Jealousy (3)

Helena smiled, not interested in arguing with Jasmine who had to be upset she failed to get the prince's attention at the ball. 'I would be angry too if I were her,' Helena thought. 

Helena looked at the other side of the table at Hazel who was silent. She would have liked for Hazel to say something to Jasmine in her place so she wouldn't need to argue in front of the queen. Hazel had helped Linda when she was distracted. Why couldn't Hazel help her actual sister?

Hazel stared at Helena, wondering what her sister could want from her. She hoped that Helena wasn't looking for her to jump into her petty, childish talk with Jasmine when the queen was present. Why should she fight Helena's battle when the queen was present to make herself look childish?

Hazel planned to protect her young sister, but as her mother said, she had to think of herself sometimes. Helena was a big girl who knew how to handle Jasmine. It was obvious that there was some jealousy that Helena was the only one to dance with Tobias. Helena was free to rub it in the faces of everyone present.

Hazel glanced at the queen and noticed how the woman seemed to love the jabs. Of course, she would. Even the queen enjoyed the drama among the women in the kingdom.

"You will all get your chance to spend time with my son. He won't be able to run off so fast the next time you see him. I don't think my son was disappointed with your dance," Tabitha said, aiding Helena. 

She couldn't let the spark Helena had to die out yet when there was so much attention on her. Tabitha planned on using Helena to motivate the other young ladies to do better. 

'I'm never going to hear the end of this,' Hazel thought, watching how Helena smiled as if she had stumbled upon gold.

Hazel wished Helena noticed how the queen enjoyed her little squabble with Jasmine. It had to be amusing to watch young women ready to tear themselves apart to marry her son.

Hazel looked around to see if Tobias was joining them since they needed to spend time with him as much as they could during these seven days. 

"I hope that my son dancing with the younger sister did not create any problems for you, Hazel."

Hazel looked at the queen, wondering why such a comment had to be made. Wasn't there something better to be talked about? It was twice now that it felt the queen was pushing to see if she was jealous of Helena. "Not at all, your majesty. In fact-"

"Hazel and I are quite close so something like that would not affect us. She was happy for me," Helena answered so the fact Tobias asked Hazel for a dance could be hidden.

"My dear, I asked your sister a question. Is she too afraid to speak or does the younger one always have better answers?" Tabitha asked, keeping her eyes on Hazel. She sensed that something did happen between the two or there was something hidden from her. "Normally, there would only be one sister present and that would be the oldest."

"Still, two years have gone by for your time," Tabitha said, commenting on the fact Hazel was two years older than most of the young women present. Hazel's age was why she did not have a lot of interest in the young woman and gravitated to her younger sister.

Tabitha wanted a young girl who was closer to the time she started to bleed so they could start preparing for an heir. They had to account for a child not making it all the way to open their eyes or becoming sick and passing as many of the young royals did. To Tabitha, it was best to start as soon as the young woman was of age to marry so they had time to make up for failures. 

Tobias had already picked Helena over Hazel so it made her decision easier to have more interest in Helena. Tabitha expected Renee would have let Hazel get married so their focus would just be on Helena now, but they held Hazel back. 

In Tabitha's eyes, it made no sense to waste two of Hazel's years. She could have been married and had a child on the way already. 

"I can speak for myself, Your Majesty. Helena must have been excited," Hazel said, giving Helena a look. She was used to Helena's childish side, but it was starting to annoy her more than ever now. She knew it must have something to do with Helena not being the only one asked for a dance.

Now Hazel wished she could turn back time to dance with Tobias. There were moments when Helena needed to keep her mouth shut just as Hazel sat quietly when the queen was speaking to Helena. The last thing Hazel needed was for anyone to think she needed her little sister to speak for her.

Once they got a moment alone, Hazel planned to end Helena's behaviour. 

"I didn't think anything of the prince dancing with my sister. My time will come," Hazel answered Tabitha. 

There was something about women's age that the men in the palace loved to speak about which Hazel hated and she disliked that the queen reminded her of those men a little. 

"Mother!" Tobias called to Tabitha, making his presence known. He looked over at the young women at the table. How they smiled as he walked by. He had to give it to his mother to pick a group of beautiful young women just like the other group.

His gaze then settled on Hazel who looked like she was about to scold someone. Who had pissed her off already?

"Good timing, son. You should have a chat with the young women and pick two to spend some private time with. We were not long speaking about your dance with Helena here," Tabitha said, looking at Helena. "Would you care to comment on your time with her?"

Tobias once again avoided looking at Helena. He already knew his mother's tricks and that she was trying to paint Helena as the one who had the best chance of being picked by him at the end of the seven days. That was not going to happen, but he would enjoy leading her on to confuse her.

He had to get some fun out of this selection since the palace was forcing him to marry.

"It was a good dance," Tobias answered, moving to stand beside his mother. "There was one more I wanted to dance with but it didn't happen."

Hazel looked down at her lap, hoping Tobias wouldn't say her name to have the queen question her. 

Helena shared Hazel's fear of Tobias mentioning the second dance he could have had for the night. It was not even a full day that she got to enjoy what made her special among everyone at the table. This time, she could not speak to disrupt the prince and queen's conversation.

All Helena could do was look to Hazel for help, but she found Hazel looking down at her lap. Helena bit her lip, wishing she could say something. Yet again she found another reason for why it was a problem to be in the selection with Hazel.

"With you mother," Tobias answered, knowing he was going to get an earful from Hazel later. She only had herself to blame for making it too easy for him to fret her.