Chapter 35 – Nevaeh de Montignac
The weekend passed without any major incident or special tea, as Jesse liked to call it. The only major change was the weather, really. From a hot summer, it had turned into a nice, warm autumn with the beginning of October. Un été Indien, as they said in French, or an Indian Summer. Nevaeh loved it when the leaves turned yellow, orange, and red, it just made everything more romantic. She was looking forward to the day she could start wearing scarves and sweaters again.
Yes, Nevaeh had grown up half of the year in the south of France, where it was always dry and warm, and the other half of the year in Illéa. Now, Los Angeles didn't have a real winter with freezing temperatures, but she had gone skiing up north, and she loved the cold as well.
There were sixteen girls left in class, by now, and Nevaeh found that it was half less noisy and chatter-y, and now that they were diving into some more practical things – like diplomacy with real-life exercises – that the new Princesses and future Queen would need at some point, the girls were a tiny bit more attentive to what Nevaeh was saying.
The duchess never wanted to be a teacher, though, so the weeks and days and months – actually, it kind of felt like years at the moment – were going by super slowly. When she accepted to coordinate the Selection, she didn't realize she'd play the teacher so much. Maybe if she'd had more time, she would have hired someone else to do it. But then again, she would have missed out a lot and wouldn't have gotten to know the girls as she did now.
As soon as Monday's lesson was over, Ximena rushed out of the room, leaving everyone staring at her.
"What's gotten into her?" Nevaeh asked, confused.
"Don't mind her," Jen said. "She and her fiancé are leaving for a few days. They mentioned it on the last Report…"
"Oh, right," Nevaeh said. "I totally forgot about that. Is that today? For how long? And where are they going?"
Jenissa shrugged. "No idea."
"Hansport," Leigh said, not looking up and resting her head on her hand. Ever since Silas had proposed to Ximena ten days ago, Leigh had been less proactive in class, and even outside of class. She was just there, following the flow. And while the others gathered their things to go get ready for lunch, Leigh just sat there, doodling all over her diplomacy exercise.
Nevaeh waited for everyone to be out before sitting in the chair next to Leigh, where Laelia had sat earlier. "Are you okay, Leigh?" she asked.
Leigh had doodled her name all over the paper, adding little flowers everywhere. "Yeah."
"You don't look okay."
"You think?" Leigh said, looking up at the duchess. "What am I still doing here?" she asked. "I have absolutely no interest in Nathan, romantically speaking." She paused. "Unless it's for a hookup, but even then, not really." She sighed, her shoulders dropping low. "I mean, I'm happy for Xi and Silas and all, but…" she trailed. "Anyway. Love and married life will never be for me. I'm too fabulous for anyone, anyway." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, stuffed everything in her bag, and headed for the door. "I'll see you at lunch."
Nevaeh just sat there. She felt bad for Leigh, to be honest. And she was right: what was she still doing here? She had put all of her energy into wooing Silas and had not done anything for Nathan or Val. And she was definitely losing in the rose count since she had asked Silas on a date three times, and he had never done it.
She hurried out, wanting to catch her cousin before they left and thank goodness they were putting the small suitcases in the car just then.
"Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?" she said, walking down the stone steps, her hands on her hips.
Silas chuckled. "Fine, we can say goodbye to you."
Nevaeh joined the couple near the car and hugged Ximena after doing la bise with Silas. "Enjoy your little vacation," she said. "Where exactly are you going? I won't tell Jesse, I promise.
"We're going to visit my mom for a few days," Ximena said, "and then I'll show him where I grew up and all." She smiled and looked up at Silas who seemed so much taller than her now that she wasn't wearing high heels for the trip.
"I see." Nevaeh climbed on the second step, making sure the care wouldn't drive on her toes when it left. "Bon voyage!"
"Thank you," Silas said. "Good luck with… all that," he added, gesturing at the palace before climbing into the car. Nevaeh watched them drive away and waved. She stayed there quite some time, enjoying the cooler autumn air until a shiver ran down her spine and goosebumps rose on her bare arms. It was time to get back inside and join the others for lunch.
-o-0-o-
It was the second week that Valerian took the Wednesday afternoon off of his studies to go on a date. It was one thing to want to study from home with a group of girls, and it was another to conduct a selection and spend time with said girls.
Nevaeh was going to see Marmee when she saw Valerian coming out of his room with a pink rose.
