Earning the Love of a Princess-Chapter 318: Violet: What Have You Done?

29 November, 1354. Westerhaven Palace, Islia.

Violet was standing in front of her enormous mirror, frowning as her maids adjusted her gown, when there was a knock on the bedchamber door.

"Who is it?" Violet asked irritably. She scanned her reflection critically, unhappy with the way the new dress sat on her. Every child seemed to curve her belly and widen her hips more.

Sancia bounded in, looking infuriatingly slim and dainty in her own gown. The younger girl gave a shallow bow. "How are you, sister? I’ve been waiting for your confinement to finally end, to talk to you about something important. I don’t know why I wasn’t allowed in your room before your month was over."

Because I specifically told my maids I didn’t want to see your irritating face, Violet thought to herself. She’d run out of excuses for avoiding her younger sister though, so she waved her maids out.

"What is it, Sancia?"

Sancia placed a hand over her flat belly. "I’m with child."

The silence stretched on. Violet turned to face her sister ever so slowly. "What?" she finally rasped in horror. "What did you just say to me?"

"I lay with Prince William, then Prince Thomas. And now I’m with child. Isn’t that wonderful?"

"You...I, you...When?" was all Violet could manage to stutter, her voice nothing but a cracked whisper.

"During the autumn progress. It was easy, given the sleeping arrangements were so scrambled. I bedded William a couple of times, and then Tom a few days later once we’d just arrived at this palace." Sancia giggled. "Both were inexperienced, though I’d say William was better at it. Tom...well, he couldn’t last long at all. I felt a bit sorry for him." More giggles.

Violet staggered to the bed and sank down onto it. "Oh heavens, Sancia. What have you done? Please tell me this is a terrible jest."

"It was the easiest thing in the world! Lads that age are willing to do whatever you ask. Of course, now I’ll have to tell Their Majesties one of their boys took my precious innocence and that they’d better marry us off right away. To avoid a scandal, you see. I’m sure you remember how that goes." Sancia winked.

Violet sucked in a breath, feeling like there was suddenly no air in the room. She pressed her fingers against her temples in despair as she realised the uproar that a pregnancy would cause.

Again. The uproar that a pregnant Thierre daughter would cause again.

Sancia is gave a little frown. "What’s wrong? This is the best of news. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"The best of news? This is the very opposite of the best of news." Violet’s vision began to swim.

"But why?"

"Think, foolish girl!" Violet hissed. "Think for once in your spoiled, vapid life! You’re using a child to try and trap one of the princes into marriage. A prince who’s little more than a child himself! You really think King Edward will thanks us for that?"

Sancia replied with a cheerful shrug. "It doesn’t really matter if the king thanks us or not, so long as he arranges for the wedding to take place. And as for the princes still being children..." she laughed, "One of them at least is man enough to put a baby in my belly."

Violet pressed the back of her hand to her lips, worried she might vomit otherwise. She felt Sancia’s bemused eyes on her.

"I don’t understand why you’re acting so outraged, Violet. I’m simply doing what you did to elevate our family. Your pregnancy allowed you to marry Prince Leo. Mine will allow me to marry a prince of my own."

"It’s not the same situation at all!" Violet felt like the collective fury of the entire royal family was about to be laid squarely at her feet. They would all blame her for Sancia’s stupidity. "My falling pregnant with Celia was an accident. I never planned it as a way of forcing a marriage."

"Whether you planned it or not, you still leveraged it to make the prince marry you."

"And I paid dearly for it!"

Sancia rolled her eyes and Violet itched to slap the smug smile off her face. "Oh, don’t be so dramatic! Paid for it, how? By being surrounded in luxury and endless riches every day? By having your future assured as a queen? If that’s what you describe as paying dearly, then I’m more than willing to pay that price also."

"And do I look happy to you, Sancia? Do I?" Violet shouted, finally unleashing her emotions. "I’m married to a man who doesn’t love or respect me, and his family still resent me for trapping their precious boy! Is that really what you seek for yourself?"

