Aligned (Book #2 in the Divided Series)

Chapter 6 - Part 3

I watched stealthily from my bedroom as Katie stood there, waiting for her to go into Tara's room and say something. She stood there for a few minutes, silently crying, before drying her eyes, hiccuping a few times, and knocking on the door to Tara's room, and slowly opening the door, before going inside.

When the door shut behind her, I sighed in relief, knowing that between them, they could sort this all out, and I set back to work, making sure that I looked like a princess. I sat there, doing my hair again, taking the time to re-braid it, since yanking the wig off had disturbed the hair coiled around the back of my head, and I wanted to make sure it sat right, despite planning to take it off after lunch again anyway.

Just as I had reattached the wig to my hair, and was twisting it up in some practice hairstyles, not sure yet how I should do it for lunch, someone knocked on my door.

"Hey." I said, letting Albert in, and returning to the bedroom of my suite. It was located to the left of my main sitting room, and I preferred to do my hair and makeup in my bedroom, since it had no windows, unlike my dressing room, with all my outfits and proper mirrors. I did the final touch-ups in there, since the lighting was better, and it helped with the lipsticks, knowing what I would wear.

"Hello." He was still so formal, not used to the slang.

"What was Tara doing in your room?" I asked, sitting back down in front of my mirror, looking as Albert as he took a seat on my bed. "She was supposed to be getting ready."

"She wanted to make sure I signed something about not telling who you really were, and asking about how I felt about it all, playing two different parts around you both." Albert said, lying down, linking his hands behind his head as he did so.

"Well?" I asked, "How do you fell about it?"

"I'm not sure. I mean," He hurried on, seeing my quizzed look in the mirror, "I like both of your girls, and I hate having to pretend that I don't in public, but you'll let the world know eventually, and besides, I appear to be dating Katie."

"Really?" I asked dryly, "What makes you think that?"

"You sound just like your sister." Albert grumbled, staring up at the ceiling, "She's a nice girl, and I was as surprised as you were when she began shouting down the corridor, but I still like her." He admitted, lifting his head ever so slightly and making eye contact with me in the mirror, "She's pretty good, and it's nice to see she has some fire in her." He remarked, lying back down again on a sigh, "Besides, if anyone dates me, they need to be able to handle what comes at them. And I'd have to teach her how to control her temper, but I realised years ago that whatever girl I end up marrying, unless she's another royal herself, would have to be taught how to deal with all of this. Think about how long you've been taught about this, and you still haven't mastered it." He said calmly.

"And you haven't even tried." I quipped back, smiling at his through the mirror, "We could give you some lessons about public image."

"You're one to talk." He said with a laugh, "Tara plays the smart one, and you play the stupid one."

"Well, easy to swap that way. If one of us has a headache, we can swap to being the stupid one. Besides, you've seen us do it before." I said, deciding my normal hairstyle that I wore with my natural hair was going to do the trick today, and set about putting my hair up.

"Well, I guess that's handy, but it must get boring." Albert said, still sprawled on my bed, "At least I'm myself in public."

"No, you're not." I said, halting my braid and turning to look properly at him, "You're not this caring in public."

"Who says?" He asked, putting bravado into his tone, "Just because I don't let the cameras see it, doesn't mean I'm not caring."

"You should let people see it more." I informed him, "Maybe they'd feel better about you being their future king."

"Me, the king?" He scoffed, "Don't be absurd. No one thinks of me as their future king. At the moment the favourite is Louise, since she's shown to be the clever one."

"Well," I said, turning back around to finish my hair, "Shows what you know. Neither of us want it."

"Neither of you have ever considered becoming one of the most power women in the world?" Albert said, amused, "I hardly believe that!"

"That's not what I said." I tied off my braid, "I said we don't want to be queen."

"But surely you've thought about it?" Albert prodded, "You can't not have at this point."

"We've thought about it, discussed it, and decided, that out of the three of us, you're the better one to have it." I said, picking up my cream for smoothing out my skin before applying makeup. I wish, just once, I was able to step out of this room dressed naturally, without the work of being a princess going into my looks.

I knew I would have to keep applying the makeup, and getting dressed in the skirts and heels, but not having to put my real hair up, then putting the wig on, then doing the hair on the wig, was going to seriously reduce the amount of time it took me to get ready. I was not going to miss the wigs in their maintenance time, but I would miss being able to step out of my room and nobody knowing who I was.

"Me?" Albert asked, genuinely shocked, "What makes you think I'm going to be better at running this place than you and Tara?"

"Well, for a start, you were born for it." I said, wiping my hands clean of the cream, "We weren't."

"Yes, you were." Albert said dryly, "You were born royal too."

"Maybe," I picked up my foundation, "But you were raised to it. And, you are the first born."

"That we know of." Albert corrected me, "The others could be older than me."

"I don't think so." I mused, applying the foundation, contorting my face to make sure I got it everywhere with my brush, "They would have said in the first official thing if you weren't."

"I doubt it." Albert muttered, putting his hands on his stomach, "They don't like me very much."

I laughed, "The feeling appears mutual." I said, grinning, making sure my foundation blended properly, and picked up my powder. "Not that I can say that they appear to like Tara or myself any better."

"Maybe that's why they gave us all up?" Albert suggested darkly, "Thought I don't know why they'd want us back then."

"Because they know that one day, one of us will sit where they do, with whoever we have chosen as our partner, and we need to be ready for it. So, do they saddle the kingdom with someone who until the week after they died had no idea they were royal, and let them stumble through it with no training?" I asked, powdering my face, "Or, do they get us back as young adults, and train us how to run things the way they want things to run after they leave us in charge?"

"That," Albert said after a few minutes of silence, "Is a very good point."

"See, I'm not all that stupid." I said smugly, finishing my eye makeup, and re-touching the bits of makeup under my eyes where it had rubbed off, before putting my bronzer on, then blush.

Albert waited until I had finished applying everything, then watched as I packed it all up. "That looks really complicated." He remarked, still lying on my bed, staring around him, "This is the first time you've let me into your bedroom proper." He said suddenly, watching me vanish into the dressing room to choose what to wear. I was lucky that for palace engagements, I was allowed to choose my own clothes, but otherwise, I had to wear whatever my stylists picked out for me, and sit and let someone else do my makeup and hair. I hated it, and wanted to do my own. It wasn't like I didn't have compliments from others as to how well I turned myself out when left to my own devices.

Tara, on the other hand, hated going to all the trouble, and had people help her, no matter where she went. The only thing she could do, was pick her clothes. Her hair always somehow ended up looking wrong if she styled her own wig. She could do her real hair better than I could, but she couldn't get the wig to sit right if she styled it herself. I thought it rather funny.