"Another date?" she asked.
"Yeah," Val said. "I feel silly, to be honest. I mean," he rubbed his neck, "it was fun to date all the girls, in the beginning, to get to know them, but now? What do I do with my Elite? I know them already…"
Nevaeh nodded. "I see what you mean." She sat on the small settee in the hall, thinking. "Maybe now that you have your Elite, try to go deeper with each girl? Try to picture yourself with them in the future, because there is only one that you will marry."
"If I ever marry," he said, sitting next to her. "I'm only 22 years old. Aren't I bit young to marry?"
Nevaeh laughed softly and put a hand on his arm. "You don't have to marry right away, you know that, right? It's not like Silas. Well, he wouldn't have to marry right away either, but these two just can't keep away from each other."
"First love, I guess," Val said, shrugging. "I still think it's weird to see him holding hands with a girl, you know?"
Nevaeh nodded. "Totally. I always pictured him single, even when he became King, though that would be silly since he'd need an Heir, but... you know…"
They chuckled. "How's Marmee?" Val asked. "I haven't had much time to visit with her with the Selection and the Uni classes…"
Nevaeh took a deep breath. "Not so good, I think…"
"Oh? Why?" he frowned, concerned.
"I don't know," she shook her head. "It's just… she's been forgetting thing, and getting lost in the Palace, though she's been living here for more than fifty years, you know?"
"I get lost in the Palace sometimes," Valerian said.
"Yeah, but she seemed lost and she had no idea how she got there." Nevaeh sighed. "I talked with her lady's maid, and she said it's been going on for a few months already but that she always had her eye on her, except that one time I found Marmee in the West Wing."
Valerian frowned. "And what does her doctor say?"
"I still have to talk with him and Victoria Coleman, but I'm hoping to do that soon." She stood. "Anyway, I'm not going to hold you back for your date. Who are you going with, today?"
"Eve. I think she also needs a break from her books: Aerospace engineering is not that simple…"
"Because you thought it was?" she said, teasing him. "Now go." She pushed him playfully on the arm, sending him on his way to his date while she went down the hall to find her grandmother's room and visit with her a little while.
-.-
Valerian entered the study room and the other girls all raised their heads at the same time and all noticed the pink rose at the same time as well. That's when Valerian knew he had messed up. Oh well, he'd do better next time. But hey, only Eve was in his Elite, the other two – Roni and Pallas – were on Nate's list.
"Eve? Would you like to take a break?"
"Yes, a break sounds awesome," she said, taking off her headphones and stretching like a cat. She rolled her shoulders as well and chuckled. "I don't think I would've seen the time if you hadn't come!"
Valerian laughed and gave her the pink rose. Pallas and Roni watched them go and also took a small break before returning to their own books and papers.
"What are we doing this time?" she asked, looping her arm in his.
"Well, I was wondering… is there something you've never done before that you'd want to do?" he asked, expecting her to say something like bungee jumping or ziplining or something similar.
"Anything?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Yeah, anything. We have all afternoon."
Eve thought for a moment as they walked slowly down the hall, their steps echoing in the empty corridor. "Promise you won't laugh?"
"Of course," he said, nodding.
"I've– I've always wanted to know how to ride a bike," she said, looking away, a little embarrassed.
"A bike?" Val asked. "Uhm, sure!" He scratched his head, thinking. "I have to go dig out the bikes from last time I used them, but yeah, we can definitely do that!"
"Really?" Eve looked up, hopeful. "Thank you so much!"
"My pleasure," he said. "Come on!" He took Eve's hand and they ran outside, towards the huge garage where all the cars and palace vehicles were parked. They slalomed around the cars and Val stopped in front of a tarp-covered bump and he took it off, revealing a whole bunch of shiny bikes.
"How many bikes does one prince need?" Eve asked, chuckling.
"Yeah, well, we're three brothers, and we've all grown up over the years," Val explained. "We may not have used them a lot recently, though. I mean, there's so much you can do around the Palace." He paused. "And I think I might have gotten into trouble for riding it in the Ballroom. Or was it Nathan? I can't remember."
Evangeline laughed at that. "I can imagine a tiny Val – if you ever were tiny – biking around the giant ballroom with footmen running after you to catch you!"
