Chapter 55: Chapter 48

Julia

 

The week passed quietly.

Relatively quiet.

On Monday, Marie caused a rain shower in the entire hallway, where her classroom and Julia's practice room were located, surprising Julia and her tutor. In fencing lessons, Philip stumbled into a bush to which nettles grew next. Wednesday remained unspectacular. On Thursday, a classmate almost burned down her classroom because she wanted to show her classmates her latest trick, and lost control of her magic. The fire was eventually extinguished by her class teacher, who entered the classroom just in time. On Friday, they were therefore taught in a different room, as their old classroom now urgently needed to be renovated.

"I'd love to be at your ball!" Marie sat on Julia and Helga's table. "I could dance with nobles! And celebrate you!"

"But you've already celebrated. And the party of you and the others was much better than any ball I've been to", Julia comforted her.

"Unfortunately, I and Philip won't be there either. But our parents." Helga frowned. "We were not released from lessons for the ball. Does that comfort you? Marie?"

"So we're not going to get a cake!", added Philip. "The cake in the castle is the best!"

"A bit", Marie replied, pouting, and went to her table, as the lesson began. History. Julia was tempted to simply oversleep during the lessons.

When Julia returned to her apartment after class, her bags were already packed and taken to her carriage by Marko and Leopold. Finn was talking to Sophie and almost jumped for joy when he saw Julia. "Princess! Sophie promised me that I could help bake in the castle! Cookies and cakes! And if something needs to be changed on your ball gown, I can take over!"

Julia grinned. "I'm sure Peter will also have requests for changes. At least when my mother chose his clothes for the ball."

"Marko and Leopold will probably pour drinks again, right? Do you think I can take a quick look at the ballroom?"

"Oh, certainly not!", interjected Sophie quickly. "Staff are only allowed there if they work there. And you can't."

"But I'd love to see the ballroom. Just like Marko and Leopold."

As if called, the two came through the door. "What do you want, just like us?", asked Marko, since they had only heard the last part.

"The ballroom!", repeated Finn. "I'd love to see it."

"Just the hall, or also the party?", asked Leopold, ruffling Finn's hair.

"The celebration!" Finn pouted and smoothed his hair again.

"We saw very little from the last ball, Finn. Maybe we'll help out in the kitchen too..." Marko put his arm around Finn's shoulders and hugged him. "We are servants."

"Unless I'll take you with me." Julia leaned against the wall. "If Finn wants to see the ball, maybe I can arrange that."

Finn's eyes lit up with enthusiasm. "Really?"

"I'll try, yes." Julia nodded. "But I can't promise you that it will work."

Leopold smiled and, just like Marko with Finn, put his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Won't that cause trouble?"

Julia leaned against him. "Not necessarily..."

"We should leave now!", Sophie interrupted them and demonstratively held up a suitcase. "And the rest of the suitcases don't go to the carriage by themselves!"

"And if they do?" Marko looked at the last two suitcases. "Maybe they'll grow legs."

"Or wings!", suggested Finn.

Marko nodded in agreement. "Or both?"

"Then I could sell the suitcases for a lot of money. Don't you think?" Julia took one of the two suitcases, although this was not her job.

"Not when we're faster!" Marko took the arm from Finn's shoulders and reached for the other suitcase. "Maybe we'll get rich!"

"The suitcases certainly don't grow wings." Sophie shook her head laughing. "But if my knitting needles grew wings, that would be nice. Then they could knit on their own."

"Or they'll fly away from you." Leopold tried to take the suitcase from Julia, but she shook her head. "Then, we will see Sophie running after her knitting needles day after day!", she said.

Sophie snorted.

When they finally sat in the carriage, it started to rain. Julia insisted that they all shared a carriage. The soft crackling of the drops lulled Julia into a deep sleep. When they arrived at the castle, Leopold woke them up, whose shoulder she had used as a pillow.

Tired, she got out of the carriage and stretched. She was followed by her servants.

A servant of the castle, a mortal, was already waiting for them. "Welcome home, princess. I hope you had a pleasant ride?"

"Yes, thank you very much."

"Well, we've let you take a bath so you can recover from the ride. In two hours, your parents will be waiting for you for dinner."

"That's very nice, thank you."

"Your servants will bring your luggage in?" He looked at Marko and Leopold, who were already unloading the suitcases.

"Yes. Thank you. I think I'm enjoying my bath now."

"Of course."

Julia nodded to her servants and resisted the urge to hug Leopold, then made her way to her bathroom, where a steaming tub was waiting for her. She was sad that her parents and Peter hadn't greeted her outside, but they were probably all busy. Julia got into the tub and enjoyed the hot but not too hot water. She thought about the ball. She didn't want to celebrate. Not because of her new magic. And then, there was her new brother... And the vampires. Vampires drank the blood of humans... Would they also drink blood at the ball? And where would it come from? This worried her... But then again, she didn't know them... Was she unfair? And there were her servants... Especially Leopold. Here in the castle, she had to be careful. She was observed everywhere. Most of the time, she was only alone in her room... Servants and guards were everywhere.

