Lady Dhampir

The Queen's Tea Party

“Are you sure you’re going to be fine?”

Milena gently smiled at him. Even if this was the third time her brother asked, she knew it was only out of concern for her. Their carriage was slowly passing through the wide streets, making its way to the Royal Castle.

“It’s fine, Big Brother. And it’s a simple tea party, isn’t it?”

Lucian frowned.

“A tea party organized by the queen. Half of the nobles will be there!”

“Don’t worry. It will mostly be children, Lucian. We just need to drink tea and chat.”

Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that. Nothing was done just out of amusement, not at the court. The queen was the prince's mother, and she had invited all of the nobles’ children to attend a tea party in her private wing. Milena thought this was probably some sort of test, and her grandmother had said so too.

She had prepared herself thoroughly. Her maids had brushed her shiny black hair to perfection, leaving it elegantly falling on her shoulders, with only a few gemstone pins to hold it in place.. Milena had chosen a gorgeous blood-red dress to wear. The color was a bit of a statement. Most girls her age would wear pastel or lighter colors, but Milena had purposely chosen that color.

Because that little event was held in the afternoon, she would be the only one with vampire features in the middle of human children.

When the carriage finally stopped, Lucian helped her step out, like a perfect gentleman. He was a different person when things were serious, and showed all the proper manners befitting of his rank without effort. Milena was a bit happy about that, and attending with him. She took his arm, her little heels crisping the snow until they reached the entrance. The guards politely bowed and let them through. Maids were lined up to accompany them to the inner garden where the tea party was being held.

Milena was secretly happy to be there; she had read so much about Her Majesty’s gardens, she couldn’t wait to see it with her own eyes!

Indeed, they arrived in a large green jungle under a glass roof. Every plant was perfect, like straight out of the painting, not one leaf out of place. They had to walk a little ways to reach the center, and Milena had a hard time not looking all around with her mouth open. There were plants literally everywhere! So many different kinds she couldn’t even recognize everything, and suspected some hybrid species to be created there too.

However, she had to focus on the event, especially when they finally reached a large area, where tables and chairs had been gathered on the grass.

“Here we go,” whispered Lucian.

Milena nodded subtly. She could see around thirty children, like them, all between eight to fourteen years old, chatting and eating sweets, some seated at the tables to drink tea.

Lucian stepped forward, and Milena followed, still holding on to his arm. She was the outcast here, the one who knew almost no one - so she naturally followed him when he met up with his friends, two boys who were chatting with honest smiles.

“Good afternoon!”

“Lucian! Nice to see you!” One of them saluted, though his eyes immediately fell on Milena.

She addressed them with a polite smile and did a little reverence.

“Nice to meet you. I am Milena de Crescent; thank you for being good friends with my brother.”

“Oh, nice to meet you, my lady. I am Leon de Lily, first son of the Lily House.”

“And I am Armin de Cornal, second son of the Cornal House.”

Milena knew from Lucian that Leon, the tallest one, was a Count, and Armin was only a Baron. Hence, she didn’t have to bow back when they introduced themselves, smiling instead.

“This color suits you well, my lady,” complimented Armin, whose jacket was actually a light red too.

“Thank you.”

She chatted with her brother’s friends for a while, but eventually excused herself, under the pretext of going for some tea.

Because she didn’t know anyone there, Milena simply sat at an empty table, and a maid walked over to serve her some tea. It was a nice, citrus-flavored tea.

“Lady Milena…?”

A young lady, around her age, had approached the table with blushing cheeks. She was wearing her brown hair in two macarons on her head and a pastel blue dress with white dots. She bowed as soon as Milena looked at her.

“Ah… Excuse me, I’m Lilyn de Tourmal…”

“Lilyn!” exclaimed Milena.

After exchanging letters for weeks, it was her first time meeting her friend in the flesh. She pulled the chair next to her with a big smile, and her friend took a seat with a relieved expression.

“I’m so glad you finally came! I’m so nervous at those events,” admitted Lilyn.

“And I am so happy I can meet you. Do you often come to these tea parties?”

“My sisters always talk me into it… I’m the shy one, so I always pray it ends quickly, but I feel a bit better now that you’re here. Have you talked to anyone yet?”

The two friends exchanged a few words, and Milena immediately knew she had made the right choice with Lilyn. She was a modest, genuine, and gentle girl. She blushed easily, even when it was just Milena complimenting her.

Three girls joined their table after doing little reverences, smiling politely.

“Excuse us… All of the tables are starting to get full, do you mind if we sit here?”

