I still had one more message to read. I was too anxious to wait for Giselle and Victoria to come back, that could be hours. I put aside my brother's letter and picked up the one in the pretty gold envelope. I broke the golden seal and pulled out the paper within. I was correct in my guess, it was an invitation. It was sent from Joslynn's ladies maid. The princess had requested that my stepsisters and I join her on an outing the following day. The princess had planned a picnic at a place called the Etvor Valley. She had invited a number of her friends and visiting dignitaries to join her and it seemed I was somehow on the guest list. Christian would be attending, I was sure; it was his sister after all. It seemed all the representatives from the other kingdoms would also be attending. I hoped Giselle and Victoria could contain themselves around Duchess Ojera for the afternoon.
The pair returned just as the sun was sinking low in the sky. They had brought an entourage along with them to the room and the silence that I had been enjoying was broken by chattering and giggles. It looked like they had met up with the girls they had met at the ball. Giselle glared at me when she closed the door after being the last one to enter the room. It seemed my mere presence aggravated her now. Victoria and the other girls did not even acknowledge my presence they were so wrapped up in their conversation. It wasn't until after a few minutes of me trying to ignore them that Victoria addressed me. She had found the gold envelope sitting on the table where I left it. "What is this, Ebony?"
"An invitation to a picnic tomorrow with Joslynn," I answered without looking up.
The other girls gasped and Giselle quickly moved to her sister's side to read over her shoulder. Not wanting to miss a chance to show off their superior connections, Victoria read the letter out loud. "From the desk of her highness, Princess Joslynn Sylvia Delancy," she began. "Her highness is cordially inviting Victoria Kingston, Giselle Kingston, and Ebony Valix to attend a picnic prepared for two days following the first royal ball. The picnic is to be served in Etvor Valley and the princess requests that all her guests arrive at the palace an hour prior to midday. Princess Joslynn hopes that this occasion will allow her family, friends, and emissaries from the kingdoms to get better acquainted with her husband-to-be Prince Reginald Asher of Tarahan."
Victoria finished and all the girls who had been listening with rapt attention burst into a flurry of gasps and exclamations. A waifish girl seemed to nearly faint and had to be caught before she fell. "Are you going to go?" one of the others asked.
"Of course we are going to go. We were invited by the princess herself." Giselle said proudly.
"You are so lucky. I wish I was friends with someone in the royal family." A girl with long brown hair sighed and clutched her hands in front of her.
A small blonde girl who reminded me of a doll piped up. "Prince Christian is so handsome. I met him at a feast once and I nearly died. Have you seen his smile? It's like perfect. His hair is totally soft looking. The whole night I was thinking about how wonderful his hair looked, you know?"
The other girls ignored the small blonde and she stopped talking. It seemed that her enthusiastic description of the prince was not the first time she had gushed about something. Everyone else seemed a bit tired of her. There were seven of them altogether who were discussing the following day with Giselle and Victoria. The waif who nearly fainted was named Sara. The girl who had caught her when she nearly fell was named Allison. She was pretty with shining raven black hair. Victoria seemed to favor her over the others. The chatty blonde's name was Paislee and her sister's name was Posey. Paislee and Posey were twins except they were very different. Posey barely spoke a word the entire time while her sister rarely stopped. The girl with the long brown hair was named Navene and seemed a bit slow in the head. She spoke of little else other than how wonderful it would be to know the royal family. A sour looking girl with mousey brown hair stood next to Giselle and contributed little to the conversation. Her name was Tabatha. The last girl in their party seemed to only be along for them to push around. She was plump with round, rosy cheeks and dull red hair that was twisted in careful ringlets. When the girls were not calling her mean names, they called her Lotti. I wondered why she stayed with the clique if all they did was be mean to her.
"What were you telling me earlier, Vicky?" Allison asked eagerly. I glanced up at the nickname just in time to see Giselle scrunch up her nose at the dark haired girl. No one else seemed to notice though.
Victoria was eager to tell the tale and fiddled with the ribbons on her dress until she had everyone's full attention. I was sitting in the corner of my sofa bed with my book open on my lap, but their conversation was too distracting not to listen to.
