Earning the Love of a Princess-Chapter 269: Violet: Bloom

Violet never ended up finding out what time her twin made it to bed after the costume ball. She knew it was very late and very dark when she heard their bedchamber door open and Ilse slip inside. She listened silently as Ilse fumbled while removing the priceless costume.

When Ilse finally crawled into their shared bed, Violet lay utterly still and with her eyes tightly closed.

The following morning, Ilse tried to ask Violet about her health, having noticed she’d retired from the banquet hall so early.

"Oh, don’t you worry about me." Violet replied briskly. "I made a full recovery after getting a good night’s sleep. I’m back to feeling well again."

"Are you sure, Vy? Shouldn’t you see a physician just in case? I was quite worried when Her Majesty told me you’d left so early."

"Yes, I’m very sure." Violet made it clear with her tone that the conversation was over. After that, she refused to say another word about the ball.

Ilse got the hint, so that night was never mentioned by either of them again. It was almost as if it had never happened. But of course, it had. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

In the years and decades to come, whenever Violet looked back at her past, the woodland ball always stood out in her memory as a defining event.

The first thing it did was clearly mark the shift in each sister’s path at court.

It had already been Ilse’s spring. The ball had merely confirmed that it would also be her summer. Without a doubt, she’d managed to make herself the prettiest, liveliest and most popular young woman at court. Not to mention, the most desirable.

And when will my season come? Violet asked herself the same question over and over in the days after the ball.

Perhaps it never will, the little voice in her head would always reply nastily. Not all flowers get the privilege of reaching full bloom, do they? Some are just left to quietly wilt in a corner, quite forgotten.

The very worst of it all was that Ilse had never intended for things to work out the way they had. It wasn’t in her nature to plot and scheme her way to the top. She had simply gravitated there through her kindness and warmth. People genuinely wanted to be in her friendly company. And now that she’d become so beloved, her sweet nature remained unchanged.

Violet was actually taken aback by the scale and speed of Ilse’s success. She knew beauty was an important asset of course, but was it really all that men valued in women? Didn’t they value intelligence as well?

Ilse wasn’t intelligent. Violet told herself it was cruel to think such things about her own twin, but there was no point in denying the truth. Ilse simply wasn’t clever or canny. She wasn’t the kind of woman who could scheme and plot alongside her man and help him achieve all his ambitions.

Violet was. Why didn’t that count for something? Or were men all such fools that they were blinded by a lovely smile and a shapely figure, and didn’t care about anything else?

The second thing the ball did was mark the start of a gap opening between the once inseparable twins.

It was a gap that started out tiny but nevertheless grew steadily as summer progressed. Every compliment that Ilse received, every invite extended to her but not to her sister, made the gap a bit wider in Violet’s heart.

Little by little, it became a chasm.

Ilse of course tried to include twin in as much as she could, such was her nature. Whenever she was asked to join a picnic or an impromptu gathering, she’d always insist Violet be included too.

But these efforts at inclusion didn’t make Violet feel grateful. Just the opposite. She didn’t want Ilse’s favours or half hearted invitations.

She didn’t want to see the dismissive and pitying glances the courtiers aimed her way because she was the plainer girl. The girl who was barely tolerated, and even that was only because she was sisters with the beautiful girl.

No. Violet wanted to be considered the preferred Thierre girl.

As the distance between the sisters began to slowly grow, she felt the old steady resentment she’d always felt for Ilse being fanned into actual dislike. The dislike grew and grew, wrapping its tendrils around her heart and choking off the love she’d once felt. Violet tried to stop it, tried to remember all the twins had shared over the years.

She was powerless to stop it.

The girls who’d once been so close that they almost knew each other’s thoughts, now had unsaid words between them.

The sisters who had once stayed up late each night, whispering their every thought about all they’d seen and done, now had conversations that were shorter.

Violet often wondered if Ilse noticed the growing gulf between them. Sometimes, a wistful look would cross Ilse’s face when the two girls were alone. She’d look as if she wanted to say something else, but never did and then, the look would vanish. Maybe she found it too painful or awkward acknowledging the change.

Violet actually preferred it that way. The thought of Ilse forcing her to talk about it, made her want to cover her ears and run off. She knew Ilse wasn’t really the one responsible for the new quiet between them.

Because Ilse hadn’t changed. Violet had.

She had stopped seeing Ilse as her confidant, as her ally and friend in a friendless court. She now saw her twin as a rival. The two of them were fighting for the same prizes and Violet was damned if she was just going to give up without a tussle.

She needed to think about her own goals and forget what her sister needed. It wasn’t her responsibility to help Ilse out anymore.

Because she seemed to be managing just fine without Violet. Better than fine, actually.