The Prince That Got Away ( A Royal Romance Novel )

Prince Louis

Seven Years Ago...
Emilia's POV:

The Ethelred High School was every history buff fantasy, a stunning work of Gothic architecture perched upon a hill. It had huge grounds and patches of beautiful flower beds here and there, which made it look like something out of an old fairy tale. It even had pointed arches and lovely stained glass windows, that had been beautifully preserved in the older sections of the building.

The school was founded hundreds of years ago as a place where the sons of aristocrats or those wanting to join the clergy, could be trained for their future careers. Its alumni included fourteen prime ministers, many parliamentarians, and members of the nobility.

I guess I should be excited about getting a scholarship here, my mom certainly was. She couldn't help gushing about it to all of her friends and relatives, to the point where it was almost embarrassing.

" Emilia, tell me if you see any celebrities there or the prince. I have heard he studies there", Mom said for the thousandth time.

" OK, Mom," I signed. Somehow, her awe of the school and its elite students was heightening my already rising levels of anxiety. I had always found interacting with new people a challenge, and I knew my first day at school would be anything but easy.

From the moment I walked into the school building, I knew something was off about this place. It wasn't just the gloomy feel of old buildings. Besides, I love anything old and related to history. It was rather the people there, who gave me that strange feeling. Maybe I have suddenly gotten more antisocial. Perhaps I should see a shrink. After all, no one was doing anything to me. In fact, when the teacher introduced me to the class, they all got up and came to my table to say hi to me.

Maybe it has something to do with my own insecurities and nothing to do with them at all. I was the only scholarship student in my class and probably the only one with a middle-class background. The costs of studying at this school were so high, that your parents had to be pretty loaded to send you here, without any scholarship to ease their financial burden. Though there was a school uniform, it did little to hide the very obvious socioeconomic difference that existed between us.

For example, Tiffany, the loudest and seemingly the most popular girl in class had a gold bracelet on her wrist, her hair bleached blonde and straightened so perfectly, she must have gone to one of those 'luxury' beauty salons. Even my lab partner in chemistry class Tessa was wearing Chanel N°5 perfume. The only way I could tell was because my mom had thrown away months of her savings to buy it.

I remembered how livid my dad was when he learned what she had done. He had called her a parasite, and my mom had threatened to leave him. She couldn't bring herself to wear it in his presence for months afterward and now only uses it on special occasions like her birthday.

I kept telling myself that I was shallow and superficial to be so impressed and consequently intimidated by money. I told myself that I should interact with these guys like I would with my peers at my old school. But then we all sat down to chat during recess, and it became obvious that there was something wrong. The girls, for one, would make no effort to include me in the conversation.

They would gossip about people I had no idea about, and when I would ask them, they would only smile at me and change the topic. One group of girls talked nonstop about vacationing in Europe, and I, who had never really been anywhere outside the country, could only stare blankly at their faces.

The boys were just the same, and interacting with them for someone like me was impossible. I had a little secret, one which I was ashamed to even admit. I was extremely shy when it came to interacting with the opposite sex, especially those who were my own age. The more handsome and charming they were, the worse my shyness was around them. I knew that it would be more correct to say that I was frightened of anyone I could be attracted to, anyone who could make me fall for him was seen as a threat.