Sea of Glass ✔️

Chapter 8 - The Mad Princess

"Hunters slaughter game and they are celebrated for it. But if I kill a few animals in my room, suddenly I'm the one that doesn't respect the sanctity of life."

Vera and Dahlia exchanged nervous looks, casting their eyes downward when I noticed.

"Don't you think it's a bit much for them to call me the Mad Princess? I didn't murder anyone. I've done nothing to suggest that I'm crazy."

Dahlia sipped her tea soundlessly while Vera took the tiniest nibble of her biscuit. Neither gave any indication that they had heard my words.

"You think I'm crazy."

"No," Vera said quickly, wiping the crumbs from the corner of her mouth.

"But the court thinks you have a few screws loose," Dahlia added. "No sane person would have a pile of dead birds in their room."

"It was an accident."

"That's not what the maid said. She told everyone that you killed them. There was blood on your hands, Evelyn. How can you explain that?"

We lapsed in silence. It was my turn to sip tea and nibble on the biscuits. Truthfully, I had no words I could say to them. If I tried to explain it, it would only prove the rumors true and convince them that I was unfit to rule.

"I instructed the maid not to breathe a word," I finally said, breaking the silence. "I thought I could trust the servants."

Dahlia shook her head vigorously. "Darling, you aren't ten years old. You know how they gossip. How else did you think Vera and I found out about Elio?"

"Even I know better than that," Vera chimed in.

I suppressed the urge to laugh. "Well, what was I supposed to do? Stuff them in the closet? The wretched smell alone would have drawn attention and I would've been found out anyway."

"You should have never fed that bird in the first place. If you wanted to keep it as a pet, you were better off stuffing it in a cage. Wild animals aren't your friends," Dahlia chided.

"I don't entirely agree with that. It's not like she fed a tiger or a lion. Birds are harmless pretty things," Vera said.

"They are pests," she insisted. "I don't know how you can make friends with a creature that carelessly leaves their droppings wherever they please. Not that they are your friends anymore."

Because they're dead, I thought, letting the unspoken words echo in my head. My power, whatever it was, had caused that.

"You should fire that maid," Dahlia added. "If she's going to say all these awful things about you, she's more trouble than she's worth."

"Won't I look crazier sending her away?"

"Not necessarily," Vera said. "It could make her look like a liar instead. Remember that girl who was telling the rest of the servants that I was 'gifting' her dresses that she stole from me? Sending her away could make it seem like she was making up stories."

"You would look sane," Dahlia reassured me. "People won't be saying those things about you anymore."

That would be the easy thing to do. I could claim that the maid hated me and my father would fire her without hesitation. But then, that would be lying. And it wouldn't be a good lie either. She wasn't the only person who saw the blood and the dead animals. There would be other servants to fire too, but by then, the rumors would get worse.

No, getting rid of the maid might make me look sane, but it would be at the cost of my image. My people deserved a benevolent ruler, not a cruel authoritarian.