Rowenna stared at the princess in shock.

She couldn’t believe it had happened so soon. Sure, Princess Amora had hair that fell around her face in shiny, bouncy black ringlets, bright green eyes, rosy cheeks, and pink lips. Still, Prince Alaric, a prince from a nearby kingdom, should have waited more than two weeks before asking for her hand in marriage. After all, as the youngest prince in a line of seven, he was one of the lucky few royals of their age who had the option to marry for love. Additionally, Rowenna hadn’t thought that Amora would have been so keen on being betrothed to someone who hadn’t a hope for inheriting the throne, since she herself was the third born daughter.

But most importantly, Prince Alaric was supposed to propose Rowenna. Not Amora.

Unfortunately, the shining, beaming creature standing in front of Rowenna did not seem too concerned about the prince’s place in the royal line.

“That’s so…exciting,” Rowenna said through clenched teeth. She had never been one for hiding her emotions, and she couldn’t seem to keep down the wave of hurt, disappointment, jealousy, and anger that ran through her at the announcement.

“I know!” Amora squealed again. “You simply must come with me to tell the other ladies!” Amora took Rowenna’s hand and pulled her up from where she had been sitting on one of the cream and green colored couches in the piano room.

“I suddenly don’t feel well,” Rowenna said demurely. She was desperate to get out of pretending to be happy for her friend for the rest of the afternoon. “I fear I must go to my chateau and lie down.”

Amora turned around from walking towards the door and pouted.

“Are you quite sure, Ro?” She asked, using the nickname only her closest friends called her. “I would so love to have you with me today!”

Rowenna barely kept from pursing her lips. “Quite,” she said. “I have had a ghastly headache since morning. I am quite happy for you, though,” she added after her friend’s face fell. Rowenna gave Amora a hug and then hurried out of the piano room before she could say anything else.

Inside the private quarters of her family’s modest sized estate, Rowenna threw herself into her bed to wallow in her misery. She didn’t even care that she was messing up the updo that her raven black hair had been carefully twisted into, or the elaborate emerald skirts of her court dress.

“What was that dolt thinking?” She exclaimed out loud. “He knew I thought he was going to propose to me!” She wailed. She was hurt, yes, but more than that she was angry. Rowenna was always being passed up for the richer, more royal ladies of the court. Just because her father was only Lord Byron instead of Duke or Prince Byron meant most people at court immediately assumed she wasn’t as good as the other, more aristocratic members of the court.

Rowenna rolled over on her bed and screamed into her embroidered pillows. She screamed insults about Amora, about Prince Alaric, and about everyone else she could think of until her voice was hoarse and she dissolved into tears.

Eventually, she felt a gentle hand on her back. She slowly lifted her head to see Annis, her maid, perched on the side of her bed, looking down at her with concerned eyes.

“There there, miss. I know he did you wrong but it’ll all right itself out, you’ll see.” Annis smiled at her, and Rowenna managed a small smile back. She sounded so sweet and sincere that Rowenna didn’t even mind that she had witnessed her meltdown.

“ROWENNA.” Her mother’s thunderous voice jolted Rowenna awake. She slowly blinked her eyes open. Her room was dim. The large windows near her bed revealed the first few stars twinkling through the hazy, dark blue sky. Hadn’t the bright afternoon sunlight been streaming through those windows just a few minutes earlier? How long had she been asleep?

Evidently, long enough for the sun to have set and been replaced by the first stars of the night. She groggily sat up. Her bleary eyes took in the gilded mirror across from her bed. It reflected the matted, curly mess that sat atop her head that resembled a birds nest more than her hair. Her dress was rumpled, and there was drool on her cheek.

No matter. Now that Prince Alaric wasn’t an option, there was no one to impress anyways. But what had woken her up?

“ROWENNA! Come down here this instant!”

Ah. It was her dear, beloved mother. Probably calling to scold her about losing Alaric to Amora. That meant she was going to suffer through a lecture. Delightful.

Rowenna reluctantly made her way down the spiral staircase to the parlor where her mother sat waiting on one of the couches.

“Mother, you know we have servants who could have summoned me for you and saved you all that yelling,” Rowenna told her mother through a large yawn. She sat down in a brown stuffed armchair across the room from her, wanting to keep as much distance between her and the scowl that her mother was wearing as possible.

“No, we do not, in fact, have servants that could have called you for me,” her mother said through clenched teeth.

Rowenna blinked at her mother for a moment…and then it hit her. “You don’t mean—“

“I had to let them all go this afternoon,” her mother said. “Your father’s business deal fell through. There was nothing we could do.” She looked away as Rowenna’s mouth fell open. Her family had been in a bit of financial trouble this year, but Rowenna hadn’t known it was this dire. Her mother loved those servants almost more than Rowenna did. And to be a noble without servants… now everyone would know what their family situation was.

“But mama,” Rowenna began. “People are going to talk!” She’d be even more judged than she already was.

Her mother’s eyes flashed. “I did not think that you cared about people talking, since they have all begun to talk about you and your little meltdown regarding Amora’s engagement,” her mother snapped. Rowenna’s mouth fell open once more.

“What—how—when—I never told anyone about that! I was so kind to Amora!”

“That may be, but apparently some of your maids got bitter once I let them go and started to talk,” her mother said.

Suddenly it all made sense. “That backstabbing Annis!” She exclaimed.

“Be still child,” her mother told her. “It is worse than you think.”

Rowenna winced. The ladies at court could be brutal.

“If you want to salvage anything about you or our family’s reputation,” her mother began, “you must make them believe that your maid is a liar and you feel nothing but joy about your friend’s engagement. Which should have been the case in the first place,” her mother said sternly.

Rowenna slouched in her seat. Her mother did not understand. With her deep black hair and shapely figure, she was like an older yet more beautiful version of Rowenna. Even though she’d had no trouble finding someone to wed when she was younger, for some inexplicable reason, she had settled for a lowly lord.

“Rowenna, stop slouching and listen.” Rowenna scowled but sat up as her mother continued. “You must plan an engagement party for Amora here in our backyard in order to salvage our good name.”

For the third time, Rowenna’s jaw dropped. “But Mama! You know how much I loathe parties! And you can’t truly expect me to pretend to be happy for them in such a public capacity for such a long time,” she protested.

Rowenna’s mother stood from the couch and walked across the room to where Rowenna was sitting. She placed a soft hand on Rowenna’s cheek and said, “Rowenna, you’ve made your bed. Now you must lay in it. See to it that the party is the loudest, most festive party this court has ever seen.” With that, her mother picked up the skirts of her wine red dress and made her way up the winding gold staircase, leaving Rowenna alone.

She had an engagement party to plan. For her best friend and the guy she thought was going to propose to her. Rowenna slumped back in the armchair and shut her eyes.