Fear no more, my lovely, faithful, perhaps mad, reviewers! This chapter comes with breakthroughs and a tiny bit of nice things. (Though not Nat/Irene-ness, yet. Sorry) This is the turning point . . . hence, why it is titled "Truth." (On the computer, my story is now FIFTY pages long. My longest story yet. Three cheers for me.)

Happy Halloween. Free chocolate/candy/tofu for all. Yay.

(thank you's are after-chapter today, I know you are all so very eager to read this baby, so I won't stall.)

Chapter Ten -- Truth

In the garden of truth sometimes
Will grow deceit and doubt
But they do not belong, my friend
And how quickly they die out
– Ky'loe

I could not quite recall my walk home, or how I ended up in my nightgown and my bed, but when I woke up, I remembered every word Nat had said and every look he had given me. I put a wary hand to my forehead, and instead of touching fire, I touched ice. I shivered and pulled the blankets closer. Sunshine drifted through the open window but I did not – perhaps, could not – feel it. I shut my eyes again, but there was no sleep left in my body.

There was a quiet knock on the door, followed by a gentle call of "Irene?" For some reason, I did not know exactly how to answer that, so I simply stayed silent. After a bit, I heard Mother's soft footsteps taking her away from me. I was with myself, and I could only think. I did not want to think, because thinking led me to the last thing I could remember.

What had happened in the space of time that we had not spoken that had caused Nathaniel Grey, my true love, – at least, I had thought – to suddenly despise me? I sat up slowly and leaned against the headboard, a hand on my cold forehead. Never in my life had I felt quite as miserable as I did now.

Suddenly, my door was opened and Mother stepped in, giving a start at the sight of me. "Oh, Irene," she whispered, her hand still on the doorknob. Her face was worried, her mouth drawn down and her hair unkempt. She was by my bed in an instant, her comforting hands touching my face cautiously. "I thought – that is, I wasn't sure – you looked so pale, Irene. As pale as –" She took a shaky little breath and pulled her hand through my hair. "As pale as your father when he –" Her voice faded away, and I noticed the dark circles surrounding her eyes. I made myself speak.

"Don't worry. I shall be all right." Mother gave a small hiccup at that, and all at once she was sobbing on my shoulder. I had never known her to cry. As I placed my arms around her, I heard more familiar footfalls in the hallway. Ada peeked around the half-open door, fresh tears on her cheeks. She said nothing, but sat on the edge of my bed as we both watched our mother put herself back together.

The three of us sat in silence a while, Mother still hiccupping and breathing unsteadily. After a while, she kissed my face and left the room. Ada had stopped crying. I inspected my sister – she looked as if she had not eaten in a week. "I suppose," she said, sounding not quite the same, "that you would like to hear what has been happening while you slept."

"Of course I do. I don't even remember walking home," I said, pulling my blankets a little closer. I tried desperately to hide my actions, so as not to worry Ada, but she noticed stoically and helped me arrange them.

"You do not remember walking home because you never did. Alexander and Lucinda found you stone-cold and huddled in a ball on 6th Street about dusk. You did not seem to be asleep, but would not respond to anything they did to you." Here her voice became tight. "They were not sure that you were quite alive. According to Dr. Candavish, you had a – breakdown of some sort. Your body went into shock."

"I fainted?"

"Something like that. You also had a touch of fever and influenza." Ada smiled a little with her mouth, but not her eyes. "You smelled a lot like vomit, they said. They brought you home and fetched the doctor right away." She shifted her body, scooting closer to me. "The first thing he told us was that you were not dead or in any immediate danger of dying, but you were very, very ill and would not wake for at least a couple of days."

"I have been asleep for two days?" I asked.

"No," Ada said, in a voice so soft I almost did not hear. "Five." I felt as though I had no breath left. I imagined Mother and Ada opening the door to see me, pale and limp, in Alexander's arms. I thought what I might have done if I had seen Ada that way. No wonder Mother had fallen apart. She had spent the last five days wondering and doubting, fearing and worrying. Ada's voice called me back from my pondering. "You are the most talked-of person in town," she told me, her voice failing to sound light and with the air of someone turning around the conversation. "I never knew so many people were such good friends of yours." The bitterness was clear this time.

