Jacques

Amie took her place next to Prince Jacques. The memory of him punching her in the gut after his bizarre marriage proposal flashed in her head.

Now glaring down at his plate, Jacques asked Amie, "Where have you been?"

Trying to hide her discomfort, Amie replied politely, "Apologies. It took a little longer than expected to get ready."

Jacques was frustrated, "This year, Adeline. Where have you been this year? You have the nerve to insult me and then vanish like that."

Amie replied as calm as she could, "It was a natural response to your proposal. Besides, how would you expect me to behave after you punched me?"

Sarcastically, Jacques responded, "Well sorry I'm not a perfect prince like my brother."

Amie was confused. His rage wasn't really making any sense to her and his response was odd. She looked up at him and realized his glare was now fixated on Prince Felix and his new wife, Princess Anabelle. Their wedding was a week ago. They were not seated with the rest of the family as they normally would have been, but instead were seated on the opposite side of the hall.

Suddenly everything connected together in Amie's head and she realized what was going on. She felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. Prince Jacques just had to watch the woman he loved be married off to his brother and Amie was careless enough to belittle Prince Jacques after already being belittled by his entire family.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt guilty. While Amie had not spent a large amount of time around the Royal Family, all she ever heard when she was around them was how wonderful Prince Felix was and how much of a disappointment Prince Jacques was.

Amie looked down at the table, "I'm sorry for being so insensitive."

Prince Jacques scoffed, "That 'apology' was almost believable." He glanced at her and noticed her expression was filled with remorse. He started to think she actually was remorseful, "Try the cobbler, you won't regret it."

Amie didn't quite know if that was a veiled threat or an olive branch. She cautiously decided to try the cobbler. Upon tasting the delectable dessert, she concluded that it was an attempt at extending an olive branch.

Amie was about to speak, but Queen Zephine interrupted their conversation to chastise Jacques, "You ought to be over there instead of Felix. It's your fault we had to separate you two. I wish you had more manners like your broth-"

Jacques abruptly stood up, "Great! Since he's so much better than me, then why bother having me here at all! Excuse me and my poor manners, my degenerate self must go get drunk at the local brothel now!"

The room was silent. His rant at his mother was loud enough for everyone to here it. He stormed off as everyone sat stunned with mouths half agape.

King Javert decided it was the perfect time to transition into his speech, "Let's all remember why we are here. Today we are celebrating my daughter's 17th birthday. Normally, this is when one would announce Adeline's chosen partner, but this last year found ouselves in a surprising predicament with too many suitors to choose from." The King rambled on, trying to preemtively calm the crowd so there wouldn't be an uproar about loyalty and alliances when the chosen candidates were announced.

Amie's marriage was dangerously political. Many kingdoms had fallen before over poorly chosen marriages and beautiful women. King Javert was determined to not allow that to happen to his own kingdom.

While Amie waited for the names to be read, she exchanged glances with Prince Peter, who was seated in the crowd, impatiently waiting for the moment where they could speak to each other again.

The end of the speech came, Prince Peter and Amie turned their attention to King Javert. Amie could feel the adrenaline rushing through her as he began to call the names, "King Olaf of Jórvik, King Charles of Aragon," Amie's stomach churned hearing their preferred candidate. The anxiety was suffocating her, she wanted to run, but all she could do was remain frozen in place, "King Osred of Northumbria, King Aurelius of Asturias, King Ordoño of Galiza, King Ceredig of Elmet, Prince Demetrius of Thesselonica, Prince Dapyx of Dacia, Prince Ferdinand of León," There was one name remaining. Amie was panicking, "and Prince Peter of Navarre." Amie let out a sigh of relief. He was there, he was still in the running.

Prince Peter and Amie exchanged glances once again. This time the two of them were eager for the speech to be over so they could be with each other. Both of them wanted to laugh and dance with each other, to celebrate their one step closer to being husband and wife.

The night came to an end, Amie found herself alone walking to the South Tower. She was reminiscing on the night, happily replaying in her head yet another secret kiss with Prince Peter.

The ecstatic state she was enjoying was cut short by the sight of Prince Jacques stumbling down the hallway towards her. Amie was already close to the South Tower, enough so that anyone walking in her direction would have to also be coming from the South Tower, "Prince Jacques? What are you doing here? There's nothing over here for you."

Jacques slurred his words together, "Nothing ov-er heeeere for me? Course sometin's here. You."

Amie was becoming uneasy, "What do you mean?"

Jacques was incoherent, "I'm heeere. For you. Addddy, why are you 'ere?"

Amie was uncomfortable, but a wave of pity came over her, "Here, I'll help you down the hall."

"I go...t. it," Prince Jacques was able to stammer the single sentence before falling over on his face unconscious.

Amie took this opportunity to find a guard to help her move Prince Jacques' beerlogged body. A wonderful night couldn't help but to be ruined with a pitifully drunken Prince.

Amie woke up the next morning determined to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with Jacques. She wanted to know why he was drunkenly snooping around an area most people are forbidden from entering.

It didn't take long to find him. Walking into her dining hall, there sat Prince Jacques in the corner. He was holding his head, presumably because of the headache from the hangover, and he was sipping down a glass of water.

He caught sight of her, "Fastest way to get over a hangover." He made a toasting motion with his glass before downing it. He looked like he was going to vomit afterwards, but was able to just barely keep himself together.

He motioned to the seat across from him, "Sit down, let's chat."

Amie was cautious, but did his bidding, "What do you want to talk about?"

Playing with his glass, he asked, "Your apology last night, what was that about?"

Amie asked, "What do you mean?"

Jacques clarified, "You said you were being insensitive, you were talking about my brother, right? Which part were you actually sorry for."

Amie responded, "Comparing you to your brother of course. I realized that you had been compared to him negatively for what I can only presume was your entire life. I don't have any siblings, so I don't know what that feels like, but I can only imagine the pain of never feeling good enou-"

Jacques slammed his empty glass down on the table so hard, it was a miracle it didn't break, "Do NOT pity me either. You're right when you don't know how it feels, don't you DARE imply that I'm not good enough!"

Amie tried to explain, "I didn't mean it that way, I meant-"

Jacques interrupted, "What? That that's how I should feel? Because that's any better? Why should I have to be good at the same things as my brother, why are none of my achievements recognized? There's A THOUSAND things I'm better then my brother at. There's a difference between feeling unworthy and feeling resentment for not being acknowledged! Don't mix the two!"

Amie was growing flustered, "I'm sorry, I thought-"

Jacques was growing more angry, "Just shut up! You thought what? You don't know anything!"

Amie was on edge, she didn't intend to anger the Prince once again, she was just trying to be supportive. She held her breathe when he got up, unsure of what he would do next. He stormed off and when he was out of sight, she felt she could breathe again.

The Prince was insane, but she felt more empathy for him now, seeing his vulnerability for what it was.

Just when she thought she was in the clear from his path of rage, Prince Jacques stormed back into the room. She stared at him, wondering what he was about to do. His eyes were so intense as he kept staring at her back without saying a word. It went on for what felt like an eternity before he finally said, "I'm sorry for punching you!" He then stormed off like a toddler.

Amie couldn't help but laugh once he was out of sight again. He was indeed an odd one.