Samara - who Bloom could not help but think was nearly identical to her son, except Samara had ash brown hair whilst her son as hair that could compete with the sun - was waiting in the courtyard in the back of the castle, the Roses were in bloom, and there were all different colour roses, Red, Yellow, White…. And Black, which usually you would think would make the cheerful flowed bed look bad, but to be honest Bloom loved the Black roses more, than any other, living with Flora for four years makes you look at flowers in a whole new perspective. Yes roses were not the more colourful colour but they were elegant and beautiful but not many people would appreciate that.
Samara was kneeling down picking a lovely bright red Rose from the ground, then stood up and looked to see the approaching Bloom and Kimmy.
"Ah, Bloom how lovely it is to see you, I must say you get more beautiful every time I see you" Samara said as Bloom stood walked up beside her, they hugged and Bloom told Kimmy that she could go.
"it's nice to see you again Samara" Bloom said as Samara motioned for Bloom to walk with her, they walked deeper into the flower beds and into the royal garden.
"I heard that you were doing lessons with Jennifer?" Samara asked putting the Rose she picked to her nose to take in the smell.
"Yes, I am" Bloom answered and bowed her head, a little embarrassed the Samara knew she had to get lessons to act like a princess, how pathetic must have that sounded, and then in a few days Sky is going to tell her and her husband Erendor that there son was going to be getting married to an inexperienced Princess who has to learn how to walk in a straight line.
"Then, I guess you have met Princess Christina?" Samara asked.
"Yes, this morning was my first time meeting Christina, she is a very beautiful Girl, you must be a very proud aunt." Bloom said with a smile in her face.
Samara sighed heavily and then sat down hard on one of the stone benched scattered randomly around the garden; Bloom looked at her in confusion. "Samara!, are you okay? Are you not well?" Bloom stressed helplessly.
Samara stared up at her with sad eyes. "No, no dear, I'm okay, don't worry about me, it's just… I want to tell you something that you have a right to know… about Christina."
Bloom looked at her confused, and Samara patted the empty seat beside her for Bloom to sit, which Bloom accepted.
"Bloom, I want to tell you something that only Five other people know in confidence, Myself, my Husband Erendor, Sky, Sky's squire Brandon and Lillian and Liam – Christian's parents – now, I don't want to keep you in the dark about this, I want to tell you." She said looked at Bloom desperately.
"If you are not sure you want to tell me Samara, you don't have to, it's okay" Bloom said putting a hand on Samara shoulder for support, Samara was obviously very upset with whatever she wanted Bloom to know.
"No, I have to tell you, you deserve to know this, since soon enough you are going to be in this family, even though Sky has not proposed yet" she laughed softly, then Bloom remembered that no one but Sky, bloom and their friends knew about Sky proposing to Bloom.
Samara paused briefly and then continued, "Christina, is not Sky's cousin… in fact she is someone completely different… she is Sky's younger sister."
Bloom stared in shock at the woman after saying them words, she must be joking, this must all be some little prank to humour themselves with, seeing my expression, but Samaras expression was not one of a liars, tears ran down her prefect, flawless face.
Bloom took a tissue out of her pocket and whipped the tears away from under Samaras eyes, she figured this was something that took a lot of strength for Samara to say, to trust Bloom with a secret like this. "what do you mean she's Sky's younger sister? she can't be, her mother is Erendor's sister." Bloom asked.
"No, in face Christina's mother is in face… me. I am her mother and Erendor is her father." Samara said and more tears ran down her eyes.
But she continued with her story. "Christina's mother, Lillian, was never one for the royal spot light, in actual fact, she was in line to be the next Queen of Eraklyon, until she fell in love with a stable boy, Liam, he was a lovely man, back then it was unheard for a royal to marry a commoner. So Lillian did the only thing that she could do… give up the thrown, give up everything and marry her one true love."
She suddenly stopped talking and looked down, then Bloom noticed that two maid were walking by them, they bowed elegantly at the two and continued walking down the path, and Samara continued.
"When she left, Erendor became the next in line for King of Eraklyon, that's when I met him, and we instantly fell in love, and soon after we were blessed with a lovely baby boy, Sky, did you know we called him that because His eyes are as blue as the sky." Bloom's smile brightened hearing that.
"anyway, we loved our son more than anything in the world, When Sky was around eleven years old, Lillian and Liam paid there first visit to the castle since Lillian left ten years earlier, they asked for help, even though they were happily married and living in a lovely town… but they were missing one thing to their happy ending… a child. They asked for our assistance, from the start I was against having more than one child, because I did not want them to be fighting over the crown one day, but I still accepted, and I became pregnant. With Christina" she said.
"But, Sky was eleven, surly he would have taken notice to your pregnancy?" Bloom said.
Samara shook her head, "I went away for ten month after I found out I was having Christina, I left it ten months, because people would have gotten suspicious if I left for Nine, I left Sky here with his father as I went to Lillian's house for the period of my pregnancy. He didn't know anything about the pregnancy, I didn't want to do that."
"when I had Christina, I fell in love with her instantly, she was gorgeous and she had the same eyes as Sky has, and the Blond hair, I had no power over anything once I passed that little baby girl into the arms of another awaiting mother, I know I should have felt upset, angry and depressed afterwards… but to be honest, I was happy, I made life for my sister-in-law happy, and I was able to have more children without the problem of them fighting over the crown when they were older."
Samara went silent and started softly sobbing, and Bloom was not sure what to say, and she put one of arms around her, and Samara leaned into her and hugged Bloom.
Bloom brushed her hair with her hand and rocked her back and forth, she felt in some strange way that it would make the pain decrease, It didn't, Samara pulled away and painted on a smile for her and started talking again.
"When Sky turned seventeen, that's when we told him about Christina, by then Christina was five years old, and her and Sky were very close, when we told him, we expected him to be in some way upset, but he wasn't, in face her was so happy about it, we also told Brandon and then we swore them to never tell anyone, and never even hint to Christina about anything that might make her think." Samara again went silent thinking about what she was going to say next.
"What happened to Lillian… it was beyond anyone's control, and everyone was effected by it" She said, 'The disease just took control of her body, there was no stopping it.'
"Liam took it the worst; we knew that we had to get Christina away from him before he told her anything about her being a princess, so that is why we sent Sky and Brandon to go and retrieve her" she paused and looked at Bloom with tears in her eyes. "I would do anything in the world for that little girl to call me mom, but we all know that is not going to happen" she said.
"But Samara, why don't you tell her?" Bloom couldn't help but ask.
"I couldn't do that to Lillian, she was her mother, not me, I was just in the background, could you imagine how confused and eight year old would be if you told her that who she thought was her mother was actually her aunt, and that the woman that her thought was her aunt is her mother, I couldn't put her through that." She said and then stood up from her seat "I guess you should be going in, or else you would be late for your lunch with Sky, go on, I'll be OK,"
Bloom stood up "I can't leave you like this" she argued.
Samara smiled. "you are such a sweet girl Bloom, you think of others before yourself, a true princess, and someday I will be proud to call you family, but for now you must hurry and get to your lunch, he barely has anytime or himself these days and I'm sure all his free time he wants to spend with you, I don't want to be responsible for you missing that," she started walking away "Now go" she insisted with a smile and a way.
Bloom started walking in the other direction, trying to absorb the new information that she had just received.
And now she was going to put on her poker face so the staff would not get suspicious about anything and got ready or her lunch with her King.