"Well," Victoria began. "Last night at the ball I wore the beautiful dress with the sparkles, you know. Then the prince, Prince Hector himself, approached me to compliment me. You can imagine my shock because I had hardly spoken to him since that day with the carriage. Of course, I spent nearly every day at the palace before the balls, but Hector was rarely around. He is preparing to be king so I did not see him often, and never enough to hold a conversation. That is until last night. It was about half an hour past when all those ambassadors and the royal family where announced and I was chatting with a man named Sir Elliot. Elliot was a complete dear; he was rather handsome and I am sure any other man would have felt inferior to him, but not Hector. The prince marched right up and addressed us both most cordially. I composed myself quickly, but Elliot was less held together in the presence of royalty. It did not take Elliot to catch Hector's subtle hints that he wanted to talk to just me. When Elliot left that was when Hector complimented my gown. 'You look divine tonight, Miss Victoria,' he said. Divine! The prince called me divine!"
"You are so lucky, Victoria," Navene sighed. She sighed quite a bit, I noticed. "He's going to fall in love with you, I'm sure about it. It's all so romantic."
"I danced with Prince Christian." Giselle beamed, but she wilted when no one seemed to care that she danced with one prince when her sister had spent the entire ball with his brother.
Paislee was nearly falling over with how far she was leaning forward. Her sister was standing quietly beside her. From her place on the edge of the group, Lotti quietly spoke up. "Didn't you also meet Sir Brockton?"
Tabitha turned her sour gaze to Lotti but didn't say anything. The other girls only acknowledged she had said anything by repeating the question to Victoria who was only too happy to tell them all about it. Giselle was pouting and whispering with Tabitha and seemed to be ignoring the other's conversation.
"Was Sir Brockton one of the ambassadors?"
"He was the handsome one from Ghant."
"Oh, he was rather wonderful looking, some girls have all the luck. Do you think you could introduce him to me, Victoria?"
When they had exhausted going over every minute detail of Victoria's time with Sir Brockton and Prince Hector, one by one they slowly left until only Allison and Tabitha were left. Victoria had taken Allison into her room to look at clothes and jewelry while Giselle still whispered with Tabitha. They did not retire to Giselle's room. Instead they stayed in the room with me and cast sidelong glances at me while they talked. If Giselle didn't want me to hear her conversation she would have to be the one to leave. I was not going anywhere.
Within the hour, Tabitha declared she needed to return home and left. Victoria and Allison where still in Victoria's room with the door closed. When Tabitha left, I expected Giselle to join them, but she told me she was tired and going to bed before going to her room. It was a few hours later and very late at night before Allison left. She and Victoria parted with a hug after placing dainty kisses on each other's cheeks. If I heard correctly, Victoria and Giselle would be going out with the girls again in a couple of days. I predicted that they would be spending a lot of time with their new friends. Victoria was already good friends with Allison and Giselle had Tabitha.
The next morning, the three of us woke and dressed. Giselle couldn't decide on the proper wardrobe to wear to a valley. "We are in the middle of Pharyss, how can there be a valley here?" She asked with a dramatic flourish of her arms.
"I don't know, Elle. Perhaps we are leaving the city. You should wear that new dress you got in Glausshire – the green one with the cream corset." Victoria suggested.
Giselle took her sister's advice and dressed quickly. We were already off schedule and would have to rush to get to the palace on time. Victoria decided to wear a dress similar to Giselle's but with more lace. The dress I wore was more practical. My stepsisters seemed to forget that corsets and heeled shoes were not prudent to wear on an outing to a beach. I pointed out that we were going to a beach when Giselle exited her room in her new dress. She ignored me and went to adjust her hair one last time in the mirror by the door. "Come along, Tori. We're going to be late."
Yay, new characters! Writing this chapter was like pulling teeth and I'm glad it's over now and I can move on to the good stuff. Unfortunately, my writing may be on hold for a few days as daily life is forcefully dragging me back to reality.