"Suck in please."
"God why does this feel so tight?"
"Hang on, your highness. We just need your last measurements for your waist."
"We still have to do everything else?"
"I'm afraid so."
Alison was in her room, getting her wedding dress fit by Ravenswood's best tailor. Much to her disliking, Alison's wedding was approaching rather quickly. The leaves turning brought a reminder to Alison that the date was quickly approaching, October 25th. Already the castle began stirring, preparing for Noel's arrival. Even though it was late September, Alison already got a glimpse of his crown, the one that he would wear everywhere once he became king. Alison didn't want to share her power of Rosewood, at least not with Noel. His crown happened to strongly resemble hers, and she didn't like that either.
As for Emily, she had gotten far in her lessons with reading and writing. She wasn't perfect, but she wasn't terrible either. They spent an hour a day reading and writing. Emily had just started reading a chapter book (with the help of Alison of course) and she was doing surprisingly well. Of course, Emily probably wouldn't have gotten as far in her lessons had Alison not rewarded her with some "fun" following them.
Emily hadn't come to Alison's dress fitting and Alison had a sinking feeling that it was because she didn't want to come to terms with the fact that Alison was getting married. Alison's number one priority after getting her dress fitted was to find Emily, wherever she may be.
Alison's patience grew thinner and thinner as she was fitted. Her dress was beautiful, but Alison hated it. She would've loved it, had she been getting married to someone else and not Noel.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Emily entered, holding a book that looked very old and very dusty.
"Excuse me. No other guests allowed while I pin up Queen Alison." the tailor said, she seemed rather annoyed with Emily's presence.
"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I'll come back at another time-"
"She can stay." Alison said sternly. Alison turned to Emily and nodded at the item in her hands. "What do you have there?"
"I'll tell you later, but I think it might have the answers to your problems." Emily said, smiling wide. "I only could pick out some of the words though, so I may be wrong."
"Hang on I'll be done soon."
"Find me in the library."
Emily heaved the dusty old book away and out of Alison's bedroom, leaving Alison and Ravenswood's tailor alone for her dress to be fit.
"Emily what is it?" Alison asked, peeking her head around the corner of the bookcases. Emily was sitting on the ground with the dusty old book propped open between her legs.
"Sit down." Emily said excitedly.
"A queen doesn't sit on the floor." Alison said, looking disgustedly at the floor.
"Just sit." Emily said.
Alison sighed and sat down next to Emily, snuggling up next to her as Emily pointed to the page she was reading. On the page, there was a colorful picture of what seemed to be a castle. On the next picture, there was a drawing of someone of royalty. She looked similar to Alison, with golden blonde hair, but the crown atop her head was different.
"Queen Lauren Seville ruled Rosewood without a king, but instead a second queen, Queen Olivia Reinheart. Both queens lead the kingdom through dark times, bringing Rosewood to light." Alison read. She looked up from the text and turned to Emily, "You could read this?"
"Some if it. I picked out some of the words."
"Should we do it?"
"You think it's a good idea?"
"I think we can do it. They already think you're a princess, we can overthrow Noel and I can teach you how to be a queen."
"How would we overthrow him?"
"Jason wasn't allowed to become king because he was charged with treason." Alison said, getting an idea.
"So what you're saying is... we frame Noel and he is charged with treason. That sounds really horrible, framing someone innocent." Emily's eyebrows raised and she bit her lip.
"Not if he actually does it." Alison said, smirking. "Knowing Noel's temper, it probably won't be very hard."
"You think we can do it?"
"Of course."
The next few weeks consisted of months of tireless queen training for Emily. Although they practiced, Emily was struggling with some things. Most of it included Emily's table manners and speaking properly. Even though she was struggling, Alison had a lot of patience with Emily's lessons, because she wanted it more than anything. To be rid of Noel and to live happily ever after with Emily.
As Emily progressed in her lessons, Alison planned how she was going to get Noel charged with treason, which seemed to be a harder endeavor than she originally thought. All of her schemes seemed a lot less believable than the one before.
"Sit up straighter Emily. No slouching." Alison corrected at dinner.
It was a day before the wedding, and time was running out. Emily's patience was running thin and Alison could tell, hers was running thin as well.
