My Sister's Prince

Chapter One:

Eulalie was flying. Below her, she saw the ground rush in streaks of green and gold. Flowers looked like colorful streaks in the ground, she was going so quickly. Up ahead, a fence, and she held her breath as she felt herself fly seamlessly above it. Somewhere behind her, her governess was shouting for her, begging her to fly back towards the grounds, she'd gone out too far.

Hesitantly, Eulalie came back to earth. She didn't want to stop or slow down, but if her governess kept shouting, her mother would surely wake from her afternoon nap and come out to yell at her some more. She turned Albertine back towards the castle, and she heard the great beast sigh with annoyance. "So you like to fly too, eh, my girl?" She leaned forward and patted the white horse's side, rubbing her coarse hair and feeling her sweat beneath her coat.

"Don't fret, Albertine, you and I shall come back out another time soon. Perhaps when Mother and Leanora go away." This seemed to satisfy the horse, who picked up her step and headed back towards the stables. When Eulalie had finished cleaning up the horse and feeding and watering her, she stepped outside of Fennelwick's great stables, where her governess was impatiently tapping her slippered foot against the gravel path.

"Oh Mrs. Rose, you surely must be tired of waiting on me by now," Eulalie coaxed and teased. For years, she had willed their strict governess, Mrs. Rose, to quit her post. Despite her best efforts, and plenty of frogs in her bed, the old woman insisted on remaining the governess for the two Ladies of Fennelwick. Perhaps it was the massive sum her mother was paying her, Eulalie though to herself.

"Lady Eulalie," Mrs. Rose said, clearing her voice, "your mother is requesting your assistance in her drawing-room."

Eulalie's teasing smile converted into a thin line. "Well, how about you tell her I'll join her once I'm washed," she said, making her way back to the house. Mrs. Rose, who she expected to follow her, remained behind, clearing her throat.

"Actually, my lady, she's been waiting for over an hour. She insists on seeing you now."

Eulalie took her governess' warning and made her way to her mother's drawing room. Stealing a glance at her attire, she cringed. The bottoms of her skirts were stained with dirt and clay, and her hair had fallen out of its braid. She was sure that she would be hearing an earful from her Mama. Bracing herself, she entered.

"Ah, Eulalie," the Duchess said, trying her best not to wrinkle her nose at the mention of her youngest daughter's name. "Come in...sit down," she hesitated, unwilling to offer her muddy child a seat on her chaise lounge. Correcting herself, she added, "perhaps it's better if you stand."

Eulalie maintained her standing position at the doorway of the parlor, stealing a glance at the room around her. She saw her sister sitting patiently in the corner. The massive size of the room seemed to minimize her sister's already small size. Years of illness had stunted Leanora's growth, and the sickly young woman looked more like a frilly doll that her mother had placed on the loveseat. Her sister's eyes were big and full of warning, and Eulalie wracked her brain for whatever could be about to happen.

She noticed that her mother's trunks were packed and waiting in the room, ready for their departure the following morning. She and Leanora were expected at the royal in two days' time for a meeting with the royal family. Leanora had been scouted by the family as a suitor for Prince Alaric, next in line to his father's throne. Eulalie's heart briefly panged with an indescribable ache for the prince she had briefly known as a child.

Leanora's engagement with the prince had been set in action since that very first meeting twelve years ago. Originally planning on having the royal wedding once Leanora turned eighteen, the plans were delayed by years of illness, followed by a year or two of weakness, prohibiting Leanora from being able to attend her own wedding. Now a woman of eighteen herself, Eulalie's mind was consumed mostly with thoughts of her horse, of the latest adventure novel, of exploring the countryside's terrain with their father. Marrying, as her mother had so clearly outlined since she was a little girl, was almost entirely out of the question, for who would want to marry a muddied bumpkin?

Now, Leanora had mostly healed, and the engagement plans had resumed. Looking at her sister now, Eulalie had no idea how she was even going to stand at her own wedding, let alone take part in the expected "duties" of a bride the girls had been warned about, she looked so weak and frail. She felt for her sister, and she wished she could go along with her. More than anything, Leanora needed her sister around her for strength.

Growing up over the years, Leanora had always depended upon that strength to read at her beside when she was too sick to open eyes, or to describe visions of the outdoors to her when she was a prisoner to illness in her own bed. Eulalie's heart hurt as she imagined being left behind at Fennelwick Castle without Leanora. The castle was already so dark and gloomy. Without her dearest sister, she was sure it would be an even more miserable place.

"Eulalie, have you been listening to me?" Her mother's harsh voice interrupted her thoughts and brought her back to the present. She turned to stare towards her mother, and in the sunlight streaming through the windows, flecks of gray were visible in her tight updo. These past years have caused their mother to age, she thought to herself. With Leanora's life on the line because of her illness so many times, her mother's chance of glory and wealth at risk, it's no wonder the now old woman was losing her fair hair. Good, Eulalie thought cruelly.

"Yes Mother," she replied, though she was unsure of what she just agreed to having heard.

"So it's settled, then," the Duchess declared, folding her gloved hands behind her back, "Eulalie is to come to the capital with us." Eulalie's jaw dropped, and she looked to her sister for assistance.

She had no interest in going to the capital with her family. She was looking forward to her mother and sister being gone so that she and her father could have free reign of the castle. "Why?" She asked, bracing herself for her mother's inevitable comment on her rudeness.

"I thought you were listening?" Her mother questioned, arching a pale eyebrow at her youngest. "When will you ever learn, Eulalie?" She huffed before she could continue. "Your sister has requested your presence alongside her when she is to have her introduction to the prince. She insists," she turned up her nose here, "that she cannot make the journey without you."

Later, Eulalie pulls her sister aside. Within her own callused hands she felt Leanora's boney arm. "Ow, Eula, you're hurting me!"

"Why did you ask mother for me to come?" The space above her sister's nose, in between her two fair eyebrows creased with confusion.

"Are you unhappy, sister? I thought you would be pleased to see the palace and the capital with us." Eulalie scoffed, earning a scolding look from her sister.

"Please, Leanora, being in that...place has always been yours and Mother's dream, never mine. I was looking forward to being here at Fennelwick, with Father and the horses." She linked her arm through her sister's and together they walked through the hallway, Eulalie stealing glances through the large picture windows to the meadow that awaited her return outside.

"Eulalie, despite our mother's words, you're going to need to find yourself a husband. Papa cannot pass along Fennelwick to you," she said, as if it were the most ridiculous notion in the world.

"Whyever not?" She questioned, puffing up her chest with gusto. "After you marry the prince, it shall only be me, myself, and I here at the Castle. Papa and Mama will not want to stay here after you've been crowned princess," she says.

"Surely you don't think a woman could inherit all of this," she said, gesturing to the castle around them. "Haven't you learned anything in our lessons?" When Eulalie paused, Leanora held up a gloved hand, "don't answer that."

"Sister, us ladies of Absalon aren't permitted to inherit anything beyond a dowry or a diamond ring. Whenever Papa dies, your husband, if you should be so lucky, will inherit all that you see." Eulalie released her hold on her sister and walked ahead, studying the stones of the wall as if they were the most interesting things in the world.

They stood there for a long while in silence, Eulalie biting back the tears from her eyes.

"Fear not, sister," Leanora started, cheering her up with a smile, "once I marry the prince, I'm sure it won't be difficult for you to find a suitable match."