3 The ball (3)

Hazel could not take her eyes off of her sister dancing with the prince. Helena looked happy and Hazel loved that for her sister, but there was a sadness she could not get rid of. 

She was held back two years to wait on the prince instead of getting married like many of her peers the year she turned sixteen. Being closer in age to the prince than Helena, her family believed she might be a good pick for Tobias, but the decision seemed to be halfway made.

Hazel knew that only one person could be picked to be queen and competing against her sister, one of them had to lose, but she didn't expect to get this feeling that she had wasted two years so soon.

"Helena would make an excellent queen. She has always told us she would be one in the future and she is quite close to it now. I suppose I should be like you and look elsewhere for my future husband while I am in the palace. There are a few eligible men who are yet to be married. I will turn my attention to them," Hazel decided.

"One dance with your sister doesn't mean the crown prince has fallen in love with her. He did this with the other ladies and I heard he ended up liking someone he did not dance with. You still have a chance," Linda encouraged Hazel. "We have to spend a week letting the prince get to know us better. A quick dance won't tell him all he needs to know about your sister."

"Thank you for cheering me up, but it is not only that on my mind. Helena is more excited about this than me. I do fear what will happen if I am not picked by the prince or any other man because they are so focused on the other ladies not participating in the selection. There are many girls far younger than me," Hazel said, knowing her age might be an issue like Helena said.

Linda hooked her arm with Hazel's to start walking around the ballroom to get away from the sight of Helena and Tobias dancing. She didn't share the same concerns as Hazel with her age because she knew chasing after Edgar would have her waiting a few years to get married.

"You are acting like you are old. You are eighteen and still quite young. Your family's name and ties to the palace will have men flocking to your doors if you are not chosen to be queen. If the decision of who would be made queen was easily made with one dance, we wouldn't need to pack our bags and come to the palace. Anyone could be queen," said Linda.

She crossed her fingers and hoped that person would not be her. All she wanted to do was get Edgar's attention and marry him. Linda knew she had to be the only young lady hoping this week would go by quickly. For her name not to be called as one of the young women the prince liked. 

"Truthfully, I do not care about being picked to be queen. The experience is quite exciting, but having to compete against my sister is not. We'll have to deal with some of the sly tricks the other ladies will pull to try to make us lose the prince's favour."

"We'll be pretending to be friends while looking for every opportunity to stab each other in the back," Hazel said, looking around the ballroom at the other women eyeing her sister with envy. She'd pull on each one of their heads to get rid of their hair if they tried something on her sister. 

"Hey," Linda nudged Hazel's arm. "It will be me, you, and Helena. As long as we stick together and don't get lost in trying to become queen to turn on each other, we'll be fine. I am your best friend and Helena is your sister so there is no chance for this group to fall apart."

Hearing Linda say that gave Hazel a bad feeling. This was something she would have liked to keep in her thoughts. Hearing it out loud made her skin tingle. 

"It looks like Edgar is gone so now the ball has become a bore. My brothers are also secretly stalking us to make sure I am not approached for a dance. I honestly love them dearly, but if they had it their way, I would never get married. They say it is because they know what the men in town are like behind closed doors, but I wish they would give me some room to breathe. I will take Helena over them any day," Linda said, wishing she had a sister to understand her.

Hazel pitied Linda because of her overprotective father and brothers. Her mother was probably the only one who let Linda go out without needing many guards and sometimes her grandfather Grant. It didn't help that with the overprotectiveness her family had an army at their hands to help guard Linda with. 

If Linda was not where her father expected her to be, he would flip the kingdom upside down to find her. It scared Hazel when she was young to be met by an army of men at her doors looking for Linda when Linda's carriage had broken down so returning home was delayed. It wasn't the last time an army showed up at Hazel's doors.

"I do not see where Edgar has run off to. I only took my eyes off him for a second and he was gone. Do you see him?" Linda asked, looking left and right for the man of the hour.

Hazel smiled, amused by how captivated Linda was when it came to Edgar. Her father and Edgar could be standing side by side and Linda would run to Edgar first. 

Like everyone else, Linda had fallen for his good looks, but Hazel had enough run-ins with him to know that once he opened his mouth, he might make anyone cry. The prince included. She saw it happen a few times when she visited the palace as a child and witnessed the two of them playing. 

Hazel looked at the open doors leading out to the large garden. With Helena dancing with the prince and them being forbidden to show interest in anyone other than the prince so it wouldn't be assumed they had a lover, she had nothing to do at the ball aside from looking and talking about random things. 

Her shoes were already starting to ache though she had not long arrived and had not danced. Hazel disagreed with the shoemaker about beauty being worth the pain. Her toes would be red or need to be removed by the time morning came. 

"Do you want to go out to the garden, Linda? Perhaps Edgar has run off there," Hazel said to convince Linda to come with her. Her mother would scold her for days if she were to go outside alone without someone.

The palace was still quite dangerous even with the king and queen present.

"It is better than staying in here and having to watch everyone else dance. It sounds like your sister's dance with the prince is over. Let us move quickly before he comes to us," Linda said, dragging Hazel by her arm toward the doors. 

"I would rather be picked next to dance with him than fall in front of everyone. Please slow down. The prince has already disappeared," Hazel said after looking back to the middle of the ballroom where her sister stood surrounded by young women and there was no prince in sight.