"Yes." Sancia replied simply. "I want to live like a princess. I want to make sure I’m never sent back to Orravalo. I don’t want to live my days dressed in hand-me-downs and with Mother and Father barely giving me the time of day. This baby is my escape plan."

"The king will never allow the marriage. You’ve debased yourself for nothing." Violet shook her head in despair.

"Why not? He did for you!"

"And that’s precisely why he won’t allow this to happen to again, to another one of his sons. If you push this, Sancia, you’ll make our family the most hated in the entire kingdom. The Thierres will be considered nothing but money hungry leeches. Is that what you want?"

Sancia cradled her belly and laughed. "I don’t care what they call us, Violet! It’s you that’s always spent your life worried about what others think of you, just like Mother. I couldn’t care less what people think of me, so long as they’re forced to bend the knee and bow when I walk by!"

Violet held her head in her hands, her thoughts a blur as she heard Sancia prattling on in the background. All she could think about was the loathing on the faces of the king and queen when they realised what her sister had done.

And they’ll all blame you, my dear Violet, she told herself. They’ll think you put Sancia up to this, when nothing could be further from the truth. You can deny it as much as you want but no one will ever believe you.

"...I’m going to tell the king and queen that this is William’s child. He’s only their nephew and he has no parents of his own to make a fuss. Besides, he’s far better looking. I think he’ll be quite the dashing man in a few years, don’t you?" Sancia had picked up a gold necklace from Violet’s dressing table and was laying it across her throat as she pouted seductively into the mirror. "I hear William’s inheritance from his father is sizeable as well."

"Get out." Violet said coldly.

"What?"

"You heard me."

Sancia whirled around to face her. "But I need you to accompany me when I tell Their Majesties my happy news."

"Absolutely not! I want no part of this."

"Mother and Father will be disappointed when they hear that you weren’t as helpful as you could’ve been to me, sister."

"Don’t you dare go and involve our parents in your plots!" Violet shrieked. "They don’t need to know-"

"They already know." Sancia said calmly. "I paid for a messenger to write to them about it perhaps a fortnight ago. They know I plan to force the hand of the king and queen. So I suggest you help me with this, Violet, if you don’t want to disappoint our doting parents."

"Get out!" Violet screamed so loudly, it made her throat ache. "Out of my room and out of my sight before I have you thrown out! You’ll ruin us all, Sancia!"

"But why? Why is it alright for you to pull yourself into a royal marriage but not me?" Sancia shouted back. "What makes you think you’re so much better than me? Or is it because you’re worried I’ll do a better job of it than you?"

"A better job...what the hell are you talking about?"

"You’ve always been a jealous bitch, Violet. You’ve always compared yourself to others. No one’s allowed to have more than you, no one’s allowed to be happier than you. Isn’t that right?" Sancia shook her head and looked disdainfully at her older sister. "Now you’re jealous that I’ll also get to marry a prince and my marriage might be happier than yours. Well, at least I didn’t have to steal a man from under our sister’s nose and break her heart to make it happen."

Violet felt a pang of the deepest hurt in her chest, like her heart had turned to ice. She couldn’t let herself face the ugly truth in Sancia’s words, however. If she did, if she allowed herself to remember what she’d done to her twin...she’d never be able to put herself back together.

Instead, she stood up from the bed and raised herself to her full height. In her most imperious voice, she said, "This the last time you make me repeat myself. Get out of my chambers and never come back. You’re on your own, Sancia. I have no sister."

"You never had sisters, not even when Ilse was still alive. You’re too selfish to have sisters because you always want to hoard the best of everything for yourself." Sancia spat, then swept towards the bedchamber door. "I’ll forge my own path, you’ll see. Enjoy the rest of your day, Your Grace."

With a mocking bow, Sancia left and slammed the door behind her.