Villainess [4]: Donavan’s Summons

Red Pill [0]: Burdens, Reversals

An awkward silence followed in the wake of the Prince’s interruption, and it was the king who broke it.

“I see a lot of myself in you at your age,” the King said, “more than I care to admit. Like you, I was proud and stubborn to a fault, just like the other Blaise heirs in our lineage. And like the firebird on our crest, we burn with passion and fury, turning our lives and the lives of our loved ones into a living hell, and I’m no exception, and it looks like you’re not either.” Then he put his fingers over his eyes as if he was massaging away a headache before looking at his son and saying, “In my time, I’ve paid dearly for the little wisdom I now have, paid for in blood and animosities that will never heal so long as I’m alive. I just pray to all the stars in the sky that your burdens won’t be as heavy as mine.”

“Your Majesty, if I may ask,” the Prince said, “what ‘burdens’ are you talking about?”

The King stared at his son for a time, then turned to Marquess Fleming and said, “My Lord Marquess, will you allow me to talk about Marchioness Fleming?”

“If my wife’s example can improve his discernment,” the Marquess said, “then by all means.”

King Blaise turned to his son and said, “Before Marchioness Fleming’s marriage, she was known as Lady Bartleby, the daughter of Duke Bartleby. Are you aware that I was engaged to Lady Bartleby during my time in Lassen Academy?”

Prince Blaise just gaped at his father and said, “No, I wasn’t aware of that at all.”

(“But you were aware of it during my trial in this room, your Highness,” Janet’s clone said. “You even brought it up to back your claim that I wrote those death threats against Miss Edgeworth, claiming that I inherited my evil ways from my mother. In fact, I remember you saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter. Only a witch can give birth to someone like you,’ and you condemned me to death by beheading.”)

“Then you’re also not aware that I broke off my engagement to her during the Graduation Ceremony,” the King said. “Are you aware of how Marchioness Fleming died?”

The Prince paused. “I heard that she died in prison.”

“Indeed,” the King said, “but do you know why she was sent to prison in the first place?”

“I heard,” he said, glancing at Marquess Fleming’s stony face, “that she was imprisoned on allegations of practicing witchcraft, but they were disproven.”

“Indeed,” the King said, “but only after Margrave Sydney and Marquess Fleming and I led a joint investigation into her death and uncovered a conspiracy. I won’t go into details, but know that Marchioness Fleming was imprisoned on rumors of witchcraft. Yet even before her imprisonment, she had a reputation of infidelity after I broke off my engagement with her. In short, Marchioness Fleming died in prison on false charges of witchcraft built on rumors of her infidelity after I broke my engagement with her. Now do you understand?”

The Prince remained silent, eyes wide and mouth agape, then nodded his head and said, “Yes, your Majesty.”

“For your sake, I sure hope so,” the King said, “because you’ve been repeating too many of my mistakes. If you don’t learn anything else from this summons, then at least learn from my mistakes and fix your own before you harm Lady Fleming or anyone else any further. Is that clear?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” he said.

Then the King looked over at Marquess Fleming, who nodded his head, so the King said to the Prince, “With that said, Lord Marquess Fleming also brought up the issue of what you said to Lady Fleming about Marchioness Fleming last Friday, saying that it needs to be addressed before it affects her safety, and I’m inclined to agree. So answer me: What did you say to Lady Fleming?”

“Your Majesty,” the Prince said, “I don’t understand why you’re bringing that up?”

“Haven’t you been listening?” the King said. “I’ve already explained to you the reason why! So answer me: What did you say to Lady Fleming?”

“I don’t remember,” he said.

(“Liar,” the clone said. “You just don’t want to say it in front of your peers. How does it feel being on the receiving end of it, your Highness?”)

“Then I’ll jog your memory,” the King said. “You said, ’Only a witch can give birth to someone like you.’”

Audible gasps resounded from everyone else in the room, except for Marquess Fleming and Captain Sydney.

The Prince paled and said, “How do you know?”

“I have my ways of finding out,” the King said. “Now answer me: Why did you say that to Lady Fleming?”

“I was angry,” the Prince said.

So the King stepped into the Judgment Circle amidst more audible gasps, making the Prince bow before him, so the King said, “Anyone can get angry, but to insult a lady’s dead mother to her face entails legal consequences that I must resolve on your behalf, because you’re still a minor. Besides answering the charges listed in your summons, you’re here to answer for your own instance of lèse-majesté. Now answer me: Why did you say that to Lady Fleming?”

