Glennise Brodie's mind recalled a memory from a distant past.
One bright afternoon, she was accompanying the Princess when they found an unexpected visitor entering the room.
The surprise had caused them to shriek which led them to be reprimanded by the one who had arrived unannounced.
Once they had regained their composure, upon inquiry, they had found out the reason for the newcomer's sneaky entry.
The Prince of Rosenhyde, Prince Fritzen had overheard them talking about the second playmate position and who was most likely to occupy that seat soon.
His curiosity, however, was mainly focused on the color of the possible candidate's hair which they had found intriguing and strange back then.
Since Princess Felicia had no clue about it, it was Glennise who had answered him with the knowledge that she had gained through socializing with the other girls at tea parties her mother would organize.
The daughter of the St. Claire family had been chosen by the Royal Tutor.
She was supposed to join them once summer break had come to an end, hence, Glennise had inquired about this child from her acquaintances.
While Yvonne St. Claire had not yet started to attend tea parties due to her young age; people had seen her during her trips to the Commercial District with her family.
Thus, she had heard about Miss Yvonne from others who had seen her from afar.
Not to mention that Marquess Sullivan Samed had a habit of bragging about his prized pupil and just how smart she was, with a knack of picking up on his lessons with ease.
Therefore, it was easy for Glennise to answer Prince Fritzen's query.
She gave him a prompt answer that it was violet yet later corrected her statement to a deeper violet after meeting the young girl at a cafe before the Princess's birthday celebration in the past.
Therefore, now, Princess Felicia, who had never seen Miss Yvonne, had come to the same conclusion as she had done before.
Thinking about Prince Fritzen's sudden curiosity about Yvonne St. Claire's hair color made Glennise purse her lips.
However, recalling how she had almost lost her temper just earlier at the mention of the Prince's name, she chose to keep her emotions in check.
Thus, she turned away from Miss Yvonne and looked at the Princess with a smile.
"I agree." She answered, not bothered about the numerous curious faces all around them.
Yvonne watched as Princess Felicia and Glennise Brodie shared a laugh at their discovery while the rest stood in silence, wondering what it was that they were missing.
They glanced at the girl's hair that had been mentioned but could not grasp how that was making them chuckle.
Noticing the awkward atmosphere in this greenhouse, someone chose to remedy it at the earliest.
"Ahem…" The other figure standing next to the Princess cleared her throat to gain their attention.
Yvonne had been focusing on Princess Felicia and Glennise Brodie and hence had missed looking at this person altogether.
However, now she was gazing at a lady in the latter half of her life wearing a muddy brown modest gown.
The lady's actions caught the eyes of the others and in the next second, they saw three girls stiffening their backs as they stood upright, in perfect posture.
"Greetings, young Misses. You might call me Governess Bloom." She introduced her name which also revealed her identity to the rest.
At the mention of this name, numerous sentences written in the script about this lady flashed across Yvonne's mind.
The old lady who had taken care of King Ophire back when he was a child and was his initial tutor was also hired to teach and take care of the Young Prince Draco later on.
Replacing the mother figure for Prince Draco, she took on the responsibility of both his tutor and his nanny from when he was born.
Henceforth, Governess Bloom resided in the Palace and visited the Bloom family that she had been married into only on special occasions.
'Concubine Yuliza's distant cousin.' Yvonne recalled the other identity of this lady which not many knew about.
When Yuliza Roschester was still in her maiden family, the then young lady Anita Roschester, her cousin who was much older than her, had already married into the Bloom family.
Being from the side branch of the Roschester family and having a large age gap between the two ladies, people would not make the connection between them right away.
Thus, when Concubine Yuliza entered the Palace to marry the then King Greggor who was in love with Queen Romania, a Princess from a different Kingdom, they had called for Governess Bloom to become the tutor of the young prince Ophire.
Queen Romania was kept in the dark about the relationship between Concubine Yuliza and the Governess as feelings of hatred towards the other wife of the King had already sprouted in her heart.
Governess Bloom was the perfect candidate to be the young Prince's nanny and early tutor so the King chose to keep things a secret for his Queen's wellbeing.
This continued till the Concubine was poisoned and died after prematurely delivering her child.