Valerian giggled as well and he pulled out the bikes until he found one that would suit Eve's height. "Here, this one should fit you, I think." He pulled out another one for him and they guided the bikes out of the hangar. Once outside, he made sure the seat and the handlebars were at the right height for her and told her to climb on it to see if everything was okay.
"Uhh," Eve said, clearly not trusting herself to take her feet off the ground. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, you'll see, it's easy!" He put his own bike against a wall and explained to her how one used a bike. He even ran next to her, holding her. Of course, the first few times he let go of her, she fell – in the grass – so he held on to her, running, every time after that.
Eve was a good apprentice, and after half an hour of this, she was able to ride on a few meters on her own without falling. Valerian was out of breath and just dropped on the grass, wheezing.
"Are you okay?" Eve asked, putting the bike down and sitting on the grass next to the prince.
"Yeah, I just need a break. And some water." He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dryer than the sandy beach.
Eve ran towards the palace and came back five minutes later with two bottles of water, one of which she gave to him.
"Oh, nice, thanks!" he said, drinking the whole thing in a few gulps. "I haven't run like this in a long time. Whoo!"
Evangeline laughed nervously. "I'm sorry about that," she said. "I should have suggested something else…"
"No! It's great that you asked me to do this! Honestly, it was a great idea." He smiled at her. "Hey, I meant to ask you, but has your dad tried to contact you again?"
Eve nodded, looking away. "He's asked me why I didn't reply to his three first letters."
"Three?" Valerian said, surprised. "You know, we can filter the mail and not give you these if you don't want to."
"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I mean, he's my father, but… I'm scared of what he might do if I see him for real, you know?"
Valerian nodded. "What did he say in his letters?"
"He's apologizing for what he did in the past." She paused. "Getting drunk, being violent, and so on. But I have a feeling he didn't care for me before I showed up on TV." She untied her blond hair, ran her hand through it to loosen them up, then tied them back up in a messy bun on the top of her head.
"I see… Do you want to meet him?"
"Do I?" she asked. "I don't know. I've been through a lot because of him and I'm not sure I'm ready to see him just yet."
The prince nodded. "We can either put his future mail directly in the trash, or we can have someone tell him to stop harassing you."
Eve sighed. "I guess just put everything away, but not in the trash, and I'll see what I want to do after everything is over, either if I win or not. I'll decide then."
"Okay," he said. "You wanna try again?" he asked, motioning to the bike.
Eve smiled and nodded. "But this time, let me try to start alone."
Valerian nodded, but he still stood next to her, ready to catch her if she fell. Evangeline propelled herself onward and pedaled like mad, her eyes fixed on the road ahead. "You're doing it!" Val called after her, running some distance behind her.
"What?" she said, looking behind her.
"No! don't look behi– too late." Val caught up with her as she tried to disentangle herself from the bike, laughing.
"Oops," she said. "But I did it! I rode!"
"Yeah, you did!" He helped her up and encouraged her to start again, and after a few wobbly tries, she was almost mastering the bike. Valerian took his bike and they rode in circles around the palace, laughing. More than once he had to hold her with one arm so she wouldn't fall over, but she was really getting the hang of it. "Hey, how come you never learned?" he suddenly asked.
"I guess I never got the chance, going from a home to another," she said. "And I always felt it was ridiculous to ask."
"Not even to your family? The one who adopted you?"
Eve shook her head. "My sister already knew by the time I came, and I always found an excuse not to go with her."
Valerian and Eve chatted some more, and he told her about stupid things he did when he was a kid, and how he got a scar on his chin from falling from his bike. Eve said she couldn't imagine a small troublesome Valerian, because he was just so perfect, now, which made him turn bright pink.
-o-0-o-
Nevaeh was surprised Nathan didn't go on more dates. Before the Selection, he would always be around Illéa, partying, drinking, and sleeping around with beautiful strangers of various ages. But now? He was just going on an official date only once or twice a week.
"Nathan," Nevaeh said, catching up with her cousin after lunch, on Thursday. "Can I have a word with you?"
"Uh, yeah? What did I do wrong, now?" he asked, eyeing her suspiciously.
"Nothing! I just want to chat." She hooked her arm into his. "Shall we go for a walk outside?"
"Of course, dear cousin," he said, playing along. "Whatever do you want to talk about? You've never really paid attention to me…"
Nevaeh tilted her head to the side and offered him a small smile. "What makes you think that?"