“Please do. The more the merrier,” said Milena.

“Duchess, you are so pretty in person! I am Yasina de Citrin, our family owns the couture house who designed this dress… It fits you so well!”

“Oh, I appreciate the designs of that shop very much, Baroness de Citrin” replied Milena.

As if she had complimented herself, Yasina smiled brightly.

“I would be happy to show you around the shop anytime, Duchess!”

“And I am Cassidie of the Aquamaran House, Duchess,” said the blonde girl on her right. “It is nice to finally meet you!”

“Really?”

The blonde girl giggled a bit.

“Well, everyone was curious to meet you, of course! You know, around here everyone knows everyone almost since birth…”

She had hinted at Milena’s k********g, a sensitive topic, and she wondered if that girl had done it on purpose, or was simply dumb. But her friends gave her a glare, and that pretty much answered her question. The baroness bit her lip and looked down, a bit ashamed, and her other friend quickly changed the subject.

“Please do not mind her, Duchess, Cassidie is a bit too blunt sometimes. I am Helena de Hyacinth.”

Milena immediately forgot about the baroness’ senseless remark and turned to Helena, interested.

“You’re my cousin, aren’t you? I’m very sorry I couldn’t introduce myself earlier.”

But the girl shook her head. She had a pretty pale purple dress, and Milena noticed her blue eyes were a bit similar to Valentin and Lucian’s blue eyes. Indeed, the young countess was her cousin from her mother’s side. Even her nose looked a bit familiar.

“No, no, please don’t apologize! It’s already such a joyous occasion to be able to meet you today. I heard we met when we were toddlers, but as expected, I have no recollection of it!”

With that, the five girls started chatting happily, and Milena was happy those four acted very nice and friendly to her. She soon understood that because of her status as a countess, Helena had the most authority over the two others, but that didn’t keep Cassidie and Yasina from speaking their minds freely.

“Have you met the princes yet, Duchess?”

“Only one: Prince Ellias. But that was merely a coincidence, at the Royal Library.”

“Oh, he is known to love books!” said Cassidie. “The rumors say he spends most of this time there and is a bit of an introvert.”

Cassidie was a bit too chatty, but she knew all about the current trends and rumors going around the nobles and was quite entertaining. She wasn’t afraid to talk about other people who were only a few feet away from them, and Helena had to remind her to watch her mouth several times. Milena truly felt the difference between education in etiquette between the two girls.

“Haven’t you met the princes already?” asked Milena.

“Not formally,” explained Lilyan. “We are supposed to meet them at our debutante’s ball, but aside from that, we can only see them at the Royal Events.”

“Well, the human prince, Prince Ellias, is much easier to see than his vampire brother,” added Cassidie. “But I heard he has a terrible temper and doesn’t get along with many people at the palace.”

“Prince Rayan probably meets with the vampire nobles more often,” said Lilyan.

“How is he supposed to pick his future bride if he only meets the vampire nobles? I want to know my options too!”

Everyone around the table laughed at Cassidie’s joke. Milena felt a bit relaxed. Around girls her age, she didn’t feel as tensed up as she could have been around adults, plotting and scheming for the throne. Most of those girls were just happy to discuss their favorite designers and the palace’s latest rumors.

“Even if he does meet you, chances are really low he’ll pick a baroness, Cassidie.” Lilyan chuckled.

“Especially a chatterbox like you!” added Yasina.

Cassidie acted offended, pouting whilst drinking her tea.

“You can cheer up and focus on the other gentlemen here,” whispered Helena. “Even if the princes do not pick us, we have plenty of choices, don’t we!”

“I don’t feel like marrying anyone,” said Yasina. “I want to take over my father’s title and shops and make it even more prosperous!”

“That is good,” said Milena. “We need ambitious women like you to push this country forward.”

“Exactly!”

“I would love to have my own shop,” said Lilyan. “I want to be a patron for artists all around the kingdom and promote their works.”

“There is so much work just making sure we can survive this Ice Age, why bother with art?” asked Cassidie, frowning. “I’m not sure that’s a luxury we should…”

But all eyes around the table were looking at her like she was an i***t. They were children enjoying tea in a garden! Talking about luxury was a bit too much. Cassidie rolled her eyes but finally stopped talking, eating some biscuits to hide her embarrassment.

Helena was about to say something when all the chatting suddenly stopped around them, and guards entered the place.

“Please rise for Her Majesty, Queen Lyriana and His Highness, Prince Ellias!”