Prince Blaise maintained his bow, saying, “I’m telling the truth, your Majesty. I don’t know why I said what I said to Lady Fleming beyond the anger I felt against her for what had occurred between her and Miss Edgeworth, even when I did not directly witness it. For that, I overstepped my bounds and am truly sorry,” and in front of everyone in the antechamber, the Prince went down on his knees onto the floor and was about to beg for forgiveness—

When King Conner Blaise grabbed his arm and raised him up to his feet and said, “You’re not a criminal in this room, Donavan: you’re my son amongst your peers,” and so he turned to Marquess Fleming. “Is this enough, my Lord Marquess?”

“No, it’s not enough,” he said.

“I figured as much,” the King said, then walked out of the Judgment Circle and talked in hushed tones with Marquess Fleming, who said something that made the King look back on his son with a fixed stare. Then the King turned back to the Marquess and said something else, but the Marquess shook his head, so the King breathed out a long sigh and nodded at Count Cosgrove to continue.

So Count Cosgrove said, “My Lord Marquess, you have the final say in this matter.”

With that, Marquess Fleming stepped forward again and said, “Your Highness, I was originally going to bring this up after this summons has ended, but since these incidents that have involved an injury to Lady Fleming have also involved an injury to another student at the Academy, I formally submit evidence that will help in this inquiry,” and he took from his waistcoat pocket the amulet that Janet had given him. “Last Saturday, after attending a school board meeting with his Majesty and his Grace Duke Woodberry about Lady Fleming’s transfer, I asked if I could hire out one of the school guards to watch over her during school hours, but they couldn’t grant it. Instead, we made a compromise, so I went to get this voice-capture amulet later that day and gave it to Janet via messenger bird on Sunday, asking her to wear it during school hours without telling her its main purpose.”

“That’s really underhanded,” the Prince said.

“Yes, it is,” the Marquess said, “but it was necessary in this case, and the school board allowed it. After listening to its contents on my way here, I know that you’ve become a pawn in someone else’s intrigue, your Highness.”

“Then by all means, let’s hear it,” the Prince said, folding his arms over his chest.

So the Marquess fished out a slender wine glass and a silver fork from the inside of his jacket pocket and dropped the amulet into the glass and said, “Everyone, I direct your attention to what occurred yesterday before the start of Lady Fleming’s homeroom class,” and he tapped it with the fork, filling the antechamber with a tingling sound that changed into the voices of two female students calling Janet’s dead mother a witch and a bitch and a whore and a cunt and a cum-bucket . . .

Everybody gasped, and Viscountess Durham covered her gaping mouth with her hands, and the rest (including Prince Blaise) just gawked.

“Take that back!” Janet said.

“Take what back?” Lady Childeron said.

“We said nothing about you,” Lady Felton said, adding under her breath, “bitch!”

Then there were running footsteps as Janet said after them, “Get back here!” After the running footfalls was a pause amidst a hubbub of students’ voices, and then Janet said, “Whatever they told you, they’re lying.”

“Says the one who accused Rosy of ripping her own dress,” the Prince said. “If you’re trying to be a villainess, then at least be honest and own up to it.”

Janet changed the subject and said, “You’re both on a nickname basis already? How quaint, Donny!”

“And we’re on formal terms, Lady Fleming,” the Prince said. “Until your behavior around Miss Edgeworth improves, you’re nothing but a stranger to me.”

Then Rosalie said, “Don’t be so hard on her, please. She’s still engaged to you.”

“Rosy, just let me handle—”

“Then is it true, your Highness?” Janet said amidst a hubbub of other voices. “Everyone’s saying you’ve annulled our engagement. Is that true?”

There was a pause, and the Prince said, “I’ve talked about it with his Majesty, and his Majesty has talked about it with Lord Marquess Fleming. That’s all.”

Janet said, “Doesn’t our engagement mean anything to you?”

“Not anymore,” the Prince said.

Janet said, “Then are you planning on eloping with her behind my back?”

Then Rosalie said, “Lady Fleming, whatever you think of me, I’m not that kind of woman.”

There was a long pause, and Janet said, “Is that what’s going on, your Highness?”

There was a shorter pause, and then the Prince said to Janet, “Unlike you, I don’t go around spouting off nonsense, but starting tomorrow, you’ll be transferred to another homeroom class. Until then, I’ll be watching you like a hawk, so don’t do anything else between now and then, or I’ll have you expelled,” and there was another pause. Then the Prince whispered, “If it wasn’t for our fathers, I’d have had you banished by tonight. As it is now, you’re dead to me,” and the hubbub of voices dissipated from the recording.

“Those two who insulted my wife,” the Marquess said, “do you know who they are?”

“Yes, but they’re not my friends,” he said.