"Oh, please," Nathan said. "You've always been pretty open about your distaste of my lifestyle."
"True, but that doesn't mean I don't like you." She paused and they walked in silence for a moment. "Nathan, how are you doing? Like really doing?"
The prince didn't answer right away. "You know, I think you're the first person to ask me that," he said, "since the beginning of the Selection, actually. And also for a long time."
"People must assume you're happy since that's what you're always showing."
"Yeah, maybe." He shrugged. "You know I haven't even thought about it myself. Like, I'm okay, but am I really 100% okay? Probably not." He paused, waiting for Nevaeh to say something, but she didn't. "Why do you want to know?"
"It's my job to know," she said lightly. "I'm the Selection coordinator, so I need to make sure everyone is in a good place. Are you?"
"Your job?" He snorted. "Am I being evaluated right now? Are you going to report to Jesse?"
"What? No!" She stopped walking, holding Nathan back. "Nathan look at me."
He rolled and eyes and looked at Nevaeh. "What."
"I'm asking you for real, and it's just between you and me. What is going on with you?"
Nathan took his arm out of Nevaeh's and headed toward the stone bench that was a few meters away, where he sat. He ran a hand through his dark blond hair and sighed. "Honestly? I don't know…" he trailed off. "I mean, it was all fun and games in the beginning, I didn't know the girls and there was some kind of game to see which ones would– you know… have sex with me. But now Silas is engaged, Val already has his Elite, and I'm just… here?" He paused, looking at his hands. "Before, I just dated women for fun, because they liked what I was, and I them. But now I feel things are getting more personal, I know them better, they know me better, and I'm not super comfortable about it. And–" he cut himself short and looked at his cousin. "You're not my therapist."
"No, I'm not," she said, though she offered him a small smile. "But I guess you needed to get that all out, and I was the one who asked, so…"
Nathan snorted. "Anyway… don't count on me for finding love, to be honest. I really don't feel called to that."
"Oh, so love is a calling, now?" she said with a smirk.
"You can talk," he said. "Your last relationship was… what, a lifetime ago? Do you feel called?"
"Please don't remind me," she said, scolding him. "I don't want to talk about tha–"
"What about Jesse?" he said.
"What about him?" Nevaeh scoffed. "Why is everyone putting him in my face? Seriously."
"Maybe because he's always looking at you with heart-eyes?" Nathan chuckled and batted his eyelashes at her. "You're probably the only one who doesn't see it. But you'd be a nice pair: you're short, he's taller, he's exuberant, you're not. It's a perfect balance."
"Shut up." She swatted his arm.
"Ow!"
Nevaeh shook her head. "You're an idiot."
"I'm not." He pouted and they stayed seated like that, silent, for a while, while the soft fall wind blew around them. "What about you?" he said, more softly than just before. "How are you?"
Nevaeh was surprised at that. Nathan was the last one she expected to ask that. "I think you might also be one of the few ones who actually asked me that," she said. "I need a vacation, but otherwise I'm perfectly fine, thank you very much."
Nathan smirked and chuckled softly. "You're always taking care of everyone and everything. You're a bit controlling at times, as well, but I think you're doing a great job with the whole Selection thing." He paused. "And you'll definitely deserve a vacation after this. We all will."
Nevaeh totally agreed with that. It didn't seem like it, but the Selection was a lot of work for everyone and very tiring. "So, who's your next date?"
"Date? Uh, no idea."
"Oh, come on," Nevaeh said, standing. "You can't leave your girls hanging like that. Pick one you haven't seen in a while and just go for it do something simple: a movie, a hike, a game, give each other a makeover, I don't know. Try a facemask! That's always nice."
Nathan nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, I'll think about it." He paused for half a minute. "There, I thought about it, and I'm gonna go give a rose to Emelda. Happy?"
"Yes, now go," she said, guiding him towards the Palace. "And have fun."
"Whatever." And Nathan was on his way, leaving Nevaeh alone in the gardens, thinking about her own welfare and her own love life. Jesse, really? She snorted. Over her rich, hot, dead body.
-.-
Nathan almost forgot the orange rose when he went to look for Emelda. He asked one of the maids if she knew where the gymnast was, and thankfully, she knew she was in the gym, practicing. That got Nathan interested, and he quickly went below ground to see her in action. He stayed by the door, watching, as Emelda did impossible stretches on the floor. Nathan's body ached just by watching her.
