A Royal Rose

Chapter Six

The next day the weather was much nicer, there wasn’t a drop of rain in sight. Rose was sat at the table watching her mother rush around getting ready, breakfast was a much simpler affair this morning. A selection of cereals and a little jug of milk had been left on the breakfast table for her to choose from.

Suddenly Rose saw a wad of papers had escaped from her mother’s hands. Aine crouched over, rushing around, gathering it all up as it had strewn all over the floor in various directions. Rose was sat at the circular table in the kitchen, whilst her mother was tidying up the papers in the living room, it was a large open plan room which was great for talking whilst cooking. Rose thought as she spooned some cereal into her mouth, “Can’t you magic that into order?” she said in between bites of her breakfast.

Her mother looked at her with a slight smile “We don’t use magic for everything my darling, well, we could do but I don’t want to become lazy! There’s some in the Holt that doesn’t even brush their teeth themselves! Anyways, now, when I’ve got ready. I want to show you off to Meredith. We’ve wondered for years about you and where you’d got to! Meredith is my oldest and dearest friend.” Aine said.

“I look forward to meeting her. What do I wear when I go out? I’ve only got some very ‘outside world’ clothes ideas. I’d hate to stick out like a sore thumb. Oh yes, I’ve also got another question I thought of to ask you…Where do you keep your wand?” Rose asked she had loads of questions to ask about so many different topics. She felt like a child at Christmas time.

Aine replied with a chuckle, “Wear whatever you’d like, there’s a book on the shelf of clothing ideas you can replicate… and as for carrying your wand. You place it in your pocket of course! The great thing about our pockets is that they are as deep as whatever you want to place inside them. Every outfit you create should have pockets ideally. Don’t want to drop your wand by placing it under a belt or something and risk losing it”.

Aine pottered around the kitchen putting away a few items of crockery, wiping her hands on a towel, Aine then went over to the huge bookshelf that covered one half of the living room. Placing the book of clothing ideas in front of Rose, she said, “This is it; it is a few years old; it is been collecting dust as you can see, but you’ll get the general idea when you flick through the pages”

“Thanks, I hope they have a nice comfy pair of shoes in here, those ballet ones I came in aren’t the best for walking about in,” Rose said leafing through the pages of the book. She finally decided on a lilac bodysuit with gold detailing and matching boots. An outfit like this wouldn’t have been deemed fashionable in the human world but the title in this book over the outfit she’d just put on said it was a “Fae Fashion Staple”. “What do you think about this?” Rose asked her mother.

“Looks good, very stylish! Try to replicate it!” Aine replied, “I’m just going to go to my room back soon!”.

Rose was nervous about trying out her magical skills with an audience, Rose studied the outfit and it is detailing before she waved her wand in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom and the outfit appeared on her. Examining the outfit in her reflection she was amazed at how beautiful and ornate it was. It was like a designer piece in the human world. Still, in awe about this new world she was in, she had a moment to think about the last few days and how intensely surreal they’d been. Rose twiddled with her wand in her hands as she stared blankly into her reflection, her hair needed sorting too, so she tried to attempt to do a fancy hairstyle, but it failed. Not having a picture to model her hairstyle from meant that it didn’t turn out as well as she had hoped so instead, she imagined a voluminous style. With a wave of her wand, it was created. So, she placed her wand in the right pocket of her new outfit which fitted in perfectly. Rose’s white blonde shoulder-length hair was now voluminous and styled as if she’d just came out of a hairdressing salon. Her make-up was perfectly done in the same wand movement, her blue eyes seemed even brighter with the makeup that was around her eyes. Rose was ready to go, so she went to find her mother, who she found outside tending to her flower garden.

Aine saw her daughter arrive, removed her gardening gloves and placed down the secateurs inside a small wooden box, “You’re ready!” her mother said

“Yep! Took me long enough, sorry I was having problems with my hair”

“Ahh, hair is a tricky one. More elaborate styles you’ll need a book for. I haven’t got any of those I’m afraid, I’ve had this hairstyle since I was a teen! There’s not many fae out there that knows how to hand cut or style hair – it is a very rare talent to have” Aine replied, looking at the watch on her wrist, “we best head off now, we’ve got about ten minutes to get there”

Walking together through the middle of two silver birch trees, Rose was deep in thought, “This might be really random, but how do you pronounce your name?” Rose asked her mother as they walked past a rather large ant, it was similar to the size of a small dog against a human “My goodness! That’s huge!” she gasped. In awe of the size of the ant,

“They don’t bite, Rose, they are harmless black ants. You should see the spiders – now they are scary looking! My name is pronounced awn-yah” Aine replied, whilst waving hello happily to another woman.