“I didn’t ask you if they were your friends,” the Marquess said. “I only asked you if you know who they are. Now answer me: What are their names?”

“Lady Childeron and Lady Felton,” the Prince said.

“What did they tell you?”

The Prince paused for a moment, then said, “They told me that Lady Fleming had insulted Miss Edgeworth, but I never thought they would lie like that.”

“Then did those two lie,” the Marquess said, “while using the same language to blame Lady Fleming?”

The Prince paused again.

“Answer him now,” the King said.

“Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry, my Lord Marquess.”

“If you’re really sorry,” the Marquess said, “then answer me: Why did you tell my daughter that she was ‘dead’ to you?”

“My God, I was angry, my Lord!”

“You were angry at what you were led to believe Lady Fleming had said about Miss Edgeworth, correct?”

“Yes,” the Prince said. “I should’ve known.”

“Yes, you should have,” the Marquess said, “but you didn’t. My Lord Baron,” he added, looking at Baron Palmer on the other side of the Judgment Circle, “you were absent during the first part of Homeroom 1 yesterday, correct?”

“Yes,” the baron said.

“When did you find out what happened?”

“When I saw Lord Woodberry carrying Janet down the stairs,” the baron said. “That’s when I found out.”

“What did Lord Woodberry say?”

“He said Lady Fleming fainted in the hallway,” he said, “so he was taking her to the infirmary.”

“And what did his Highness say?” the Marquess said.

The Prince turned to face the baron, yet Baron Palmer stared at the Marquess and said, “His Highness said that Lady Fleming had tried to humiliate him and Miss Edgeworth in front of the whole classroom, and the Prince even added that Lady Fleming had feigned a fainting spell in the hallway.”

“Your Highness,” the Marquess said, “do you trust Miss Edgeworth more than Lady Fleming?”

And again the Prince paused, then said, “With all due respect, my Lord, what does that have to do with this?”

“More than you’re willing to admit,” the Marquess said. “From what I understand, you’ve never once witnessed any of the incidents between Lady Fleming and Miss Edgeworth, yet you’ve always taken Miss Edgeworth’s side. Now that you know that Lady Childeron and Lady Felton had set up my daughter and lied to you, saying that my daughter had insulted Miss Edgeworth, do you still trust Miss Edgeworth?”

And yet again the Prince paused.

The King was about to tell him to answer, but Marquess Fleming said, “Let me handle this, your Majesty.”

“All right,” the King said.

The Marquess waited for a response from the Prince, but when he stayed silent, Marquess Fleming said, “If you’re unwilling to talk, then listen to this.” He raised the wine glass containing the amulet necklace and said to Baron Palmer, “This is what happened yesterday morning during Homeroom 1 in your absence, my Lord,” and he tapped it again with his fork, filling the antechamber with another tingling sound that changed into the sound of double doors opening.

“Lady Fleming, were you listening?” Lord Woodberry said.

“Yes, I was,” Janet said. “May I come in, your Highness?”

“Yes, you may,” Prince Blaise said, “but I’m warning you, Lady Fleming. If you do anything to—”

“I know, and I won’t,” Janet said, and there was a collective rustling movement and the creaking of chairs as if everyone in the classroom had stood up from their seats at Janet’s ignominious entrance.

“I’m warning you,” Prince Blaise said.

“I’ve already heard you, your Highness,” Janet said. “You don’t need to repeat it like I’m an idiot.”

“I didn’t say that,” he said.

“Whatever,” Janet said. “My business is with Miss Edgeworth, not you.”

There was a pause.

So Rosalie said, “Please, your Highness. Let me talk to her.” There was a slight pause before Rosalie said, “Lady Fleming, I’m so sorry for catching his Highness’s attention,” and there was another pause before she whispered, “And I’m sorry you’re born out of wedlock.”

More gasps resounded through the antechamber as Miss Edgeworth’s voice faded from the antechamber. Viscountess Durham told Baron Palmer and Count Cosgrove and Father Robinson about Janet’s observation that Rosalie had the Prince wrapped around her finger. In addition, she said that when she took Rosalie and the Prince out to Guinnevere House and Mariana House to hear out the maids’ observations of Janet’s whereabouts that morning, the viscountess observed that the way Rosalie cried to get the Prince to back off from pursuing his inquiries was too suspicious. This got Baron Palmer relating Rosalie’s absence this morning, as well, when he and the Prince were looking for her before the start of classes, adding that he will question Miss Edgeworth about it in the Professor Commons Office before tomorrow’s Homeroom 1, so the other professors said they’ll be there to hear what she had to say.

