Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 44

Never make difficult decisions on an empty stomach
The Princess’s voice turned sour as she poured out her woes to her unwitting servant.

“Since there is no other heir, this coming out ball, which announces me to the kingdom and proclaims I am of marriageable age, is really Father’s quest to find the best possible protege to marry me off to. Someone to take the throne when he dies. I’m sure he has some ideas already, but I would wager they’re not young, handsome men. I’m going to be auctioned off like some prize cow!”

Anaisa stared at the young woman. “You’re saying that you don’t want to be married off against your will to a man you hardly know?”

“I’m saying I don’t think my hand in marriage being the keys to the kingdom will land me anything but the most power-hungry of men,” The Princess made a face. “Father says he will allow me some say in the matter, but he’s too desperate to keep that promise in any satisfactory way. The kingdom is far more important to him than I am.”

Anaisa could sympathize with that. She was never very important to her own power-hungry father.

“What, exactly, do you ‘need’ me for, Your Highness?” Anaisa tacked on the polite honorific as an afterthought, but the Princess waved it off.

“I need a double.” Sapphira said frankly. “I need you to pretend to be me at the ball so I can walk amongst the crowd as a stranger. I can find out what they are saying about me, and who has honorable intentions.”

“And if no one does?” Anaisa didn’t like this idea one bit.

“Then I’m very sorry, but I’m going to run away before the evening ends,” Sapphira smiled apologetically. “This is no personal offense to you, merely self preservation on my part.”

“And me??” The commoner felt her throat constrict. “What will happen to me??”

“You won’t be able to fool them forever, certainly, but if you can make it to bed that night, you should be able to change back into your maid’s clothes and get out fairly cleanly.” The Princess shrugged, and panic filled her servant.

“I can’t act like you!” Anaisa’s voice was shrill as she stood from her place on the ground. “I can’t… I would never be able to…”

“Calm down, we have a little over a week to get you prepared,” The Princess hushed her. “I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully. Just scream at people and they won’t question you.”

“Scream at people?” Anaisa flung her hands in the air in true exasperation. “That’s your advice??”

“Don’t worry, most of the people at the ball will never have seen me before,” The Princess breathed in, “Even the royal relatives are kept away from me within the palace to maintain an air of secrecy about the heirs.”

“But your parents will know the difference,” Even Anaisa’s own inattentive father would have been able to tell her apart from a stranger!

And it was worse than that. She would probably see people she knew at the ball. It was one thing to have an actual princess who looked remarkably like a disgraced nobleman’s daughter, and quite another to impersonate the princess herself!

“My stepmother is not attending the ball. She’s always ill. Father will be too preoccupied vetting the candidates or pushing one onto me to notice anything. Surely whatever you do incorrectly will be passed off as nervousness! Perhaps I can get the theme changed to a masked ball!” Sapphira nodded emphatically. “You can dance, can’t you?”

“Well, yes,” Anaisa cringed. She and Katia had been subject to all the lessons of genteel ladies. “But a masked ball would defeat the purpose of your coming out, wouldn’t it?”

“Not at all! It might even make it better, so that if you do happen to miraculously entrance a good man to pay court, I can slip back into my own dress and marry him without anyone ever knowing the difference. It’s the perfect plan!” She nearly squealed with delight.

“It’s nowhere near perfect! There are a hundred different ways I could be caught!” Anaisa retorted.

Sapphira leapt to her feet. “You already know how to dance, that will save a lot of time. Let me think of what else you will need to learn. The proper way to eat, I suppose, at the banquet portion of the evening…”

“This is insane,” Anaisa almost said ‘you are insane’, but the princess’s goodwill would surely only extend so far.

“You’ll get to eat fantastic food, the likes of which you’ve never even seen,” The Princess smiled slyly. “Every man in our kingdom will be falling all over themselves to dance with you, speak with you, tell you how beautiful you are.”

“I don’t want any of that,” Anaisa tried backing away, but of course they were in the middle of a field. Where could she escape to?

“I told you this would be much easier if you were willing,” The Princess warned, “but I will find a way to make it work with or without your cooperation. I want to tell you ahead of time: it will be much easier if you’re willing to play along.”

“I don’t want to do this. Please, just…” Anaisa stuttered. Just what? Let her go? Release her out of the palace so she could go her merry way? Was that what she wanted? No, she wanted revenge that could be best accomplished by information from within the royal walls.

“I’ll make sure you get whatever you want in life.” Sapphira leaned forward. “Money for your family? Prestige? A good husband? A nice house somewhere? Just one of my necklaces could be sold for enough to get you more than you can imagine. Too much money is a prison, but for you, more could mean freedom to choose whatever kind of life you want.”

“I…” Anaisa hesitated. The bribes being offered to her were nothing compared to what she wanted. But could she dare ask the princess for help with her scheme? Was risking her life by impersonating the Princess worth it?