Forever Yours

Chapter 8

LYDIA POV:

Lydia knew that she had made a mistake when she started being slightly rude to the prince. 

That's exactly what Clary had warned her to be careful about: she had a hot temper and couldn't always keep it under control. 

"No matter how much you are annoyed by the unfair distribution of wealth, you must keep your mouth shut," Clary had told her the night before Lydia had left her family. "Or else you might get in trouble." 

Lydia had simply nodded her head and agreed to watch her mouth for the time that she was away from home. And now, that silent promise had fallen apart. 

Lydia had been walking down one of the many corridors of the palace on the way to the interview that she had with prince Alec when the realization of how clearly the servants were mistreated, dawned on her. 

First, she had heard shouting. And then a door swung open and a maid scurried out of a room with a blooming red welt on her cheek. Lydia had quickly ducked into a room so that she wouldn't be seen. She was almost bursting with fury. How can anyone treat someone who's only trying to help them in such a disrespectful manner? She walked out of her hiding spot and stormed towards the meeting room. 

Instead of curtsying when her name was called, she stuck out her hand and stated her name trying to be as arrogant as possible. Trying to show him what it felt like to be looked down upon by someone. By someone who only believed that they were of higher 'ranking' because of the amount of money that was in their pockets.

She flopped down on the chair without an invitation form the prince and leaned back in a way that would suggest that she was bored to be there. Lydia smirked as the prince stared down at her astonished, though her smile fell away as the corners of his mouth turned up to match her previous amusement. She had not expected him to find her anything other than rude, on the reports he was stiff and serious. He didn't even smile when his little brother, prince Maxwell came running on to the stage, buck-naked in the middle of the kings update on the lack of respect toward the royal family in the outskirts of Idris. 

Lydia composed herself from her previous astonishment and sat rigidly in her chair.

"What is it like being a one? It must be so hard having everyone do everything for you." She said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. 

Alec looked surprised and then said, "Actually, it's a lot more difficult than you might think."

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't know that you worked your ass off so that you could feed your family a quarter of what they should be eating only to be struck across the face for doing your job properly!" Lydia practically shouted, her face bright red with fury.

The prince frowned and then asked, "Who's getting hit?" 

Lydia hesitated before saying  "Oh, you didn't know. On my way to this meeting I ran into a maid who had been struck across the face, her cheek had begun to swell."

Alec turned beet red and quickly muttered "I need to talk to my father about this." Before standing up and walking away without looking back. 

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It had been two weeks since the meetings with Prince Alexander and 12 girls had been sent home. 

Lydia was sitting at the breakfast table with the other 11 girls that were left, when Prince Alexander stood up abruptly.

His cheeks flushed red before he began to give his speech. "Hello everybody," He started awkwardly, "I just wanted to announce that this year my mother is going to be hosting Christmas Ball so that we can all celebrate the end of this year together."

Lydia rolled her eyes, this speech had clearly been rehearsed so many times that it had lost all of its meaning. She looked around the table and saw that all fo the other girls were nearly jumping with joy. She had to resist another eye roll, how could these people be so blind? 

Prince Alec cut off the squealing girls with a hand gesture and added, "Your families will be joining you as well, the letters have already been sent out."

Lydia choked on her orange juice and started coughing loudly. She looked up with her face still buried in the crook of her elbow and smiled at Alec, her face glowing with happiness. He smiled back, his crystal blue eyes twinkling as they met hers.

Lydia was lost in the endless ocean of his eyes and was completely unaware of the screaming girls around her. She shook her head, stepping out of her trance when Alec looked away.

"Your families will be here by noon tomorrow so I suggest you make all the preparations you need," Queen Maryse said, her usual stern voice carrying out around the room. "You are excused."

Lydia jumped up and sunk into a curtsy. She stood up so fast the she stumbled and had to grab the back of her chair to steady herself before nearly sprinting out of the breakfast hall. 

She didn't care what the others thought of how she had rudely exited the hall; all she cared about was getting to see her sister and her mom again.