"You remind me of a lady I knew," Queen Delia smiled.

My mother, I realized who she was talking about. I smiled grimly within. This was the perfect opportunity to make Char hate me even more.

"You must be speaking of Lady Eleanor," I smiled, wide and toothy, and watched as the queen smiled her pleasure that I knew of whom she spoke. "I am often told by those who knew her that I remind them of her. I guess that is what happens when you were practically raised by them."

"You were raised by Lady Eleanor?" Char stepped forward. "So you knew her daughter Ella," he asked me hopefully.

I frowned, "Yes, I knew Ella. How is it that you knew her? Did she try to win you also?"

Char frowned, "Whatever do you mean?"

"Ella was a hopeless flirt," I told him. "She was always after the most powerful, or richest man closest to her." I sighed and shook my head. "I doesn't even come as a surprise that she would try to win the Crown Prince over."

His frown deepened, "You knew her when you were both younger?" He seemed to be confirming that fact.

"Yes, we grew up from the time we were six when my mother died until the time we were thirteen and my father remarried."

"But you did not attend Lady Eleanor's funeral."

"Char," his father said in a warning tone. He obviously thought his son was being rude in questioning me so.

"It is quite alright, your highness," I smiled. "No, I was unable to attend the Lady's funeral, I was quite ill at the time, but my father and I came to pay our respects later on."

"I would love to hear about Lady Eleanor's daughter," the queen clasped my hands. "It should make me feel as if Eleanor were here again. Might you tell us one from the time you spent with her?"

I smiled, "Of course, your highness."

She guided me to a velvet sofa and we sat, the rest of royal family gathered around us on armchairs.

"Before Ella became interested in money and power, she was the most defiant girl she could possibly be." I began.

"Whatever do you mean?" Char asked.
I looked at him, confused.

"You said she was defiant as she could be." He pointed out, raising one of his thick eyebrows.

I shrugged, "I can't really explain it. It was almost as if Ella had to obey any order given to her." My eyes bulged. I had just told him my secret. I had just disobeyed my mother's orders and I wasn't getting any stomach or head pains. I was perfectly fine. Maybe, if I spoke of myself as a different person, I could tell Char everything. "Actually, it was almost as if. You see, Ella was cursed when she was younger with the gift of obedience by the Fairy Lucinda. If she were to be told to kiss a frog, she would have to do it."

Char's eyes were wide and he lurched to his feet and began to pace, "So, hypothetically speaking, if Ella were to be told to marry the first man who offered his hand to her, she would have to?" I nodded. "And if she were told to write a note that were to absolutely tear out the heart of one she loved, she would have to?"

"Yes!" I cried. "Exactly! If Ella were told to kill her friend, love, husband, or even her mother, she would have to."

"And if she were to be ordered to kill her king," Char muttered, rubbing his chin, "she would have to do it."

"It would seem, my dear," the king winked at his wife, "as if they have quite forgotten us. Perhaps we should shoo them off to the party."

"Oh, yes, I believe, we have kept them both far too long."

Char, obviously distracted, took me by the arm and escorted me out of the room to the ballroom.