A Crown Princess No Longer

3

"Hmm, so this letter is from Princess Raeliana?" I asked and Alfred nodded. I smirked then dismissed him. What could my niece possibly want to talk about.

I opened the letter and went through the contents and found nothing worth noting except for one line.

'I hope you enjoy the lemon scent. I wanted to try something new'

That was entirely out of character, especially for someone with as much intelligence as her. Lemon... Lemon...

A small flame lit up on my palm and I held the paper over it. Words began to appear before my eyes and I grinned. As suspected, she wouldn't be dumb enough to just ask for permission to meet my daughter.

'It's quite a good thing that you are intelligent uncle, seeing as you're reading this. My movements are being closely monitored by my little sister. The apparent human. So I had to take such measures. I would like to speak to you about an important topic but that can only happen if I am given permission to come to your residence.

If you agree then please accept the proposal and phrase it as though I can come here instead for the tea party.

If you disagree then you are free to say it.

Hopefully you'll make the right choice.'

Right choice...

I'm definitely intrigued by what she's saying. I destroyed the letter that she sent then I wrote another letter and gave it to Alfred to send back.

There were interesting points in that letter. Such as the part about her sister. Apparent human. What did she mean by that, along with her being closely monitored. A human in a royal family of vampires shouldn't be able to do that.

I guess I'll see when she comes here.

•••••

I smirked at the letter in front of me. I guess I have a tea party to attend. After disposing of the letter I decided to go out to the garden to enjoy the flowers and weather.

Anne was currently busy so I was alone. I took a book then I went to the gazebo in the middle of the garden and sat there.

As I was really getting into the plot of it, a voice broke me out of my soothing trance. "Sister!" I almost ripped out the page which I was flipping. That voice.

I looked up and saw Penelope running towards me with our brother, , walking behind her. When she was close to me she enveloped me in a big hug.

When Lucas' eyes met mine I saw the intense hatred in them and I only felt the same. That's when the unique scent of Penelope's perfume hit my senses and I almost recoiled.

It was a scent which I had grown to hate. She soon broke off the one sided hug then sat down at one of the other chairs here. "Why did you come here?" I asked.

She smiled. "Big brother and I were taking a stroll and I saw you here so I wanted to talk you," she said. I inwardly shuddered at the face Lucas pulled. One of complete adoration towards her. If you knew that she would be the one responsible for your death later on, would you still look like that.

"I'm sorry but I have to go," I said as I stood. I can't stand being here. "Are you trying to avoid your own sister?" asked Lucas and I gave him a smile. "Of course not, Madame Dupeng Chen gave me quite the amount of work to do and I was just taking a break from it."

Before he could retort I began to walk away. That wasn't necessarily a lie, I just left part of the truth out of it. I had already completed the work which she gave me. It was due next week but Lucas didn't have to know that it was done.

I walked back to my room and laid down on my bed. The one time since I came back that I decided to relax in the garden and they come and ruin my peace.

I continued to read the book until I had complete it. It wasn't that interesting but I was bored.

I got up from the bed and decided to get another book. On my way to the library I thought about and decided that I would go dress shopping and maybe even buy a gift for Celia seeing as she was known to be quite a fussy girl.

But I'm well aware that despite her fussiness, she is a very exceptional child capable of many great things.

When I got to the library I found it vacant and sighed in relief. I didn't want to meet the librarian here. She had made it apparent that she did not like me seeing how strict and uptight she was when I was there compared to how she treated Penelope.

I took another book from the shelf and left the room quickly. At least there were no disturbances on the way back to my bedroom.

•••••

"Lucas, why does sister hate me?" asked a small voice. Lucas sighed as he looked to his sister. "I doubt that she hates you Penelope. She just has a hard time being herself."

What he said was an utter lie, that much he knew. He could see it in her eyes. The blatant hatred for Penelope and it made him angry. Who was she to be so disrespectful to Penelope despite being the root of the family problems.

Unbeknownst to him, Penelope was laughing maniacally on the inside at the accidental display of fury on his face.

For the apparent future of the Empire, he was a fool along with his father. Easily manipulated like the rest of the people around them.