Chapter 11

July 17 ( Afternoon)

Dear Diary .

I know that I should feel miserable.

I have been banished from the capital by my sister .

That was AFTER I had been manhandled by half a dozen people and pleaded and threatened by my family to make me agree to get stitches.

"I have my human's right ," I had screamed and played tagged with known and unknown faces after which I had been finally caught by my sister who had coldly whispered to me ," We have a gun - back at the stable. How come you keep forgetting that ?"

I had sobbed my eyes red . It took three men and two women including Jonathan and a victim ( Fred ) to finally go through the whole process.

" Is Jonathan not in military ?," Gratel asked me as he hushed in the paper cup ,"I am impressed."

I shrugged .

Obviously , I had been banned from going outside.

So my friend had to come to meet me .

I was actually impressed that Gratel could come to see me

He is not allowed outside except when he is being dragged around by his father to church.

I put the cup to my mouth , I wanted to ask him about how he managed to sneak outside ," How are you enjoying the sunlight ? What did you do to get out , did you again act like you have been possessed by your dead grandmother so they throw you out the house ?"

This thing that Gratel has discovered . If you put a string between two cups and have the string bound inside the cups with tiny sticks - you can use it to speak in one cup and you voice will be delivered at the other cup .

Gratel is such a genius when it comes in to making useless things .

" No , I told them that the grandmother asked me to photosynthesis, today ," Gratel told me , dramatically throwing out his hands .

I did not know if he was just joking or not , considering he has told far worse things to creep his family out so that they will let him wear women clothes .

But that is just Gratel being himself. Just the way he likes to live like a free bird , denying any social standards .

Gratel is someone who seems to be like he is not from this world .

The way he makes strange things , the way he likes to dress and claims that clothes do not have standards and the way he has never let anyone push him down .

"I am not going to live a life of lies ," he has told me one day ," I do not mind if I scare the society but I am going to live my truth !"

That is why Gratel is my inspiration and I am his minion.

He is a lot more smarter that I can ever be .

"Look , so Arsenic is your only hope ," Gratel continues.

I groan.

" I can bring you some sandwich with fungus on them," he offered .

There was a knock on my door .

But I did not give it any importance.

" Are you still inside or did you run away from the window, Miss ?," our maid called out .

" I AM A PATIENT ! AND AUNT PUT CHAINS ON THE WINDOW ?," I shouted back , angrily ,"CHAINS ! "

Honestly, even criminals get better treatment than this .

Gratel sighed ," Well , here I was thinking we could hang out at the carnival ," he spoke into the cup , shaking his head sadly ," My minion , we are really star-crossed comrades ."

I felt sad too - about the Carnival.

I wanted to see the circus and possibly steal their snakes .

"What are you saying Gratel ," I reminded him ," Mayor probably already has brought the priest and send men to find you ."

That was true . Even if Gratel has managed to run away before after freaking his family out , he has never made it farer than my house .

We can never make it to the Carnival .

" Yes , I should probably return,but ," he looked down ," Mom did offer her wagon so I can go to have fun on the rides ."

Nonsense , I shook my head ," What , she must have lost it , Mayor- your father is never gonna allow that !"

Gratel raised his eyebrows and brought out a pouch of coins ," He gave me money."

"MISS ! THERE IS A GUEST WAITING FOR YOU ," our maid called again ,"YOU NEED TO CHANGE AND GREET THEM ."

I got on my elbow so I could take a better look at Gratel," What happened?" my heart was beating loud .

I knew that there was a bargain . Nothing is THAT easy in Gratel's life .

I squinted my eyes to look for any purple bruise on him.

" I wanted to ask you to go with me and my mother to the Carnival ," Gratel smiled at me sweetly .

" Gratel ?," I swallowed against my dry throat ," Is that okay ? Are you alright ?"

There was this strange icky feeling I was getting .

" No I am alright ," he waved his palms ," No , no , it is not what you think it is. No , I certainly did not get beaten to go to the Carnival."

"MISS ! IT IS AN ESTEEMED GUEST !," the maid called again. But Gratel is more important.

" Are you sure you are alright ?," I asked , still unsure ," The mayor -"

" No! Father , he -," he denied ," He has been good to me lately ."

I raised an eyebrow.

" He- he apologized."

I put my palms on my lips so that I won't start yelling in happiness.

It was too good to be true .

'Will it be over ? is the war going to be over soon?,' that was what I was thinking .

" He said he is sorry for not being able to be there for me and he will let me have my space to be myself ," Gratel stopped ," But -"

Ofcourse, there is a 'but .'

"He wants you to go to the - the mental institution ,sooner ?," I asked , already scared .

" God ! no , he said that I don't have to go , he even said that he wanted to spend more time with me ,"Gratel laughed out ," He just wants a middle ground and that's all ."

"What's that middle ground ," I could not help but ask.

" That is what I wanted to talk to you about ," he seemed nervous," I wanted to take you to the Carnival and talk about -"

There was a loud bang on my door , throwing it wide open . I flinched , turning back , snapping the string that was holding the cups into two .

Lady Darwin walked into my room " We are going to start our class , late ," she announced.

We sat with cups of tea .

