Beyond Her Beauty

CHAPTER 3 (Hidden room √)

"Your palm is incredibly soft." While we're walking, Kaden continues to caress my left hand.

"Mostly because I frequently squeeze the flesh of the knuckle," Lily speculated.

"Did you do it with your bare hands?"

"Of course you're silly,"

“I would like to visit your place soon.”

It moved to her left and touched her left palm.

“What exactly are these?” Kaden inquired, brushing his fingers across the tips of my fingers as we walked together.

“Calluses. They’re from pressing down on violin strings four hours a day.”

“I’ve never noticed them before.”

“Do they bother you Prince Kaden?” I was the lowest-ranking of the six remaining girls, and I doubted any of them had hands like mine, or perhaps I'm the only one who does.

Kaden came to a halt and took my fingers to his lips, kissing the tiny, worn tips. So I was overjoyed.

“Quite the contrary. They are quite lovely in my opinion.” For a brief moment, I felt myself blushing.

“I’ve seen many hands Lily. But this small hand here?” Kaden stared deeply into my eyes, clearly taken aback.

"This hand produces sounds unlike anything I've ever heard before. I sometimes believe I only heard you play the violin or another instrument in my dreams. It was breathtaking. These calluses are proof that it exists."

At times, the way he spoke to me was overwhelming and romantic. But, as much as I treasured the words in my heart, I was never completely sure I could trust Kaden. How did I know he wasn't talking about the other elite? I had no way of knowing if he kissed another elite more than he kissed me. I had to change the subject. It's always on my mind. What if he does the same to the other five girls?

“Do you really have answers to a lot of questions?”

“Without a doubt. Ask me anything, and if I don't know the answer, I'll point you in the right direction.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

It was tough to come up with a question on the spot, much less one that would stump him, which was what I really wanted to do. I took a moment to think of the things I’d been most curious about when I was a little girl. How planes flew. What the Milleá used to be like.

And then it hit me.

“How about a 5 pm party?” I inquired.

“5 pm party?” He'd obviously never heard of it. I wasn't taken aback.

It causes me problems if I request a night party.

I'd only seen the term once before, in an old history book my parents had. Some pages were missing or mostly destroyed, and the book was tattered beyond recognition in some places. Even so, the mention of a holiday we didn't know about — such as a fiesta or a Halloween party — always piqued my interest.

I'd like to throw a party for the kids and the rest of the people here. But isn't requesting a 5 p.m. party a little selfish? I shouldn't attend any night parties before this tale comes out every midnight.

I'm not interested in the world before I came here; instead, nature is my world but this is my dream. I had something to hide, so I made plans to live quietly in nature. Liezel is aware of it. Liezel and I enjoy going for walks in the woods together.

“Not so certain now, Your Royal Smartness?” I teased.

He turned to face me, though it was clear he was only pretending to be irritated. He took a deep breath and checked his watch.

“Come along with me, Lily. But we have to hurry,” he said, grabbing my hand and breaking into a sprint.

I stumbled a bit in my little heels, but I kept up pretty well as he led me back to the palace with a huge grin on his face. I loved when Kaden's carefree side came through; too often he was so serious.

“Gentlemen,” he said as we raced quickly to pass the guards by the door.

I made it halfway down the hall before my shoes off a little. “Kaden, stop!” I gasped. “I can’t keep up!”

I'm gasping for air.

“Come on, come on, you’re going to love this,” he complained.

We headed toward the south corridor, near the area where the Interview room was filmed, but ducked into a stairwell before we got that far. We went up and up, and I couldn’t contain my curiosity.

“Where are we going exactly?” I asked, trying to relax myself.

He turned and faced me, immediately serious. “You have to promise never to reveal this little secret door. Only a few members of the family and a handful of the guards even know it exists. Since it's too private.”

Shookt! This trust.

I was beyond intrigued. “Absolutely.”

We reached the top of the stairs, and Kaden held open the door for me. He took my hand again and pulled me down the hallway, finally stopping in front of a wall that was mostly covered by an outstanding painting. He looked behind us to make sure no one was there, then reached behind the frame on the far side. I heard a faint click, and the painting swung toward us.

I gasped. Kaden grinned.

Behind the painting was a door that didn’t go all the way to the ground and had a small keypad on it, like the kind on a telephone. Kaden punched in a few numbers and then a tiny beep sounded. He turned the handle as he looked back to me.

“Let me help you. It’s quite a high step.” He gave me his hand and gestured for me to walk in first.

I was shocked.

The windowless room was covered with shelves full of what appeared to be ancient books. I personally love this hidden place. Two of the shelves contained books that had curious red slashes on the bindings, and I saw a massive atlas against one wall, opened to a page that held the shape of some country I couldn’t name. In the middle was a table with a handful of books on it, looking as if they’d been handled recently and left out for quick recovery. And finally, embedded in one wall was a wide screen that looked like a flat screen TV.

