The Black Rose (10 page)

At least now Wilhelmina knew where the lumairas in her mother’s garden had come from. She always thought they were pretty flowers. Lumairas were the only flower known to glow
a bright pink at
night.

“So, what do you think? Why wouldn’t your parents have told us about this Lord Melanthius person?” Milly
asked
as Wilhelmina closed the book.

“I don’t know, b
ut more importantly, don’t you think they’d be
worried he’d try and come back if
he is so powerful that he could turn plants into living things?”

“I was wondering that too, he seems dangerous,” Milly jumped up and began pacing the room. Pacing helped her think and Wilhelmina was used to Milly’s odd habits.

Wilhelmina opened the book again to read what he had done wrong.
He
d
idn’t seem like a bad person. He didn’t murder anyone
.
He just brought a flower to life and then it hit her,
“What if it’s because he was unfairly punished!”

“What?” Milly exclaimed thinking Wilhelmina was crazy.

“Well,
t
h
e only thing he did was
take
a rose
and turn it into a
person
, what’s so wrong with that?”

“It’s not normal,” Milly said falling back on the bed, “But I guess he could have been a good person. He did work for your parents after all, so maybe he just got misguided.”

“I think ba
nishing him was a little unfair.
”
Wilhelmina
sighed, “But I guess we don’t know enough to assume that either.”

“Your parents have a lot of secrets,” Milly said sitting up. She was concerned about Wilhelmina. The right to inherit the throne by birth being overruled was not something taken lightly. The whole council would have had to agree to that. Milly wondered if this sorcerer might have something to do with it, but
as Wilhelmina pointed out, there just was not enough information. “I’ll do more research!” Milly exclaimed jumping off the bed.

“Milly!”

“There has to be more on this ‘L
ord Melanthius’ in the library
.
”

“Yes, but you already have been sneaking in and out of there fo
r the past few days! You don’t exactly
have permission
!
”

“But this could be important,” Milly protested before heading out the door.

“Oh, why can’t you let things
be!
” Wilhelmina exclaimed in frustration as she fell back on
to
her bed. Sometimes she wished Milly wouldn’t care so much. It would make things easier. Wilhelmina knew her parents had secrets, but she didn’t want to know what they were.
In reality
, she was just afraid that once she found out, things wouldn’t
ever be the same
.

“What was that old saying?” Wilhelmina thought aloud, “A secret is a curse. When you don’t know it, you wish to know it, but when you know it, you wish you didn’t.” She sighed, a secret was indeed a curse
and her parents had many.

Milly spent the rest of day looking through all the shelves in the library to find anything about Lord
Endymion
Melanthius. She searched for his name, nothing. She searched every book about sorcerers, enchantresses
and magic,
and still nothing. By the time she gave up it was late.

She hadn’t realized how late it had become until
she realized that it had gotten dark
outside
.
She also
noticed
that it
was
raining. There were little rain droplets on the library windows. A flash of lightening made her realize that it was actually storming and not just a light sprinkle.

“How did I not notice the thunder?” Milly questioned as another flash of light lit up the room. She must have been too absorbed in her search that she hadn’t even noticed the storm. “Well this could work in my advantage,” She said heading toward the library’s entrance.

Though the thunder would cover her footsteps,
Milly
still had to be careful leaving the library
.
Not only did she not have permission to be in the library, she wasn’t supposed to be up this late.
With extreme caution, she closed the library door so it didn’t make a sound and then began her
journey back to her room.

She
walked
cautiously
down the long hallway on the main floor, also known as the portrait hall. The library was the dead end of the portrait hall, and on the way out there was only one other room to the left, which was the King’s study. The hall was mainly for looking at past portraits of the past king and queen’s.

Milly’s room was located in the maid’s corridors which were to the right at the end of the portrait hall.
She was just about to pass the King’s study when she heard voices. Milly
quietly
hurried past the door and crouched down to listen. It wasn’t very often that the King held meetings in his study and when he did, they were very important. Milly
had a habit of spying on the king and queen
, so this was not her first time.

“How are you feeling?” King Wilhelm asked as Jerome and Edolie entered his study.

“Much better sir,” Jerome answered after he bowed.

“Please sit,” Queen Henrietta gestured to the
red
couch opposite of hers.
Jerome and Edolie took their seats by the fire and waited to hear what this
meeting
was about.

King Wilhelm directed his attention to Jerome, “I have heard from King
Baudouin that you already know about Wilhelmina’s situation.”

“Yes,” Jerome answered while a puzzled look formed on Edolie’s face. She looked to her moth
er, who gave her a stern look
and Edolie knew she would have to wait
before asking questions
.

“Given that you will be the next queen, Edolie, it is your turn to hear the truth since your sister will become your responsibility in the future,” King Wilhelm said, directing his attention to his
younger
daughter.
He felt bad for her to have to carry such a burden.