"Good friends of mine?" I echoed.

"Half the girls knew exactly how you fell in love with him, and the other half knew exactly how he fell in love with you," Ada said, not looking at me. What is this? I wondered. Does everyone know that Nat and I have fought? "You might have at least told Nat."

"What?" I responded quickly. Told him about how Ada and I had made up, or told him about Ella and Lawrence?

Ada laughed with no humor. "Come, Irene, the whole story is out. You need not lie to me."

"What on earth are you talking about?" I asked, alarmed. The whole story?

She continued as if I had not spoken. "Mother, of course, does not believe any of it at all. At first, I thought it was only gossip as well. But then, I remembered the day you did not tell me what the prince had spoken to you about – and suddenly, everything fit. I felt foolish to think that I had not seen it before. But you fooled everyone –"

"Ada, stop!" I panted. This was sounding very familiar – and the feeling that someone had decided to change my reality without telling me was, too. Ada was looking at me with something far worse in her eyes than I had ever seen. Something like hate. "Please believe me when I say that I do not know what you are talking about. Nothing happened with the prince – except that my idea of him was changed somewhat, because –"

"Yes, I know. Because he proposed."

I could not speak; I was so astonished. I felt as though my mind had just exploded and I was now incapable of speech. Her face darkened, but not from surprise. She had expected this, known it was going to happen, somehow. I gathered all my leftover brain cells and formed one word. "How?" Ada laughed that laugh again, and I felt chills all over.

"I figured that out myself, after Clarinda told me everything." My face showed my feelings again, and she scoffed, "Yes, Clarinda was the one who found out. I never knew a filthy sneak and gossip like her would ever be of any use." My mind was working furiously. I had told no one and I highly doubted that the prince spoke often with Clarinda Waters either, so she must have somehow heard or seen it – but how, how? We were in the cellar, alone! No one could hear us or see us! So how . . .

But I had other things to worry about. I cleared my throat. "She obviously did not tell you everything," I said, my voice rough. "Because otherwise you would know that although Prince Lawrence proposed to me, he was not accepted." Ada opened her mouth, her eyes full of doubt, but I silenced her. "No, I must speak. He told me that being engaged to me was the only way he could marry Ella."

"That's preposter –"

"Ada! Listen to me. The prince told me that his parents were pressuring him to be engaged, and since I was his cousin, after all, he figured I would not mind pretending until his father died. After that, he explained, he would marry Ella." I let that sink in.

Ada finally seemed to have lost her rage, but not her doubt. "Prince Lawrence knows that all Ella said to him was a lie, though."

I shrugged. "I suppose he does not mind as much as he first did. Besides, Sir Roderick was there, was he not? So, I guess he was trying to trick us into thinking he no longer loved her." Ada nodded slowly. "But it really does not matter, does it? After all, I refused, so –"

"You truly refused him?"

"Of course I refused him. I was not about to lie so Ella would become queen. Would you have not refused?" I asked back, trying to work out her question.

"That is not what I meant," Ada answered as she wound her hair around her finger. "I meant that . . . oh, Irene." She gave a very large sigh and stared at me for a moment. I could tell by her expression that she was not quite sure how to say what she wanted to, so I stayed silent and let her think. "The day that you, uh, fainted. That evening, a royal proclamation was announced. It said – it said that –" She sighed again, her finger disappearing in her hair. "It said that you and Prince Lawrence were to be married."

In the time that passed, my tired mind was working furiously. This explained everything – especially Nathaniel Grey and Clarinda Waters. He had thought that I had betrayed him, had been leading him on all this time. She had been insinuating my relationship with the Prince, not Ella's. Ella! She surely knew that this was all fraud. But wait –

"Ada, you mentioned gossip and something about Clarinda Waters –" I started.

"Yes, that's right. It was only announced to the nobles and those who were staying at the castle at the time. I suppose the prince wanted it to be private, in hopes that you would not hear of it." She continued, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "Fortunately, Clarinda just happened to be at the castle for some bogus reason – retrieving something she had lost the night of the ball or some such nonsense – doubtless, because someone had told her that something might happen that night. She overheard the announcement and spread it around town as swiftly as possible in true Clarinda fashion." She leaned forward and took my hand in a sudden moment of graceful gentleness. "I cannot fathom that I believed her so willingly. You are my sister; I should have known –"

"Do not blame yourself, Ada. I think we have all been rather mistrustful since the night of the ball. It has changed us all, perhaps for the better." I patted the hand that held mine in an effort to comfort her a little.

