Chapitre 14: Jealousy (2)
"I hope all of you enjoyed the ball. Many of you looked wonderful in your dresses. You will make this selection hard for us," Tabitha said, looking far down the table to acknowledge those far away for a moment.
There was always the possibility someone not close to where she sat could outshine the young ladies here. All the young ladies present came from remarkable families the palace could benefit from so it hardly mattered who she picked though she had her favourites. It was the young ladies' actions that would cause them to be seen as someone reckless and would not make a good queen.
Tabitha was looking for a young woman who shared similar qualities to herself to become the next queen. Then she would know that the kingdom was in good hands. It was not all up to Tobias to pick the woman he was going to spend his life with.
"Helena," Tabitha said, shifting her attention to the right of her. As of right now, Helena was at the top of her list. To her, it was remarkable how the younger sister stood out though Hazel still drew the most attention when she walked into a room. That could change with Tabitha's help. "You danced with my son well at the ball. It was evident your parents invested a lot in a fine tutor."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. I remember having a dance tutor since I was five so any kind of dance comes naturally to me now. Like I am floating on air," Helena answered.
Helena felt like she was floating now for the queen to address her first. She could feel others looking at her, but that didn't matter now when she was the centre of attention aside from the queen. It was what she always wanted.
"I do recall hearing your mother gloat about your talent. She has every right to. Are you an excellent dancer, Hazel? I apologise that my son ran off after the first dance. It's a shame I didn't get to see the older sister dance before the younger," Tabitha said, looking away from Helena.
Helena gripped her dress, hoping Hazel wouldn't speak of Tobias wanting to dance with her. Hazel would be a fool to let the queen know that she turned down a dance from the prince. What if Hazel's poor judgement reflected on her in the queen's eyes? It shouldn't come out now about the dance Hazel denied. Not until Helena felt she had a good hold on the prince's heart.
"My mother also started my dance lessons when I was five though I recall my father trying to teach me when I was younger. I'm not sure if you have seen it, but he doesn't know how to keep up with the music," Hazel joked, feeling sorry for her mother having such a dance partner.
Tabitha smiled, remembering her younger days when Nathan used to dance more often. He had no rhythm, but he always looked happy when he danced. "Yes, I have seen your father dance. That must be why they carefully picked a good tutor for the two of you. I look forward to seeing if your dancing is just as wonderful as your sister's or if you will outshine her."
Hazel smiled instead of replying to avoid the trap the queen had laid out. It was no surprise that the queen was going to compare everything she did to Helena.
"Linda, your attention seems to be out of the garden," Tabitha said, tapping on the table to get Linda's attention. She would enjoy it if Linda were more focused on this selection. She could help the young woman to be picked so the palace would have to worry less about Grant who was speaking too much these days.
Linda looked away from the entrance of the garden where she thought she saw Edgar walking by and looked at the queen. She didn't have the slightest clue what the queen asked her.
"Linda loves flowers, Your Majesty," Hazel answered to save Linda. "Their beauty tends to distract her."
"All of the flowers in the garden were handpicked by me. I am happy to see someone enjoying the garden, but you should focus on what is happening at the table. It might lead me to think you have no interest in being in the palace," said Tabitha.
Queen Tabitha carefully selected all the young women present and the group before them. For any of them to not be appreciative of their invitation to the palace would be a slap to her face. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she granted all of them.
When she sat in their seats many years ago, she understood the honour it was to be there. Anyone not grateful to be here would regret it.
"Not at all, your majesty. I could not resist looking to see if the rumours about the palace garden were true. It goes to show how much thought you put into the garden for it to distract me while I sit here," Linda said, hoping the queen would end this here.
"You are smart. It is also a shame that you did not dance with my son. I suppose it had something to do with your older brothers acting like guards so they must have scared him off. They are not here to bother you so please relax," Tabitha said as she knew how overprotective the men in Linda's family were when it came to her.
The maids needed to be careful in watching that nothing happened to Linda so the Hensons wouldn't be arguing with the king and ready to bring their army to the palace gates.
"The garden is lovely," Helena said, bringing herself back into the conversation. "As was the ball from beginning to end. You truly know how to create magic."
Hazel resisted the urge to shake her head as Helena kissed up to the queen. She would bet her favourite shoes that Helena was not happy the queen had stopped talking about her dance with the prince so quickly. She was going to enjoy watching Helena realise that it could not always be about her. Her sister needed this awakening.
If Helena wasn't careful, she would show the childish side she didn't like to admit she had.
"Your compliments are too much. What did you think of the ball, Jasmine?" The queen asked the young lady beside Helena.
Helena snuck a glance at Jasmine Green, another young lady she considered to be great competition. They had spoken in the past because of their father's doing business together and their mothers having the same group of friends.
Helena knew that like herself, Jasmine was determined to become queen. Jasmine sometimes had an arrogance like she was already queen which Helena greatly disliked. She smiled, knowing that having to watch the prince dance with her must have fueled Jasmine with anger.
Helena wished she had looked around the room more to see Jasmine's face when she stood on the sidelines watching the prince dance with someone else.
"I enjoyed the ball, Your Majesty. I was hoping for a dance with the prince, but it seemed something turned him off from taking part in another dance," Jasmine said, looking Helena's way.
Chapitre 15: Jealousy (3)
Helena smiled, not interested in arguing with Jasmine who had to be upset she failed to get the prince's attention at the ball. 'I would be angry too if I were her,' Helena thought.
