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Chapter One
I never enjoyed my life. The problem was that I didn't choose my life, my life chose me. My mother told me it was an honor. Something I should be grateful for. But how could I be grateful? Since the age of twelve I have been sent away to the Dowager Academy with the other royals who are from the ages twelve through eighteen. I, along with the rest of these royals, belong to the fifty seven provinces of the great Lusteran Empire. Each province has its own king and queen, but as a whole the Lusteran Empire is ruled by the Emperor and Empress, Michael and Lenore
"Miss Madeline, please stand straight," said Mary, my nurse.
"Mary, I am standing straight."
"Well you are not straight enough because I cannot tighten this corset any further."
"That must mean that you may tie it now," I said stubbornly. I do not like corsets for they are very bothersome.
"I shall not, it is not tight enough."
"Oh, please Mary I cannot withstand the pain it causes. It feels as if it is crushing my rib cages."
"Alright Miss Madeline, but if the queen finds out I am not at fault. She will not be happy."
"Yes Mary, of course. Thank you very much," I said as I turned around and kissed her on both cheeks. Mary was sometimes more a mother to me than the Queen Victoria herself.
"Settle down now child," she said with a slim grin. "We have a lot of preparing to do before you are ready to leave to the Dowager Academy."
"Yes, of course," I said forcing a smile to stay on my face. Even though I have dreamed of my days at the Academy as a young child, I began to dislike the Academy ever since I started to attend it. It was there that I discovered my unique power, my deepest and darkest secret. It was there that I discovered I was the middleman between this world and the next. I was my destiny to help lost souls cross over to the next world.
A few hours later there was a knock on the door of my bedroom chamber. "Come in," I called.
A pale cheeked servant around the age of twelve came in hesitantly. "Miss Madeline, Princess, the coach is ready for you," she said in a small voice.
"Why thank you very much," I said. "And what might your name be?"
"Olivia."
"Well then Olivia, you may tell the coachman that my trunk is in the foyer were he shall gather it and place it in the carriage."
"Very well, Miss."
As I headed towards the carriage I thought of what awaited me at the Academy. There were the royals, male and female, the servants, and the lost souls or ghosts. Many ghosts lingered in the Academy, for it was a very old building and the older a building was, the more souls there were to guide.
My older brother Thomas accompanied me on the long journey to the Academy, however we scarcely spoke.
"I assume you will enjoy your stay at the Academy as I did while I attended," Tom inquired.
"Yes, thank you. They are very kind and welcoming there."
"And don't forget to seek out an eligible young lady preferably with a large fortune to become my wife."
"Yes Thomas, I shall not forget." I said slightly annoyed. "Although I do not see why anyone would want to become your wife," I added in a mumble.
"Excuse me?"
"Yes, Thomas?" I did not like it that all Thomas thought about was money and what society thought of him. I felt that marriage should be about love, not how much money the wife brought into the hands of the husband.
"Madeline, someday soon you will realize where your place as a woman is and then you shall know when to keep your mouth shut. "
"Yes Tom," I said in a huff and with a quick eye roll. Thomas was always ready to remind me of my place as a woman. It was one of his very few talents.
After that short conversation Thomas tried to make small talk about the weather and such sorts but I did not cooperate to his liking so and he gave up and stayed quiet.
A few hours later the carriage came to an abrupt stop and the coachman opened my door. "The Dowager Academy," he said in a husky voice as he took my hand and led me out of the carriage. Thomas followed me out and escorted me to the door of the large Academy building. Once inside, Thomas and I went to the sitting room of Headmistress Shearson.
"Master Thomas, Miss Madeline. Welcome, I am so glad you can finally make it."
"Thank you Ms. Shearson," Thomas said.
"Miss Madeline, I am glad to inform you that you shall be rooming alone this year."
"Thank you Ms. Shearson, it is very kind of you to do me a favor like that," I said.
"Yes, well I think you deserve some privacy. Especially after all that has happened last year."
Of course. How could I have forgotten? Last year I shared a room with Miss Jacqueline, Princess. In the beginning, things between us were wonderful. However, souls came and began to seek my advice. Therefore Miss Jacqueline became suspicious of me. She did not think I was a mediator or middleman between this world and the next, but she thought I was delusional and belonged in an insane asylum. She went to Ms. Shearson and confessed what she thought she knew about me, thinking it would be the perfect way to taint my reputation in society along with the rest of my family's reputations. She also hoped that this would be the way to win her family a higher place in society and marry Prince Adrian, the bets looking bachelor with the largest fortune in all fifty seven provinces of the Lusteran Empire.
Of course Ms. Shearson was a loyal friend of the family and dismissed Miss Jacqueline at once. However, later on that day she asked me if I was seeing anything that wasn't there. Naturally, I denied seeing any sort of hallucination and Ms. Shearson dismissed me with a brief nod. I supposed she gave me room of my own this year in order to avoid any other problems that I might cause between myself and a roommate such as Miss Jacqueline.
"I must be going now that I saw Madeline safely in," Thomas said, interrupting my thoughts.
"Yes, of course," said Ms. Shearson, "let me show you to the door."
"Good bye Madeline, please behave like the nice young lady I know you are."
"Yes brother," I said with the roll of my eye, "Good Bye."
After Ms. Shearson and I walked Thomas out, Ms. Shearson showed me to my room.
"I hope you will find it much to your liking," she said. "It is a small little room but has an extraordinary view of the Great Lawn."
"Thank you, I am sure it will be to my satisfaction."
"We shall see," Ms. Shearson said as she opened the door to my room for this year. "How do you like it?" she asked. Indeed it was a small room with walls painted a bland shade of gray. On the right side of the room was a bed against the wall and the left side of the room had a little bureau for my clothing and belongings.
"It's very…" I started, looking around the room while searching for the right word. And that's when I saw him, the Gypsy ghost of about age twenty sitting on my windowsill.
"Swell," I concluded with a forced smile plastered onto my face. " It is very swell indeed."