Waiting For Spring
Chapter 23

True to his word, the king came and found me almost daily. We had explored every inch of the gardens and still, I felt like there was more to replace. On the days where he had more time, he would bring wooden practice swords and train me beside the stream in the center of the garden. I wasn’t very good and most days my arms were too heavy to move after holding the sword for so long, but each time he brought them I tried harder to be better.

There were still nights when I would wake up, drenched in sweat, with the memory of faceless people tearing me apart until my throat was raw from screaming.

The king was surprisingly patient, even when I whined and groaned over how sore my body was. On the days the King couldn’t get away to visit me, Troy was at my door taking me to the training grounds when the guards were done for the day. Troy was far less patient and despite my desire to learn archery, Troy almost immediately decided that it would be better if I applied my talents elsewhere.

I think this decision was entirely to do with the fact my first arrow left a small cut on his left ear. He had been standing behind me. We moved onto knife throwing after that debacle. A technique I was far more adept at.

Today, we were putting our training on hold as we had received word from a messenger that my brother would arrive within the next day or two. The castle was abuzz with preparations for the ball where my engagement to the King would be announced. But all I wanted was to see my brother.

Troy and I were sharing lunch when there was a commotion outside my room. There was a loud thud and then a flurry of feminine laughter before the door burst open and a flourish of pale pink stumbled through.

“Have you heard the news, Anne?” Alice shouted, kicking her foot on the door as she burst through. Mantai followed closely behind her, sharing a look with Troy who shook his head from where he stood in the dining area. Mantai seemed to understand what Troy was saying and backed out of the room, returning to his post outside.

“Are you alright Alice?” I asked as she hobbled over to one of my overstuffed chairs by the fire Georgia and Georgette had started earlier in the day. The sun had started to lose its warmth as autumn threated to steal away the last vestiges of summer days. Now, the rooms were chilled and needed a fire burning throughout the day. This meant that each time the two maids would start a fire they would first check the flue in case I had hidden something up there.

“I think I still have ten fingers and ten toes,” Alice assured, rubbing her left foot over her stockings before slipped her heels back on. I, on the other hand, hadn’t even bothered to put on the shoes Marla had laid out. “Never mind my toes, I have so much to tell you.” She gushed, jumping to her feet again and hobbling over to where I was sitting at the dining table.

Troy stood both in the dining area and in the sitting room still on alert from Alice’s abrupt entrance.

Alice helped herself to a cup of tea before she started speaking, “There’s going to be a ball tomorrow night.”

“I know.”

“Well of course you know,” she said, waving her hand between us dismissively. “The entire castle has gone mental, but do you know who the ball is for?”

Glancing at Troy, I looked to him for direction. Did it matter who knew, now that my identity would be revealed tomorrow? He was watching Alice warily from where he stood and seemed unwilling to step inside her space. He was probably afraid of the havoc she might wreak if he got too close.

When I didn’t answer Alice immediately, she lost her patience and continued to tell me her exciting news, “It’s Prince David,” she shouted. “The Prince from Paca Territorus is coming here after all these years.

“Jamie-you remember my brother Jamie?” I thought it might have been a question, but she rushed ahead before I could even bring the image of her gangly brother into my head. “He told me that Prince David hasn’t visited this castle since he was a young boy, since before the Princess went missing. Jamie said it’s the first time the Royals have met since the war began.

“It makes you wonder why he’s coming now and why such an elaborate ball is being thrown in his honor.”

“Maybe he is coming to sign a peace agreement?” I suggested. Glancing at Troy, he had the look of the man who wanted to be anywhere but here. He didn’t seem to be worried by anything Alice was saying, so I felt my own shoulders relax, my anxiousness draining from my limbs.

“But the King has always said he would never sign anything unless his princess is returned to him.” She shrugged, slumping back in her chair, leaving crumbs all over her chest from the cake she was eating.

“Well, she’s not his princess,” I grumbled, hating that people thought he owned me.

“Regardless of whose princess she is, it’s unlikely she has been found. Something else must have brought the Prince here.”

“What do you think it could be then?”

“Lady Anne,” Troy interrupted, drawing my attention back to him as Alice reached for another strawberry cake, her fingers already stained red. “I must be returning to the King. I’ll leave you both to your gossip.” He smirked, glancing between Alice and myself. I scowled at him as he slunk out of the room, eager to escape the torrent of gossip spilling from Alice’s mouth.

