Author's Chapter Notes:
Hello loyal readers! Hope you're all enjoying the run up to Christmas! As an early present, I give you this chapter a week early :D:D
Thank you to every single one of you who continue to read and review! I think I managed to reply to everyone this time around, so again, thanks!
Onwards!
Remember, at the end of the last chapter, Edward gave Bella all the answers she needed to know who he was, but he's also very ill! :(
I disclaim.
Chapter 11 – A Royal Illness
The morning light pouring through the giant windows of Edward's room pierced my eyelids, and I rolled over with a groan.
It was too bright, and it felt like I'd barely fallen asleep when it awakened me.
Even with my eyes closed, it felt like it was burning my retinas, causing way too much pain. It wasn't until I opened them that I realised it wasn't just the light; my head was pounding, and my mouth was dry.
Then I remembered that I hadn't fallen asleep all that long ago, and I remembered the reason why: Edward's confessions.
I turned my head on the pillow, my eyes drinking in the sight of a pale, very still Edward. The sheets around him were soaked with sweat; his hair was plastered to his head, and his skin was clammy. In the short hours I'd been afforded some sleep, whatever was wrong with him seemed to have only gotten worse.
The clock on his bedside table told me it was a little after six, and while it seemed obscenely early to me, I knew the palace would be stirring and that I wouldn't sleep a wink more.
My head was wild with thoughts and emotions, concern for my fiancé overriding anything and everything that I had soaked in the night before. I should have been clued in that worrying for his wellbeing trumped everything else I should have been feeling.
I'd been lied to, for years. I'd been foolish, naïve and stupid. My life had been turned upside down by something I hadn't had a say in and turned again when my parents made a decision without informing me of its consequences.
I couldn't lock myself in the room and hate the world. I couldn't blame everyone for ruining my life the way I wanted to. No, some of it was on me.
I shook my head, thoughts of children's laughter and secret hideaways morphing into all those stolen looks I'd caught Edward sending my way when he thought I wouldn't notice. All the times he'd stuck up for me with wedding details when it seemed no one else was listening. All the times he made me feel special in just one night at the party, despite having the onset of some illness.
I hadn't been blind to any of it; I'd just told myself not to notice, that Edward was the bad guy in the whole situation. I'd been stupid. I'd treated him like he didn't matter, to the point where he believed that maybe he didn't.
Dismissing the fact that I still had the previous night's makeup on, my hair still pinned, and my pyjamas on, I left Edward's suite and made my way to Sue to enquire about a doctor.
The palace had four royal doctors in total, all of whom worked in different hospitals around the capital. The emergency page would be put out and whichever one was closest and least busy would answer. I didn't have a preference myself, liking them all, and knowing them all to be professional.
A few maids seemed startled to see me up so early, and a few of them taken aback by my attire. It was unusual for any members of my family to be in busy parts of the palace in nothing less than our best. Just yet another assumption – that we all wore our best clothes and looked completely put together all the time. The more I thought about it, I realised even Edward hadn't seen me the way I looked that morning.
I found Sue in the foyer signing for a delivery of flowers at the top of the maid's passage to the kitchen. She handed a beautiful bouquet of rainbow-roses and something about them made me call out for the maid in question to stop.
Sue turned at the sound of my voice, smiling until she took in my appearance, her expression morphing into one of concern. Considering I hadn't consulted a mirror before leaving Edward's suite, I could only imagine just how bad I looked.
"Princess?" Sue asked as I neared them, the strong aroma of the roses reaching my nose. I inhaled deeply, the scent permeating my space and setting off familiarities I couldn't place.
"Is there a card on those?" I asked, my voice scratchy from disuse.
Sue smiled again, a different one this time as she reached into the middle of the bouquet and pulled out a sunshine yellow card. She handed it over to me before turning to the young girl by her side.
"Take those up to her Highness' suite and place them away from the window but somewhere the sun will still reach them," she instructed. From the corner of my eye I saw the girl curtsey before disappearing down the back stairs to the maid's corridors.
With the instructions for them to be taken to my suite, I knew they were for me, but something inside me told me I already knew who they were from.
To my beautiful fiancée, thank you for the pleasure of your company last night, I am honoured to stand by your side.
Yours always, Edward x
My heart thumped out of rhythm at his beautiful words and his almost as beautiful handwriting. He must have ordered them before our engagement party, which made me wonder where he continually found the faith that things would turn out okay between us. Especially considering how long I'd spent shutting him out and pushing him away.
"Sue, Edward is getting worse. Please tell the doctor to come as quickly as he can, I fear it's worse than we originally thought."
