Hey. Hey guys. Guess what. I'm back. Well, I was never really gone to begin with, just busy with being a high schooler. So yeah. Here's chapter two. It's pretty cool. I think. Yeah. Okay. You should read it. Oookay. See you at the bottom 3 ~DP55
Two
Tintin's Return
When I finally found Lady Magnolia's room, it was several minutes after meeting Adamaris, and I knew I had minimal time before Aurorette came to find me, so I sifted through a massive armoire—everything in this estate seemed gigantic, from the chandeliers that hung from the ceiling to the fireplace in Lady Magnolia's bedroom—before I found a pretty, long pink-and-white floral dress and put it on. I had just finished braiding my hair and twisting it into a tight bun at Lady Magnolia's exquisite vanity when there was a loud knock on the door.
"Come in," I called, placing my hands down on the vanity. Aurorette pushed the door open, saw me, and smiled.
"Your favorite dress!" She grinned, "Come now, it's time for tea." She moved forward and took my hand, leading me from my room to the sitting room, where a pot of tea sat on a silver platter, two floral-printed teacups sat upside-down in front of a sofa decorated with lace the color of peach roses. She moved to sit on the sofa and I followed, watching as she poured me a cup, placing two sugar cubes in the china cup and handing it to me. After pouring her cup, she took a sip and looked at me. "Why did you run away?" She asked, setting her teacup atop the saucer, "You had me so worried, I wondered if it was something I had said, or Mother and Father's departure for France…"
"It wasn't either," I shrugged, "It was…"
"Lady Magnolia?" I tried to not look relieved at Tintin's voice from the doorway. Snowy was at his feet, and he smiled a wide dog smile when I turned in his direction.
"I do beg your pardon," Aurorette said rather loudly, "What right do you have to barge in on two royal ladies having tea?"
"No right, m'lady, more of a job."
"Job? Your job is to barge in on a private conversation?"
"Aurorette? He's all right, the two guards allowed him to be here," I spoke up before Tintin got the chance to, and while Aurorette's face flickered something unreadable, Tintin's showed pure relief as I stood up and walked towards him. "We will continue in a moment, Aurorette. Just a moment…" I led Tintin out of the room, closing the door behind us.
"Enjoying your stay in paradise?" He chuckled, and I folded my arms across my chest.
"No. Have you found anything out about Lady Magnolia?"
"Nothing, really…" I caught the glimmer in his eye when he said this.
"What? You found something, didn't you?"
"When the guards found you, they claimed Lady Magnolia had run off, yes? I don't believe she actually ran off… she may have been kidnapped."
"Kidnapped? Why would she get kidnapped?"
"I have no idea! She may have just run off, like the guards thought."
I shook my head, thinking. "I don't like this—I want to go home." I turned to go, but Tintin caught my arm.
"No, Nollie, Nollie, wait, listen to me. You have to stay and stand in for Lady Magnolia while I figure out what really happened to her." My eyes widened at his statement, and I shook my head again.
"No, I can't! I won't. It's not right to lie to them like this. What if you never find her? What if she died? I'd have to pretend to be her forever."
"It's just for a little while, Noll. Don't worry."
"What should I do in the meantime? I know nothing about this family—nothing! All I know is I look identical to their Lady."
"Just act as normal as possible. You've seen plays, you know acting—just do that. Act the part."
"But I don't have a script or a book or anything… I don't even know who her parents are…"
"That's it!" He smiled as he threw his hands in the air, "I'll find you a book! A book about Lady Magnolia's family. There's got to be one somewhere. In the meantime, I'll be hanging around and listening for any news on where Lady Magnolia might be." He hugged me, and when he pulled back he leaned in to kiss me.
"You'll come back soon, won't you?"
"Of course." He smiled and, with that, walked away. I turned back into the room, where Aurorette sat, staring into space. She was perfectly poised, back straight, hands folded in her lap.
"What did you talk about?" She asked simply, looking at me as I sat down on the sofa carefully.