“After listening to this,” the Marquess said, “do you still trust Miss Edgeworth, your Highness?”

“Stop dragging her through the mud!” Prince Blaise said. “Why don’t you have everyone hear the rest of it?”

“So should I take it,” he said, “that you still trust Miss Edgeworth after hearing that?”

“Yes, I do!” the Prince said. “I was there the whole time, and Lady Fleming showed no reaction at all!”

Yet the Marquess said, “Maybe she didn’t want to give you another reason to denounce her for something you haven’t heard with your own ears.”

The Prince winced and said, “And maybe you’re just trying to explain away her wrongdoing!”

“What ‘wrongdoing’ are you talking about?”

“Play the rest of it, I dare you!” the Prince said.

“Then answer me this, your Highness,” the Marquess said. “Do you condone what Miss Edgeworth said about the woman who died giving birth to my child?”

“Of course not!” the Prince said.

“I sure hope not, your Highness,” he said.

“What the hell do you mean by that?” the Prince said. “Are you trying to slander me? Are you trying to get back at me for hurting your daughter?”

Yet the Marquess ignored his question and tapped his fork against the glass again, filling the antechamber with Janet’s voice that said, “Thank you, Miss Edgeworth. You truly are too kind for your own good. I know that nobody will believe me, but I really am sorry for ripping your dress last time. . . .”

(“See?” the Prince said. “She admitted it!”

“Silence!” the King said.

Only then did the Prince stop, now just glaring hellfire at the Marquess as if he was an enemy combatant.

Yet the magic recording went on.)

“. . . I was just angry at the wrong person,” Janet said.

“What are you implying?” Prince Blaise said.

“I’m angry at you, your Highness,” Janet said, “but I’m not finished talking with Miss Edgeworth just yet.”

“If you’re just trying to spite me—”

“You can think whatever you like. I don’t care,” Janet said, and there was another slight pause. “I want to make it up to you, Miss Edgeworth.”

“Thank you, Lady Fleming,” Rosalie said. “You’ve no idea how much that means to me, but how are you going to do that?”

“I’ll give you a parting gift.”

“Wait a minute,” Rosalie said. “You don’t have to.”

“I insist,” Janet said, and there came a collective gasp from the students in the recording.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Prince Blaise said.

“I’m only doing what’s right and just,” Janet said.

“Why are you doing this?” he said.

Another pause.

“Don’t act so coy, your Highness,” Janet said. “You and I both know who you truly love, so make sure to give this ring to Miss Edgeworth after I leave.”

“I can’t do that,” Prince Blaise said. “Janet, what’s gotten into you?”

“I’m only making things easier for Miss Edgeworth, so there won’t be any conflict of interest later on,” she said. “Just make sure to give that ring to her, for I won’t have it anymore.” Then there was another pause before Janet added, “Oh, and we’re on formal terms, your Highness. You don’t have my permission to call me by my first name. And one more thing, Miss Edgeworth, before I leave for good.”

“Lady Fleming,” Rosalie said. “Please, you don’t have to do this.”

“I’m not doing this just for your sake, Miss Edgeworth,” Janet said. “I’m also doing it for my sake. God knows I’ll be miserable with a man like his Highness by my side, but maybe he’ll turn out better with you. With that said, may you both be happy with each other for the rest of your lives. Goodbye.”

Then there were footsteps but not many, because after just a few steps, Janet’s breathing became labored, and the pulsations of her heart beating like a drum against the amulet beneath her bodice became audible thumps throughout the interior of the antechamber. Some time passed, and there came a rustling of clothes as if Janet had sat on the floor with her back against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest, her elbows resting on her knees, and her forearms cradling the sides of her head, accompanied by more labored breathing.

After a few more moments, there came running footsteps and Lord Woodberry’s voice that said, “Hey, what’s wrong? Are you all right?”

Nothing from Janet except for her labored breathing, and then there was another rustling of clothes as if Lord Woodberry was crouching.

“You should go to the infirmary,” he said. “Can you stand, Lady Fleming?”

Then there was another rustling of clothes as if Janet and Lord Woodberry rose to their feet, but no sooner had that occurred when Prince Blaise said, “What’s going on here?”

“She’s sick, your Highness,” Ridley said.

“Don’t concern yourselves with me,” Janet said, still breathing hard. “I’ll go there myself.”

“No, you won’t,” Ridley said. “I can’t let you go downstairs in your condition.”

“Just leave me be,” she said.

“What is this farce?” Prince Blaise said. “First, you spite me, then you embarrass me and Miss Edgeworth, and now you’re playing the sympathy card? Are you really that desperate?”

