Princess Isabelle. Seventeen years old. Her first debut for the social season. Father had told her "I would prefer you find a noble man you truly love than arrange for you to be wed." King Anthony had Isabelle out of wedlock; he would rather his daughter marry for love so that she may never face the sort of scandal he had at the time. The only grounds for this marriage were that the man had to be of high class and well-respected. Therefore, Isabelle was to be introduced into the social season, although nobody was aware of that. Tonight the family would have a ball where King Anthony would announce that his daughter would be coming out for the season and searching for a suitor to one day take the throne.

Isabelle sucked in a deep breath as her lady in waiting, Briar, pulled the strings of her corset tighter. She clutched her fingers around the post of her bed, bracing herself as she was pulled back repeatedly by the two strands of ribbon. Following the corset came the hoop skirt, then the bodice top, then the overskirt. The layers were quite heavy, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. The off-the-shoulder sleeves of the bodice top were extremely tight and frilly, but it did ensure that the dress would stay up throughout the ball. The final touch was a pair of black boots with short heels added to the back. The boots looked surprisingly well with the pale blue hue of her dress, adorned with touches of baby pink on ruffles throughout. She did a quick spin, catching the way the dress twirled in the mirror; she was quite satisfied that it would lay lovely while dancing and took a seat at her vanity.

"Alright Your Highness. What would you think about an updo with your dress?" Briar asked her timidly. Isabelle admired her reflection, pulling up some of her hair to imagine it with the dress.

"Briar my dear, I insist you simply call me Princess, or Princess Isabelle," she smiled, looking back to her lady in waiting. "My previous lady called me Your Highness constantly and it grew quite tiresome."

Briar grabbed a hairbrush and set it on the vanity. "Yes, I will do that Princess." She noted how Princess Isabelle smiled in response in the mirror.

"I was thinking pulling it back, like a bun, with plaits about the center, so long as that would not be too difficult or time-consuming," Isabelle explained. She was weary about requesting such an extravagant hairstyle, as it was Briar's first large event to prepare her for, but she had to look perfect this evening; all eyes would be on her. Briar did not seem to mind the challenge, however, and swiftly began to plait the hair.

"What are your thoughts on embellishments this evening?" Briar asked, beginning to pull back the hair.

"I was thinking we could use the cream for my complexion, then, do we have any of the lip wax left?" Briar nodded in response. "Then I would like that for my lips." It was far too scandalous to embellish the face too extravagantly; it was frowned upon and took away from a woman's natural beauty. Still, Isabelle had found a way around this: she added crushed berry to her wax to give it a slight pink hue that accentuated her lip color perfectly.

"Would you like anything for your cheeks?"

"No, that will not be necessary," Isabelle noted. "It will be so warm and exciting that my cheeks will naturally flush; any more added to that and people would suspect me of unnatural embellishments." Briar made the final touches on the hairstyle, pausing to allow Princess Isabelle to take a look at it. She seemed to admire the work, which was quite the relief; it had been the most difficult hairstyle Briar had ever attempted. The Princess was quite strange; she requested to put her embellishments on by herself; perhaps it was because she did not like the touch of someone else on her face or because she did not trust Briar, a lady still too young to be embellishing her own features. Regardless, Briar brought out the cream and wax and left it on the vanity for Princess Isabelle to do for herself.

She looked beautiful, and quite fitting of anyone's hand if they wanted her. Who wouldn't want her though? She was a princess; princesses were rarely up for courtship the way that Princess Isabelle was. "Now, I've been informed of each of the potential suitors and families in attendance tonight, so if you ever need a reminder as to who is who, I will be by your side to remind you," Briar informed Isabelle. She nodded, clearly half-listening. She was nervous. What if nobody truly wanted to wed her, or worse, they only wanted to do so for the rank? She sighed and turned away from the mirror.

"I think they are ready for you," Briar urged slightly. Isabelle nodded, making her way out of her room and down the hall toward the grand ballroom. She was fortunate enough that she knew most of the people who would be in attendance: her best friend Lady Victoria would undoubtedly be by her side, as well as their mutual acquaintance Lady Charlotte. Her other best friend, Eugene, who once was known to her as Lord Thomasson but gained his father's title of Duke after him and his wife's passing, may or may not attend. He had been refraining from social events for the past year so he had time to reorder his estate after his parents' passing.

She had to halt her thoughts when she made her way to the grand staircase for her entrance. She dreaded these sorts of events; she had always been the center of attention at parties, but she often would have rather been alone or at a more intimate event with only her closest friends. It certainly would not help that she would be even more vied after following her announcement to court.

"Her Royal Highness, Princess Isabelle." The words echoed through the ballroom. Princess Isabelle smiled at the families in the room and began to ease her way in.

"Father," she greeted. King Anthony turned, somewhat startled, to face his daughter, but his face softened the moment he saw her. "You look quite charming."

"And you look as radiant as ever," he smiled. "Let me have somebody fetch you some wine." He signaled over to one of the servers and a glass was handed over to Isabelle. The wine was quite crisp and robust; one of the better servings of the season. "Would you like to greet the families or should I make the announcement regarding your courtship first?"

Isabelle paused. It may be considered rude to begin the festivities without greeting each family first, but she also knew that after the announcement was made, she would have to talk to each family once again. "I think the announcement first. I don't want this party to take up the entire night," she commented, a small smile on her face.

King Anthony tapped lightly on his wine glass with his ring, quickly grabbing everyone's attention. "Welcome everyone. Thank you all for coming out this evening. Now I know the event has only just begun, but my daughter and I had some exciting news we simply could not wait to share." The room erupted into whispers, everyone glancing between Princess Isabelle and her father. "In lieu of an arranged marriage, my daughter is going to be participating in this year's social season and courting in order to look for a suitable husband." The guests could not contain their excitement over this information. "Now, with that exciting announcement out of the way, I hope you will enjoy the evening's festivities." King Anthony downed the rest of his wine and the room cheered.

The room rattled with noise as the guests discussed their surprise in the announcement. Each person began to approach the princess, especially the men and their overzealous mothers, desperate to move up the social ladder by having their son marry a princess. The true question of the matter was who would make their way to Isabelle first, and what sort of impression would they leave upon her a vice versa.

//: Hope you enjoyed this (short) introduction to the story! I plan to upload each week; next week we will be meeting two of Isabelle's potential love interests! Please spread the word to your friends, as halfway through the story, the readers will decide what love interest Princess Isabelle chooses. I'm very excited to present this story to you and hope you enjoy!