Tarnished Crown

The large parties were Belle’s favorite when Alec was first crowned king, and she became a part of the royal family. Now, she was beginning to grow tired of them. She stayed close to Joshua and Annemarie for the most part, since Rhett couldn't sit in one place for longer than a minute. When it came to parties, she could relate mostly to Joshua. Stand in one place and wait for someone to come to you. They chatted quietly until Caspian's cousin made her grand entrance, stealing the show. Belle wrinkled her nose. This only validated her theory that the entire family was full of themselves. Rhett stumbled past her, shuffling over to squeeze into a spot between Annemarie and Joshua, leaning towards Annemarie and lowering his voice.

“Who's the one in the black?” he asked, trying to stay calm.

“Too young for you,” Joshua answered bluntly.

“That wasn't my question,” Rhett said. “She can't be that young. How old do you think I am?”

“She's sixteen years old,” Annemarie said. “I don't even think her menstruation is regular yet.”

“Menesteru-what?” Rhett frowned.

“Rhett, do you know anything about women?”

“I was raised by nuns,” he smirked. “God took up a large amount of space between women and me. I do, however, know three spots on a woman's body that, if touched the right way, make her fall hopelessly in love with me.”

“Ugh, you're disgusting,” Annemarie grumbled.

Rhett raised a brow and reached over under her hair to gently touch a specific spot on her neck, and Belle and Joshua couldn't help but laugh when Annemarie’s expression softened and she sighed softly. She quickly realized what he was doing and swatted his hand away, glaring at him.

“Well, anyways, I'm going to go investigate a little more, since you lot don't like to have much fun. I can feel my skin peeling from utter boredom. Have a lovely evening.”

Belle rolled her eyes as Rhett wandered away, weaving through the crowd in search of the Elbian girl. He was clearly unfazed by the eight year age difference. At times, Belle envied that part of him.

The night dragged on, but the last guest finally left in the wee hours of the morning and Belle was finally allowed to flop into bed in a very unladylike manner, still in her ballgown. She would have loved to sleep in late into the afternoon, but that wasn't possible with a five year old around. Alec had sent him to bed earlier than the end of the party, despite his tantrums, and Lucian was much more well rested than Belle. He tickled her nose with a paint brush, startling her awake like he always did.

“Lucian!” she scowled. “There better not have been any paint on that.”

“Clean!” he announced, holding up the brush. “Grandpa helped me clean all of my brushes this morning.”

“Lovely…”

Belle yawned, rubbing her eyes and running a hand through her mess of hair.

“We have to see Caspian today!” Lucian told her. “Stop being such a slow poke! If we’re late, he’s gonna get mad and go away and never come back!”

“Maybe I should go slower, then,” Belle mumbled, wiggling out of the gown and putting something more casual and comfortable on before sitting in front of her mirror to start on her hair.

Lucian scrunched his face up and swung a little fist at her leg, punching her thigh. It didn’t physically, hurt, but Belle looked at him with a warning expression.

“What did we teach you about hitting?” she asked.

“To not to,” he grumbled.

“Is that any way to treat someone who takes you to see your friend almost every day?” Belle questioned.

“No,” he pouted. “I’m sorry, Auntie.”

To make his point, he shuffled over and kissed her knee. Belle tried desperately to keep a straight face, pulling a brush through her hair.

“Thank you, Lucian. I forgive you.”

Lucian beamed, climbing onto her chair and squeezing behind her, taking the brush to comb it through her hair for her. Once she was satisfied, she finally agreed to walk him to the lake, where Caspian was already sitting under the shade of a tree and sketching. Lucian ran to him, practically diving into his arms as soon as the man noticed him. He laughed and caught the child, giving Belle a smile and a nod as well.

Belle took her usual spot beneath the tree, cracking her book open and tuning out Caspian and Lucian as she started reading. As much as she hated having to spend time with Caspian, she was at least grateful for how relaxing it was to be outside more often. She was getting a lot of reading done, that was for sure.

“Early Civilizations?”

Belle looked up, seeing that Caspian was looking over her shoulder at what she was reading. She squirmed away from him, slightly closing her book on the earliest civilizations of the region. Belle’s guilty pleasure was ancient history, and most of the books she read were complete non-fiction.

“What’s it to you?” she asked.

“I always imagined you to be more of a fairy tale kind of girl,” he smirked, leaning against the tree beside her.

“I hate fairy tales, actually,” Belle said, opening the book back up and finding her spot again.

“Why’s that?”

“They give you unrealistic hope for life,” Belle answered bluntly. “They make it seem as if one day you’ll find your true love in under a minute, and suddenly every problem in the world is solved. It’s not realistic. A ‘one true love’ isn’t real. And even if you find such a person, love isn’t the greatest force in the planet. It won’t protect you. Anything can come by and destroy that love, if that’s how the universe wants it.”

“A bit pessimistic, don’t you think?” Caspian asked.

“Realistic,” she corrected. “You’re too thick skulled to understand.”

“Well, if that’s what real life is like, I’m not sure I want to get my head out of the clouds.”

Belle shook her head, glancing up and finding that Lucian wasn’t in her immediate line of sight.

“Lucian?” she called. “Don’t go too far, please.”

When there was no response, Belle frowned, closing her book and looking around. He wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“Lucian? Lucian!” she called again, to no response. She looked over at Caspian, who’d gone a bit pale as he looked around. “What is, this one of your games? Where’d you hide him?”

“I… ah… well... ,” he mumbled.

“You don’t know where he is,” Belle realized. “Oh my goodness, Lucian is lost. Oh no, he’s lost and alone and it’s all my fault.”

“No no no no no,” Caspian said quickly. “He couldn’t have gone far. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.”

He looked around, standing up and helping Belle up with him. He thought for a moment, running a hand through his hair as his eyes scanned the area.

“You were supposed to be with him!” Belle said.

“I was with him!” Caspian said. “I just blinked and he was gone!”

“Then it’s your fault!” Belle growled, punching his arm.

“Maybe he went down closer to the lake,” he suggested, rubbing the spot where he hit. “Or maybe he found some other children… You know you’re stronger than you look.”

“Or he’s dead,” Belle panicked, hitting him again.

“He’s not dead,” Caspian said, rolling his eyes. “We’ll find him.”

“You’re awfully confident.”

“One of us has to be.”