HEY GUYS, OK, SO I MIGHT HAVE GONE A LITTLE CRAZY WITH THE LENGTH OF THIS ONE BUT, OH WELL, PLEASE READ AND REVIEW, AND ENJOY THE NEW CHAPTER.
AMERICA
I woke early in the morning. Turned off the alarm by Maxon and crept through to my suite. I went straight through to my bathroom where Mary did my make up and put my hair up into a simple bun, I then went back through to the main room and put on the plain black dress that I'd had made for today, the day of the funeral.
I nodded to my maids as I left and then to the guards as I went down the corridor. I'd made everyone in the palace promise to not let Maxon wake up before I said the word. Today was going to be hard enough for him, I wanted him to sleep for as long as possible.
I went down to the Great Room, praying that no one would be there yet. When I opened the door there was only May, stood beside her sculpture in the centre of the room.
"May, it's perfect." I said, hugging her. She had made a slab of black rock with names inscribed all around one side in gold lettering.
"You think so? I didn't want to do anything too ornate, but…"
"Yes, it's perfect, I think it will look great. We're going to move it outside after the service, is that ok." She just nodded her head. I'm going down to the kitchens now to check on the food, do you wanna come with?" I held out my hand and smiled.
"Sure, your Highness." She dramatically curtsied and took my hand.
"I'm not 'Your Highness' yet, you know. I'm still just Lady America for the next couple of weeks." She giggled as we left the room and headed to the kitchens.
When we entered the room, the staff all stopped what they were doing and bowed or curtsied before returning to their tasks. I nodded back at them and then went down to the table at the end where the head chef sat.
"Good morning, Jade." I greeted, she gave me a small curtsey and we sat down. "So how are preparations coming, everything coming together ok?"
"Yes, Lady America. We are actually slightly ahead of schedule. However, we haven't done any Royal breakfasts this morning. Would you like us to send something up to the King?"
"Well, I'm trying to let him get as much sleep as possible but, could I take some toast and maybe some eggs up to him in about half an hour?" I asked.
"Yes, that should be fine." Jade nodded her head, appearing glad that she could do something.
"Thank you, I'll leave you to get on with the food." I smiled and left the kitchens, May trailing behind me.
"So, what else do we have to do?" May asked, running to catch up with me.
"Not much just yet, no one's due until ten, I need everyone ready by half nine so I need to get Maxon up at eight, so that gives us about half an hour to kill. What do you want to do?" May shrugged her shoulders.
"Show me your favourite places. I don't know the palace half as well as you do."
"Have you been through the gardens, properly, yet?" she thought for a moment and then shook her head.
"Well, come on then." I grabbed her wrist and ran in the opposite direction towards the doors, smiling at the guards as we sped past them.
"The sun's so hot here!" May complained after we'd been out for about twenty minutes.
"You'll get used to it May, after a couple of months you'll stop noticing."
"Months? I have to boil under this sun for months before I'll get a bit used to it. It's only January! What's it going to be like in the height of summer?"
"The bad thing is, May, I really don't know." I laughed. "Tell you what, we'll figure it out together." I looked up and that's when I spotted him. A flash of blonde hair coming from one of the balconies. "Excuse me, May, I'm going to have to go. Feel free to wander for a bit longer, if you want." Then I had to run off. I went down to the kitchens to retrieve Maxon's food and then sped upstairs. I nodded to the guards again as I passed and they pushed open the door to Maxon's room.
"Eat." I said, putting the plate in front of him as he sat at his desk, trying to do work.
"I need to-"
"No. You need to eat. You don't need to do any work today."
"Please, America. I need something to take my mind off it."
"No." I crouched down and grabbed one of his hands "Maxon, you can't just shut yourself in here. I need you, and I know you need me too." I paused. "Come on, eat your breakfast and then we'll get you ready."
"Honestly, what would I do without you?" He began to eat the toast, I sighed in relief. "Do you want some?" I shook my head. "Come on, you have to eat as well."
"No, honestly I'm really not-" I had to stop as he put a piece of toast in my mouth. "Fine. We'll share it." I went and sat on the bed, followed by Maxon who was carrying the plate of food. I let him eat most of the food but I took the odd bit so that he would see that I was eating.
