Hey everybody! I'm back with another chapter! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the story!
I sat behind the big bulletproof windows across the table from Princess Ann. She made my tea with a lot of honey and smiled when she set it down in front of me, holding my hand in hers. She'd left for a few minutes, so the big puffy gown was gone and now she seemed... almost more human, less like a figure head. She wore black yoga pants and an old college sweatshirt. She looked like a grad student, but no older. Fame kept her looking young, but her soul was mature and wise, exactly like my mother had been.
"How are you feeling, dear, are you okay?" she asked, "You looked very frazzled when we finally got you out of there."
"I'm okay. Thank you, but... how did you know how I take my tea?"
"Your mom took it the same way." she smiled, "You really are like a carbon copy of her. I wish the two of us had never lost contact, then once she was gone, at least I would have had this beautiful piece of herself that she left behind in you."
I could have, but I didn't burst her bubble. She didn't know I was the one who shot my mother. The right people knew and now one else needed to, so I smiled and took a cookie when she offered.
The conversation continued and quickly took an interesting turn.
"Do you know the story, Grace?" she asked, "Of this room?"
"No, does it have to do with the War of the Fortnight?"
"Yes, it's actually the story of how the war began."
"My mom never let us know about it and the festival. She hated it. She said it was dangerous, that people with bad intentions hiding anonymously among a crowd is the most dangerous type of person. She kept us home for most of the festival every year."
She stood and walked over to the windows and ran a finger down the glass with a far away look in her eyes. It was like she was putting herself in the time, like it was 200 years ago all over again and she was about to tell me a tragic story.
"The coup started when the people starved during a drought. Eventually, the people were so angry that they stormed the palace and the guards just threw the gates open." she brought up a hand to her cheek, wiping it with her sleeve. I couldn't tell if she was crying, but the tone of her voice lead me to believe she was weeping a bit, "The king, queen, two young princes and the princess who was only a month old were murdered and strung up in these windows and the castle was this day, the bodies of the royal family are missing."
I felt my blood run cold. I felt sick to my stomach and stood from the table. I walked over and looked out the window, standing right next to Princess Ann and she took my hand in hers.
"Your mother and I were the very best of friends, Grace. She loved that story. She was obsessed with figuring it out what happened to the family. The mysteries of history always fascinated her. It was why she liked antiquities so much."
"It's nice to hear about her. I knew her well enough, but there are so many things I will never know. So many things she never got to tell me. Ms. Chancellor told me some things, but I wish she could have been there to walk me through it."
"Your grandmother passed when your mom and I were young like you. It was my mother and Ms. Chancellor who told us about a lot of things that her mother never got to."
"The Society being one of them?"
"So she told you." Princess Ann smiled contently, "I was hoping to claim that for myself, seems I wasn't quick enough."
"Is that why you invited me here?"
"No, you..." she pulled me into a tight hug and I tensed in her grasp, partially because my side was in pain and partially because I still was not very comfortable with people touching me, "I've seen everything going on. I'm just so disgusted by what has been happening to you in the media. I could never imagine something like this happening to me and being alone like you are. Sure you have your brother, your father, your grandfather, the Russian boy, Ms. Chancellor, your friends, but you don't have your mother. I don't want you to feel alone. If you need someone to give you advice like she would or you want to talk to her, I want you to know that you have an open invitation. I always want to be there for you like Caroline was for me as girls. That is the least I can do for the both of you."
I felt tears prick at my eyes. After losing mom, I thought I lost my crying privileges. I didn't deserve to cry anymore, but it seemed like the emotions trampling my heart in the last few weeks had other plans.
"Thank you." I held her back.
When we released the hug she tucked a lock of hair behind my ear with a soft smile and looked back out the window.
"Goodness, look how late it's gotten! I'll have someone bring a car around for you and have you driven back."
"It's okay, I can walk." I assured her.
"I insist, on a night like tonight, please let me make sure you get home safely. I'll also call ahead to the embassy and make sure they know to let the car through the gates, we'll sneak you right past those reporters and camera people."
I wasn't sure what to say, so I let myself sound like a broken record and said it again, "Thank you."
She walked away over to the door of the room and spoke in hushed voices with someone outside the door. I looked out the window. It was getting late. It was pitch black and the crowd around the fire was quickly becoming a drunken hoard. I could almost hear their yelling through the glass. And then the real yelling began.
"Your highness!" A woman yelled and I heard something clatter to the ground.
I spun on my heel to see a woman inspecting a stain on Princess Ann's sweatshirt.
"Are you injured, your highness?" a member of her guard came forward and was inspecting her.
Princess Ann looked back at me and seemed to panic, "Grace!"
She ran over to me and lifted my black tank top and cardigan to find a bloody gash in my side.
"Call a doctor!" she had tears in her eyes as she looked up at me. The maid rushed off and the security guard came in the room, "Ryan, can you bring her to the guest room. I'll grab a first aid kit."
"Yes, your highness." and with that the big burly security guard swept me up in his arms and rushed off down the corridor.
I think the shock and adrenaline were wearing off because the pain was coming gradually and it was some of the worst I'd felt in my injury prone life time. It was almost on par with the gash from when I hit my head on the rock on the island the night of the assault.
Princess Ann came into the room with two maids and dismissed the guard while she set to work trying to take care of me until the doctor arrived. One of the maids held the first aid kit and the other held a bowl of hot water and towels.
The Princess didn't let either of the maids help me, she just wiped the blood as gently as she could, stopping each time I took a sharp breath or flinched away from her touch. When she could see the wound, she put all sorts of disinfecting sprays and ointments on it and then she left it alone until the doctor arrived.
I didn't remember much of his visit, just being very tired and when I woke up the next morning I was very confused.
I sat up in the bed, a fresh and fluffy blanket was laid over me and Princess Ann sat in a chair at my bedside with her head down on her arms on the edge of the bed snoozing. There was an IV in my arm feeding some clear liquid into me and an empty red tinted bag told me that I was probably given some blood too.
My head was aching and I tried not to, but still managed to wake Princess Ann.
"Grace!" she seemed panicked for a moment and then she saw me awake and breathed a sign of relief, "Thank goodness, how are you, dear, I was so worried!"
She took my hand in both of hers and looked up at me waiting for my answer.
"Sore, but much better. What happened?"
"It seems like in the scuffle yesterday you were stabbed, but you're all patched up now, no worries. I called your grandfather to let him know you were spending the night with me here. I didn't tell him why. You can tell him yourself once you are home or once you feel comfortable."
"Okay. Thank you." I smiled.
"Do you want some breakfast? You must be hungry dear."
"Sure."
"Wonderful, what would you like? Anything you want, I'll have it made for you." She stood up and pat my head. It felt very motherly and all of a sudden the anxious feeling in the back of my mind telling me that being in a place with people who were essentially strangers just melted away. In a weird way, the same way she felt like I was keeping a piece of my mother in her life, I felt she was doing the same for me.
I thought for a moment but then the door burst open.
"Mom!" I young boy, around my age, maybe a bit younger, "Dad said you- Oh, hello, who's this?"
"Thomas, good morning, sweetheart," she hugged him tight, "Grace, this is my son, Thomas. Thomas, this is my best friend's daughter, Grace."
"It is very nice to meet you, Prince Thomas." I bowed my upper body a bit, feeling bad I couldn't show the full respects I was supposed to. If this was any other situation, Grandpa might have killed me for disrespecting royalty.
"Just Thomas, if you're a family friend I don't want you using some stuffy title." He smiled and took a seat in the chair his mother had previously occupied,
"It's very nice to meet you, Grace."
