Aligned (Book #2 in the Divided Series)

Chapter 4 - Part 4

Walking back to our rooms, Tara and I were silent. We went into our separate rooms, still silent, trying to figure out how to approach this with Albert, confident that he would appear and demand to talk to us. We knew our parents had an engagement, and weren't here, and that it would probably only encourage Albert to come and talk to us.

I had just settled myself down, playing through some calming pieces, and I heard Tara playing the violin. She had finally cracked and sent a note to the palace to get one for her, as her hobby while she was here. She had admired it that morning when we arrived before lunch, and was testing it out now.

I was right about knowing Albert would be coming. As soon as I felt calm enough to stop playing my own music and listen to my sister playing a piece, getting herself warmed up, there was a knock on my door. "Bella, it's Albert. Can I come in?"

"Sure. Call Louise in first." I heard a knock on Tara's door, and listened as she stopped playing, and leave her room, before she barged into mine. I hadn't moved from the piano stool, and sat there looking on as Tara threw herself onto one of my many couches, and positioned the pillows as she liked.

"Nice room." Albert said, and I realised this was the first time he had seen my room, let alone been in it. "Looks tidier than mine."

"Yours is lived in." Tara pointed out, looking up at him as he came to stand at the end of her chosen couch, "Ours have been lived in for less than four weeks, and sparingly at that, over the last two. You've been in yours for twelve years."

"Not happily." I heard him mutter as he took a seat on the couch opposite Tara. I was still on my stool, and happy to stay there for now. At least until I figured out what he wanted.

"What do you want Albert?" Tara asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Who are you?" he asked, looking between us, "Who are you really?"

"You know who we are." I said softly, looking at my hands, "Surely you worked out who we are?"

"I have a very good idea, but guessing and knowing are two different things." He pointed out, relaxing back into the couch and stretching his arms out across the back of it, "By now you'd think you trusted me."

"Not really, no." Tara said coolly, "You haven't done anything to earn our trust. We don't even know you."

"He has." I said, still soft, "He didn't blow it earlier."

"So, you really are that set of twins?" He asked, trying to maintain that look of effortless clam and disregard. He wasn't doing so well at it. His hands were clenched so hard I was worried for the fabric.

"If that's true, and I'm not saying it is," Tara said, pointing a finger at him, "What makes you think we would tell you?"

"Because I could help cover for you." He said simply.

"If we wanted someone to help cover for us, we would tell our closest friends." She shot back.

"Then why haven't you?" He countered.

"Who says we haven't?" She challenged.

I swear, these two were going to be the death of me. Barely knew each other and were fighting like siblings. Well, we had all met more as siblings than as friends, so I shouldn't really be that surprised by the behaviour that occurs when we get together. Tara and I do fairly well avoiding fights, mostly because we know how important it stay together and united behind a common goal. We have no reason to act like that with Albert. Yet.

"Cut it out." I said warily, a headache starting to develop. I rubbed my eyes, "We should just tell him. Be better like that. But he has to promise that he can't say who we really are. He'd be the only one who knows, so if it gets out, we can place the blame on him." I explain to Tara. She's not looking convinced, so I turn to Albert. "If you ever tell anyone, I'm going to fight you for the crown. Every step of the way." I warn him, "We both will. We have no interest in it, but if you destroy our future, we're going to destroy yours."

"What makes you think I want the crown?" he asks, trying to bluster his way through the threat, to prove that there is nothing we can threaten him with.

"Because you were raised to take it. Unlike the rest of us." Tara said, sitting up, "Look, you want to get us to trust you, and now you have to trust us in return."

"If you break that trust?" He asks, trying to gain an advantage back.

"Then you get to tell the world who we really are." I look at Tara and see her nod in agreement. We will back him for the crown if he keeps our secret.

"Are you ever going to tell anyone who you really are?" He asks, relaxing when we've both nodded.

"We will eventually, and if you've kept this pact, we'll vote for you to become king. I'd rather live at home." Tara says, lying back down. I don't know why she bothers, since she's started pulling hairpins out of her hair, and surely it would be easier to do when sitting up, especially for the back ones.

"Where is home?" Albert asks, curious. He's not being unpleasant towards us, and I hope that telling him who we are isn't going to backfire on us. He could just be acting.

"Australia." She replies, and looks at me, "Not Bella though."

Albert swings round to look fully at me for the first time since he sat down. I think he knows that of the two of us, Tara is going to be the one who will be the important power player. I have more interest in music than politics, but Tara was the one who managed to converse with everyone she met at the ball, and said she had a delightful time with Lord Manning, and we were both warned that he delighted in talking in riddles. And manipulation. I even heard he was aiming to try to become Prime Minister, since he had no seat in the House of Lords.

"I'm from Spain." I confess.

"We are that set of twins." Albert breathes, looking between us, almost like a cartoon character, eyes bugging out of his head.

"Of course, we are." Tara says, and sits up again, "I thought we went over that?" And she reached up and pulled her wig off.