5 (:

A sort of servant told me I could go inside now. After I said goodbye to the soldier I put on the coats hood and went to the servant who was supposed to announce me. It had taken him half an hour, when he came back his excuse was: ‘my lord and my lady were still eating’.

I knew the hood covered my eyes and my hair. My mom’s necklace wasn’t in sight, either. That’s why I was surprised when the instant I came in everyone shut up.

The room was bigger than my room, it was more like 20 classroom put together. The main table was higher than the others and it was at the front of the only door in that room, at the center of that table was my dad, at his right my mom and at his left a black  haired man. At the right and left front side of my dad’s table there were other tables. This ones were full of people and form the look of their expressions they were rich, too.

The tables at the right and left made an aisle through the middle of the room, connecting the door and the central table.

Everyone was staring at me but I didn’t care, I was used to it.

I started walking through the aisle my focus on my mom. When I got to what I considered a casual space from my mom I stopped.

I hadn’t notice but the servant that had made me wait half an hour outside had come with me.

‘A young girl with information for you, my lord and lady’ said the servant after kneeling. He looked at me with an expectant expression. After some minutes I realized he was waiting for me to kneel. I shook my head.

A collective gasp was taken. Some soldiers came forward with their sword out. My muscles tensed ready to fight. I scanned the area looking for something that could be used as a weapon. I know what everyone else saw; a little girl looking around with a calm face, not worried about 5 gown-up coming at her with their swords out.

‘Don’t harm her’ my mom’s voice said. Like my dads, I could recognize that voice anywhere.

The soldiers stopped almost instantly. Mom turned her eyes towards me. I flinched. Her eyes were hard and cold.

‘Why didn’t you kneel?’ her voice no different from her eyes.

‘You will find soon enough, my lady’ I turned to my dad ‘I have information for you, but I think the whole court should hear it’

Everyone started whispering and murmuring at the same time. I didn’t get it at first, but a pity look from one of the few women that were there told me everything.

I shouldn’t have said that. I was supposed to be another girl at the moment.

My dad made a gesture that made everyone shut up.

‘I agree’ he said. His faces telling me I was doing this way too difficult. ‘What’s the information about?’

‘Before I start you and your court will make a promise to me, my lord’ my voice filled of power. Dad just nodded eyes still hard. ‘None of the people in this room will interrupt me before I’m finish’

 ‘I promise’ dad’s eyes were focused on me. He seemed to remember something ‘Anyone disagrees with me?’

Every single person in the room shook their heads. An old man in the right side of the room looked angry at doing that promise. I turned towards him my face a mask of serenity.

‘Please go outside, my lord.’ I asked him in a very polite tone.

Without saying a word he left the room muttering something about being the last of a royal family.

‘I told him to go outside because he looked mad at the promise and I think it really uncomfortable to have someone that hates you when you are trying to explain something’

‘What’s the information about?’ my dad asked again. He looked excited and happy. We shared that liking of doing a show of things.

‘The third daughter’ a heavy silence hung in the room. After some minutes some noises started. Some women started crying, others had their eyes wide in shock but the worst look was my moms.

She was trying to keep a straight face but her eyes were fighting against despair and tears.

The men had all frozen. Slowly, very slowly, everyone started to regain the composure. I waited patiently while all this happened.

‘How dare you?’ cried a nearest woman. It took all my self control not to scream when I saw her. She looked exactly like me, maybe older, with the blond wig on and brown eyes.

‘I’m telling the truth, plus, you promise not to interrupt me’ I remind her. Everyone was looking with anticipation at me ‘I know where she is’ I finally said.

‘Where?’ My mom’s voice asked. Her face was filled with hope.

Slowly I took off the necklace. I walked to her table, give it to her and then backed off. She looked at me with confusion all over her face.

‘Where did you get this?’ she asked in a careful tone. I looked at my dad waiting for the signal.

He nodded.

I took the hood off; my hair framed my face and I knew mom could see my dark blue eyes. I knew I was quite beautiful; I was tall and slim, I had long legs and some really nice features. My hair was straight and jet black. And on the top of things my unusual dark blue eyes made me look different form the others.

But with all that the big gasp that went around the room made no sense to me. My eyes remained on my mom; she looked at me like if I was a science project. When the court had gone quiet she stood up.

Step she took towards me, step I took backwards.

‘Why don’t you want me to be near you?’ her voice sounded almost hurt.

‘If I’m your daughter then you must feel it not see it’ it was so obvious to me, why wasn’t it to her?

I had recognized her voice in an instant and she wanted to take a look at me! It didn’t seem right. I kept looking at her, that’s when I notice that she had already recognized me but she wanted to take things slowly so the court could understand what was happening.

I sighed. I liked to make a show of things, what I did not like was when I was not the one in control of it.

I took a step forward. My mom’s face was no longer cold and hard, It was now full of life and happiness. She came to me almost running. When we were a meter apart she stopped. We faced each other for a long moment.

I looked at her face and discovered we had the same mouth and eye shape. Her eyes were a kind of blue, I couldn’t decided if it was light or dark. Her hair black as mine but wavy. She was little taller than me. She wore a dress similar to mine but blue. I remembered I still had that long coat on, the coat covered my dress. I thought that if they could see the way we looked alike they would accept me. I opened the clasp it had and the coat fell from my shoulders.

I was right.

There was a moment of silence. Then slowly they started to cry in joy or to stand up to get a better look.

My mom’s eyes filled with tears her face a place full of joy. my lips went up in a smile. She held her arms up. I took two more steps and then I froze. Panic washed over me, the last person I had hugged had died three years ago. She saw my expression and surprise shone in her eyes.

‘I don’t remember how to hug a person’ my voice barely a whisper. Celebration was going on around us. Seven people were coming toward us; my dad, the black haired man and other five I did not recognized.

‘I will remind you how’ she shortened the space between us and took me in her arms. For the first time since I got there I felt like if I belonged.

Other people joined the hug. I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time; I felt home.

I kept the hug going to till I realized that I was hugging unknown people. I drew a step back and everyone looked at me with a worried expression. I took another step back.

‘Is everything all right?’ dad asked

‘No’ I said. My voice sounded innocent like if I was a little girl. I change my tone quickly; I made it strong like if I knew what I was doing ‘I don’t know who you are’

‘oh, that’s a good question with an easy answer’ said one of the older boys while he winked at me ‘this is dad’ he pointed ‘that’s mom’ he pointed ‘that’s Josh, the third son’ he pointed ‘that’s Gregory, the first son and dads heir’ he pointed to the man that was sitting next to dad ‘that’s Marianna, the first daughter and the grumpiest person in the world’ the girl he was pointing at gave him a dark look ‘that’s Elizabeth, the second daughter’  she pointed at the blond girl that had cried before. She didn’t look as scary now; I could see she was older and real happy ‘that’s comes little John’ he pointed at a boy who had at least 10 years ‘and finally the best of all: me’ he held his hand out and I took it with a little too much force ‘Arthur’

‘And we are all siblings?’ it seemed impossible to me that my family could be so big.

‘Yes’ Arthur answered again ‘Gregory, Marianna, Me, Elizabeth, Josh, you and John. In that order we were born’ he gave a little wink.

 I gave him a little smile. It seemed he liked to leave a good first impression and I really liked that. I liked the same and I thought we were going to get along well.

‘Nice to meet you’ I said in a very mocking polite tone ‘I’m Mary Shadow but I think you already knew that’ I gave them a big smile.