DAHLIA
Blossom’s birthday party ended up being a perfect disaster, and I couldn’t be happier. After she and Eden had caught me outside with my mysterious new gentleman-friend, they’d screamed for the guards and within minutes our palace gardens were crawling with soldiers desperate to find the monster who’d ‘deflowered’ me.
Not that I would call what we did ‘deflowering’, but I suppose it was quite dark and I was moaning especially loud. The brief humiliation was all worth it, though. Because in one night, I achieved two wonderful things:
Blossom’s princess buffet was completely ruined.
And my reputation is now so far in the depths of hell that no prince would ever dare touch me again.
I haven’t spoken to Father yet, but according to Blossom he’s furious. And so is she, while the rest of my sisters seem to pity me. Anger, I expected, but I’ll admit the sorry looks they keep passing me are a little frustrating. They don’t understand that this is exactly what I wanted, the whole reason I threw myself at that stranger.Thismeans I won’t have to worry about being married off anymore. I can live my life howIchoose.
It helped that my stranger was a pretty good kisser too – if maybe a little intense.
I hope that if the guards catch him they don’t torture him too badly. It would be a shame to let that body go to waste if they were to execute him. Those broad shoulders… And those arms…Stars…
“Dahlia, you’re slouching again.” Blossom’s voice cuts through my daydream. A week has passed since her party and we’re back in the ballroom, the buffet tables now replaced by long ballet barres, while the string quartet has become a grand piano being played softly by a handsome musician. On the way in, I winked at him, but he paled and looked down, keeping his gaze fixed on the keys.
That’s been happening a lot lately.
His loss.
“Sorry, Blossom. I was just daydreaming about last week again. Your party,” I sigh, stretching my feet. When there are no balls, my sisters and I use this space for our ballet lessons. Once the warm-up is over, guards will drag the barres over and we’ll finish our stretching there. For now, we’re sitting in small groups in the centre of the room, warming up our legs and waiting for our teacher to arrive.
Eden passes me a sad smile. “You know you don’t have to blame yourself.” She’s stretching to my left, resting her head on her knees as she holds her yellow pointe shoes. “I saw the way he had you up against the wall. There’s no way you could’ve fought back. It must’ve been horrible.”
I snort, and Blossom shoots me a furious look.
I hadn’t forgotten our conversation last week, just chosen to ignore it. “If we’re quick, we can spin the story so he forced himself upon you,” Blossom had said after barging into my bedchamber a few hours after the ball. “Father has already agreed to release an official statement to the palace. You wereattacked, but our guards rescued you before he could take your virtue. You were a helpless victim. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
I’d laughed and asked if the fact that I was willingly grinding against him made me more or less of a ‘helpless’ victim. She’d argued for a while, but eventually stormed off and told me to deal with it on my own. Father released the statement anyway. Though it hasn’t stopped the dirty looks nobles give me in the halls.
They just kept on coming.
“I had a wonderful night, Eden,” I say, flexing my ankles. “I’m surprised you weren’t caught doing the same. I saw those two noblemen you were dancing with at the ball. Neither of them handsome enough for you?”
Eden blushes. “They were princes, actually. Brothers living in one of the manors just beyond the border.”
“Brothers?” I grin. “Do you think Blossom will let you marry both if you can’t pick? After the weddings, they can take it in turns to have babies with you.”
“Enough,” Blossom hisses while Eden’s face flushes as red as my pointe shoes. “There are little ears here.”
I roll my eyes. The youngest girls, Liliana and Kalimeris, are sitting nearby, practising their splits, but they’re far too busy giggling about their own romantic encounters at Blossom’s party to pay any attention to us.
“You didn’t care about that when you invited teenage princes for them to court at the ball,” I remind her.
“That was Father’s idea, not mine,” she whispers back. “I only asked if we could invite some suitors for the older girls. He just got a little carried away.”
“Sure.” I lift one leg, crossing it over the other and twisting my upper body away from her. She might be telling the truth, but I don’t care. Every day that passes she sounds more like a queen,more like Father, and less like the sister I used to enjoy bickering with in our parlour over a game of cards.
Tears form in the corner of my eyes, but I swallow them down. I won’t give her the pleasure of seeing me cry. It’d only give her something else to tell me off for.
“Princess Dahlia.” I flinch as my name echoes across the ballroom. One of Father’s guards stands in the archway, his tabard an ominous shade of red.
I taste blood in my mouth.
“Princess Dahlia, you are requested to come with me to speak with the king.” His eyes capture mine.
Moving into my next stretch, I call out to him, “Tell Father his chat with me can wait. I’m in a ballet lesson right now.”
