The Crown

Twenty-Three.

The Crown

Sunday, 10:46 am

Gabriella heard a knock on the door. Running to open it, she saw that it was Aaron with a lavender purple dress in one hand and a set of rose gold pearl necklace and earrings in his other hand. "There you are my lady." He said, placing them on her bed.

"I cannot accept this Aaron, this is more prettier than lady Denissa's dress. I will stand out too much." Gabriella covered her mouth with her hands in awe of the dress laid out before her. She had never seen something sown so beautifully.

"You deserve to stand out, now I and the prince went to town early in the morning to find you a dress. When he lied his eyes on a lilac french dress he knew that this was the one for you."

"He did this for me?....Ah I don't know how to thank you!" Gabriella ran towards Aaron with tears in her eyes and with all appreciation she gave him a hug. He was quite surprised for nobody had thanked him this way before, nobody thanked him in general.

"Do not cry Gabriella, you deserve to it. You are a princess in Manuel's eyes. His words himself." Aaron said, surprising Gabriella once again. She was a princess in Manuel's eyes and certainly one in the eyes of the righteous King above.

Suddenly, a maid stood at the crack in the door and said, "Gabriella, Lady Denissa wants to see you in her room."

~*~

"Yes my lady." Gabriella stood at the entrance of Denissa door.

"Come in, you know this very well. I need help with which jewels I will wear, we did not decide on that yesterday." Gabriella walked towards her vanity. A row of different sorts of jewels were on display.

From pearl to gold. Gabriella glanced at Denissa then back at the jewelry. "The pearls will fit you very well my lady."

"Good, now help me place it around my neck. These are very delicate so be careful." Denissa said. And that is all she said, she never asked her how night was or what dress she was going wear. Denissa was shutting Gabriella out of her life little by little day by day and Gabriella took a notice of it.

"My lady. Will I be your court maid at the ball?" Gabriella stood behind her asking, she seemed quite afraid. Denissa glanced at her in the mirror before answering. "No, you will not. After my proposal I will be getting a new court maid. I am releasing you from your duties."

"But- why my lady? I serve you with honor and trust. What have I done so bad for you to replace me?" Gabriella asked with a saddened face. Denissa looked around before taking her hand and out of her room they went, walking down the corridor to a dark room.

"We mustn't speak of this anywhere but here. I once told you that you may love anybody else. Even Aaron, the prince's butler for he is handsome and well fit. Or the footman back at Manor. But you choose the one person my eyes have been fixed on since I was a little girl, prince Manuel! Do you know how much it broke my heart to hear that you love him and then for him to say that he loved you back-

"What?" Gabriella cut her off in confusion asking. "He... loves me back?"

"I have said too much. It does not matter anyway. You are no longer my court maid, I will get a new noble, trustworthy woman from the Manor or maybe one of the servants here, you have betrayed me awfully. I will be an engaged woman by tonight and you will be far far away from the kingdom." Denissa said before walking away but Gabriella pulled her back.