“You said it yourself, your Highness,” Janet said. “I’m already dead to you.”

“What? I didn’t mean it like that!”

“I don’t care. Just let me alone,” she said, and there came the soft tread of her steps and the continuation of her labored breathing, till a big thump resounded through the antechamber as if Janet had fallen to the ground. Then there were running footfalls and the rustling of clothes.

“Janet?” Ridley said. “Janet, are you okay?”

Another pause.

“She’s faking it, Riddle,” the Prince said.

Ridley said, “How can you say that, your Highness?”

“It’s the truth,” the Prince said.

“Would you think the same thing if it was Rosalie who fainted?” Ridley said, and there came another rustling as if he was shaking Janet by her shoulders. “Janet, wake up! Wake UP!”

Then there were slow footfalls, and the Prince said, “Can’t you see she’s playing you for a fool?”

Then there was a longer pause.

“My God, your Highness, where is your humanity?” Ridley said. “Do you hate Lady Fleming so much that you would rather see her harmed than help her?”

“Then why don’t you check on her?” the Prince said.

Again, another pause.

“Am I right or wrong?” the Prince said.

And then another pause.

“Well, which is it?” the Prince said.

“You’re wrong,” Ridley said. “She fainted.”

“Then what are you waiting for, Riddle?” the Prince said, and there were more footfalls as the hubbub of students consoling someone (probably Rosalie) issued from the magic recording. “Take her to the infirmary.”

Then Ridley said, “Wait a bit, your Highness.” But the footfalls wouldn’t stop, so Ridley yelled, “Damn it, Donny, I’m talking to you!”

The Prince said, “What is it now?”

“My God, is that really you talking?” Ridley said. “Janet’s on the ground, and yet there you are—”

“I have my hands full already!” the Prince said. “You take care of Janet, while I take care of Rosy! End of discussion,” and then the Prince was calling out to Rosalie, saying that it was going to be okay before it became drowned out in the hubbub of other students’ voices.

Then there was another rustling of clothing and more footfalls, yet the footfalls stopped, and there was silence for a time. Then there was more rustling, and then there came an inhalation of breath and a short burst of heavy rustling as if Janet’s body was being rolled off of the floor. Then there was heavy breathing for a few moments, and then more footfalls echoed through the antechamber for several moments as Ridley descended the stairs, till Baron Palmer asked Ridley what had happened to Lady Fleming, so Ridley said that she fainted in the hallway. Then there were more footfalls as Ridley continued down the stairs and entered the open-plan parlor area and into the Western side of the campus building past the restrooms and afternoon clubrooms. Then there came a click of the door latch and the whoosh of air and more footfalls.

“What happened?” the nurse said.

“She fainted,” Ridley said. Again there were more footfalls, then the sliding of the curtain and the rustling of bedsheets and the squeaking of bedsprings, then more rustling of clothes and bedsheets as Ridley or the nurse positioned Janet’s body on the hospital bed. “Will you watch over her? I need to let her maids know.”

“I will, don’t worry,” the nurse said.

“Thanks,” Ridley said, and there were more footfalls again, fading away now, and the opening and closing of a door, and the footfalls dissipated from the recording.

So Marquess Fleming tapped the wine glass again, filling the antechamber with yet another tingling sound that changed into the voices of Janet’s maids, Susan and Marin, talking with the nurse on duty at the infirmary.

Susan said, “Lord Woodberry asked us not to let his Highness enter the infirmary.”

“Why so?” the nurse said.

So Marin added, “Because he said that his Highness isn’t ‘in his right mind.’”

“Lord Woodberry really said that?”

“Yep,” Susan said. “He also said that we should only allow him to enter if Janet gives him permission, and even then, Lord Woodberry asked us to keep an eye on his Highness while we’re here just to be safe.”

Janet’s maids continued talking with the nurse, but the voices dissipated in the antechamber.

Now everyone in the antechamber was just staring at the Prince in silence, and an ashen-faced Prince Blaise looked around at the stern faces of Count Cosgrove and Father Robinson and Baron Palmer and Viscountess Durham and Captain Sydney and the King and Marquess Fleming facing him.

(For Janet’s clone standing by the wall next to the double doors of the antechamber, she thought back to the guards shedding her blood in the same Judgment Circle inscribing the Prince in its circumference right now and smiled. Maybe this wasn’t ‘true justice,’ but she thought the scene before her was poetically justified in its own way and said, “What comes around goes around, your Highness.”)

Marquess Fleming broke the silence, fisting his hands and saying, “You and Lord Woodberry were there, and you even saw her fall to the ground, yet Miss Edgeworth’s tears mean more to you than my daughter’s life!”

