Halfway through the story, and now two Henri chapters in a row! I love Henri, I said that already, but I really think he deserved better. Poor Henners kind of got dragged around for the sake of the plot, y'know? I also thought it was weird that Henri was even ALLOWED to have a male translator of eligible age. But I'm biased; I kinda have a grudge against Erik. Whatever. Just please enjoy this quick chapter, and maybe encourage me to put another up soon.

Chapter Five

"Hello," I said pleasantly, or at least as pleasantly as I could manage. Greeting all my newly Selected suitors was one part boring and three parts EXHAUSTING, since I was without a doubt expected to know everyone's name and maybe even some fun facts just from these five-minute introductions. I was good with names, sure, but it was simply too much information to take in so quickly.

So it was kind of refreshing, actually, when the blonde boy I was introducing myself to just stared at me blankly. It provided me with a very small (and very necessary) mental break. I liked this guy already.

"Hei!" he said after a pause. He had quite a heavy accent; I wondered where he was from. It kind of worried me that I didn't know. That was the kind of thing I was definitely supposed to know.

"Are you enjoying the palace so far?" I asked politely.

Aaaaand, the blank stare was back. The boy appeared to be in deep thought. It was a little bit worrying. "Uh, excuse me, what's your name?"

"Name?" he repeated, pausing a moment. "Henri!"

Okay, I remembered the name 'Henri' from drawing the envelopes last week. So this was definitely a Selected guy, not some creepy rando just wandering around in the palace, but, uh…did he even speak English?

"Babushka!" Henri called, looking around worriedly behind him. "Babushka!"

That worried me even more. Who was he talking to? Was this guy actually crazy? I was really starting to regret not meeting the suitors in a more populated place, but then, all of a sudden, an old woman shuffled into the room. She was short, and quite stout, with a scarf over her bushy white hair and a scowl across her weathered face.

"Allo," she said gruffly. "I am Babushka. Henri is Swendish. Henri only speaks Finnish. I will translate for him."

Unsure of what to do (nobody had warned me about this. How irresponsible.) I stuck out my hand for her to shake. "Pleased to meet you, ah, Mrs…?"

"Babushka," she informed me.

Well. That would make things a little simpler.

Via Babushka, I had a quick conversation with Henri, and I found him to be charming and cute. The translator thing was awkward, sure, but I thought Babushka was a good fit for the job. She was better than, like, a handsome guy about my age or something.

I mean, how weird would that be?

Additionally, I'm very sorry about the plot error in the last chapter- I think I claimed that Henri spoke Swendish, not Finnish, so I could've actually Googled some vague phrases for authenticity. That's what I get for doing no research whatsoever on this wreck of a story.