Chapter 4

When Tilly heard about Roland and Miranda's anniversary at the beach house, she decided to pop in for a surprise visit along with their Mother.

"So how is married life treating you?" Kimberly asked.

Tilly smiled and says, "Great! Bart is currently on a mission for King Magnus at the moment, but he so sweet when he writes me letters, and he even sent me a rose made out of spar medal that I keep at my house."

Kimberly was happy to see her daughter happy in her marriage and from what she has seen Sir Bartleby was a kind and gentle soul.

"I am blessed to see both my children happy with their marriages, maybe I will be a grandma again." She said with a sassy wick, making Tilly blush while the Duchess laughed.

When they got to the beach house, the two woman got out of the carriage, walking up the short path and knocked on the door, only to be greeted by Baileywick.

"Duchesses Matilda and Kimberly what a pleasant surprise, I will inform the King and Queen at once, make yourselves at home." The steward said as he left swiftly, while the two women walked into the small manor, looking at the pictures of both Roland and Tilly when they were younger, laughing at some of the silliness that they did, they smiled and laughed at the more recent ones of James, Amber and Sofia.

They looked up when they saw Roland and Miranda come into the room, forgetting about royal pretenses and give them big hugs and after catching up Roland decided that they should stay with them for a few weeks.

"Are you sure, we don't want to intrude on your anniversary." Kimberly said.

"I insist, the fresh ocean air will do you some good and we don't see you two very often, please stay for a few weeks, if you don't want too, then we will understand." Miranda pleaded.

Both Tilly and Kim look at each other for a moment and then nodded to each other, "We'd love to stay, it would a nice change of scenery, but I have to let my housekeeper, Hannah know so she doesn't worry, excuse me." Kimberly goes to use the phone while Tilly chats with her brother and sister in law.

When Kim came back a few moments later, they all decided to sit on the deck and watch the sunset, while Baileywick brought out some refreshments.

3 weeks later...

Sofia groans and hisses when she wakes suddenly in the middle of the night, the reason for her waking up was when she moved and it upset the bruises throughout her body and which sort of made her forget how empty her stomach was.

Sitting up carefully she looks over the shared bed between James, Ryan and Michael, worried when she heard how rattled James's breath had become since Ms. Malum sprayed him with icy cold water as a punishment for breaking one of Ms. Malum's vases. She prayed that James didn't get sick with pneumonia, because Ms. Malum would not care if you were ill, she would just beat you anyway and make you do even more chores or even worse lock you in a icy room were you are shackled to the wall in nothing but your underthings.

Sofia shutters when she remembers her stint in the ice room, she had complain about being hot or something and Ms. Malum happen to overhear and decided that if Sofia wanted to complain about the heat, then she will glad cool her down, which meant Sofia being stripped of her clothes leaving her only in her underwear, then she was dragged by her hair to a room that was meant to a meat storage room, but it had been emptied of any meat and only had shackles impaled one to one wall of the room and you were forced to stay there for how long Ms. Malum deemed fit and if you make too much noise she would gag you, by the time Sofia was let out of the room, she never complained about the heat again.

For Amber it was much worse, because they were given poor quality food and too small portions, she couldn't keep her silence any more and said a few choice words to Ms. Malum, who at first appeared calm, but soon she had Amber by the hair and dragged the scream girl into the bathroom and a bar of soap shoved into her mouth and then she was told since she didn't like the food then she would get nothing, except water, but then she made Amber swallow the soap that was liquidized in her mouth, making the girl vomit, which only further enrage the woman who screamed and beat Amber, after which she dragged the sickly girl into the cold room, ignoring her pleads for mercy.

It took about a week for Amber to recover, but since then she had nothing but water, which made Amber lose alarming amount of weight, not that anyone else was much better, they had been here for 3 weeks and they were skin and bones, James had yet to try anything, but it's that just being a boy was enough for Ms. Malum to punish him harshly, she often beat James, Michael and Ryan, often withheld food from them for some imaginary offence, when ever Amber or Sofia tried to say something, they got the same treatment as the boys.

"We have to get James to a doctor now, I don't care if we get caught, but we need to break these windows, Michael, Ryan wake up, we need your help to get James out of here now or he will die."

The two teens nodded and carefully helped a dazed James stand while Amber wraps a their blankets around her hand before she used all of her strength to smash the window, for a moment they held their breath to see if their jailer would come running, but thankfully she was too drunk to be aroused out of bed, so they quickly unlocked the window, Michael jumped out first and caught James as he was pushed out and so everyone else followed after that, adrenaline was high as they all ran for their lives uncaring of the pain or weariness that they felt as they came upon a familiar castle.

They all knocked on the door loudly, which was thankfully answered by King Garrick, who at first was grumpy, but then when he saw who it was and the state they were in.

"Princesses Amber, Sofia, what on earth happen to you." the normally gruff man asked.

Amber shakes her head frantically, "Will explain later, please just help my brother."

