I turn around to see Prince Joshua looking kindly down at me. "Excuse me, but were you the lady I met at the café earlier today?" I smile remembering what happened earlier. "Yes, I can't believe that you are a prince," I tell him honestly. "Well seeing you here I find myself intrigued to know where you are from. Are you perhaps of royal blood?" I am sure that the color drained from my face. "Or are you perhaps the daughter of a nobleman?" I glance around the room. "Umm..." I don't know what to do, I could never tell clever lies like Arabelle. But Prince Joshua's eyes brightened at my silence. "I am afraid that you hiding behind such affections has made me even more curious to find out more about you. I beg you tell me!" I shook my head.

"Um, excuse me but am I right to assume that you are Miss Annabella Arendaul?" I turn to see another handsome guy addressing me. "Yes that's me." Prince Joshua looks at me suspiciously as he walks away to let the other guy talk to me. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Zain, butler to Lord Michel. Would you please come with me?" I pause. "Why do you need me?" Zain smiles. "He wishes to meet you." Why would the patron of this castle want to meet me? "Ok." I say following Zain. He lead me to a meeting room.

There in he middle of the room was the elderly man from the street that the girls and I met earlier today.

"I did not expect to see the girls who saved my life here today at my party." The old an winks at Zain. "Actually sir, I think you did." I say seeing the wink he sends to Zain. He laughs. "You're right, I spoke to your grandfather earlier this evening. Annabella, don't tell the other girls who I am, ok?" I nod, "by the way, call me Mike." I smile. "Ok Mike." We talk a while longer and once we are done, Zain leads me out to the corridor. He bowed deeply as we made our way down the hall.

"Princess, please keep Lord Michel's health a secret." He asks me. I nod, 'Yes of course." He smiles,"if you need anything please contact me. All of you girls have done us such a huge service by saving his life, so we hope to be of service in return." I fell kinda embarrassed by this. "All we did was rub his back and give him water. Zain can you just keep our identity a secret till the time is right, I'm sure you know that right?" He nods and laughs. "Of course Princess."

Prince Joshua's pov

I was walking to see if I could find Jan so we could leave when I overheard Zain talking. "Yes of course Princess." Then a girl responded "I'm sure you remember the others right? I remember coming here at least once." The girl must be a princess from somewhere. Zain gives a soft sigh. "Yes, you were very young, but I delivered pictures of you girls to your godparents, and the remaining kings and queens. You may not remember, but your nannies brought you all here to meet the princes once after you moved to the island." I don't remember ever meeting a princess or princesses here. Goodbye Princess I must be going now." Zain says and he is probably bowing. "Zain, remember, secret." She mutters. "Sorry prin... Miss Anabella," and I hear Zane walk away.

Annabella's pov

"So you were pretending to be a commoner." I turned around to see Prince Joshua. Uh oh! "There's no way Lord Michel would call a commoner to have an audience with him." Phew at least he didn't hear anything. "Uh no, Lord Michel is an... old acquaintance." Prince Joshua's eyes light up as I say this. "Are you Lord Michel's granddaughter?" Woah! "No! I'm not his granddaughter." At least he doesn't suspect that I am one if the heirs to Merian. "I don't expect you to tell me if it hasn't been publicly announced yet. That would also explain why he called you in secret." At that I turned on my heel to walk away for fear that my emotions would give away what I am thinking. "Wait I was hoping to talk with you a bit longer." About what? I wondered.

I tried to get away into the party hall, when man I had never met shouted, "I found her! She's over here your highness." Who is that? Then I saw Prince Joshua in the distance walking towards us. "Hello, I'm Jan." The guy says, "I serve as butler to his Highness, Prince Joshua. I am pleased to inform you that his Highness has invited you to come and visit our kingdom." Prince Joshua came over. "Miss Annabella, please allow me to apologize for the rude way in which I acted earlier, allow me to express my apologizes by inviting you to stay in Dres Van. I hope you accept." Soon I found myself on my way to Dres Van kingdom with Prince Joshua and Jan.

"Are you sure this is alright?" I asked nervously, scared that I would let the secret slip. I was in Dres Van's royal family limo. It was slightly smaller than Merian's family limo. Prince Joshua smiled at me. "Of course it is." He has such a fake smile, but I let it go. Jan spoke up, "It is no trouble at all, think of it as a vacation." Suddenly a loud bell sounded. "Oh is that..."

Prince Joshua nodded. "Yes, it is."

"Is it all right for Miss Annabella to have arrived before midnight?" Jan asked Prince Joshua. Is there a problem with me arriving now? Jan saw my look and explained. "When entering Dres Van, all immigration paperwork must be completed before midnight on the day of arrival. To not do so is considered a criminal offense."

"Isn't that a problem then...?"

Prince Joshua was calm as he looked at me. "It won't be an issue. She is Lord Michel's granddaughter after all. And shouldn't you know this you were studying kingdom" He is not my grandfather, my grandfather is the king of Merian. I was stunned and Jan's voice echoed through the car.

"Really!?" He sighed in relief. "Please excuse my rudeness. In that case everything will be fine." Jan spoke with a smile.

"I wouldn't have brought her along at this time of night otherwise."

"Of course not. My apologies."

"And according to the law changes that came into effect last week. A member of the general public cannot enter the kingdom after 10pm."

"Oh, really...?"

"Excuse me..." I heard the anxiety in my own voice as I spoke, and Jan flashed me a reassuring smile.

"It is different for those of royal blood or are associated with the sacred grounds... So this law will not pose a problem for yourself."

"But... I am not Lord Michel's granddaughter."

Prince Joshua frowned. "What do you mean!? You said you were his granddaughter, right?"

"I never said that!" My grandfather is royal though.

Prince Joshua raised his eyebrows. "I don't recall you telling me it was a mistake! Did you think you would see how far pretending to be Lord Michel's granddaughter would get you?" I didn't say anything because I would be lying if I told him I was just a commoner, but my grandfather is the king of Merian.

Jan seemed to pick up on how I was feeling, and cut in. "Please stop. What do you propose we do about her, Your Highness?" Prince Joshua sighed visibly at Jan's question. "She will need to reside within Dres Van for a while."

"What do you mean?"

Prince Joshua responded to my question without feeling. "You have just entered the Kingdom illegally." Technically I have not entered illegally, but I assume that they can't know that.

I pretended to be surprised even though this sounded semi-familiar to me. "What...?"

Prince Joshua continued to assail me with his words. "You will need to apply for special dispensation before you can leave the Kingdom again."

"Would I be able to do that tomorrow?" Prince Joshua frowned.

"It's not that easy. It will take at least a week to ten days to get this sorted out." Not too bad maybe I'll call Grandpa and he'll send my studies so that I can study more princess stuff. "So..."

"So, as of this moment, you are unable to leave this Kingdom." I felt a sharp pain in my chest as Prince Joshua made a sour face at me. "There's no point in making a fuss about it now. We have enough trouble to deal with." He sighed deeply as he stared out the window. What does that mean?

End of day 1 with Prince Joshua and Princess Annabella

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