Chapter 13: Tea With The Ladies

The Queen led her to the drawing room, where the ladies usually had tea. And there, her mother, Ava, lady Amelia, and the rest of all the other ladies who were close friends with the Queen sat.

Ava sat beside her mother, her expression passive. Yet Lily knew her enough to know that she was irritated as well as bored. Her eyes brightened when she saw Lily and Lily, in return offered her a gentle smile.

"What are we talking about, ladies?," the Queen vibrantly asked, strutting towards them, her arm still interlocked with Lily's.

Lily's mother's brows raised in surprise when she saw her daughter being held hostage by the arm of the Queen. "Lily, I was told you were with Prince Gilbert, what are you doing here now?"

"The King needed to speak with Prince Gilbert so the Queen offered to bring me here for tea," she smiled at her mother, trying to seem as comfortable as possible. However, her mother knew her well enough to know that she was not.

"Come here. Sit by me," she offered. Her offer was gratefully accepted as Lily instantly loosened her hold on the Queen and pulled away, eager to be free. Thankfully, the Queen seemed ready to let her go.

"So Lillian, how does it feel?," one of the ladies turned her head to ask her. Surprised, Lillian met her gaze with slightly wide eyes.

"How does what feel?," she asked back.

"Why, being engaged to the prince, of course!," the lady laughed. That high-pitched, controlled giggle that all the elite women seemed to share. "It is endearing to find that such a handsome lad will be settled with such magnificent beauty such as yourself."

"I agree! Gilbert is desired by nearly all the damsels in Alfadamia, you certainly must feel lucky to be getting married to him!," a other one of the ladies spoke up, causing another round of pretence giggles to erupt from the throats of the ladies.

Lillian followed along with a tight, strained, awkward chuckle, muttering quietly, "We're not engaged yet."

Her mother chipped in. "I should think Gilbert should feel lucky as well to earn my daughter's affection. I have raised nothing less than independent, kind young lady."

Lily felt her mother's hand grasp her, squeezing it within her grip gently and she returned the squeeze, silently showing her gratitude to her mother.

"Of course, Feia," the Queen spoke up, a gentle smile on her lips as she had not missed the exchange between the girl and her mother. "Even I feel incredibly grateful that such a young lady will be marrying into my family. Lillian will make a great Queen one day."

Duchess Feia nodded agreeably. "I have no doubt whatsoever."

Thankfully, after that, the ladies dropped the topic of her marriage to Gilbert, much to her relief. The gossip circle of women was something Lillian wasn't sure she would ever understand, experiencing how they managed to switch topics every minute, never running out of things to talk about.

Lillian considered herself very sociable but even she couldn't beat the amount of gossip stored withing the lips of an elite lady.

Soon it was evening time and guests began arriving for the ball. The excitement which Lillian had lost a few hours earlier had now returned as she was in one of the guests chambers, accompanied by Ava as they freshened up.

"Do you think there will be any casualties this year, Ava?," Lillian questioned, meaning to make small talk to calm her nerves. "As much as I am interested in watching the dance, I do not think I fancy watching someone's child die because of a performance we elites enjoy."

She sat before the dresser mirror, watching the servants fix her hair. Ava sat on the bed behind them, a book in her hands. She looked up to meet Lillian's reflection in the mirror.

"I certainly hope not to watch someone die tonight," she answered. "But it is not like it hasn't happened before. There is a always a possibility that it will again."

Lillian understood what Ava meant and she completely agreed. That was one of the reasons that she was anxious to see the performance.

Casualties hadn't been as frequent as before but there were still cases of the contortionists losing their balance or the ropes being cut or one not catching his partner, all resulting in one or more deaths.

Lillian genuinely wondered why the elites still chose to watch this seemingly gruesome performance but she finalised that it wasn't as bad as she imagined if even her parents looked forward to it.

It was later in her years that Lillian found out about the highlight of the performance; The Dance Of Fire, a difficult fire dance that seemed to amuse an entertain the elite circle to the point where they watched it every year.

It was spoken highly of, such that anyone who dared to speak ill of the dance was terribly shunned and punished with ill treatment by the rest of the elites.

So of course, such a performance would pique the young Lillian's attention. She hadn't been able to see it in the past as it was a law that only those who have reached their adulting years in the elite community may be allowed to watch the dance.

And though Lillian was not yet eighteen years old, she was granted permission this year as her birthday was only a few weeks away.

Her eighteenth, which she dreaded as a week or so after, would mark her engagement to the Prince of Alfadamia.

She shook her head as though trying to clear all dreadful thoughts. Tonight, she would focus on enjoying the dance.