The guests were going to be arriving the following morning and it was their time to initiate the plan to have Noel charged with treason by the end of the night of their wedding. It seemed like a lot to do in such a short amount of time, but Alison believed that their intuition would help them get their plan to work. If Emily couldn't act the part of being queen, people would become suspicious of the new queen's manners. Since the people of Rosewood knew Emily, their plan was that whenever she was in public, she would wear a mask. If people asked why, Alison would spread a rumor around (without the people knowing it was her) that Emily was beyond beautiful and that if people saw her face they wouldn't be able to function. Rosewood was gullible enough, and was into myths like that, so it would be easy to get them to believe it.
Alison had secretly had a crown made for Emily, as a surprise for her. It had come all the way from the same person who made Alison's crown, Alison's lie to the crown maker is that she just wanted another crown to wear. The one being made was gold with some accents of white gold. It had purple jewels in it, because Emily's best color was purple. Alison was very proud of the design, since she designed it herself and couldn't wait to show it to Emily before the plan began before the wedding.
"This is so annoying." Emily said, frustration in her voice.
"If you're going to be a queen, you need to act the part." Alison said.
"Well maybe I'm not meant to be queen."
"You are. You just,... you need more practice." Alison said, biting her lip.
Emily didn't say anything for the rest of the dinner and when that was over, Alison decided to show her what she had in store for Emily.
"Follow me Emily." Alison said, walking towards the doors of the dining hall to her room.
"Alison, I'm really tired and I'm not in the mood for-"
"No not that! We did that last night, I actually have something for you." Alison said as they climbed the steps of the castle. Alison hoped Emily would like it, but she was second guessing herself. She wondered if showing Emily the crown would overwhelm her and make her back out of the plan to charge Noel with treason and she would take over.
When they entered Alison's room, the crown was right where she left it, on a table covered with a cloth to hide what was under it from Emily. Alison stepped towards it and turned to Emily.
"Go ahead and pull it off." Alison said, watching as Emily eyed it uneasily.
Emily's hand reached out and removed the cover that was covering the crown and gasped.
"That's-?"
"Your crown, yes." Alison said.
"Can I put it on?"
"No. It's bad luck for a queen to wear her crown before her coronation." Alison said, smiling at Emily's wide eyes as she examined her crown. "Do you like it?"
"I love it. But it's just, a bit overwhelming. I'm going to be taking on a great responsibility." Emily said, reaching out to touch her crown. Alison slapped her hand away, and placed the cover back on top of it, hiding the crown from temptation.
"Are you ready to start the plan tomorrow?" Alison asked, as she took the crown away and hid it.
"I'm super nervous, I don't know how I'm going to be able to sleep tonight, but yes, I am ready." Emily said, nodding.
"You can sleep up here, that way the nervousness will subside and we'll both be able to sleep." Alison offered.
"I can't believe we're actually doing this." Emily said, laying on Alison's bed and sighing.
"Don't worry. It'll all be over soon."
When the guests began to arrive on the day of October 25th, Alison's stomach wouldn't stop churning. What if their plan didn't work and at the end of the night, Alison was married to Noel? The other possibility was that they would be caught for trying to have Noel commit treason, and Alison could be charged with treason herself. All these possibilities seemed to get worse and worse in Alison's head the more she thought about it. Her stomach really began flipping when Noel arrived, kissing Alison firmly on the cheek and telling her that his outfit was white and he looked rather marvelous in it.
Noel was followed by Aria and Ezra, arm and arm and smiling widely as they greeted Alison, commenting on how lively Rosewood looked in preparation for the new king. Aria and Ezra had an obvious relationship going on, which was curious since Alison was fairly certain that Ezra was a few years older than Aria. Next came Spencer and Toby, his fixed smile almost made Alison suspicious, but it was probably because he was in a lot of pain. His left arm was wrapped up and he told Alison that he simply broke it while on his horse, Alison wasn't sure if she believed that story or not. Spencer also made a deal of pulling Alison aside and asking about her relationship with Emily. Alison sternly replied to Spencer that she didn't need to worry, she and Emily were still together and the whole thing with Noel would be over then there was Hanna and Caleb, arm in arm as Hanna pulled Caleb along. This time around, he was clean shaven, probably something that Hanna convinced him to do before they got to the castle.