Lady Darwin has stopped teaching me about mathematics.

She has started reciting history of seven influential families of the Capital .

" There is no 'King' now even if we have the royal bloodlines ," she had me note down everything she said ," There is parliament, originally Hanswealth and Swans are the heads of the two opposite parties of the parliament but it all comes down to voting . Darwins have been giving their preferences on the Swans since two decades, although the previous Duke used to keep a neutral relationship with the both parties."

I had a feeling that she knows how much I detest the history and that is why she has been taking her anger out by giving me more history lessons .

" Now , at the first civil war , the emperor Francis the seven chose to sign an agreement to give up his rights -"

I let her voice drown in the background.

I was looking out of the window.

You could see the pink fireworks blooming in the evening sky. They were not as beautiful as the ones in the Swans Castle but they had their own charms - like pink bubbles bursting in blue afternoon sky .

" Are they not pretty to look at ?," Lady Darwin asked.

" Yes ?," I was still flustered even though I had already consciously decided to ignore her ," Yes."

" At eighteenth year , Emperor Francis tried to gain his power again after marrying Rosabella Soviett, a beautiful foreign princess," Lady Darwin informed me ," Their love was beautiful. Many many novels glorify that. But do you know what happened to the Emperor ? He was executed by the order of the Parliament."

" Oh ," I was not shocked , I had read about them before when Isabella had taught me civil wars .

According to her , it was just one of hundred examples of ' What a stupid creature man is '

" Their love was like fireworks. Glorious , illuminating dark age - but something beautiful is not permanent," Lady Darwin told me ," Pretty things will turn out to be a lie . That is why you should observe the reality , after all the time is short ."

What was the point of her advice ?

She was the one always telling me not to sit like a bat but like a pretty doll.

"Here , I thought that you have learnt your lesson by sitting at home ," Lady Darwin laughed .

I joined her . Honestly , I had no idea . I knew that I should feel guilty.

But I felt more like Butter - our barn dog who would sometimes eat the chicken eggs . Aunt then scream at him , the stupid thing would have no idea about what Aunt is saying , still he would know he was being punished in some way and would whimper .

" But this is all I can expect for Margaret's daughter ," Lady Darwin picked up the cup to take a sip of tea.

" You knew ," I froze .

"Ofcourse, I did ," Lady Darwin waved away my quary like it was something insignificant," I am choosing a bride for my son , I know about Isabella more than even you know ."

"Well , I have always wondered," I could not help but ask ," Why would you choose Isabella ? Is it because you knew our mother ?"

"Everyone knew about your mother , then , Miss Robin ," Lady Darwin told me ," She was such an independent, glorious , intelligent woman that she had the seven Dukes wrapped around her fingers . She was the first female scholar to graduate from the Imperial academy . She was a woman of admiration and jealousy . When I was your age , I had seen my mother and other women applying to ban her from the capital so that their own daughters could get the attention they deserve in the high society."

"I can not imagine a woman like that ," I looked back at the window , watching the pink fireworks popping in the afternoon sunlight .

" She was like a firework , with bewitching beauty ," Lady Darwin told me ," But like it happens to all beautiful things , it happened to her too - the pretty things do not last long . Margaret was no exception of the rule. Oneday she disappeared from the high society."

"She got married - to my father ," I filled in the blank.

" Everyone was confused about how she chose a man in his late sixties living in the courtyard - she was abondoned by the high society and finally other women had a chance to show off themselves ," Lady Darwin told me in a pleasant voice ," Thanks to her disappearance , I was able to secure my position as the Lady of the Darwin Household ."

I watched her blue eyes , there was this peculiar sadness.

"But you ," I was confused ," You do not seem happy about her disappearance."

"Well , I did lose a good rival. The higher society was a boring playground after that ," she sighed.

"You sound sad ," I realised," you loved her ."

It was Lady Darwin now , who froze.

"Yes ," she struggled ," I admired her ."

" No ," I shook my head , I could tell that she was lying ," You loved her like a lover ."

Lady Darwin looked at me with a bitter face . Now I could understand her strange gaze.

She was not a creep to be in love with me , she was actually in love with my long-lost mother .

" You know that you are more like Margaret than your sister ," Lady Darwin gave up ,atlast ," You got your mother's ability to read minds ."

"I just observe ," I rarely get a chance to speak about my parents, maybe that was why I was actually in awe with the conversation we were having .

" It was my sin to have such feelings for her and I am going to amend by taking care of you two ," Lady Darwin picked herself from the chair ," Isabella gives me no worries but you will need quiet a work ."

I was still in daze because of the conversation we had ,"May I go to my room ?"

"Ofcourse not !," Lady Darwin exclaimed," You have been speaking with your eyes since my arrival about how much you want to go to the Carnival. I found you a date for that , ofcourse, you need to be bothered by me as the chaperon of the two of you ."

"You and I are going on a date ?,"I gasped , still unable to put together all of the new information I had acquired today .

"No ! I do not need romance in my age ,"Lady Darwin did not seem to mind my attitude today as much as she would have before ," But I need you to prepare well , Raphael is a picky boy after all ."

The old hag had finally arranged a date for me , with her son Raphael Darwin.