“Look, I was angry, my Lord,” the Prince said. “I wasn’t in my right mind at the time!”

“DAMN STRAIGHT YOU WEREN’T!”

“Arnold!” the King yelled. “I know you’re angry, but for God’s sake, control yourself!”

“I’m sorry, your Majesty, I really am,” he said, “but I can’t afford to overlook this! If Lord Woodberry wasn’t there to take my daughter to the infirmary, his Highness would’ve left her there in the hallway!”

“I’d never do that!” the Prince said.

“Bullocks!” the Marquess said, turning back to the Prince with fisted hands. “It’s plain as day that you didn’t give a damn what happened to my daughter!”

“I was angry,” the Prince said, “but I swear I’d never do anything like that!”

“Then what made you think she was faking it?”

“Oh my God!” the Prince said.

So the Marquess fished the amulet that Janet gave him out of the wine glass and raised it to the Prince’s eye level and said, “My daughter wore this amulet yesterday and today. I listened to everything that’s happened to her at school, and I remember you calling Janet’s fainting spell a ‘sympathy card’ during lunch! What made you think she was faking it?”

“I was angry, plain and simple!”

“What happened to your humanity, your Highness?”

“Damn your questions!” the Prince said. “My God, you keep beating a dead horse!”

“I’m only repeating Lord Woodberry’s questions,” the Marquess said, “but you can’t brush me off like you did him. Now answer me: What happened to your humanity?”

“I already told you,” the Prince said. “I was angry, because your daughter embarrassed me and Miss Edgeworth in front of everyone in the classroom!”

“Welcome to the real world,” the Marquess said. “It’s a world where you must answer for your mistakes!”

“What do you want from me?” the Prince said, now starting to pace around in the Judgment Circle. “Blood? Money? Do you want me to strip naked and humiliate myself? What the fuck do you want from me?”

That’s when the King said, “Donavan, don’t make an ass of yourself!”

“I’m sorry, your Majesty,” the Prince said, bowing his head, “but the Marquess keeps slandering me! I can’t just hold my tongue and take this anymore!”

“This summons is a private affair,” the King said. “Only those present will know the truth of your iniquities. Count Cosgrove and Marquess Fleming and Margrave Sydney had wanted to hold this summons at the High Court with his Honor Judge Kendrick Matthews presiding over it, but I managed to convince them that we could resolve this in private at the Royal Palace. Otherwise, you’d be in a jail cell right now awaiting your summons to Judge Matthews’ courtroom tomorrow morning, and your iniquities would be a matter of public record. Do you understand how this could have turned out?”

The Prince winced and grimaced and said, “I understand, your Majesty.”

“Good,” the King said, then nodded to the Marquess.

“Your Highness, if you don’t know what we want from you,” the Marquess said, “then we’ll have to continue on until you do,” and he placed the amulet back in the glass and tapped it with a fork, once again filling the antechamber with a tingling sound that changed into a cluster of voices all talking at once. Two of those voices were those of Janet’s maids, Susan and Marin, saying that Prince Blaise can’t see Janet right now, but the Prince kept insisting that he at least come in to see Janet before leaving.

That’s when there came a rustling of clothes and bedsheets and the squeaking of bedsprings as if Janet had gotten up and was now sitting on her bedside, while her maids kept insisting the Prince leave her be for today. Then there was another squeaking of the bedsprings and the sliding of curtains, and Prince Blaise was saying, “Ah, see? Let me speak to her.”

But Susan said, “Your Highness—”

“Sue, Marin,” Janet said, “just let him in.”

“But, my Lady,” Susan said, “you’re in no condition to—”

“There’s no helping it. I’m already up,” she said, and there was another squeaking of bedsprings as she sat on the bedside. “Just let him in.”

There was a pause, and then approaching footfalls resounded through the antechamber, followed by the sliding of a chair and the slight squeaking of it as the Prince sat. Then there was another longer pause, interrupted only by Janet’s slow and deliberate breathing.

“What is it, your Highness?” Janet said.

“Are you all right?” he said.

“I guess so,” she said.

A pause.

“It’s almost four o’clock,” he said. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right, Lady Fleming?”

“If me in an infirmary is ‘all right’ to you,” she said, “then I guess I am.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said.

“Then what is it?”

“I meant that you scared us this morning: me, Lord Woodberry, Miss Edgeworth, and the rest of the class,” he said. “You’re not planning on harming yourself, are you?”

(“Bullshit, your Highness,” Janet’s clone said from the wall of the antechamber, thinking back to the Prince’s brutal behavior yesterday morning in the hallway when he told Ridley that he already had his hands full. “Stop being a fucking hypocrite!”)