When we were done, I left him to get dressed and went back through to my room so that Mary could touch up my make-up and make sure my hair was still ok. Before I knew it, there was a knock at the door and Maxon walked in.
"Come on, we've got to keep up with your schedule and it's almost half nine." He gave me his arm which I liked around my own and we walked in silence towards the main entrance.
"We just need to go over the seating for the service in the Great Hall, your highness. So we'll have the royal family in the front row, then we'll have the visiting royals in the next row, then the mayors of all 35 provinces will probably take up the next two rows, then we'll have the Singers and then, finally, some members of staff who have been invited, mainly the personal servants of King Clarkson and Queen Amberley. Is all this ok?" Silvia explained to Maxon and myself.
"I don't mind as long as I have America beside me in the front." Maxon smiled at me slightly.
"Well, actually, etiquette says that only the relatives of the deceased and their spouses sit in front, I'm afraid that to the rest of the world, America is still a five."
"She will be my wife in less than a month, and I need her there next to me. I don't care what etiquette says. America is pretty much Queen, now. She will be sitting in front with me." Silvia just nodded, curtseyed and left.
"I'm sorry, but that's why we need to get married sooner rather than later. So that you can be presented as my wife and Queen. So that I can be with you when I need you." Maxon squeezed my hand and I put my head on his shoulder. In a few moments, the mourners would be coming through, wanting to greet Maxon and we'd have to be royalty again.
My family came down the stairs, making their way to the great room to take their seats, I waved at them slightly and they nodded back to say Good Morning but we couldn't chat or speak properly as people began to arrive through the doors. First was Adele and her children (who were surprisingly calm today) who all bowed or curtseyed to Maxon before walking through to the Great Room. After the last few guests trickled in, we walked slowly through as well.
The ceremony was beautiful, most people from the first couple of rows stood to give eulogies to both the King and the Queen, but only Maxon and Adele talked about them as people. I had considered doing a speech but I'd barely spoken to the Queen really and it would be hard to say something nice about the king, considering our relationship. Instead, I had helped Maxon with his speech, getting him to talk about them as his parents and the good times they had together when he was a child.
"I remember one Christmas, probably one of the first that I remember, I was about five and all I had wanted was a day with my family. As Prince, I had never really wanted anything, but I had barely seen my parents for the past couple of months as they tried to establish links with Swendway. But I remember that my mother promised me that we'd spend the whole week together as a family, not as royals but just mum, dad and me.
"I remember that I'd given my parents pictures I'd drawn and they both loved them. They were silly things, stick figure versions of all of us holding hands and smiling happily. They both cherished those pictures, in fact I think I saw one in my father's desk drawer just a few weeks ago. That day was one of my favourite memories with my parents because we just spent all day together, we spent the whole day in pyjamas and we had minimal staff, we even tried making Christmas dinner ourselves. Though that wasn't the nicest food I've ever had at the palace, it was at the same time, because it had come from the love of our family.
"I can't believe that they're gone. At nineteen I shouldn't have lost my parents. None of this should have happened, not to them. They were good monarchs, good parents, good people. They were taken too soon and in the wrong way. They should have died in their sleep in a few decades time, not now, not like this.
"I loved my parents, I can't believe they're gone. But I love that you all took the time to come and pay your respects to them, I thank you all for that and I thank you for listening." Maxon stepped down from the podium and returned to his seat next to me, I squeezed his hand in encouragement. Then I stood to speak.
"I can't really talk about the King and Queen because I barely knew them, so instead I would like to present the memorial of the King, Queen and everyone else who was killed in the attack. I had several friends who were taken too young at the same time as the King and Queen, none of them deserved to die and I would like to dedicate this to everyone who died or lost someone in the attack. It's a sad time for all of us and we need to remember everyone who died alongside them. I thank you all for your support to King Maxon, myself and everyone else who needs it." I stepped down from the podium and returned to Maxon. The priest stood and said a few words to end the ceremony and then we left the Great room, heading towards a large room nearby.
There was a buffet table at one end of the room, laid out with sandwiches, and other picnic foods. Maxon and I stood by the door and watched everyone talk quietly and nibble on the food, no one came to speak to us except the odd person who just patted his arm or said 'I'm sorry' as if it was their fault.