"Oh, Irene, whatever shall we do?"

"Is there anything we can do?" I answered, attempting not to sound too mournful.

"You are being foolish, Reney. There is always something we can do. But the real problem is figuring out how," Ada said wryly, and I knew that she, at least, is back to her normal self. That gave me a little hope; I sat up straighter and pushed my hair out of my face. Ada recognized the look that I had in my eyes and put her hands firmly on my shoulders. "No, Irene. Not you, not yet." I felt a bit of anger deep, deep down, until she uttered a word hardly audible, the beginning of an explanation I did not need to hear. "Mother –"

"All right," I said quickly, all my fire gone. "I will stay in bed for a while. But after a few days –" Here Ada made doubting sounds, but I plowed on. "—I shall go to the prince and ask him if he perhaps misconstrued my reply to his proposal." For a split second, Ada looked like she might try to convince me not to, but then she just sighed and shook her head a little. There was a nice kind of silence for a while before I asked, "Has anything else happened in the last five days?"

"No," Ada said quickly with a slight blush.

"I see," I answered. "So are you going to tell me if it was Seolai or you who broke the silence, or shall I guess?" I laughed in a relieved sort of way – feeling a spark of joy in a long time. Ada laughed too, but just a short, nervous one. "You obviously have not told anyone else, and I am stuck in bed and will not be able to tell a soul."

"Except Mother," Ada whispered.

"I will not tell her," I promised.

"All right." Ada took a deep breath. "The first day you were . . . sleeping, Seolai came here to speak with me. I answered the door; Mother was with you. I was so amazed to see him there that I did not even say a word to him, just stared at him. Finally, he said, 'Can I come in?' and of course I said that he could."

"Of course," I echoed.

Ada continued as though I had not spoken, staring at her hands, which were folded in her lap. "He apologized right away; he said he had been foolish to be jealous and pigheaded. So then I said I took back everything I had said, and then he asked about you. I had not heard Clarinda's rumor, and I – er, could not exactly hold myself together while telling him about it."

"You started to cry," I guessed. Ada nodded.

"Then, it was the strangest thing," she said quietly, haltingly, and I knew she was about to tell her secret, so I stayed stone silent. Ada gave a short laugh before continuing. "He proposed. I was sobbing all over, a complete mess; we were in the shop for heaven's sake! Right next to the parasols! It was not a thing like I had always pictured." Ada glanced up at me, to gauge my response, and I saw her face had a particular kind of shine to it that I had never seen before. "I was a complete blubbering mess. It took me a while to get enough spare breath to tell him 'yes.'"

"Oh, Ada," I murmured. "So it is princess-hood in Jhiline for you."

"Yes," she said softly, taking my hand. "But have no fear, I shall never be queen. You see, Seolai has an older brother Riedou –"

"I see no reason that I would fear you being queen, Ada. Ella, I can definitely. But you would make a fine queen, and I am sure that Seolai agrees –" I started, not very happy with my elder sister for doubting herself once again.

"Irene," Ada interrupted, squeezing my hand rougher than was strictly needed. "I meant that I could very easily remain living here in Bolton."

"Oh," I said in a small voice, feeling a slight heat on my face. I was saved from further embarrassment by a knock on the door.

"Ada? Dr. Candavish is here to check on Irene . . ." Mother explained as she opened the door, looking a little less pale. Dr. Candavish, a tall man with large eyes, entered the room and beamed at me.

"Well, I see our little invalid has finally awakened. Good, good, good. We will just see how the instruments say her body is doing." Suddenly, I remembered why the doctor had always been a tiny bit frightening to Ada and I when we were small. After the standard check-up, in which Dr. Candavish said nothing but murmured, "Good, good, good," he was still beaming, so I figured good news was on the way. "It all looks excellent, Mrs. Graham – er, Broen. I would advise at least a week in bed, but you can extend it to two or even three if her recovery is slow, and it would not give much cause for worry." Abruptly, the doctor turned to me and spoke to me more directly than he ever had. "We cannot have a princess who is not quite well, can we?"