Helena looked at the other side of the table at Hazel who was silent. She would have liked for Hazel to say something to Jasmine in her place so she wouldn't need to argue in front of the queen. Hazel had helped Linda when she was distracted. Why couldn't Hazel help her actual sister?
Hazel stared at Helena, wondering what her sister could want from her. She hoped that Helena wasn't looking for her to jump into her petty, childish talk with Jasmine when the queen was present. Why should she fight Helena's battle when the queen was present to make herself look childish?
Hazel planned to protect her young sister, but as her mother said, she had to think of herself sometimes. Helena was a big girl who knew how to handle Jasmine. It was obvious that there was some jealousy that Helena was the only one to dance with Tobias. Helena was free to rub it in the faces of everyone present.
Hazel glanced at the queen and noticed how the woman seemed to love the jabs. Of course, she would. Even the queen enjoyed the drama among the women in the kingdom.
"You will all get your chance to spend time with my son. He won't be able to run off so fast the next time you see him. I don't think my son was disappointed with your dance," Tabitha said, aiding Helena.
She couldn't let the spark Helena had to die out yet when there was so much attention on her. Tabitha planned on using Helena to motivate the other young ladies to do better.
'I'm never going to hear the end of this,' Hazel thought, watching how Helena smiled as if she had stumbled upon gold.
Hazel wished Helena noticed how the queen enjoyed her little squabble with Jasmine. It had to be amusing to watch young women ready to tear themselves apart to marry her son.
Hazel looked around to see if Tobias was joining them since they needed to spend time with him as much as they could during these seven days.
"I hope that my son dancing with the younger sister did not create any problems for you, Hazel."
Hazel looked at the queen, wondering why such a comment had to be made. Wasn't there something better to be talked about? It was twice now that it felt the queen was pushing to see if she was jealous of Helena. "Not at all, your majesty. In fact-"
"Hazel and I are quite close so something like that would not affect us. She was happy for me," Helena answered so the fact Tobias asked Hazel for a dance could be hidden.
"My dear, I asked your sister a question. Is she too afraid to speak or does the younger one always have better answers?" Tabitha asked, keeping her eyes on Hazel. She sensed that something did happen between the two or there was something hidden from her. "Normally, there would only be one sister present and that would be the oldest."
"Still, two years have gone by for your time," Tabitha said, commenting on the fact Hazel was two years older than most of the young women present. Hazel's age was why she did not have a lot of interest in the young woman and gravitated to her younger sister.
Tabitha wanted a young girl who was closer to the time she started to bleed so they could start preparing for an heir. They had to account for a child not making it all the way to open their eyes or becoming sick and passing as many of the young royals did. To Tabitha, it was best to start as soon as the young woman was of age to marry so they had time to make up for failures.
Tobias had already picked Helena over Hazel so it made her decision easier to have more interest in Helena. Tabitha expected Renee would have let Hazel get married so their focus would just be on Helena now, but they held Hazel back.
In Tabitha's eyes, it made no sense to waste two of Hazel's years. She could have been married and had a child on the way already.
"I can speak for myself, Your Majesty. Helena must have been excited," Hazel said, giving Helena a look. She was used to Helena's childish side, but it was starting to annoy her more than ever now. She knew it must have something to do with Helena not being the only one asked for a dance.
Now Hazel wished she could turn back time to dance with Tobias. There were moments when Helena needed to keep her mouth shut just as Hazel sat quietly when the queen was speaking to Helena. The last thing Hazel needed was for anyone to think she needed her little sister to speak for her.
Once they got a moment alone, Hazel planned to end Helena's behaviour.
"I didn't think anything of the prince dancing with my sister. My time will come," Hazel answered Tabitha.
There was something about women's age that the men in the palace loved to speak about which Hazel hated and she disliked that the queen reminded her of those men a little.
"Mother!" Tobias called to Tabitha, making his presence known. He looked over at the young women at the table. How they smiled as he walked by. He had to give it to his mother to pick a group of beautiful young women just like the other group.
His gaze then settled on Hazel who looked like she was about to scold someone. Who had pissed her off already?
"Good timing, son. You should have a chat with the young women and pick two to spend some private time with. We were not long speaking about your dance with Helena here," Tabitha said, looking at Helena. "Would you care to comment on your time with her?"
Tobias once again avoided looking at Helena. He already knew his mother's tricks and that she was trying to paint Helena as the one who had the best chance of being picked by him at the end of the seven days. That was not going to happen, but he would enjoy leading her on to confuse her.
He had to get some fun out of this selection since the palace was forcing him to marry.
"It was a good dance," Tobias answered, moving to stand beside his mother. "There was one more I wanted to dance with but it didn't happen."
Hazel looked down at her lap, hoping Tobias wouldn't say her name to have the queen question her.
Helena shared Hazel's fear of Tobias mentioning the second dance he could have had for the night. It was not even a full day that she got to enjoy what made her special among everyone at the table. This time, she could not speak to disrupt the prince and queen's conversation.
All Helena could do was look to Hazel for help, but she found Hazel looking down at her lap. Helena bit her lip, wishing she could say something. Yet again she found another reason for why it was a problem to be in the selection with Hazel.
"With you mother," Tobias answered, knowing he was going to get an earful from Hazel later. She only had herself to blame for making it too easy for him to fret her.
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