Chapter 7
The next morning, the buddies, the nationals and lady Rose were in the dining hall having breakfast with the kids and the other contestants.
There were two long tables that faced vertically across the dining hall. Those tables were for guests. A third table went horizontally across the dining hall. That was where the royal family sat.
The king and queen sat next to each other. Sitting beside Harold was prince Edward, on Edward's other side was Bethany, and on the queen's other side sat Alyvia. The queen and the countess were talking and smiling.
The kids were eating their breakfast and were talking excitedly. Some of the maids were standing against the walls silently.
The buddies could see Dorothy staring longingly at the prince.
"Lady Rose," asked Rosebud. "Why does Dorothy look so glum?"
"She's in love with the prince," explained Lady Rose. "But she never tried to get his attention. She talks about him a lot," she purred. "But she feels he'd never go for a commoner like her."
"Dorothy would make a much better princess then that stuck up lady Bethany" scoffed B-dawg.
"He's right," agreed Nina. "Edward would love Dorothy because she's kind and loving, not because she's an aristocrat."
"Both he and Dorothy love animals" added Nathalie.
"We need to get Dorothy and the prince together" declared Budderball standing up.
"Yeah," added Mudbud. "Before he's stuck with Bethany for the rest of his life."
…
Alice and her friends were talking at the table.
"You guys wanna see my design?" asked Alice.
The boys nodded.
Alice held up a drawing. It was a medieval style wedding dress; it was off the shoulder wraps.
"It looks amazing Alice," said Billy.
"If lady Bethany doesn't like it, she wouldn't know what to like" agreed Sam.
"It's beautiful," said a voice.
The kids looked up and sitting across the table was a girl. She looked like a teenager and spoke in a British accent. She had wavy bronze hair and wore a light blue ruffled top.
"Sorry for snooping," she said. "But I couldn't help but notice your design it looks outstanding."
"Thank you," said Alice. "I'm Alice, and this is Bartleby, Billy, Peter and Sam."
"I'm Tilly," said the girl. "I'm from London England. Where are you from?"
"Fernfield Washington" replied Peter.
"I work in a department store in London," said Tilly. "I've had a talent for designing though. Would you like to see my design?"
"Yes please," said Alice.
Tilly held up her drawing. It was a pear body shaped dress; it was eggshell white and had droopy sleeves.
"It's just as good as mine," said Alice.
"Lady Bethany will be in for some decision," said a man with a French accent who was sitting next to Tilly.
"This is Shawn," said Tilly. "He's from France."
"I'm a student in a designer school back home," said Shawn. "I'm hoping to become a designer. You both have designed great dresses; would you like to see mine?"
Tilly and the children nodded.
He held up his drawing. It was a gold medieval dress with droopy sleeves and a cone shaped princess hat.
"I love the dress," said Alice impressed. "It looks like the ones princesses wear in fairy tales."
And the boys agreed with her.
"Well," said Tilly getting up. "We'd better get to work. We've got to get our dresses ready for the wedding on Saturday."
"You're right," said Alice.
She and the boys went off with Tilly and Shawn.
Later, Bethany came into the sewing room.
"Hello children," said Bethany cheerfully.
"Hello lady Bethany," said Alice excitedly. She held up her picture of the dress she was making. "What do you think?"
"I love it Alice," said Bethany excitedly. "Why don't I show you something."
Bethany led the kids outside and in the driveway was a white Mercedes Benz C class.
The kids all exclaimed at the sight of the car.
"It's one of the latest Mercedes models," explained Bethany. "It's a 2013 Mercedes Benz C class. It's my mother's wedding day present for me, it's going to be presented at the wedding, but I thought I'd let you get a look early."
"It's a great car lady Bethany" said Bartleby.
"Thank you," said Bethany smiling. "I hope I'll see you kids at the engagement ball tonight."
"We will," said the kids.
Author's note; Lady Bethany loves to butter people up doesn't she? In the next chapter the buddies and their friends are going about their plan to set up prince Edward and Dorothy.