“What do the red slashes mean?” I asked in wonder.

“Those are banned books. As far as we know, they may be the only copies that still exist in all of Milléa.”

I turned to him, asking with my eyes what I didn’t dare say out loud.

“Yes, you can look at them,” he said in a manner that implied I was putting him out but with an expression that said he had been hoping I’d ask.

I lifted one of the books carefully, terrified that I might accidentally destroy a one-of-a-kind treasure. I flipped through the pages but ended up setting it back down almost immediately. I was simply too awestruck.

I turned around to find Kaden typing on something that looked like a flat typewriter attached to the TV screen.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A computer. Have you never seen one?” I shook my head, and Kaden didn’t seem too surprised. “Not many people have them anymore. This one is specifically for the information held in this room. If anything about your Halloween exists, this will tell us where it is.”

I wasn’t fully sure of what he was saying, but I didn’t ask him to clarify. In a few seconds his hunt produced a three-bullet list on the screen.

“Oh, excellent!” he exclaimed. “Wait right there.”

I stood by the table as Kaden found the three books that would reveal what Halloween was. I hoped it wasn’t something stupid and that I hadn’t made him go through all this effort for nothing.

The first book defined Halloween as a Crimson festival that marked the end of summer. Not wanting to slow us, I didn’t bother mentioning I had no idea what a Crimson was. It said they believed that spirits passed in and out of the world on Halloween, and people would put on masks to ward off the evil ones. Later, it evolved into a secular holiday, mainly for children. They dressed up in costumes and went around their towns singing songs and were rewarded with candy, creating the saying “trick or treat,” as they did a trick to get a treat like candy or a chocolate.

The second book defined it as something similar, only it mentioned pumpkins and halloween costumes.

“This will be the interesting one,” Kaden claimed, flipping through a book that was much thinner than the others and handwritten.

“How so?” I asked, coming around to get a better look.

“This, Lady Lily, is one of the volumes of Gregory Milléa’s personal diaries.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “Can I touch it?”

“Let me find the page we’re searching for first. Look, it even has a picture!”

And there, like an apparition, an image from an unknown past showed Gregory Illéa with a tight expression on his face, his suit crisp and his stance tall. It was bizarre how much of the king and Kaden I could see in the way he stood. Beside him, a woman was giving the camera a halfhearted smile. There was something to her face that hinted she was once very lovely, but the luster had gone out of her eyes. She seemed tired.

Surrounding the couple were three figures. The first was a teenage girl, beautiful and vibrant, grinning widely and wearing a crown and a frilly gown. How funny! She was dressed as a princess. And then there were two boys, one slightly taller than the other and both dressed as characters I didn’t recognize. They looked like they were on the verge of mischief. Below the image was an entry, amazingly enough, in Gregory Illéa’s own hand.

THE CHILDREN CELEBRATED HALLOWEEN THIS YEAR WITH A PARTY. I SUPPOSE IT’S ONE WAY TO FORGET WHAT’S GOING ON AROUND THEM, BUT TO ME IT FEELS FRIVOLOUS. WE’RE ONE OF THE FEW FAMILIES REMAINING WHO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO DO SOMETHING FESTIVE, BUT THIS CHILD’S PLAY SEEMS WASTEFUL.

“Do you think that’s why we don’t celebrate anymore? Because it’s wasteful?” I asked.

“Could be. If the date’s any indication, this was right after the American State of China started fighting back, just before the Fourth World War. At that point, most people had nothing—picture an entire nation of Sevens with a handful of Twos.”

“Wow.” I tried to imagine the landscape of our country like that, blown apart by war, then fighting to pull itself back together. It was amazing.

“How many of these diaries are there?” I asked.

Kaden pointed to a shelf with a row of journals similar to the one we held. “About a dozen or so.”

I couldn’t believe it! All this history right in one room.

“Thank you,” I said. “This is something I would never even have dreamed of seeing. I can’t believe all this exists.”

He was beaming. “Would you like to read the rest of it?” He motioned to the diary.

“Yes, of course!” I practically shouted before my duties came back to me. “But I can’t stay; I have to finish studying that terrible report. And you have to get back to work.”

“True. Well, how about this? You can take the book and keep it for a few days.”

“Am I allowed to do that?” I asked in awe.

“No.” He smiled.

I hesitated, afraid of what I held. What if I lost it? What if I ruined it? Surely he had to be thinking the same thing. But I would never have an opportunity like this again. I could be careful enough for the sake of this gift.

“Okay. Just a night or two and then I’ll give it straight back.”

“Hide it well.”

And I did. This was more than a book; it was Kaden’s trust. I tucked it inside my piano stool under a pile of sheet music—a place my maids never cleaned. The only hands that would touch it would be mine.