Castle of Lilies

Chapter 14

Lillia's PoV

Waking up I smell the most wonderful smell wafting through the room. Turning over I see the bed empty of Ginger and so I sit up, stretching my arms above my head. Blinking I look around to see lilies scattered around the room, in vases and on the floor, the curtains opened to let the spring sunlight stream through. Then I see a note laid on the bed and so curiously I pick it up and read it:
Good Morning Love,

So I was thinking about how we haven't had a first date yet. So I organised activities and stuff for us to do all day today. No one to interrupt us. Just us. But first I'll be half an hour while if go and get breakfast.(I left at 09:12)

Love G x

Smiling at her thoughtfulness and excitement already building for the day ahead, I grab the book I've been reading and wait for her to come back.

I smell Ginger before she enters bearing a stack of pancakes and waffles, with bowls of fruit and jugs of syrup. She sits on the bed and says "Good morning! I present breakfast in bed!" Smiling wide I take a plate and drown my pancake in berries and golden syrup, savouring the taste of it in my mouth with every bite. "Ginger this is delicious. Did you make them?"
She nods but says "I had a little bit of help with the waffles. They are trickier than they seem to make."
"Well they're amazing. Thank you."
With my stomach full to the brim with food, I'm blindfolded against my will and dragged through the palace halls blindly every so often screaming at a sudden turn or burst of speed. We finally stop and I put my hands out in front of me trying to feel where we are. Ginger's hands take mine and on instinct I smile, then I feel something warm on my back and a breeze blowing my hair gently. "Ginger, are we outside?"
She doesn't say anything but she giggles which kind of gives it away. Then she takes off the blindfold and I see two beautiful horses, one chestnut with a blonde mane and one black all over, stood behind her, each one saddled up and ready to ride. Then I look past the horses and see beautiful trees so tall and green that I have to strain my neck to see the tops. Then something brushes my ankle and I look down to see we're surrounded by wildflowers in a meadow, the flowers gently swaying in the wind. Looking back to Ginger she says "I thought we could go on a horse ride through the forest."
"I don't know..."
"You can keep the lead, but you have to get on the horse."
Knowing if I refuse she'd force me and that I actually would love to ride again after such a long time. What seems like thousands of attempts and a serious amount of help from the stable hand, I'm able to sit on the horse. And then next to me, light as a feather I see Ginger jump up, and right herself in the saddle.
With both of us securely on our horses I pat the chestnut coloured mare's beautiful blonde mane saying gently "Go easy on me, ok girl?"
In response she snickers softly before the stable hand urges her to walk forwards at a steady pace, surprisingly me already. Eventually I get the hang of riding Polly(mares name) myself and am able to ride without the stable hands help.
Which I am extremely proud of, I mean I was expecting to have forgotten completely but apparently it's muscle memory.
The ride was so fun and amazing, with all the birds singing above our heads, the sunlight shining through the trees. Me and Ginger laugh and talk about everything, with her often showing off by cantering, leaving me behind moaning at her mockingly.
As we reach the castle I see the sun slowly setting over the castle turrets and then I notice the exquisite horse and carriage stood outside the castle steps. Looking at Ginger she smiles and I squeal with excitement. From behind me she says laughing "First you have to get changed though because there's something after the carriage ride you need to have a certain dress code for. So come on let's go get changed."
Back in our rooms, the bed is covered with dresses of all styles and colours. Literally covered. Looking to Ginger she says "I had the maids get them out for us. Come on pick one."
She goes straight to the changing room so I'm assuming her outfits already hung there, leaving me gawking at the array of dresses. Eventually I choose a pale pink ball gown with full length sleeves and an embroidered flower array on the top. Then I choose a pair of simple matching pink stilettos. After dressing and doing my hair I'm sat on the dresser for about half an hour before a knock on the door sounds and I get up too eagerly almost falling over in the process. Opening the door I see a maid stood with a simple tiara elegantly winded out of silver. Taking it from her she says "The Princess says you can meet her on the steps."
Basically running to the steps I see Ginger stood by the carriage in a tailored deep blue suit, paired with matching stiletto heels, with her gorgeous caramel hair flowing freely down her back. She's also wearing a simple tiara, a mirror of mine, but instead made in gold. Descending the steps I reach her and say "You look stunning."
She smiles before saying "So do you."
The carriage itself is made entirely of glass and shimmers in the moonlight. Then Ginger opens the carriage door and helps me up the steps before climbing in herself. Then as it sets off I take her hand and she lifts it to her mouth and kisses the back softly. We talk some more as we ride through the palace gardens in the carriage, every so often stopping so the horse can have a break.
Then as we pull around to the garden doors into the castle for the fifth time Ginger announces "Ok this is our stop, we have somewhere to be."
"But!"
"Come on love. I promise you'll like it."
Reluctantly I climb out, thanking the driver and then we make our way inside. We walk into the garden parlour that has a table for two set up with candles and rose petals scattered around. Ginger pulls my chair out for me and then seats herself before ringing a bell that I didn't see before. Not long after a butler comes and pours us some lemonade, seeing as we're under age for alcohol, and gives us our starters. The plate I'm given has a small salad with no leaves, just cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, mint, grapes and some Parmesan sprinkled on top. Licking my lips I dig in, using the correct fork as Ginger taught me. The food is delicious and it just keeps coming. After the salad there's a dish of pesto and pasta that is amazing, the course after that is the main course of roasted chicken, rainbow carrots, mash potato and stuffing. And oh my goodness is it delicious! The final course is a desert of vanilla cheesecake with berries and cream. Sitting afterwards I say to Ginger "I'm stuffed, I don't think it could eat anything else."
She laughs and then gets up saying "Come on, one last activity of the night."
Ginger walks us to the throne room that Ginger wants to renovate, where I'm training, but it's not the throne room I recognise. This throne room has lilies everywhere and a full orchestra stood/sat on stage. The chandeliers have obviously been polished and are sparkling and the ceiling is full of vines and flower wreaths hanging down. Gaping at all of this, I hadn't noticed Ginger letting go of my hand and moving to stand in the middle of the floor. She holds out her hand as an invite for me to join her. I walk to her and she takes me in her arms, preparing us to dance. And the music strikes up and flows around the room, echoing seamlessly as we dance. My dress flows around my ankles and my hair sways too, but I can't move my gaze from Ginger's face as she gazes at mine. So lost in her eyes I don't notice the music ending and so I'm not expecting when as the final chord sounds Ginger to dip me down, kissing me deeply before bringing me back to an upright position and holding me close, our foreheads touching and our arms locked around each other.
Later we sit on the balcony of our rooms, which I actually didn't know we had until today, in our pyjamas, Ginger with her head on my shoulder, our hands entwined and minds content to be in each other's presence, no need to speak.