My voice broke, and before I realised what was happening, Sue had her arms around me, and I was fighting to hold in my tears. It wasn't just that he was ill and that I was beyond worried for him. I'd barely slept; I held a beautiful note in my hand from the gorgeous man I was going to marry, but above all that, I held all the memories that same gorgeous man shared with me as my best friend all those years before. It was all too much at one time, and I gave up fighting it, letting Sue lead me to the nearest chaise lounge against the wall.
With one arm still around my shoulders, I heard her speaking to someone on the phone, asking for a doctor urgently because the Princess' fiancé was in a bad way. The concern and urgency in her voice brought about a new wave of tears, and I felt like a little girl again as she comforted me the way she always had.
She may have been hired by my parents, but as the head of our household staff since before I was born, she was like another part of my family. Just like Alec, I thought of her as a surrogate parent whom I knew I could always turn to.
"Shh, Bella, you're okay. Edward will be okay, honey, you've got to calm down…"
It took a few minutes of awkward breathing and pathetic sounding hiccups for me to get myself under control.
"I forgot, Sue. I didn't know he was…that he's…"
My Edward was what I wanted to say, but the words got lodged in my throat. I didn't have any claim on him after the way I'd treated him for weeks. I had no right to call him mine when I only knew who he was because of his fever induced confession.
"Shh, sweetie, it's okay. He'll understand. When he gets better, you'll have all the time in the world. You need to look after him first though. He needs you right now; you need to decide what to do."
She looked at me softly, tucking an escaped piece of hair behind my right ear as her eyes searched mine.
It was my turn to step up and do the right thing by him. All this time he'd been by my side despite my behaviour, making me look good, doing the right thing by me and by our country in a way. Sue was right; n ow was my chance to choose for myself – without anyone else interfering.
I either stuck by him, thereby choosing him to be my husband and my King, or I continued to follow through with my plan to get my father to change his mind.
It wasn't a difficult decision, when I thought about it enough; I'd already made my mind up. It had only taken a few hours of undiluted time with Edward the previous night for him to get me to fall in love with him. He hadn't even been trying, not any more than usual. I just opened my eyes to what he was really like underneath and had no choice but to fall for what I found.
"Bring the doctor up to Edward's suite as soon as he arrives. I'll be up there with him if anyone should need me. Also, could you get someone to inform my parents of his deterioration and inquire as to how my father is doing?"
Sue smiled, almost secretly, before nodding her head and allowing us to resume our roles. I was the heir to the throne of this palace and country, and she was the head of my household. It was time for me to grow up and use my education in getting things done.
"Of course, Princess, I'll do it myself." With a curtsy, Sue left the same way the maid had. I turned on my heel and headed back up the grand staircase, taking a left, a right and another right before I found myself in front of Edward's door.
With a deep breath I pushed it open and headed inside. The warmth from the sunlight had made the air almost stifling inside the large room, and I crossed the plush carpet to open all three windows as wide as I could. The breeze that floated in calmed my nerves and my thoughts as I turned and made my way back into the bedroom and over to Edward.
The duvet was scrunched around his waist, his arm hanging off the edge of the bed and his head turned as far into the pillow as he could manage as if he was in pain.
Quickly making my way into his en-suite I soaked a face-cloth with cold water, wrung out the excess droplets and carried it back into the bedroom. I perched myself on the edge of the mattress causing Edward to groan at the intrusion, his head rolling to face me.
Carefully and gently, I folded the cloth and placed it on his forehead, hoping the shock of the cold material would wake him up, but he only twitched in his sleep and groaned again.
His whole body was radiating heat; so much so, I could feel it from my safe distance. As I held the cloth to his forehead, pressing slightly to get the cold to permeate his heated skin, my eyes slid down over his face.
Even with his hair matted, his beard coming through more than ever, and the dark circles under his eyes, he was still incredibly handsome. There was something in the slight crookedness and bump in his nose, the straight lines of his jaw and his unsymmetrical eyebrows that added up to a near perfect face. When we'd first met – again, I reminded myself – his skin had held the lasting effects of sunnier climes, which had lasted through his time at the palace, but as I looked down on him, he just looked sick.
I'd had enough experiences at boarding school to know that when someone looked sick, they really were. Something was wreaking havoc on his body, and I was helpless to stop it. I'd never felt so useless, sitting there with a cool cloth on his head and a hand on his chest to measure his heart rate.
Despite the circumstances, I was powerless to stop my eyes from falling lower, taking in his neck, his broad shoulders and his sculpted chest and stomach. I'd never previously realised just how broad he was; how much bigger than me he was until he'd held me the night before, the strength in his arms and shoulders making me feel safe and secure, even when he was weak.
