A/N: Please r&r. It's my first Ella Enchanted fic sooooooo be nice. :o) ::or personally my fav. smiley (",):: Also, I am pretty sure I am setting this sometime around when Char and Ella have children who are in their teens. Okay enough rambling from me. Enjoy.
Chapter One :: Life Can Change :: Confusion
Merri, called by some Meredith, sat at the edge of the lake with her feet and ankles submerged in the clear calm water. She knew she shouldn't be there at that moment in time, but she always ran away from the manor when her parents left. Right now she needed to enjoy herself as much as she could because she knew that any moment someone would notice she was gone and send a servant to fetch her.
They all knew the routine by now since she had run away countless times. They knew where she went, and Merri didn't bother to find a new spot. She was perfectly content and in the same time in love with the smell coming off the pines around her, the fresh breeze in the air, the sounds of the animals, and many other elements that made it perfect. Simply sitting on the dirt and leaning against a rock was much more relaxing to Merri than the comfiest chair in the manor.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a distant yell. "Mistress Merri!" came from an obviously distressed, and if Merri didn't know any better was the more than usual frantic voice of her poor old maid, Gertrude.
Of all people to send, send the old woman who is the only one nice to me besides my parents, she thought. Now I can't play my usual game of "pretend like you can't hear them until they are right next to you screaming in your ear. "Coming!" she yelled.
She started to stand but slipped on a rock and fell in the lake. Half of her blue dress was covered with water. At least her chestnut hair didn't get wet. It seemed to take forever for it to dry. "Great," she muttered to herself, "now I can be screamed at even more than usual. As long as we have no guests, I'll be fine." She sat down on the edge of a rock to help squeeze the water out of her dress which was bright sapphire with many under layers who had the sole purpose in this case of collecting more water.
Now that she was drenched she didn't feel nice enough to stand and go to the one calling her. Luckily, just then she was greeted by what did not look like a very cheery Gertrude. Merri noticed she had been crying, and it was extremely abnormal for her not to have made a comment on the awful state she was in. "Is everything alright?" Merri asked, letting a slight note of panic show in her voice.
Trying to cover up any little whimpers that may have been there she replied, "Oh dearie, just please come back to the manor with me and someone will tell you then."
"Okay," Merri muttered. Now she was beginning to become afraid which was an emotion she wasn't used to. Things didn't scare her easily, and not many things caused Gertrude grief. Merri trudged upward on toward the manor, collecting more and more grime on her halfway soaked dress.
Gertrude was now a slight bit calmer, but nowhere near complete wellness. "Dearie, you shouldn't have gotten your dress so dirty. It's my favorite on you. It matches your eyes exactly." Merri had been anticipating a comment on the dress and got a much less harsh one than expected. It appeared though, that it took a lot to make Gertrude stop making them.
"I know it was bad for me to make a mess of myself, and it's my favorite dress also," she said shocking herself and Gertrude. Merri was normally full of remarks that were considered to be talking back or sarcastic. They also never agreed with what the other person was saying. Some people were convinced her favorite thing in life was the ability to disagree. With the mood she was in and the mood set around her though, it seemed the only thing she could say.
On and on they trudged. Merri thought the spot she had been had never seemed like such a hike before. She was averaged-sized but she still took extremely small steps, but she was in shape. It wasn't like her steps could've gotten any smaller. Finally they reached the town. The town Merri lived in was not extremely big, but she liked it that way. She didn't have to deal with all the politics of the government. Her parents knew of all the politics of the government because they traveled frequently and dealt with people of those sorts all the time.
She had been mildly exposed to the larger places in the country she lived in. Her parents had taken her to balls and fancy parties, they had even held their own parties, and she learned she despised them. It wasn't so much the dancing and socializing, but it was the superficiality of all the people around her. She felt it was much better where people said what they thought and acted, as they wanted to.
They neared the townspeople. As her parents were in a way the "lord and lady of the land" here, she was recognized by the passer-bys. Some of the people gave her sympathetic looks as she passed. It was odd and frightening at the same time. The looks registered the fact that they felt sorry for her. She knew most of them hated her for she was in their opinion a spoiled rebellious brat who caused chaos all around. Merri didn't even cause that much trouble.
