Gregorio and Bee were deep in conversation. She could hear their laughter ringing through the halls. Prince Sedrick seemed to walk slower than his regular pace, taking smaller strides than he normally would. He was a tall, jovial man, his pace seemed to her benefit.

"You look beautiful this evening." Sedrick spoke as he leaned down to whisper into Eleonora's ear. "I would say just as breath-taking as you looked this afternoon."

Eleonora canted her head and looked at him with a puzzled expression. "We met this afternoon?"

His smile widened. "Actually, no, we did not. I was with Rio, uh Gregorio, in the hall when you walked past with my mother." There was something about his own words or the situation that caused him to blush and clear his throat. "You are a stunning woman. I would have never guessed you weren't a noble by birth."

Prince Sedrick was in the know? So far many she met seemed to know she wasn't Eleonora. It spurred her to ask in a whispered tonation. "Why am I impersonating a noblewoman?" Someone had to eventually tell her, or be carefully convinced to spill without knowing they were sharing things she did not know.

He patted her hand, in a form of dismissing her ask. "The Countess will explain when she sees fit to." The prince stared at her, almost seeming to look through her. "I must say, you look so much like Eleonora Lee. It is as if you were her twin. Hopefully, looks are the only thing you have in common with her."

"I noticed you speak of her in present tense, while others speak of her in past tense. Do you believe she is still alive?" If he wouldn't answer her more pressing question, perhaps he would give her something else. As silence dragged on, the possibility became doubtful.

She started to regret asking.

"I..." He paused. "I believe she may still be alive, even after all these years. We were both quite young and trying to prove ourselves. From our last conversation, I have many reasons to believe she lives." He then cleared his throat again.

Eleonora glanced his way, observing his features. She noticed a glossy sheen in his eyes. Prince Sedrick's quiet display of emotion caused her to wonder if it was a note of deeper feeling for the original Eleonora. The trace of tears hovering in his eyes almost dared to splatter across his cheeks.

The urge to ask what happened between them tugged at her. In the course of the evening, she would find a creative way to approach the subject again. From her read of him, pulling information from him would take time and a level of patience she was not certain she had.

"What do you think of the Triena Palace?" He asked with a plead in his gaze for s stay in a more light-hearted discussion.

Eleonora gave him what he pleaded for, allowing the shift as an applied tactic of building a foundation. What she sought could wait for the moment. "What I've seen has been gorgeous. I look forward to walking through many more halls, especially where you first saw me. I want better look at all the paintings. They tell a story of Triena?" She injected her words with enthusiasm.

"Yes." He chuckled. "After dinner, we can walk the hall together? I can tell you the stories I know."

Eleonora glanced at the back of Gregorio's and Bee's heads before turning to Prince Sedrick. "I would enjoy that, perhaps, Gregorio and Bee can join us?" She hoped they were listening. She was not aligning for an intimate moment with Prince Sedrick. Her play was for information. She also would not mind talking to Gregorio.

"Of course, if that is what you would prefer." The Prince was agreeable enough though the inflection in his voice denoted disappointment.

The walk from her quarters to the Countess' suite took quite some time. There were a few moments of awkward silence between her and Sedrick. In the absence of discussion between them, Sedrick told jokes to the royal guards. Some of which lost their composure. However, the two burly men she was acquainted with earlier in the day were not among those who stifled laughter.

"On a more serious note, what do you think of the prospect of being betrothed to the Triena Prince?" He asked, then his eyes set upon her to study her features.

"I haven't really thought of it. Honestly, I've been more curious to why the Countess chose me than if the Prince will choose me." She laid what bait she could towards an answer or a hint of information to ease her mind.

"Hm." He sighed with a touch of annoyance. "Are you open to marrying a Crowned Prince? It is a possibly that could occur now that you are here. What you're doing should not be taken lightly. There are the responsibilities that come with this that you need to be aware of."

"I am not opposed to the idea. I mean, I would need a lot of training and refining before I could actually do the role of a Prince's betrothed. But I'm open to it." She took a deep breath, letting out some of the tension and nervous energy held in their chest. "My life has shifted in ways I never dreamed about. I didn't know when I woke up today I would be walking the Palace hallways on the arm of a Prince."

There was a twitch of a smile on the corner of his lips. "So, you know?"

It was an open-ended question that she found hard to know what to say back. "Uh, yes? Bee gave me an overview of you and your mother."

"What did she say? I'm a Crowned Prince and looking for a partner? Does it affect how you see me?" He asked without the earlier hint of a smile or wisp upon his lips.

"Yes, she mentioned that. I don't know. I haven't known you in another way. To me, you've alway been Prince Sedrick of Florian."