“I’m upset, your Highness,” Janet said, “but I’m not that desperate for your attention.”

“Then when you said, ‘I’m already dead to you,’” he said, “does that mean you took something beforehand?”

“No,” she said. “I was just—”

“Or were you just playing me?” he said.

There was another long pause before the bed springs squeaked again, and Janet said, “My God, what kind of woman do you think I am?”

“You’ve said it yourself, Lady Fleming,” the Prince said, and there was the slight sliding of a chair. “You’re desperate for my attention. You’re so desperate, in fact, that you’ve caused a scene in class just to spite me and humiliate Miss Edgeworth, and you even played the sympathy card in the hallway! Even for you, that was low.”

So Janet said, “Then you shouldn’t have said what you said this morning, and you shouldn’t have said what you said about my mother last Friday. As much as you hate me, I can’t understand why you used her of all people to spite me. Even for you, that was low.”

“Stop making up excuses,” he said. “It’s unbecoming even for someone like you.”

There was another long pause before Janet said, “Don’t mistake my words for jest, your Highness.”

“We’ll see about that,” the Prince said, then the sound of footfalls.

“Then answer me this, your Highness,” Janet said.

The footfalls paused, and he said, “What is it now? I don’t have all day to spend with you.”

“This is hypothetical, but answer me nonetheless,” Janet said. “If I’d have attempted to jump to my death from the third floor,” and then there was a short pause, “would you have gone after me?”

Yet another pause.

“Why are you even asking me that question?”

“Answer me,” Janet said. “Would you or wouldn’t you?”

“Of course, I would!” he said. “What do you take me for? I’m not a monster!”

“A ‘monster’ already used my mother to spite me last week,” Janet said. “Whatever else you’ve said about me, God help you for what you’ve said about the dead.”

“Don’t give me your sophistry, Lady Fleming,” the Prince said. “Your words mean nothing to me.”

Now there was the sound of sniffling as Janet said, “Then why did you come here, your Highness? Was it because I didn’t jump to my death? Were you expecting me to die today?”

“Were you actually planning to—”

“Just answer me, your Highness!” Janet said, and there came running footfalls and the voices of Susan and Marin begging her to say no more hurtful words.

Only then did Prince Blaise say, “You’re too much, Lady Fleming. Get some more rest,” and there were more footfalls and then the opening of the door, and his steps faded away as the tingling reverberation of the spell dissipated from the antechamber.

Now the temperature of the whole room began to drop by several degrees, and wherever the Prince looked, he paled at the sight of stern faces and glaring eyes.

(“You’re so fucked, your Highness,” Janet’s clone said. “How are you gonna talk your way out of this, huh?”)

Yet even now the Prince still had the pluck left in him to glare at the Marquess, fisting his hands into knuckle-white fists and saying, “What I said was the truth, plain and simple. If you can’t handle that, my Lord, then you can just tell that daughter of yours that I hate her!”

“Donavan, what did I say?” the King said.

Yet the Marquess said, “Let me handle this, your Majesty.”

The King grimaced and said, “Fine.”

With that, the Marquess glared back at the Prince and said, “Then tell me the truth. Did you really expect my daughter to die yesterday?”

“For God’s sake, my Lord!” the Prince said. “I said I hated her! I didn’t say I wanted her to die!”

“Do you want her to die?”

“Fine! Think whatever you want,” the Prince said and shoved his finger at the Marquess, “but mark my words, that daughter of yours is a fucking witch! Before I came to this summons, I had nightmares about her, and because of her I fell off the bed and smacked my head on the floor!”

“Donavan, for God’s sake!” the King said.

“Father, I’m telling the truth!” the Prince said.

“Can you really prove that, your Highness?” the Marquess said. “Or is this another one of your—”

“Fuck you!” the Prince said. “I don’t need to prove jack shit to you! I know what I saw!”

Then came a voice booming out of nowhere like the voice of an angry goddess, saying, “ENOUGH!”

Amidst the stirring echoes of that booming voice, Prince Blaise turned around, and all heads turned, and all eyes were directed at the source of the voice standing right up against the Judgment Circle. For there appeared the second unseen member of this private gathering, an older woman wearing a tea gown with dark brown hair worn in a bun behind her head and a withering glare at the Prince from the brilliant sapphires of her eyes. At the sight of her, King Blaise and Marquess Fleming and Margrave Sydney and Father Robinson and Count Cosgrove and Viscountess Durham and Baron Palmer all bowed their heads to this newcomer that had been here the whole time, and now the Prince just stared at her as if the real judgment had finally come in the most terrifying form possible.

