening his sword. Clearly he was pleased by my offer, yet Ethan felt like there was something wrong with me. His longsword was dull, yet the steel felt sharp under my fingertips.

“She must learn to sharpen a sword, Sandre. Perhaps someday she will sharpen her own”, Father told my mother. He knew me, and he also knew how much I don’t like lady-like jobs like stitching. I looked up at him and gave him a lopsided grin as my silent gratitude. “A Princess or not, my daughter will have no sword, Liam. She is made for embroideries and royal duties. She will be holding a needle and a sceptre”, she stated, while trying to hold her anger.

“Your daughter? Beg your pardon, my lady, but she is also my daughter”, Father said, with a little laugh by the end of his words. “But if she is indeed your daughter, then why does she look nothing like you? She looks like me, like a wonderful masterpiece”, he bragged. By that, Mother almost choked on her tea. She looked pissed off.

“Child, give me back the sword. I’ll sharpen it myself”, he demanded, with a hint of mockery underneath his words. With that, I hand over his sword, along with the whetstone. “Now that will do”, Mother started, as she stood on her feet.

She looked at me, with the familiar hint of dissatisfaction. “Evangeline, Dear. If you don’t mind, would you please walk with me in the gardens? While your father will stay with your younger siblings”, she said, when Father gave me his disappointed look.

I sighed, “I would not mind, Mother”. By the end of my words, I smiled as I rose from my seat. Mother smiled, only to replied me. I curtsied before my father, to gave him the respect he had as a King, then said, “By your leave, Your Grace”.

Father looked up at me, with boredom saying, “Go”.

Mother gave me her arm, then we walked away from the table. As we both walked the pathway to the gardens, the staffs who walked passed us, curtsied or bowed before us. My mother, being a true lady as usual, gave them a small nod then carried on as she brought her face higher, with the pride. Too me, she was showing off her neck, rather than keeping a feminine posture. The shiny white pearls around her neck, looked like a snake around her neck. The pearls almost looked the same as her fairly pale skin, as if the pearls are the part of her neck. In my entire lifetime, she was the most graceful woman I’ve ever seen. Just like what the people said about her, “Lysandre Beaufort was made to be Queen”.

We both had the same skin tone; pale. We both almost had the same height, posture, and even the same interest in politics. She had dark hair, green eyes, and thin lips. We both looked like sisters, more than mother and daughter. Speaking about physical appearance, I was actually taller than her.

No, you’ve read it the right way.

Me, Evangeline Massix, was taller than the Queen? How ridiculous!

No, I was serious, I was taller than her. But, due to my habits of slouching, it made me look a bit shorter than her. Perhaps from that, I could learn how to improve my posture.