Alison met many others, none of which she really cared for. The others were meaningless trading countries that Alison had to smile and act like she knew them because they had things that Rosewood needed.
When the time came, Alison made for her room, followed by a masked Emily so that Emily could start to her Alison ready for the wedding. It was going to take a lot of work, especially because they also had to go through their plan one last time before beginning. As Alison got into her white dress, they both recited it to make sure both understood.
"Before the wedding, I'm going to find Noel and pull him aside. I'll talk to him and start throwing some insults at him to get his temper going. The final thing I'll do is throw my drink in his face, preferably red wine and that should send him over the edge. By then, you'll have the guards and they'll enter when he's trying to make a grab for me, and boom, charged with treason and the wedding is off." Alison said, as Emily braided her hair and wrapped tiny white flowers through it.
"What if my timing is off?"
"I think I can hold him off." Alison said confidently.
"It's too bad we don't have a way of communicating without shouting to each other."
"Yeah. Too bad."
There was a knock on the door and a small voice was heard. "Queen Alison? You're expected downstairs in thirty minutes, the ceremony will begin soon." someone said softly. Alison looked at Emily, her stomach really doing flips now.
"I should go down now and get this plan started." Alison said. Emily nodded and helped Alison up and towards the door. "In about ten minutes, go and get the guards, I'll be in the dining hall with Noel. Once the guards see it, I would have enough evidence to charge Noel with treason."
"This better work." Emily said as she opened the door for Alison.
"It will. Trust me, this will be over and he'll be out of our hair." Alison said, reassuringly. She stroked Emily's arm and smiled, trying to ease Emily's nerves. Before leaving Emily, she leaned over and kissed her quickly. "Now let's get this plan going."
Emily sat in Alison's room, waiting for the ten minutes to tick by before going to get the guards. She was beyond nervous that their plan wasn't going to work and Alison was going to wind up dead and it would be all her fault. All the possibilities of their plan going wrong had Emily's heart beating a mile a minute.
When the ten minutes ended, Emily stood up and adjusted the mask on her face. Alison and Emily both agreed that she would wear it to start the rumor that she was beyond beautiful and it must be shielded from the rest of the guests. Emily walked towards the door and pulled it open, only to find Noel standing in the doorway. Emily was speechless, why wasn't Noel with Alison? Her stomach flipped, if Noel wasn't with Alison that could only mean Alison was dead. But Noel's white wedding outfit was spotless, no sign of a drink being splashed on him. Noel reached out silently and lifted the mask off Emily's face, the full white full face mask came off and he held it in his hands, a big smirk on his face.
"I thought it was you." Noel said quietly. He pushed his way into Alison's room, passing Emily, who was still shocked at Noel's appearance. "I can't believe I didn't put two and two together at the masquerade ball. A beautiful princess named Princess Emily from a far away kingdom that no one had heard of until now, I can't believe I didn't see it then."
Was Noel really that stupid that he just realized it now? But there was something about Noel's voice that was unusual, it sounded disgusted and rude.
"Ever since Alison and I were arranged to get married, you have always got in the way. It seemed that Alison was more interested in spending time with her assistant from her pathetic kingdom, than her fiancé. She insists that she brings you everywhere and when she saw you at the masquerade ball, she seemed to only be paying attention to you." Noel said, sitting on Alison's bed.
"Your point is?" Emily asked.
"That can't happen anymore now, you commoner. That's all you are, no matter what Alison told you. I can't have someone like you getting in the way anymore, so we're going to have to silence the lamb." Noel said, smirking again. There was a click and Emily saw the shiny small pocket knife in his hands. "The door is locked, I wouldn't even try."
Emily quickly grew afraid as Noel sat there, turning the knife in his hand. "I never figured out why she preferred you after all this time. She's going to be pretty upset that you...killed yourself." Noel said, standing up.
"It isn't going to work. You won't succeed at this." Emily said, backing up as Noel made his way towards her.
Noel chuckled darkly, "Oh but, it already has. Goodbye Emily."