Genevieve's PoV

"Have you enjoyed our day, love?" I ask Lillia as we sit on our balcony looking up at the stars twinkling in the sky.
"Have I enjoyed it?" She says with a scoff, "I have had the best day of my life Ginger. The best day. I never thought I'd ever in my entire life would get a day like this. Ever. This has been a day of my dreams, and I will never forget it."
She leans in to kiss me but then from inside we hear a knock on our door. Sighing I say "Who on earth is that? I told everyone to leave us alone for a day."  Annoyed that someone has interrupted our day I roll my eyes but I still get up and taking Lil's hand I drag us both to the door, not content with letting her go. I open it and see Zachary stood looking hopeful, I glare at him saying in a stern voice "What do you want Zachary?"
He replies "I just wondered if either of you had read..."
"No we haven't, so leave us alone. Weren't you told not to disturb us?"
"I was.."
"Well obey the instruction and leave us alone."
Then I slam the door in his face and feel Lil press a light kiss to my temple. Smiling I turn to her and kiss her deeply, wrapping my arms around her waist. Pulling apart we hear another knock at the door and this time Lillia opens it looking annoyed. Standing there we see Zachary still stood, but this time with an impatient look on his face. Before I can say anything Lillia says in an exasperated voice "Look. Neither of us have read it yet, and we're trying to enjoy a day to ourselves, so we promise that tomorrow night we'll read the first page but before that please go away and stop pestering us."
By this he seems satisfied and leaves. Both of us sigh as Lil closes the door and says "Sleep?"
"Sleep."
Having been attempting to sleep for at least two hours, me and Lil sit in bed, softly reading our book out loud to each other. Then as I'm reading Lil says "So Zachary is here why?"
"I actually don't know. He just appeared yesterday and handed me that folder and then said "I'm here for a month so take your time to read this and get back to me." So I guess we should read it at some point but it looks kind of boring. And why are we meant to read it? Why not my dad or mum?"
"I don't know. Maybe he wants a youth's opinion. Or maybe he wants us to read it and be like scarred for life because he's evil."
The tangent she goes off on tells me that she's tired and her brain isn't functioning properly anymore.
"Come one, you need sleep." I say planting a kiss on her forehead.
Lillia giggles before she leans into me and within minutes is fast asleep, her breathing slow and regular.