When he was finally out of the room, Alice sat up and looked at me with a gleam in her eye, “Do you want to know the best piece of gossip I have found?” Not waiting for me to reply she forged ahead, “Lady Heron has been seen by Lady Alcott’s maids leaving a certain gentleman’s rooms late at night, her clothes ruffled and her hair unkempt.”

“Oh?” I indulged her, pouring myself a fresh cup of tea, in the hopes I could endure Alice’s latest piece of trivial court news.

“You’ll never guess who the gentleman was,” she continued, pressing further up in her seat.

“Well then, you might as well tell me.”

“The King.” She whispered, glancing over her shoulder as if by mentioning his name the King would appear. However, I was too busy trying to calm my dying heart. It felt as if it had fallen from my chest into a lake of ice. My head seemed to be spinning and my ears were filled with the sound of my racing heart.

“W-Why was she there?” I frowned, picturing the redhead slinking from the king’s chambers late at night. I could see the king pressing a kiss against her forehead and I was assaulted with the image of her in the king’s arms the night of the ball. They had looked almost perfect together. Her the picture of grace and him the most handsome man in the room.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“I don’t understand.” I frowned, my fingernails digging into the palms of my hands until I felt the sting of my skin breaking. Why would he do this?

“Lady Heron has been playing this game a long time, Anne. It was only a matter of time before she tricked him into bed.” Alice explained, oblivious to the fact that my world seemed to be falling to pieces all around me.

Did Troy know? Did everyone know this? Maybe this was the reason he forced me to stay in my rooms all the time. Maybe it had all been a trick. No one fell in love when they were children. The king had just been using me.

Would he continue to do this once we were married? Then an even darker thought ran through my mind. Were we even getting married? Or worse, what if we got married and then I mysteriously disappeared after the agreement between our two countries was carried out? If he made me go away, he would be free to be with whomever he wanted.

“…Prince David has been invited to attend the engagement.” Only catching the end of what Alice was saying, I tried to calm my breathing before speaking.

“But, I thought you said he wouldn’t marry anyone else?”

“Maybe I was wrong,” she shrugged. “He can’t stay unmarried forever. He needs an heir.”

“It can’t be true.”

“Lady Alcott’s maids aren’t the only ones who have seen her coming and going from the Kings rooms.” Alice paused, waiting for my reaction before continuing and at this point, my face must have been white. “One of my maids is the particular friend of one of the King’s guards and he’s telling the same story.

“You’re the King’s ward, surely he speaks to you? Has he really mentioned nothing about the reasons for the ball or his imminent engagement to Lady Heron?”

“No.”

“It’s just all so scandalous,” she gushed but she was stopped from continuing when Marla appeared, announcing it was time for my dress fitting. Never have I been more grateful for Marla in my life. I would gladly take her stabbing pins in my side over listening to another word Alice had to say about the King and the viper he had been welcoming into his bed.

Marla rushed Alice from the room, with a promise I would replace her at the ball. Then she was gone in a flutter of pink petticoats and red fingers. Marla’s brow was creased by a scowl, deepening the wrinkles around her eyes but for once it seemed I wasn’t the reason for her ire.

“Come Princess,” she directed. But when I didn’t move, she came to where I was sitting a foreign expression stealing the frown from her face. “What is troubling you? You do not look yourself.” She brushed a soothing hand against my forehead before resting it against my cheek to keep my eyes on her. Without thinking about it, I leant into her touch, desperate to feel something. How could the world have been turned upside down so suddenly? I had barely begun to know the king and suddenly, everything I knew didn’t matter.

“Come, child, tell me what has happened. This is not you.” But I didn’t know what to say. There were too many emotions swirling inside of me. There were too many things I didn’t know and what I had come to know had been proven false. What was to happen now?

“Marla, do you think I am safe here?” Something seemed to be chocking my words but despite the lump in my throat I managed to ask her the question that had been floating around my head like an autumn leaf falling to the ground.

“The King will always keep you safe.” She answered resolutely. “No one would dare lay a finger on you.”

“What if the pain isn’t physical?”

“I don’t know what you mean, my child,” she frowned again, clasping one of my hands with hers. Her paper-thin skin fragile against the callouses sword training had left on my palms and fingers. “You aren’t making much sense.”

Shaking her head, Marla gently guided me to my feet and when I didn’t make a move in the direction of my bedroom, she gently led me in its direction.

Standing before my full-length looking-glass, looking at the gown I was to wear the following night at a ball, I felt a hollowness build inside of me. The color of the dress barely registered, my body was numb, and my mind absent. I didn’t even flinch when Marla stabbed me with pins. I didn’t know what to feel anymore, the pain swirling inside of me was far greater than a few pins in my side.