Emelda looked up. "Hey!" she said, brightening up, and then laughed. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Just a few minutes," he said, sheepishly. He cracked his neck, trying to dislodge the weird feeling after watching her literally bend in two. "So, uhm, you wanna go on a date?" He held out the orange rose.
"Yes!" she said, unfolding herself into a normal position. "Just give me twenty minutes to shower and change, if that's okay…"
"Of course." Nathan didn't add that he could join her in the shower, though the thought did cross his mind for a second. "I'll come by in twenty minutes, then."
Emelda nodded, grabbed her things, and hurried out of the gym, but not without stopping near Nathan and planting a quick kiss on his cheek as she took the rose from his hands. "I'll be waiting, then."
Nathan didn't know what to do for the next twenty minutes. What was he even going to do with her? If it ended like last time, he could just choose a movie and be done with it. But then she would maybe think it was a bit cheap. What could he do in twenty minutes to prepare a date?
Snacks. That was the first step. He hurried to the kitchen and asked for snacks and drinks for a date. The head chef put Marco, the red-head cook, on snack duty for the Prince and ten minutes later, Nathan had a whole basket full of nice foods and drink. Now, a movie. If he went with Star Wars, it would be too easy. He had ten minutes to go to the cinema room and find a few movies she might be interested in. His finger ran along the sides of the DVD cases, and he picked three completely different: an action movie, a drama, and a Rom-com. He had seen none of them but would let her chose one. It's not as if they were going to watch the whole thing, anyway…
He was a couple of minutes late when he knocked on his door, but Emelda didn't mind. She was dressed in a soft sweater dress, and her hair was still a little wet from the shower, though she had tried to blow-dry them.
"So," he said, putting the basket on the table. "I have movies, I have snacks and drinks, and… yeah, that's all I have."
"Nice!" Emelda said. "Please tell me it's not Star Wars…"
"Nope, three different genres, three choices." He held out the DVD cases like a fan, waiting for her to choose.
"This one!" she said, taking the middle box. "I think I saw the trailer, and it was hilarious!"
Nathan took the box and looked at the cover image – and no, he hadn't really looked before. It was a fat blond girl in a yellow jacket with red roses falling all around her. Huh. Okay. Weird, but okay. The movie was called 'Isn't It Romantic'.
"Come on," she said, turning on the huge TV before making herself comfortable on the bed. She let Nathan get the movie started and grabbed the basket full of treats. "I don't think we'll be hungry for dinner with this," she said, rummaging through the contents.
"Yeah, we don't need to go down for dinner," he agreed. "Okay, it's on!" he joined her on the bed, kicked his shoes off and they snuggled in together, eating cookies and some other goodies Marco had put in for them.
They actually ended watching the whole movie and both had a really good laugh out of it: it was the story of a young woman disenchanted with love who mysteriously finds herself trapped inside a romantic comedy, and she has to figure out her happy ending to get back to real life.
"The last time I watched something that was not Star Wars was a horror movie," he said.
"Yeah, Laelia told us how you were so scared and jumpy the whole time," Emelda giggled.
"She did what?"
Emelda shrugged. "She didn't mean any harm, it was just funny. Hey, how did you like this movie?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Eh, it was okay. Totally unrealistic, but okay."
"As if Star Wars is realistic?" she retorted, punching him playfully in the arm.
"…okay, yeah. That's fair." He chuckled. "But lightsabers!"
Emelda rolled her eyes. "Though if you are talking about this one," she said, sliding her hand down there, "I'm all up for it." She made a suggestive smile and Nathan responded by kissing her and flipping her on her back. He also slipped his hands under her sweater dress and, well… it just went on from there and they skipped dinner.
Hi, Hello!
I hope you enjoyed this little chapter! please let me know what you thought ;)
anyway. I'm currently 9 chapters ahead in my writing and just passed 250k. I mean... woah. I think I'll need another 50-60k and this story will be over!... but not over over, since there will be the Sequel! haha! the first part of the prologue should be posted in the beginning of January 2021, and this story should be finished in May if I stick to a once a week posting schedule (I might go to to 2x a week once I finish writing the story, and there are only 11-12 chapters left to write... we'll seeee...)
have a great week! I can't believe it's almost Christmas already! omggg... see you next week byeeee!