After a quarter of an hour, she got out of the tub and wrapped herself in a large, white towel, and went to her room.

"Little sister!"

Julia looked at her brother with wide eyes. Peter was lying on her bed with a book, from which he now jumped up to hug her. "Welcome back."

"Peter! What are you doing here?"

"Greeting my sister."

"I have nothing on... Except for a towel!" Even the servants had more decency than her brother, it seemed...

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Peter mischievously tugged at her towel. She slapped his hand away. "Leave it! Peter!"

Peter grinned. "Then you should put on something quickly." He pointed to her dressing room. "Unless you want to wear a towel for dinner? Mother would certainly be very happy about that!"

"Or she disinherits me."

"Her golden daughter with precious magic? Never! You could come naked to dinner and she wouldn't disinherit you!"

Julia laughed. "I prefer to wear clothes."

"Good. I'm waiting!"

"I wouldn't have expected anything else..." Julia walked into her dressing room grinning. Her suitcases were there but had not yet been unpacked. Probably so that she could leave the bathroom undisturbed. On her closet hung a honey-yellow ball gown with embroidered stars and shimmering pearls. Her mother had already told her in a letter that she had another dress sewn for the ball. The reason for this was a change of plan regarding the choice of clothes for the ball, as one of the servants had told her. Julia wouldn't wear her pink dress. The new dress was very pretty. But she liked the pink one better.

Julia opened one of the suitcases and took out the dress Finn had sewn for her. She got dressed and tied her still-damp hair with a pink hair band, and went back to her room, to her brother. Meanwhile, Peter was lying on her bed again and let his legs dangle over the edge.

"Nice!" He looked at her dress curiously. "It looks self-sewn. Finn?"

"Yes."

"It suits you."

Julia smiled and sat down next to him. "So, Torsten and vampires?"

"Yes. They will arrive tomorrow for the ball. I'm not sure I like that."

"Maybe they're nice?"

"Torsten is certainly many things, but he's not nice!" Peter grabbed her pillow and pressed it on him.

"I meant the vampires. We don't know them. Maybe they're nice."

"Or they crave our blood", he whispered, hiding under her pillow. "Everything I read about vampires didn't sound 'nice'. It sounded like 'dangerous'."

"Just because they're vampires doesn't mean they're dangerous. But I'm also queasy."

Peter peeked out from under the pillow. "You may be right." Then he sat up. "But even if they're nice, they drink blood. And who knows what Torsten is planning? He looked at me really funny."

"I will meet them without prejudice and form my own picture of them", Julia announced. "Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. I haven't met anyone yet, so I want to meet them openly... Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare to go to my own ball. Because of the vampires... I'm not so sure about Torsten..."

Peter laughed. "So you don't trust the vampires either?"

Julia groaned. "I don't like it. Not at all."

"That you don't trust them?"

"No, although... That's certainly not good either, because I don't know them... But... No. I don't like that I have a new half-brother... And that vampires come to my ball, which I don't want either. But I don't know the vampires. Therefore, it is unfair to them. So I decided to be friendly and positive."

"That sounds very grown-up. And wise."

"Do you think?"

"Yes. But I still don't like it. Vampires?"

„Vampires.“

"And a new brother..." Peter sighed. "Our father cheated on mum. That all feels wrong." Peter leaned against his sister. "What should we do? What can we do? Nothing."

"We can celebrate tomorrow." Julia wrapped her arms around her brother. "We'll have a good time. Will you wear something spectacular tomorrow?"

"Mother had a honey-yellow suit sewn for me. Apparently, Babette comes in a honey yellow dress and asked mother to match my suit to her dress..."

"At least honey yellow is not as boring as the colors mom has chosen so far."

"I've already made sure the suit is even less boring."

"What did you do?", Julia wanted to know.

"A masterpiece!" Peter leaned his head against hers. "It’s a surprise!... Well... It's not finished yet... But the suit will be a masterpiece!"

"Finn will be happy to help you. Shall I tell you something?"

„Tell me something?“

"The dress that mom had sewn for me is also honey yellow."

"How delightful. And how surprising! She mentioned something like that..."

"Apparently, we're both supposed to fit Babette..."

Peter groaned theatrically. "I can't wait. Should I take care of your dress too?"

Julia shook her head laughing. "It's enough for me that my dress will be much prettier than Babette's. Who knows what she has chosen? Maybe she will come as a honeypot."

"Or as a honeycomb. With bees sewn on her dress."

"No. That's too cute for Babette", Julia objected. "That would probably look too pretty for her."

"As a fat bee? With feelers?", Peter now suggested.

The two talked until it was time to go to dinner. There their parents awaited them, as well as Cleo, Fritz, and Lea, who greeted Julia cheerfully. At dinner, Julia learned that they would all appear at the ball in honey yellow.

"This is how we show that we are looking forward to Peter's future wedding and already consider Babette part of the family. She will sit with us in the gallery", said the Queen. "Just like Fritz’s fiancée and the von Bluthofs, as guests of honor."

"I don't like honey yellow", murmured the king, and everyone at the table, except the queen, laughed.

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