Her Dark Knight

The Tea Party

The next few days dragged as if the Earth itself had slowed its rotations; each day seemingly endless as Arabella tried to busy herself around the house. Her home had always had a warming feeling to it, each room felt loved and lively – whether it be from the housing staff bustling around or the Court guests with news for her father, there had never been a dull moment at the House of Angelos. When she was a young girl, she could recall spending hours getting lost in its many rooms, camping out in the library, or even causing mayhem and mischief for the staff – until her parents caught her, of course. However, the days succeeding her Debutante Ball had utterly crawled by, to the point where Arabella had trouble recalling when days ended and began anew.

The mess created by the fight had all been cleared up before Arabella had awoken the morning after the event, so she could not even busy herself with helping. Instead, she had spent those dreary days researching anything she could about the unknown group of men that had crashed her party.

No books in the library were of any help, as they had all been written long before any attacks had started occurring. Instead, Arabella found herself asking around the castle – finding information from the staff that had to leave the house to return home. An older maid had told her that the Rogues had first appeared in the Downtown sectors, where the children had first started disappearing roughly a year ago. “Children? What children?” Arabella had asked, very confused. The maid then replied, “Oh yes! Young children. No older than 12 at most, it’s dreadful Ma’am. None of these posh ones like you, hmm, no they only take the poor ones. The ones whose families won’t be able to do anything about them going.”

This had been news to Arabella, but on further investigation, she found that most of the staff could corroborate this news. Children going missing? How utterly terrifying, she’d thought to herself. Another staff member had added to the narrative, this time one of the Angelos guards, saying that he’d heard from one of his friends that some of the children had appeared again. “But they ain’t breathin’ no more, my Lady. They have these weird marking on them as well, can’t say what they are though as I ain’t seen it myself. But these ain’t stories you should be concerning yourself with, young Lady. Stay away from Downtown and I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

The news troubled Arabella, and when she’d brought these concerns to her father – he’d dismissed them, “It’s all utter nonsense, Arabella. If there were any problems like that I’m sure the King would be onto it in a jiffy, and I would sure know about it. Now don’t trouble yourself about it anymore, and definitely don’t come to me with these ridiculous rumours.” 

Of course, most young girls would not have just taken their father’s words for it. However, this was Arabella – and she knew that her father would never lie to her; so, she believed him. Ignorance is bliss as they say, and if it didn’t concern her, why should she look into it?

On the fourth day, at around 7am, she received a letter. After reading its contents, she smiled widely and instructed Delores to quickly help her dress. After she was appropriately clothed, she promptly made her way into the kitchens on the lower floor, informing the cooks that she was to have some guests and that she would need some morning tea delivered to the garden room at approximately 10am. Once settled, she helped the maid’s prep the garden area before their arrival.

At roughly 9:30am, Arabella heard the front doors being opened by Igor and, with a quick inspection of the room, skipped towards the entrance hall. She squealed with delight when she saw Duchess Kylia standing next to Igor, immediately running towards and engulfing her in a big show of giggles. Kylia hugged her back, less enthusiastically as expected of a Lady of her personality. To the Duchess of Stratiotis, showing any emotion was a major weakness in a predominantly male world. 

“Come! Let’s settle and chat before His Highness gets here, I want to know everything you’ve been doing! Oh it has been so dull here, you can’t even begin to imagine…” Arabella said dramatically, dragging her friend towards the decorated garden room.

When they entered, Kylia walked to stand by the large windows overlooking the Angelos garden. It was a lovely summer morning, the sun shining down above them with all the intensity expected when residing in a desert. The garden itself was just beginning to come to life, the apple trees and bright pink flowers standing tall against the harsh wind that sometimes blew through them. “It’s a mystery how you have not gone crazy yet, staying in this estate like it is some prison. A fancy prison I’ll tell you that, but still a prison nonetheless,” the wise Duchess mused, finally turning to face her friend who had taken a seat on the lavish red divan.

“Nonsense Kylia, I’m very lucky to be living here and even luckier to be marrying the Prince. There is no greater role for a woman.” Arabella stated proudly. 

Kylia snorted, in a very unladylike manner if you asked Arabella, but did not say anything more. For a brief moment, neither spoke until Arabella sighed and said, “You know I’m not like you, Kylia. I’m not strong or independent. That’s just who I am, and I am happy.”