Ada looked ready to kill and Mother was scandalized. "I am afraid you are misinformed," I told him, attempting gentility. "It is not I whom the prince chose."

Dr. Candavish stared at me, eyes even wider than normal, incoherent mumbling coming from his mouth. "Not . . . you?" he finally squeaked out.

"No, indeed. I am quite eager to discover who it is, and I hope it will be announced soon. Has it not been quite a substantial amount of time since the ball?"

"Almost two months now," Mother supplied.

"But . . . no . . . I . . ." The three of us watched the doctor flounder, none of us feeling very sympathetic. "I see. I am awfully sorry for the misunderstanding," he sputtered, and quickly left.

"Honestly!" Mother fumed, beginning to pace. "I simply do not understand how people can say that you and the prince are going to be married! It baffles me completely! You have been – in bed for the last five days, and you have not left the house except for church for almost three weeks!" She continued to mutter under her breath as Ada moved back to my side, reaching down for my hand again.

She hissed in my ear, "Shall we tell her?"

"If anyone should know the truth, it is her, except perhaps – erm, yes. I think we shall." Ada gave a small smirk that told me she knew who I was not speaking about, then straightened up and cleared her throat.

Mother turned to face us, mind still working furiously on the gossipers of Bolton. "Mother, we – er, Irene, that is, has something to tell you."

"Traitor," I grumbled at her. Ada hid her smile. "Mother, there is a reason all those people think that I am going to become Prince Lawrence's wife." I took a breath. "It is because he announced it the day that I fainted."

"What do you –"

"Give Irene a chance to explain herself," Ada begged. Mother closed her mouth and crossed her arms.

"It is his plan to tell everyone that he and I are to be married, but not to marry. Once his father dies, he would reveal his true desire – to marry Ella. He believes that once he is king, he may marry whoever he wishes to marry." That, of course, left Mother speechless, which Ada and I had anticipated. It was not every day you hear an extremely underhanded and foolish plan that includes the intentional misleading of everyone in the country, including the king, the downfall of your daughter and elevation of your stepdaughter. If it was, I doubted that the jails would be as empty as they were.

(hee hee. I like that last bit. Wait. Am I allowed to like something I wrote myself?)

Thanks to . . .

Arein – Yes, Nat was being jealous, and somewhat foolish, but now that you know the truth, you don't hate him, do you? You better not let Scoutcraft Piratess hear you talk about Prince Lawrence like that. I hate him, too, but he's my character, after all, so I think I'm safe from her fan-girl wrath, but there's no telling what she might do to you.

Artemis – You are such a genius. Really, is there anything I can do that would surprise you or catch you off-guard? And it's Nat, not Nate. Just for that, I'm keeping him from you another chapter. (sticks out tongue and tries to fight off feelings of elementary kid)

fireworksinmybackpocket – (did I tell you your name rocks?) No, Nat doesn't hate her. She refused the prince BUT the prince is just a little nutty/twisted. Don't worry, you didn't miss anything, I just pulled a fast one. (cue maniacal laughter)

Lulai – Firstlylyly, thank you so much for reviewing. And thank you so much for that WONDERFUL complement. (blushes, skips, and grins for days.) Don't let your dad freak you out. (My dad just did. He was wearing a Darth Vader costume. No, don't ask me to explain . . .)

mythicalmemory – smack Clarinda all you want. It's not like anyone here will try to make you stop. (is insanely jealous of your Giantess Chair.) I'll trade you a plot bunny for the Chair! Just kidding. . .maybe.

Scoutcraft Piratess – You are a strange, strange girl, Emily. After I'm finished with this story, you may have Lawrence, since you seem to have developed some weird kind of obsession over him, despite all the stupid things he does. NO, NAT IS NOT EVIL. Just in case you didn't realize that all ready.

Tiger Lily21 – Oh, never fear, fair lady! All my stories have the Happy Ending Guarentee! (void where voided by moi, like Dreamer. That doesn't have a Happry beginning, middle, or Ending.)

Join the review revolution! (see my profile for details.)