“Yes father,” Edolie answered. Though she was bursting with questions, she remained quiet and forced herself to listen.

Milly’s eyes widened and she pushed her ear as close to the door as she could. Was she about to find out the secret as to why Edolie was to be queen and not Wilhelmina? Her heart
pounded against her chest
and she begged it to calm. She didn’t want to risk being heard
, though hearing another person’s heart at such a range was highly unlikely
.

King Wilhelm told the same story to Edolie that Jerome’s father had told him. Jerome watched Edolie’s expression change from confusion to shock. Her eyes looked as if
they would pop out at any moment
.
Her once radiant skin
had
turned pale.
Jerome gave Edolie’s hand a gentle squeeze to calm her. He knew it was a lot to take in. It’s not every day you find out you have a cursed sister that you will eventually
have to
be responsible for.

“Does…
does…
she…” Edolie stammered when her father finished talking.

Queen Henrietta shook her head and this time she spoke, “No, we don’t have the heart to tell her right now. We wanted her to live a normal life, but now that you will be married, we have no choice.” There were tears in her eyes. She loved Wilhelmina dearly, but there was nothing she could do to protect her child anymore from the truth.

King Wilhelm placed his hand on his wife’s shoulder to support her, “After the wedding is over, we will tell her. You two must be present as well. It’ll be best if she hears it from all four of us.”

“It’s not fair,” Edolie sobbed and Jerome held her. Being queen would be hard enough for his spoiled princess, but adding
this responsibility
would make it
even harder
. They would be in charge of keeping Wilhelmina locked up in the
palace
until the day she dies. It wasn’t a responsibility anyone wanted.

However, Jerome knew that what Edolie was feeling now would never measure up to how Wilhelmina would feel once she found out she was
destined to die alone in the palace
. It was unfair and Jerome bit his lip. He couldn’t feel pity for her, he had to avoid her. It was going
to be difficult for all of them
.
             

Milly’s heart raced
as she
hurried to her room, not caring if anyone heard her.
It was
raining
hard now and the roar of thunder
covered the sound of her footsteps
as she ran
.
She opened her
bedroom
door and closed it quickly.
Milly
leaned against the back of
the closed door in order
to catch her breath.
All this information
was too much for
her
. Once her breathing had calmed, she
slowly made her way to a wooden chest that sat in the far corner of her bedroom
. It had been a gift from
Queen Henrietta. It was given to her so
she could have some
privacy.
She began to look through it in order to calm herself.

The
chest, overall,
didn’t
hold anything important. A
lot of
the things in it were
presents that Wilhelmina had given her
, mostly stuffed animals and books
. At the bottom sat the clothes
she had worn when she arrived at the
palace
and a locket that held a picture of her mom and dad. Milly didn’t remember much about her past, but
for some reason she
couldn’t throw those items away.
She
had a strange feeling that they
were important, but she didn’t know why.
They also had a strange way of soothing her, which is why she only looked at the items when she was anxious or afraid.

Milly si
ghed as she leaned against the chest
, how was she supposed to tell Wilhelmina what she learned. It would break her heart and
she
couldn’t do that. Wilhelmina was her best friend and she
loved her too much.

“Oh why do I have to know everything
,” Milly sobbed as she buried her head between her knees. As much as she had wanted to know the truth, she had never expected something as huge as this. The worst she had expected was that Wilhelmina wasn’t the queen and king’s daughter,
but
never this.

As Milly’s tears began to run dry, anger again en
tered her heart. How could the king and q
ueen
keep this a secret from Wilhelmina? How could they let her believe she could fall in love after Edolie was married? Milly was
enraged
,
“
How dare they do this to her?
”
However,
Milly knew that being angr
y wouldn’t change the situation
.
In the end there was nothing she could do
and more tears began to form in her eyes
.

Despite her tears, s
he crawled into her bed and buried herself beneath her gold sheets. She was conflicted between telling Wilhelmina and keeping what she had learned to herself. She didn’t want to be the one to break her best friend’s heart and for now decided to let Edolie and Jerome
tell her, which was the king and queen’s plan.

“Oh Mina,” Milly
sobbed into her pillow
. She
desperately
wished
that
there was something she could do to fix this, but unfortunately she wasn’t gifted with magic.

Chapter
8

Wilhelmina had a strange feeling Jerome was ignoring her. He hadn’t talked to her
since the garden incident
. She thought it was just because Edolie was spending all her time with him, but it wasn’t till earlier today when she ran into him
on her
way
down for breakfast
that she noticed he seemed to be trying to avoid her
.

Jerome
acted as if he hadn’t seen her and walked right past her. Wilhelmina
didn’t know what was going on and it bothered
her.
Did she do something wrong? She tried to think of what she could have done to make Jerome dislike her, but
the last time she had talked to him was in the garden.