The Reluctant Prince

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

          

          After lunch the four young adults finished up with the shopping for that night and then headed back through the city to the castle. Chatting and laughing during the whole walk, they came to stop in front of Izzy's bedroom where the girls were going to get ready for that night. As Izzy opened the door the four of them were greeted by a startled Lydia.

"I was just about to come looking for you two."

"Because you're almost forty minutes late!" Someone yelled from within Izzy's bedroom. Izzy rolled her eyes; it's not like it was her fault. For once.

"Sorry, Lydia," Ellie apologized. "We were delayed this morning by uncontrolled events," Ellie continued, giving the boys behind her a stern but teasing look. Lydia followed her gaze, not having noticed the two before and smiled at Andrew before asking who Nick was.

"Oh, right," Izzy said, annoyed that she forgot introductions. She was, after all, the crowned princess; she should have better manners than that. "Nicky this is Lydia, my ladies' maid. And Lydia this is Nicolas Reynolds, my new bodyguard."

"Wait a minute. New bodyguard?" Emily, Ellie's younger sister, asked, coming up from behind Lydia, still brushing out her long ebony hair.

"As in officially replacing Rupert?" Cat asked, also coming to stand behind Lydia in the doorway, in the process of tying her blonde curls in a low ponytail.

"Yes, I am her new bodyguard," Nick smiled. "Now if you'll excuse us, I believe you ladies have to get ready for the ball."

Nick and Andrew both bowed to the five women before walking off, and Lydia, Cat, and Emily all stared down the hall after the two until Izzy and Ellie pushed them inside and shut the door. The two men continued down the hall, oblivious to the women staring after them, to wander the castle and gardens until the time came when they had to get ready for the ball that night. As they did so Nick amusedly watched all of the servants scurrying to finish decorations and found himself wondering, and therefore asking Andrew, what time it was.

"Around two, I think," Andrew shrugged.

"And the ball is at what time again?"

"Eight."

"Seriously? It takes them six hours to get ready?" Nick blinked a few times in amazement as he calculated the hours.

"Five, actually. They have to be ready by seven," Andrew corrected and shrugged nonchalantly—apparently this was no new news to him.

"B-but that doesn't make sense. It used to only take them an hour," Nick stuttered. When he was last living in the castle Izzy, Ellie, and himself would oftentimes be running around and climbing the garden trees up until an hour before the ball.

"And they would have been, what? Nine at that time?" Andrew chuckled, giving Nick a sidelong glance. Nick thought about it and nodded, confirming their age. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, Nick, Izzy and Ellie are no longer little girls; they're grown women."

"Thank you, Sir Obvious," Nick said, rolling his eyes. "I think I figured that out." He paused. "No, what doesn't make sense to me is that four women—who have ladies' maids that doll them up—still take five hours to get ready." Nick paused before going on but, instead, was interrupted by chuckling.

"That's where you're getting it wrong," Andrew said after he gained control over speech once more. Nick, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on and had no clue as to what he was getting wrong. "The girls get ready by themselves. No ladies' maids. That's why it takes them forever to get ready."