But if she really thought about it, what did she have? Parents who were hardly ever there. They were as loving as they could be when they were there though. Besides that, what? Servants to wait on her at hand and foot? No she wanted adventure. She wanted something unique and out of the ordinary to happen in her life.
The people looking at her were probably not even giving her looks of pity and sympathy. They were most likely looking disgustedly at the awful state of her dress. When she looked again she thought, No. Those are definitely pitiful looks. But why do they mourn for me? Then it hit her. It's the same reason Gertrude was crying. The way I got that awful feeling as soon as I saw Gertrude. Something awful has happened and I don't know what.
As they neared the manor, Merri spotted a carriage she didn't recognize. "Do we have visitors, Gertrude?" Merri asked.
"Yes mistress, I believe so." She was still upset over what she had been crying over earlier.
"And who is visiting?" Merri asked as if Gertrude should have just explained all she knew since Gertrude had to know more than that. Gertrude had a habit of only answering the direct question asked. It wasn't merely the sad mood she currently inhabited.
Not letting the annoyance in Merri's voice get to her she replied, "Your aunt and uncle."
Which aunt and uncle? I haven't had contact with any of my relatives for some time now. Could this have something to do with why everyone is upset and why I'm scared? Wondering wouldn't work. To get answers you had to ask questions. "And which of my aunts and uncles are visiting? Gertrude could you please explain all of it." Merri talked to her slowly to make sure she got the point. "You know I am 16 and that to me is old enough to take things more than one sentence at a time."
"The Duke Charles of Frell and his lovely wife Doanni, and they came all the way from the capital. They-" she was clearly about to say more as she had been instructed, but Merri cut her off.
"What are they doing here?! I've never met them in my life! Well actually they did come for my birth but that was only becauseā¦. I have no idea why they even came then, and besides that doesn't even really count. You know I haven't exactly heard the best things about them and their evil children. Thank God I've never met them! They might be good people because I've heard he's friends with the king or something. Or maybe he's just evil. He's probably cooking up a plan right now to kill the king! Now he probably wants our help. Well he's not getting any! No they're not! Why would they have traveled all the way to Flandyn if it didn't involve something evil? And why is everyone so upset? You all know something bad and won't tell me! I don't think our visitors caused this much disturbance!" Merri could have drawled on for hours: idea after idea, question after question, accusation after accusation and who knew what else.
Gertrude fortunately knew this by now and decided to bring Merri out of her little stage. She was also about to burst out crying hysterically. She slapped Merri's face a little harder than she maybe should have, but it didn't bother Merri because she was used to it by now. It did barely bother Merri though that she was interrupted. "Don't interrupt one of my great speeches next time." She glared angrily at Gertrude but knew that wouldn't get her anywhere. She decided to repeat herself if she hadn't made herself clear enough the first time. "Gertrude why is everyone so upset?! I demand an answer!"
She bursts into tears, "Oh please do not demand this knowledge out of me. Though I can tell you there are no royal assassinations in planning. I am not the right one to tell you, and the answers are to hard for me to bear anyhow."
Now Merri felt bad and was close to tears herself. Something terribly beyond even her imagination had happened, and Gertrude wouldn't or perhaps was not allowed to tell her.
Even at the time of her little "speech" she had known that her visiting relatives had done nothing of the sort but it didn't hurt to say it. Well sometimes she did in fact get in trouble for what she said. She hated to have to wait to ask questions only once she was all the way she was to the manor. It wasn't that far away, but she desperately wanted answers now.
Why on earth would they be here, she thought. I mean they wouldn't do anything if something wasn't in it for them or maybe if they would lose something by not doing it. Maybe the things I've heard about them aren't even true. No, that can't be, I've never heard any good about them ever, and I've heard a lot of talk about them. Even my mother talks ill of her sister. Father doesn't like them at all, but they're his in-laws so that can be expected. And I've heard they do NOT like our family at all. She finally remembered the mess her dress was in. They already don't like us, and now they get to see me and they'll probably talk about me like I'm the village slut. Oh well, whatever they are here for must be important.
A/N: I hope you liked it!!! There is a lot more to come and I know it doesn't make much sense now but you have to trust me. PLEASE REVIEW!!!
~*~Jane of Q~*~