“Awn-yah, Awn-yah!” Rose repeated, hoping that she could commit it to memory. Stopping in front of a large thick tree, Rose looked up at it, decorated outside beautifully except the tree looked like it had been damaged at some point as it was quite dead looking towards the top but the windows and doors on it told a different story the tree was full of life inside. This tree was much older than the ones around it, Aine explained that Meredith lived here, and Rose couldn’t help but wonder who lived in a tree this big. There were guards outside the doors wearing sapphire blue uniforms trimmed with silver buttons, silver helmets on their heads shone in the light. “Is your friend a Queen?” Rose mused.

“No, darling!” her mother said with a chuckle, “Meredith isn’t a royal, but she lives in the palace as she is an advisor to the Royals”. Aine walked forward and spoke to the guards at the door. The guards nodded at each other and opened the double doors at the same time.

When the painted white wood doors with lots of glass inside and their voiles were next to the frame swung open– the smell inside that wafted out was a light floral scent which smelt divine. The fancy doors opened into a foyer with a grand marble staircase, the floor was a polished grey and white marble. Everything inside was grand looking, a gigantic piano in one corner and some members of staff in uniforms could be seen doing numerous jobs around the room. Rose had never seen anything so majestic.

A peppered black and grey-haired woman came out from a door to the left and hurried over to Aine and Rose who were stood in the middle of the foyer “Is this her? It is got to be her - she is your double Aine!” Meredith said excitedly.

Aine nodded wildly and the two women grinned at each other. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?!” Aine gushed, as Rose went crimson.

Meredith walked over to Rose with her arms open, “She’s got your lips, hasn’t she! Oh, and those eyes too!” Meredith said, looking at all of Rose’s features. Rose watched the woman walk around her several times, “She looks so much like you Aine, honestly. It is just you with long hair!” Meredith said, “I need to talk to you about something urgent”

“Is it about the court hearing?” Aine asked. Meredith then walked with Aine over to one side of the room. Rose stood still and heard her mother and Meredith move away from her, eavesdropping she heard the start of their conversation. “I’ve got to talk to you quickly about it, I’ve got some statistics but I’m not quite sure how to use them in the speech,” Meredith asked.

Stood in the middle of the foyer, Rose sighed and looked around at all the paintings on the walls. Oil paintings with portraits of various Kings were on every wall in the room. Considering they were old oil paintings, the kings in the paintings were very handsome men with their strong features and piercing purple eye colour. Suddenly, Rose heard a noise from behind her, it sounded like it came from the staircase, spinning around she could see she was correct in placing the location of the noise. Rose glanced up to the very top of the staircase to see who had made the creaking noise. On the top step stood a tall, broad-shouldered, chocolate brown haired man, behind his handsome physique, were a pair of transparent butterflies like wings. Rose had never seen anything like it. He looked like a model walking down a catwalk. His skin was the colour of milk and his jaw was chiselled. The beautiful stranger walked down the stairs towards her, and their eyes met, he held out a hand for her to shake, “Hello, my name is Easton, pleased to meet you.” Rose didn’t answer for a few seconds, as she was distracted by his purple coloured eyes and the fact that someone this beautiful was talking to her.

“I’ve never seen those before” mumbled Rose shyly.

“What have you never seen before? the wings or the eye colour?” Easton asked with a chuckle.

“Both. I wouldn’t normally be this forward, but you are stunning!” Rose said in a flirty tone. Easton blushed, and his milk coloured skin flushed pink on his cheeks.

“You’re new around here, I’d remember if I’d seen a face as pretty as yours before!” said Easton returning the compliment. Realising the two of them had a mutual attraction, they both blushed.

Meredith looked over from the other side of the room and ushered Aine to come over to Easton and Rose, “I see you’ve met Rose, Easton” said Meredith, “She’s Aine’s daughter.”

“Oh really?” Easton said impressed, he looked at Rose again and smiled which showed off his bright white teeth.

“Aine and I have a lot to discuss, so maybe Easton could give you a tour of the Holt? I know you’re due to meet some friends soon but if you could take Rose with you for half an hour or so, as I need her mother’s help with some court issues. You know full well that it is Aine’s expertise!” Meredith said, smiling at her friend Aine who was too busy looking at her daughter and Easton.

“Awesome, it’ll be nice to get to see around it and it’ll be nice to get to know more about Easton,” said Rose cheerfully, “we’ll go around together another time mother, don’t worry!”

“I’m sorry to drag your mother away from you Rose, I know you’ll have fun though meeting Easton’s friends, they are a nice bunch,” Meredith said with a smile. I don’t mind at all, he’s gorgeous - Easton can be my babysitter any day! She cheekily thought.