“Mother, how long were you there?”

Then the Queen rushed into the Judgment Circle and slapped the Prince across his face, and the slap echoed throughout the antechamber. The Prince recoiled, raising a hand to his cheek and wincing at the red handprint left there, then cowered before the woman in front of him as the others looked up with wide-eyed expressions and gaping mouths.

“Long enough, by God!” the Queen said. “Donny, is this really you? Are you really my son? How can you say that kind of stuff to Lady Fleming? What kind of a man would hurt her like that? I never raised you to be like that!”

“B-b-but,” the Prince said, sweating buckets now, “weren’t you and Janet enemies?”

The Queen gaped and said, “Marchioness Fleming and I were rivals once, but we were never enemies, and I’d never consider Lady Fleming an enemy either. What’s gotten into you, Donny? How did that even cross your mind?”

The Prince looked away, saying, “I don’t know.”

So the Queen stepped up to Marquess Fleming and bowed her head to him, saying, “I’m so sorry for my son’s behavior, my Lord Marquess!”

“It’s okay, your Majesty,” the Marquess said, returning the bow. “We’re just airing out our grievances.”

“All right, hop to it then,” the Queen said and stood beside her ashen-faced husband the King.

With the Queen and King together, the Marquess said, “Before we end this, I must ask.”

The Prince grimaced but said, “What is it, my Lord?”

The Marquess glanced at the Queen and then stared at the Prince, saying, “Your Highness, what made you think my daughter was her Majesty’s enemy?”

Yet Prince Blaise said nothing.

So King Conner Blaise and Queen Rubella Blaise traded whispers, and then the Queen leaned over and whispered something into the Marquess’s ear, and the Marquess said, “Are you sure, your Majesty?”

“I want to know, too,” the Queen said.

With that, the Marquess faced the pale-faced Prince and said, “Did Miss Edgeworth tell you that?”

“Tell me what?” he said.

“Did Miss Edgeworth tell you,” the Marquess said, “that my daughter was an enemy of her Majesty?”

The Prince averted his eyes, saying, “No, my Lord. It was just my own misunderstanding.”

That’s when the Marquess traded glances with the King and Queen together, so the Marquess said, “Then do you understand the point of this summons, your Highness?”

Moments passed in silence.

“I’ll take responsibility,” the Prince said.

Then the Marquess said, “If that’s the case, then from today onwards, you are to stay away from Lady Fleming during school hours. And should you happen to cross paths with Lady Fleming outside of school hours, don’t approach her, unless she asks you to. And even if my daughter allows you to approach her, for God’s sake give her the courtesy due to any other lady you would meet.”

Only then did the Prince concede with a nod.

“Good,” the Marquess said and turned to the King and Queen. “Now this is enough, your Majesties.”

“Then this summons has ended,” the King said, then to the rest in the room: “Whatever was said in this room, you will keep it to yourselves. Is that clear?”

And Marquess Fleming and Margrave Sydney and Father Robinson and Viscountess Durham and Baron Palmer and Count Cosgrove all bowed to the King and Queen, and they all said as one, “We will, your Majesty.”

“Good,” the King said, then to the Prince: “Donny, go back to your dorm and stay there. Don’t go anywhere near Mariana House or any other dorm house, is that clear?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” he said.

“And stay away from Miss Edgeworth,” the Queen said. “I don’t trust that girl at all.”

The Prince winced but said, “Yes, your Majesty.”

With that, the King and Queen walked off towards the first set of double doors in the antechamber, arm in arm, and the King told Jeremy that they were done. Jeremy the butler opened the double doors and greeted the King and Queen and asked if they wanted tonight’s dinner in the eastern dining hall again, and they said they did and invited the others, which they accepted. As such, the group followed the King and Queen and butler to the second set of double doors leading into the main hallway that connected with the eastern dining hall. When the butler opened the double doors, Margrave Sydney and Father Robinson and Count Cosgrove and Viscountess Durham and Baron Palmer all asked Marquess Fleming if they could listen to the rest of the contents of the voice-capture amulet for today as well. The Marquess said that they could at their convenience and suggested reviewing it after dinner with the King and Queen, which the King and Queen readily accepted and asked the butler to have the tables prepared for their guests.

While Jeremy the butler went ahead of them calling for maids and manservants to prepare for tonight’s dinner, and while the rest of the group filed into the main hallway, the Prince just stood there in the Judgment Circle.

Yet Janet’s clone could not have cared less, for she strode up to the Prince and said, “Welcome to the real world, your Highness. Now fuck off!”

End of Villainess [4]