Only then did Prince Ophire, who had been infuriated by his mother's actions, reveal this truth to her.
Which only drove her further into her raging jealousy which had veered from the dead concubine, now to her cousin who had brought up the Prince.
When Prince Ophire chose to distance himself from his mother and bring his nanny back into the Palace to help him take care of his newborn sibling, she blamed the Governess for causing this rift between them.
The maids she had brought with her had already filled her mind with thoughts that made her abhor Concubine Yuliza and to later find out that she had left the upbringing of her only son into the hands of someone related to Yuliza had further driven her to her madness.
The anxiety of her son's displeasure which he made known in an outright manner, the secrets that her husband had kept from her throughout her stay in this Palace, her maids' constant whispering which kept agitating her, and her remorse for not having succeeded in killing the threat to her son's right on the Throne.
These all led to the Queen's health deteriorating at a much rapid speed and a few months after the Concubine's death, she soon followed.
The young prince Ophire mourned his mother's death but the betrayal of trust had left a huge scar on his heart.
He too was guilty for being the cause of the Concubine's death so he chose to atone for both his mother's and his sins by caring for his brother to the best of his abilities.
He stood by his words and even had Governess Bloom return to the Palace to take care of Draco while he was busy with his responsibilities as Crown Prince.
The Governess had done an excellent job at taking good care of him when he was young so he did not have any qualms in leaving the newborn baby in her arms.
Unlike what the Queen believed, the Governess had never tried to cause a rift between the mother and son.
She had always been neutral and never spoke ill of the Queen nor did she ever praise her cousin in the presence of the young and impressionable Prince Ophire.
She had taught him to look at things objectively rather than clouding one's judgment due to being close to a person or a subject.
Therefore, the young prince believed that she would do the same with his little brother and she lived up to his expectations.
Later, Governess Bloom remained in the Palace after her husband's death and continued to look after Prince Draco even to this date.
Her room was located in the Prince's palace to help her take better care of him.
Initially, she should have been the tutor of these girls as well, but due to his injury, the King had assigned her the task of looking after him until he recovered.
Once he was healthy, Prince Draco insisted that she return to her original post which was to teach the children of the Royal family.
However, there already was a Royal Tutor appointed so Governess Bloom had now become the assistant, the right-hand to the tutor.
She continued to stay in the Prince's palace which had been her home for numerous years, yet her duty was to train the Princess and her playmates after their classes with Marquess Samed, the Royal Tutor.
Recalling all the information that Yvonne had about her, she understood why the three girls had reacted the way that they had.
Governess Bloom was a lady with a mild personality and gentle appearance.
Yet, if one were to disobey her or ignore her teachings, then she too could become scary.
Unlike Governess Lester, Yvonne's Piano instructor, she did not use physical punishment on her pupils but her ways weren't any less effective than the other's.
If her student failed to memorize a lesson, they would have to copy that lesson a hundred times until they could recall it with ease.
In the script, Princess Felicia, Glennise Brodie, and Yvonne St. Claire had wasted too many sheets of paper throughout the course of their education under this lady while trying to complete the punishments they received.
'Getting smacked once is much better than writing a single sentence for hours at length until my fingers get cramped and numb.' Yvonne gulped at this thought while comparing the punishment given by her scary piano instructor to the one given by this lady.
Thankfully, she had steered clear of her fate of becoming a playmate and was tutored at home by Marquess Samed who was easy for her to deal with.
==
Author's note:
(Please do not skip)
Sorry for the interruption, I shall keep this short.
I wanted to take this chance to thank all the readers who support my efforts in writing this novel.
To all who read and vote, pay coins to read my chapters, I appreciate you all for your support.
However, there has been a huge drop in the number of my chapters being unlocked. This affects the money I might earn from my novel.
As much as I love writing Yvonne's story, I need to be realistic about things.
If the energy I am putting into this story isn't being reciprocated then I'll have no choice but to lower the number of chapters I post each week.
So if you like my story and want more uploads, please let me know through your actions.
I understand that not everyone can purchase chapters but if you could at least try to purchase a few it would make a huge difference for me.
Once again, thank you for all your support and I hope you continue supporting me.
Lots of love from your hard-working Author and sorry for the mini-rant here.
Now onto the next chapter!