When the princesses finally pulled up at Drollruin Academy for Young Ladies, everything was white, from the building to the door to the lilies and gardenias planted out front in bushes trimmed to look like graceful young ladies with billowing skirts.
"Out you get, you little brats." Stayne said briskly, opening the carriage door for the girls.
"Mum would never send us to a school run by Mirana's loyalists!" Ember protested.
"I refuse to leave the coach!" Rosalind agreed, turning to her father. "Daddy, I want to go home, right now!" she said, her voice frantic.
Stayne tried a different approach to placate his daughter and her sister, the facade he used with their mother.
"Come now, your highnesses. It's not likely to be all bad. Why don't you go take a look inside? Madame Eugenia is expecting us any moment now. You don't want to reflect poorly on your mother in the eyes of the realm, now do you?"
That comment did it.
"Seeing as we've no choice in the matter, we might as well go in so we can have a hot meal at the very least. Come along, Rozzie." Ember stepped out of the coach, Rosalind in tow, clutching her big sister's hand.
"Will you announce us, Daddy? When our headmistress arrives?" Rosalind asked sweetly, batting her long lashes.
Stayne rolled his eyes, but escorted the girls up the white flagstone walkway, then rapped sharply on the white door three times. A maid dressed in a roughspun brown dress and wooden shoes answered.
"The princesses are here to see your mistress." Stayne said curtly. He didn't have all day to drop off the queen's little bastards."
I'll fetch her directly, sir." said the maid, scurrying off as Stayne and the princesses entered.
While the exterior of the school was all white, the interior was various shades of grey, accented with furniture made of gilded wood. Finally, Madame Eugenia strode down the stairs. Her appearance was just as grey as her taste in decor. She wore a rather expensive looking gown of grey satin and lace, had grey eyes, eyebrows and a grey powdered wig about three feet high. However, she wore smoky purple eyeshadow, and wore far too much gold jewelry studded with emerald-cut aquamarines. The woman was deathly thin and had the deepest frown lines either girl had ever seen.
"Milady," Stayne rose to his feet. "May I present, their imperial highnesses, princesses Emberess Phiona Elsemere Tyva and Rosalind Antoinette Elsemere Madalena of Underland, daughters of her royal majesty, the Iracebeth of Crims, Red Queen of Underland." The girls curtsied before their new headmistress.
"The queen didn't tell me she had such exceptional beauties for daughters." Madame Eugenia said, flashing a smile which seemed to be pasted on her face. "A stunningly gorgeous redhead and a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty. They are a credit to her majesty indeed. Sir Stayne and I shall take tea in my study, while the girls are taken to their new accommodations. My sister, Madame Graciella will take them." Madame Graciella, a short chubby woman with mocha brown hair and eyes and a doll's mouth motioned for the girls to come with her.
"Fairfarren, your highnesses." Stayne said to the girls.
"Take care of Mum for us." Ember stated in a warning tone. She didn't trust Stayne one bit.
"Tell her I love her and I miss her already." Rosalind added. With that, the girls left for the dormitories.
Madame Eugenia closed the door.
"Her majesty appears to be quite proud of her daughters, however illegitimate they may be. I don't normally allow bastards in my school, but as they're the queen's spawn, I've made an exception. Her majesty was hardly a show pupil when she went here, and she's no friend of mine. I tried to break her, make a passable lady out of her, but she wouldn't budge. She was hardly monarch material. Poor Mirana, having her crown snatched out from under her! Then when Iracebeth took the crown, she had me publicly flogged. Tell me, you interact with the queen and her children quite a bit. What do you think of them?"
"It pains me to inform you, milady, that they are their mother's daughters in every sense of the word. The elder one, nobody knows whose brat she is. Her mother will not name him. She's the ringleader of the two. She's a fiery little tomboy. She spends her days riding and shooting arrows at everything in sight. The younger one is my whelp. Her mother just stopped breastfeeding her. The queen spoils both of them absolutely rotten, but she dotes on her especially. I've never met a more demanding little girl in my life, except for her the queen of course. She looks sweet, but she's as venomous as her sister. They both blindly idolize their mother. She can do no wrong in their eyes. Until now, they've been raised in a rather unstructured environment and have been free to do as they please, but I daresay your reputation for taming the wildest of shrews proceeds you. Good luck. I don't want to keep her mother waiting, I must be off." and with that he left.
Madame Eugenia grinned to herself. When Princess Iracebeth went to this institution, she bucked the system and got away with it. Now that she was queen, the kingdom was uncouth and bright and riddled with muchness. From what she heard, the red court was hedonistic and wicked. If she couldn't punish the queen for all she'd endured, she'd make her daughters' time here a living hell. After all, the best way to make someone suffer is to hurt the ones they love. And these spoiled little hellions seemed to be the only ones Iracebeth truly loved.