"Nothing, really… he was going to interview me but then he realized he had forgotten his… pencil." I tried to make it sound convincing, giving him a reason to come back.
"How foolish of him. Does that mean he will return?"
"In time, I suppose he will be forced to." I shrugged, lifting my teacup and saucer and taking a sip, "He was quite charming, actually. The way he apologized for forgetting his pencil was…" I hid my smile with the teacup as I said this, and luckily Aurorette didn't notice.
"Magnolia, we were discussing why you ran away, not the foolish journalist." It burned to hear her call Tintin a foolish journalist and I had a dozen things I could tell her off with, but I held my tongue.
"Right, we were. I—"
"Is it because of what Father told you before he departed for London?" I stared at her blankly, and she nodded. "I assumed it wasn't, I was just proving that I was correct."
"I was bored," I shrugged, "I wanted to see new places, and I was foolish enough to run off."
"Oh! So it was for the same reason as last month. You're far too adventurous to be royal, Magnolia, with you running off and everything—" she chuckled, and I nodded slowly.
"So when are Mother and Father returning exactly?"
"Tomorrow afternoon, but they may come back earlier." She looked ecstatic as she said this. I, on the other hand, was nervous to meet Lady Magnolia's parents. I hoped by the time they returned Tintin would have found the book so I wouldn't be forced to look like a fool.
Later that evening, Aurorette had gone off to the library to finish a book that had "taken me all week, but it's completely worth it," and I had followed her, curious as to how many books the library in this estate could hold. I was browsing through the largest shelf when the door creaked open.
"You again," said Aurorette loudly, "Magnolia, you were right, he did come back. Did you remember your pencil this time?" I turned to see Tintin standing there, staring right at me, completely ignoring Aurorette.
"Pencil?" He echoed, "Of course, Lady Aurorette. Really, you must forgive me for being so absent-minded the first time. It will not happen again, I promise." I knew his promise wasn't a real promise from the way he said it.
"I will be back soon, Aurorette," I said quietly as I passed her, giving a rather convincing eye-roll as I looked at her while closing the door behind us. "You'll have to excuse my excuse," I breathed as soon as I had shut the door, "It wasn't very convincing at all, I'm surprised she believed me…"
"Here," Tintin handed me a book, "I found this in the bookshop back home. It's Lady Magnolia's family tree." I opened to the first page—Princess Emma and Prince Draco of England. Prince Draco and Princess Emma met at Princess Emma's sixteenth birthday ball in 1904. He was twenty-eight. They were married just six months later, and within a year Grand Lady Melisande was born. Melisande had a brother, Grand Lord Orleans, who was born two years after she was. When Melisande was seventeen, she married Grand Lord Reynard. Their daughter Lady Aurorette was born in 1909, and Lady Magnolia was born in 1911, like I was, only she was born in May and I in October.
"Thank you so much," I smiled as I read, "This will really be helpful."
"My pleasure." He sat down next to me and I closed the book. He was wanting to speak with me, I could tell.
"How is the hunt for Lady Magnolia coming along?" I looked at him, and he bit his lip.
"Fine, I suppose."
"Have you found any new clues?"
"No, not yet, but I feel that we are close." He wasn't looking me straight in the eye, and I automatically knew something had come up.
"What happened?" He hesitated before answering.
"On my way out of the estate earlier, I passed two men," he swallowed before continuing, "They were talking about how outrageous it was that Lady Magnolia—you—had returned, and they were curious as to how you escaped." Escaped?
"Escaped? You mean—"
"Lady Magnolia has been kidnapped," he said gravely.
So yeah, it wasn't the greatest chapter ever. Aurorette is kind of a diva, but we'll get to that later. UM, so I was bored the other day (okay like two weeks ago, when I was working on this chapter) and I made a thing. A tumblr thing. A tumblr blog thing. It's for these stories! I kinda felt like getting one, but I dunno if anyone will ever visit it or follow it. BUT here's the link anyway: .com 3 3 ~DisneyPrincess55 DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW 3