The Duchess of Stratiotis pushed her lips together in a smile and decided to change the conversation before it got too deep for her liking. “So… why have you invited me to your date with the Prince? Didn’t Daddy want to accompany you?” She teased, walking to sit beside her friend on the divan.

Arabella giggled, and turned to face her, “Well, I just thought that as I am soon to be wedded to him, and you are my closest friend, you two should get to know each other more! It would make me so happy, Kylia.”

To this, the wise girl nodded, patting her friend on the hand and agreeing (to her hidden disgust). They soon settled into an intense gossiping session, about all the other Ladies of the court whom Arabella had yet to meet.

Finally, they both turned to look at the door as a knock sounded out. Once opened, the Prince stood there quite handsomely, grinning as he saw his future wife beaming happily next to her friend. His smile quickly faded when his eyes fell onto who sat next to her. “Ah… Bella, how glad I am to see you again.” Prince Alaric said, striding across the room to sit on a chair directly opposite his betrothed, whilst ignoring the other noble Lady completely.

“Prince Alaric,” Arabella said, bowing her head in his direction, “This is Duchess Kylia, whom you’ve probably already met, but I just thought that we could all get to know each other better!”

Prince Alaric frowned slightly and then, as if it was never there, smiled to Kylia, “Yes, I have had the pleasure of meeting Duchess Kylia before, how are you doing?”

“Your Highness, I am doing perfectly fine thank you. Now these are definitely different circumstances to our last meeting, don’t you think, my Prince?” Kylia slyly asked, hoping to fluster the young man.

Fluster him she did, for his face blushed a light pink colour, so he cleared his throat and directed his attention to Arabella. The Duchess of Angelos was frowning slightly, watching their interaction with curiosity – she wondered what had made the Prince so embarrassed about his last meeting with Kylia. She pushed this thought aside, reminding herself to ask Kylia about it later on. 

Arabella cleared her throat to grab their attention, and smiled daintily, “So, tea?”

After signalling Delores who was waiting by the entrance, the prepared tea and cakes were brought into the room and placed on the table in front of them. Delores stooped to pick up the teapot and poured it into three cups – placing each in front of the nobles. The trio picked up their porcelain and slowly sipped the tea, as if it would make the tense silence any less awkward.

Kylia eyed the young Prince from behind her cup, slightly glaring at him before asking, “So, my Prince, what are your thoughts on the new prepositions from court?”

Prince Alaric placed his cup down gently, and turned his head to face her, “Whatever do you mean, Lady Kylia?” He asked back.

“Oh, just the new bill that has been proposed about Were training. Didn’t you know? They are trying to lower the age that Were’s must start training from 18 to 12. This is quite a big change, don’t you think?”

“I think that we need to prepare ourselves for all eventualities, and if that means training starts a little earlier – we must be ready for our enemies.”

“Enemies…?” Arabella butted in, completely lost in their conversation.

They both ignored her. “But don’t you think that 12 is a bit young to start training? Children must still have their childhoods, after all.” Kylia stated, putting her cup down on the table forcefully. Arabella jumped at the loud clatter it made, inspecting it quickly for any sign of breakage.

“No, I don’t think it is Lady Kylia. Even if I did, it is for the good of the Kingdom. We must train all possible soldiers.” The Prince seethed out, glaring back at the Duchess of Stratiotis.

“As my father is the General for your Army, don’t you think I should know what is good for it? Training children is not going to help anyone, and it’s just plain wrong! The idea your Father is suggesting is just plain wrong!” Kylia raged back.

“Careful, Miss Stratiotis. We don’t want you to commit treason now, do we?” The Prince smugly asked, sighing heavily as he leant back in his chair.

Kylia silently boiled, clenching her fists together tightly. Arabella eyed her cautiously, having no idea what this argument had all been about. She placed her hand on her friend’s fist, squeezing it gently. Kylia, however, was having none of it – she wrenched her hand out of her friend’s grasp and stood abruptly. “Forgive me your Highness, I shall take my leave now.” She mumbled out, before turning around and quickly striding out of the room.

Arabella watched her friend go with shock, she had no idea how her tea party had turned to shambles so quickly. She turned back around to face Prince Alaric, and asked, “What was all that about?!”

The Prince sighed, “We’ve always had our differences, it’s nothing. Now, let’s finish this lovely tea.” With that, he picked his porcelain up and resumed drinking as if nothing had happened.