The Search for Cinderella

Chapter 21

Jade twiddled her thumbs in Sir Elliot's study, once again nursing a burgeoning headache. The irony was not lost on her. She lurched forward as her eyelids nearly closed shut but she managed to save face just in time. The lack of sleep was going to undo the farce of attentiveness she played.

The Crown Prince paced on the plush carpet in front of her. His fine, embroidered clothes were creased and undone. His ceremonial sword discarded long ago.

"Calm down, master Edward, you will tire yourself," Elliot was uncharacteristically compassionate. He sat at his wooden desk with a wide assortment of parchments strewn in front of him. The older man was busy making contingencies for potential contingencies.

Jade squashed the urge to interrogate the Crown Prince about last night's disturbance, during his dance with Emma. Their current predicament was far graver. It needed to be handled with utmost care and urgency or the Prince would be lost to them forever. The girl made plans to approach her friends as soon as she was dismissed.

"A bunch of miserable idiots- dimwits -perposterous..." The gold clad Crown Prince mumbled to himself. He stuck his fingers in his short raven locks carelessly and whatever shape or form his valet had intended was now demolished.

"I apologize for the interruption but where is Prince Luke? Is he alright?" Jade finally braved the lull in conversation to ask questions. Her attention shifted from one occupant of the room to the other, hoping either one would reply. She hadn't laid eyes on her employer since the guards escorted him away from outside the palace. 

"He has an audience with the King scheduled for this hour. He is advocating his cause in hopes he will be allowed to pursue the girl," Elliot explained with a clipped accent. His furrowed greying brows showed signs that he utterly disapproved.

"Are you absolutely certain she asked for help?" Edward rounded up on Jade mid step. If his dark blue eyes were weapons they would have dug holes in the secretary's narrow face.

"I have already fine combed my entire experience to you thrice. I doubt you shall find anything new in my statement, Your Highness," Jade explained with unraveling patience, "What I don't understand how the Prince managed to escape such tight security."

"We are not as infallible as we thought. No one saw him leave the room. One minute he danced on the floor and the next he vanished into thin air. We were all enchanted," Elliot looked down at his ink splattered fingers with something that looked like remorse. 

"It was only luck I wasn't in the room then," Jade pondered, "Otherwise he would have been spirited off..."

"Why weren't you?" Edward asked with an unnecessary tone of hostility, "In the room, I mean."

Jade's nimble fingers emptied her stuffed pockets and showed them the bags of her winnings. She had managed to poach all the remaining contents of Lord George's pockets.

"I wasn't just lucky to catch the Prince last night. I also won a heafty amount at the gaming tables. It seemed too crude to take my share of winnings in front of polite society so I made the exchange in the entrance hall," Jade gave the occupants of the study a wry grin. She relished the memory of her stepmother's cries of fury and angish. They balmed her ears much more than last night's orchestra had.

Sir Elliot shook his head as if gravely disappointed in all of Jade's life choices and excused her from the room. Taking the opportunity to leave at last Jade raced off to the second person whose plight was troubling through her mind.

"Emma," Jade called out out as she knocked on the gilded door. The secretary faltered at the thought of Emma having left for the capital forever and decided the polite knocking wouldn't suffice. After a near violent attempt at the doorknob the door eased open abruptly. Emma's tear streaked face peered from behind the guilded doorway.