I spent the next hour, sitting there, trying to keep his temperature down while he slept restlessly through his fever. It was nearing eight when a knock sounded at the door, and Sue made her way in with Doctor Reynolds behind her.
Benjamin Reynolds was the youngest of the Royal doctors, with kind brown eyes, short brown hair and a smile that would set anyone at ease. He bowed slightly when he noticed my presence before asking if he could check over Edward himself.
It wasn't until his eyes flitted down to where my hand was tightly clasping Edward's that I realised I hadn't moved since his arrival in the room, and my stance was almost protective. I reluctantly relaxed my fingers and took a step back towards the double oak doors that led from the bedroom to the living room.
Sue's hand landed on my hip, and she squeezed once as a sort of reassurance as we both watched Doctor Reynolds work in silence. The longer he took, the more he did, and the more his brow furrowed in either concern or concentration, the quicker my heart raced, and the more my entire body trembled.
He took his blood pressure, checked his pupils, listened to his heart, felt his pulse, checked his temperature and more that I couldn't even name before taking out his pager and sending some sort of message.
"What's wrong? Who are you talking to?" I asked him, the panic clear in my voice.
"I've paged the hospital, your Highness. I believe it's best that your fiancé be taken in."
"What! Why? What's wrong with him?"
"It's hard to say, Your Highness, I don't want to misdiagnose him, but he is definitely suffering from more than flu. His pupils are unresponsive, and his pulse seems to be getting weaker. I'd feel much more comfortable if I had him somewhere I can keep an eye on him."
"You mean if something should happen you want him to already be in a hospital, what aren't you telling me?!"
"Princess." Came Sue's warning. I knew I was taking my distress out on the wrong person, but I couldn't help but feel like he was keeping something from me.
"Your Highness, I apologise. We know each other quite well, if you'll allow me to speak freely?"
"Of course, Ben, please tell me what's wrong."
"I genuinely can't diagnose him here and now, but if you don't allow me to get him to hospital where we can run more tests, I am afraid he may only deteriorate."
"Okay, yes, of course, but in what way can he get worse?"
"Bluntly, Your Highness? Anything from brain damage to paralysis. This is as serious as it gets, Your Highness, I'm sorry."
Sue's hands on my arms seemed to be the only thing keeping me standing.
"We're getting married in less than a month…why is this happening?" My question didn't require an answer, but Ben seemed to need to put my mind at ease.
"I will do everything to get him down the aisle in time, Your Highness. There is no need for him to get any worse; I was only preparing you for the worst. If it is Meningitis, or something similar, then he can be treated accordingly."
I tuned everything out after that. It seemed only minutes later that two paramedics arrived with a stretcher and transferred Edward on to it. They didn't seem fazed at all as they took him back through the palace, out into the courtyard and into a private ambulance. The staff stood in shock as we made our way passed them, and before I climbed in, Rose and my mother came running down the stairs.
"We'll be right behind you, darling. He'll be okay, I promise."
I didn't want to sound like a bitch by telling her she couldn't promise such a thing, especially when our relationship hadn't recovered from my previous behaviour. I only nodded at her before sitting in the back, holding Edward's hand tightly in mine. Sue passed a bag with clothes and toiletries in it, reminding me that I was still in my pyjamas and last night's make-up.
The journey through the city, in the middle of its rush hour, didn't seem to take long at all. I spent the entire time staring at Edward, willing him to open his eyes and show me the life that I knew was in those green depths.
I didn't get my wish. We were at the hospital, unloaded from the ambulance, and he was whisked away from me before I could even comprehend saying goodbye to him. He was in some room being poked and prodded and checked and talked about by strangers, and all I could do was sit in an empty waiting room, alone and cold, awaiting the news that my future husband would be perfectly fine, that it was all a misunderstanding and that his flu was just really bad.
Meningitis was fatal in certain circumstances. Doctor Reynolds had said "meningitis or something similar." That meant that even if it wasn't, it could be something worse…or just as fatal.
Knowing I was alone, that I didn't have to be strong when there was no one watching, I let the tears fall and the fear take me over. Perhaps the time I'd had with him was my lot; perhaps it was fate's way of telling me I'd wasted my opportunity, that we'd had our chance.
By the time my mother arrived, perfectly made up, I was numb on the outside and crumbling too quickly to rebuild on the inside. She moulded me to her side and held me, much like Sue had earlier that morning, telling me everything was going to be okay and making promises she couldn't keep.
Author's Chapter End Notes:
Oh em gee, what have I done? And a week before Christmas as well? :O
Review please, let me know what you think and how you're feeling! :D
See you soon.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Be safe!
xx
