dress and glamoured it into the blue of the servant attire, then yelled, “Get out, you miserable girl! Leave me alone. I don’t want to see your face!” For good measure, I tossed a heavy book at the wall.
Stomping my feet, I rushed to the door, threw it open and slammed it behind me, playing on the fact that I had just been banished from the new princess’s room.
Sure enough, there were new guards. “I heard from the other guard that she’s bad news,” the short one said.
Not daring to speak, I just nodded and walked away, keeping my smile at bay. This was proving to be entertaining. Once out of their sight, I released my glamour and let a renewed confidence overtake me.
I had learned that the morning and noon meals were served buffet style, the food kept warm with charms for the guests and late risers. The royals usually took meals in their rooms, with only dinner as a set time and formal occasion.
Passing through the formal sitting room, I made my way into the library. As I waited for Gaven, I reminisced about my sisters and home.
Closing my eyes, I dreamed of my room in my tower. It wasn’t much, but it made me happy. The old guard tower had been abandoned years ago and had undergone multiple additions by various owners, with little thought to architectural design. It was a hodgepodge of style with a large yard, stable, and gated vegetable garden. It was outside of town a ways, near the woods, and we were usually left alone, unless someone was coming for us to heal a cow, gain good fortune, or acquire a love potion or two.
Our bedrooms were on three separate floors of the tower itself. I shared the upper floor with Aura and Eden, my younger sisters took the second floor, and Mother Eville lived on the main level. Our room had two small paned windows with wooden shutters, one of which was frequently left open for Maeve to come and go as she pleased. I hadn’t spoken to my sisters in days; before, when we lived together, we hardly went hours without communicating with each other. It was easy to imagine Mother Eville sitting in her high-back chair, knitting and instructing the others in their needlework and spells. In the evenings, we would sing in the language of the old fey, because she said it was easier to learn if sung than spoken.
Maeve, a shapeshifter from birth, would swoop in over dinner and tell us all the gossip she had learned while in fowl form. Usually it was about the boys in town and whom they were courting. A smile fell upon my face as I imagined her frown at the thought of yet another eligible suitor being off the market.
Off the market. Despite being told to never love, for it made us weak, each of us dreamed of being loved, marrying, and settling down. But who could ever love us? Scorned, cursed, and ostracized, we were doomed to carry out spinsterhood. I was still uncertain how I ended up being married to a prince.
I had heard the marriage banns go out, announcing Prince Xander’s engagement to Yasmin, and all of my sisters began to discuss who the lucky lady could be.
“I bet she’s beautiful,” Aura said with a sigh.
“No, she’ll be shallow,” Maeve answered. “All of the pretty ones are. Probably doesn’t have a lick of sense to her.”
“That’s rude,” Aura said.
“Not if it’s the truth,” Meri countered.
Lady Eville had read the wedding announcement aloud, then crumpled up the paper and tossed it into the fire. She patted her dark hair in place, straightened her shoulders and looked among her seven daughters carefully, her piercing green eyes finally resting upon me. “Come, Rosalie. Pack your trunk.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, confused.
“You’re going to meet your future husband.”
The room erupted into squeals of delight from my sisters as they all began to talk at once and ponder who the lucky lad could be. Me, my hands trembled as I walked up the narrow and uneven steps to the top floor of the tower and began to pack my few belongings.
A husband.
I had never in a million years dreamed I would marry, and so suddenly too. Once the fear and trepidation faded, excitement took its place. Opening my wardrobe, I assessed my best clothes, or lack thereof. Nothing that would do for marrying, but maybe I could alter one of my newer