"Just get through an hour or so, then we can make our exit." I whispered to him, I knew he didn't want to be here, he needed private time to grieve, something which it was hard to get as King, everyone always seemed to want something or expect something more. No one seemed to see him as a person, just as a King. Maxon nodded and walked me towards Adele, whom he quickly hugged.
"Hi Adele, we're so glad you could come." I greeted her with a small smile. She nodded at me and returned Maxon's hug. All of a sudden I didn't feel as welcome at this family affair, so I went off in search of my mother. Instead I was met with the brown hair and eyes of someone else, Kriss.
"America." She greeted me, embracing me tightly.
"Hi, Kriss." After a couple of seconds I was released from the hug.
"I'm so, so sorry. I was going to write, honestly, I was. I just never got round to it, then all that stuff happened and you were taken." I whipped my head around to her.
"How did you know about that?"
"I was…here. I helped Maxon out when he was going a bit crazy."
"Why were you here Kriss?"
"I knew, I was told by the rebels that they'd taken you. They wanted me to lead their campaign against you. But I didn't! I swear, I came straight here to help Maxon get you out."
"Ok. Hey, can we talk about this some other time, like oh, I don't know, you can come to my Wedding and tell me all about how you tried to break me by ruining my clothes, giving me a concussion and then you decided to take the time to spend time with my fiancée when I was locked beneath the palace by rebels, which you knew fully about." I hissed at her.
"Listen-"
"Seriously, not right now, Kriss." I pushed her away and went and found my family who had seen everything from another corner. "Hey guys." I smiled, trying to pretend my conversation with Kriss never happened.
"America, dear. How's Maxon holding up? It must be so hard on him." My mother asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"He's doing about as well as we can expect from the situation, I think he's speaking to his Aunt at the moment."
"And what about you, how are you doing? That looked like quite a heated conversation with that girl there."
"Oh, that's Kriss. We've just been having a slight disagreement as of late, nothing important. I just hope that Maxon's OK."
"You know, you are allowed to be upset as well, you don't have to stay strong for him. The amount of work you put into that service and the work for remembering everyone showed that you are just as upset as Maxon, and you need to cry just as much as he does. Just think on that ok?" I nodded. "I think that we'll head up to bed now, I don't think it's really the right place for us, a grieving room, no when we never even met them. Good night."
"Good night, I'll see you all for breakfast in the morning though?" My mother nodded and everyone else said goodnight before they retired to their rooms. I stood by myself for a little while, just watching the room, willing myself not to cry, though I did need to, like my mother said.
"Hey." Maxon grabbed my hand and I smiled back. "Hour's up. Time for bed."
"Ok, what's the proper protocol for leaving, I think it's impolite for the hosts to just disappear through a backdoor."
"No, we'll say goodnight to the room when we reach the door, and then leave after the room has bowed." He led me over to the big doors at the entrance and turned. "Goodnight all, feel free to stay as long as you wish." He bowed his head to the room and I copied, everyone else bowed or curtseyed in return and we left the room.
"So, how are you doing?" I asked when we got back to Maxon's room.
"Better than I thought actually, it really helped spending time with my aunt. I just wish that my lovely fiancée had stayed with us."
"I just felt that you needed some family time so I decided to go and speak to some other people."
"America, you are my family. You needn't ever feel unwelcome. Adele sees you as practically family, I know it all seems a bit strange now, but you are just as much a part of the Royal Family as she is."
"So if we're family, does that make this incest?" I joked, pushing him onto the bed and kissing him.
"Well, what's a little incest within the royal family?" He pulled me down on top of him, his arms holding my back.
"I love you Maxon." I whispered
"I love you too, America." We laid next to each other for what felt like an eternity, until Maxon sat up.
"So, I saw you speaking to Kriss tonight and it didn't exactly look friendly, want to tell me what's going on there." He asked in a seemingly sweet manor.
"She was just telling me all about the time you spent together while I was missing, really."
"America we just-"
"Can we please talk about this in the morning? I'm tired, it's been a big day and I don't want to go to bed upset.
"OK, good night." He called as I walked through to my own suite.
"Good night." I said as I shut the door. My maids quickly moved around me undoing pins and my dress before I was put into my nightie and they all bowed as they left to leave me to sleep.