Garrick saw how bad James looked and immediately calls for an ambulance, soon all 5 children were being taken to the ER for treatment with Garrick driving after them, his family was informed by the steward of what happen, Hugo wanted to come with him, not wanting to argue with him, Garrick nodded and soon they were in the waiting room, with Garrick trying to get a hold of Roland or Kimberly, while Hugo just paced worried about his long time crush, Sofia and his best friend, James.

Meanwhile at the beach house, Miranda and Roland were asleep when the house phone went off, groan Miranda drags herself out the warm bed and answers it.

"Hello?"

"Miranda? Thank gods, it Garrick, I am at the ER with your kids, they are in bad shape, come down I will explain there."

Miranda was stunned for a moment at what she just heard, but then she springs into action.

"Roland, Kimberly, Tilly, Baileywick! Children! ER! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" She shouts as she grabs her coat throw it over her nightgown and puts on her shoes, while Roland and the other all did the same and before they knew they were in a carriage and speeding towards the ER in Garrick's kingdom, frantic about the health of their children, while Miranda was silently kicking herself for not noticing it 3 weeks earlier.

Flashback

"Hello?" Hearing the sound of his mother's voice was a relief to James as he started to explain.

"Mom! Please you have to get us out of here, this place is crazy, we are being forced to wear rags, eat little food, do back breaking chores."

she sighs and says. "James, I don't have time for one of your prank calls, I want you to be on your best behavior for Ms. Malum, goodbye."

End of Flashback

On the way there, Kim notice how quiet Miranda was and asked, "What is the matter, Miranda?"

Miranda looks at the older woman burst into tears, explaining through her tears.

"James called the first day after we left them, telling me about all the horrible things that the woman was doing to them, but I didn't believe him, I am such an horrible mother!"

Kimberly embraces the distraught mother, trying to sooth her worries, unable to come up with any words of comfort at the moment, so she was just there as silent support, while Roland and Tilly watched with looks of similar worry and regret on their faces, while Baileywick was busy driving as fast he could safely to the hospital.

Meanwhile in the ER...

Sofia along with her siblings and Michael and Ryan were busy getting treated or photographed by both police, doctors and nurse, but the time she was able to lay back in her bed, the adrenaline worn off and she passed out from both the exhaustion and sedative's that they give her.

Amber was only one who remind wake long enough to tell the police and doctors about what happened to them, both Michael and Ryan were still being treated for broken bones that didn't heal properly and few other serious injuries so they were out for awhile, so the investigator had to wait until the two boys were wake and more alert to question them.

Once the cops left, Amber looks over to where James was laying in bed, his face mostly covered by an oxygen mask to help him breath, while he had two IV's put in to help treat the pneumonia and to keep him hydrated, but they had an IV put in anyway, along with antibiotics to help treat any type of infections they might have.

James looked as pale and frail as he slept, Amber wipes away the tears that threaten to come, but she had to remain strong for her sister and brother, as well as Michael and Ryan, who were also sleeping across from them.

But soon Amber body decided to make her fall asleep, so she yawned and then soon she was asleep, relieved that their nightmare was finally over.

Meanwhile in the waiting room, Dr. Ashley was questioning Garrick.

"Sire, what is your relation to the children?" The doctor asked.

"Princesses Sofia and Amber as well as Prince James used to go to the same school with my youngest son, Hugo, the other two, I have no clue who they are, but when it was explained that they came from the Summer Group Home, I had a feeling something wasn't right and when the two boys explained to me that the owner of the Home was their mother, I was shocked and when they told me how old they were, I simply couldn't believe it and the fact that it happened in my kingdom I will not stand, I will make the arrest tomorrow, how are the children by the way?" Garrick asked concerned.

The doctors gives the man a uncertain look before saying, "They all are stable for the moment, the girls were given pain meds and sedatives to help them sleep, they are severely malnourished and have bruising thankfully no broken bones, the two older boys are currently being treated for broken bones, sever starvation and malnutrition and bruising, but prince, James is still not completely out of the woods, he has started to develop pneumonia which is a result of a untreated cold and poor nutrition, which we are trying to prevent from getting worse, but for now they are all resting."

Garrick sighs in relief hearing that.

"Were you able to contact their parents or guardians?" The doctor asked, Garrick nods saying, "They are on their way now."

"Good, you can see the children through the glass if you want too, but for now we are keeping them isolated to prevent anymore illnesses or disease from coming into contact with them." Doctor explained as both father and son followed him to the where the children were recovering.

When Garrick saw them, he had to squash down the urge to go hunt down that woman, to deliver him own brand of justice, but as the King he had to lead by example for not only his people, but his family as well.

Seeing how distraught Hugo was Garrick pulls the boy into a side embrace, "They will be in good hands, son."

Hugo snuggles into his father's side something he hasn't done since he was really little, but he couldn't find in it himself to care if he was mature or not, he needed reassurance as he stares at his friends and secret crush, praying for their recovery.