"Tonight, I'm Sedrick, a Suitor and friend." He gently squeezed her hand. "You don't have to fuss about titles and protocol when it's the four—two of us." His smile was back, along with some unreadable spark in his eye. "As your friend, I expect to hear all your secrets, but as your suitor I expect to be a part of the mischief creating the secrets." He winked at her. "We should make getting to know each other fun. If you don't end up with that Triena's heartthrob, you may end up with me. The court life can be dull if you don't have someone to get into a little trouble with."

Gregorio laughed, and it cut through all the sentimental constructs of the Prince's speech. It was a saving grace as well as an opportunity she used to not to respond to anything he had shared. Both the Prince and Eleonora looked back at Bee and Gregorio. The latter was still laughing rather boisterously.

"Rick, you get into enough nonsense on your own. You don't need a partner to have fun." Sedrick laughed, letting his voice ring out, "Although, you may be right, it's more fun to get in trouble with others. Remember the basilisk..."

"That was more trouble than fun," Gregorio chuckled, and then he looked at Eleonora. "Never let him talk you into one of his 'fun' outings. You'll come back with something broken or more bruises than you can count."

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. Don't listen to him. I know how to have good clean fun. Maybe you'll see for yourself." Sedrick retorted as he attempted to defend his own honor.

Lady Henworthy spoke up following him. "Hugo always says you got him and your sister Nalaea in all sorts of trouble."

"If Nalaea or even Lanshen were here today they would tell a different story. Back then, most of our little adventures were Nalaea's ideas. I just voiced them to the group." Sedrick tried to defend his viewpoint of fun pastimes.

The names being shared did not register.

"I will agree. Nalaea had some wild ideas." Gregorio agreed with a huge smile. "Remember the winter ball and her dress with the hidden pockets?"

Sedrick nodded and smiled. "Those pockets could hold so much."

"Indeed." Gregorio glanced from Sedrick to Bee and then to Eleonora. "Nalaea, like to pack her pockets with little creatures. When her older siblings started courting, she would release them on unsuspecting suitors."

He chuckled, and Gregorio continued. "At the winter ball, their older sister Riniya was meeting a suitor from some distance land. Right before dinner, Nalaea slipped a garter snake into the man's trousers. He spent the entire dinner squirming about. By the time his first dance with Riniya came around, the poor Lord was making some strange moves. Eventually, the snake crawled down his leg and back to Nalaea. No one ever discovered what made him so fidgety that evening. We all knew."

Sedrick could not seem to leave anything Gregorio shared, as Gregorio shared it. He had a fairly expressive face during the entire story. "There's more to that story. Apparently, earlier that day, Riniya and her suitor went for a walk in the gardens. Nalaea had asked to tag along, but Riniya refused to let her come along. Instead, she took a lady's maid. So Nalaea wanted to get her back for excluding her." Sedrick's face lighted up as he talked about his sisters.

"Why embarrass the suitor?" Bee asked.

"She didn't like the idea of Riniya marrying the Lord from a southern kingdom. Nalaea had a crush on him. So she made him look bad so that Riniya would lose interest." Sedrick answered, smirking at her plotted plan.

Gregorio commented. "I have so many stories about Nalaea. That's the kind of mischief and fun the Prince of Florian and his sisters always got me into."

"Did it work?" Eleonora asked. "Did Riniya lose interest?"

Sedrick's smile faded. Bee looked away. Gregorio was the one to answer, but in a serious tone. "She, Riniya, died in her sleep a week later."

Sedrick cleared his throat. He ran a finger at the edge of his collar. "I lost all my sisters. Riniya was the first one, months later Nalaea, and the next year Lanshen went missing." Sedrick shook his hand, flexing it. "Though the official story is they all died of mysterious illnesses."

"I didn't know that wasn't what really happened," Bee chimed in with worry etched on her features. "So sorry to hear that about your family. I never knew. Does Hugo know?"

Gregorio drew closer to Bee and patted her back, consoling her. He said something to her that Eleonora could not hear.

She turned to speak with Sedrick. "Have you ever gone looking for Lanshen?"

"Often. Recently, I received word of a woman rumored to look a lot like her. Gregorio and I returned here from running down that tip." Sedrick says finally looking up from his hands he looks at Bee.

"Did your lead reveal anything?" She asked.

Sedrick was gazing off into the distance and her question did not draw his attention back to the group.

Gregorio answered. His attention had returned to the group. Bee was still tucked into his side. "We did not learn more of Lanshen, but we did hear some rumors that could be helpful."

Sedrick looked at Gregorio gratefully. "He has been with me on every quest, following every lead I've gotten since she went missing." Sedrick said of Gregorio. They exchanged a look.

For a little while more, the walk to the Countess' suites was quiet. Within the group, they said not much more. Sedrick was deep in thought. Bee looked back at him often.

Eleonora tried a couple times to restart the conversation but no one bit. By the time the group reached the Countess' chambers, the silence had lasted longer than the conversation did. Everyone entered the room quietly, taking a seat around the small banquet table set in the center of the suite.