ROYALTY

Chapter 33

I was sat at the golden table next to Penelope and Valentia, my appetite for food long forgotten. The only thing that kept on running through my head was. Someone tried to poison the queen, the princess and I. Others seemed so ignorant of this fact.

I looked at my plate again and could not help but push it aside. "Huh? The pig herself is not eating. I wonder why?"  "You know I did not see you at breakfast today? I hope that sickness kills you."  I ignored Penelope's comment and stayed silent, ever so slightly my eyes would move to the royal table. Lord Donovan kept on eating his meal, happy and apparently content with what the cook had made, but the princess and her family had barely touched their meal.

My gaze stayed on the prince, he seemed lost in his own world playing around with his spoon that was until he caught sight of me and looked me straight in the eyes. I could not help but feel hungry, but not hungry for food, hungry for something different. Something I had read of in one of my romance novels that happened between.... Then he smiled, I felt weak all at once. I looked around me to make sure not one was looking but Gianna was, I made a mental note to talk to her later and tell her it was nothing. After all I did not have feelings for the prince.

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I found myself walking among the shadows of the darkened trees. My head felt so hot with all that it was carrying, the fact that I was almost poisoned refused to leave my head. I tried taking deep breathes and tried counting. I closed my eyes but instead all I saw was my mother crying, maybe I had to hear them out, they wanted what was best for me. I tried putting myself in their shoes, waking up one morning to find their daughter was poisoned. I would not know about my sisters but my mother would cry, and I so dearly loved her as for my father, I doubt he would even miss me. Maybe I could secretly write to my mother and hear what she had to say. Or maybe not. I was not ready for them, they were a different problem.

I followed the same path the queen and I had taken earlier in the day and avoided the place where the maid had died and where the other servants were beheaded, compliments of the princess. I felt fear creep through my skin and I wanted to cry and scream at the same time. I held myself together with my arms, even though it was a warm night I felt could inside.

"What do you mean it did not work?" I heard hushed voices, I stilled and remembered the guards that had hidden in the same shadows I was walking along. "I cannot say, it just did not, the princess she was able to find something amiss." There was a sound of hard skin hitting skin. "Well, next time make sure it works, you should be smarter than that brat Madelyn." I pushed myself along the fence of roses and thrones, getting as flat as possible, the voices were unfamiliar to me. "And the prince, he is alive and breathing, I expected to find him dead. Why did it not work?"  "The.. well,"  "Speak you useless piece of scum or else I will have your head and that of your family."

The other man swallowed, I pitied him and even pitted myself more. "The woman, the seductress, well, he did not want to be pleasured and when she tried to stab him she was killed," the man took deep breathes. "She was my sister." The other man who seemed in control shouted. "What did you say?" More deep breathing came, "She was my sister you killed my sister!"  "And I can kill more than just her, you think her life is worth a lot? she was a fool, a stupid little wrench that was why the simplest task of killing the prince was hard for her." I took in a shocked gasp of air.

"What was that?" The man said, and looked around, I pushed myself even further into the thorn bush, not minding the number of thorns that bit into my skin.

The man started walking towards my direction, as if out of luck, a rodent, a long green snake crawled out from an underbrush just few feet from where I was. I had to bite so hard as to not let out a scream. The man turned content that it was not a person eavesdropping. "This time, the plan should not fail, now get out of my sight." The servant ran off into the darkness and so did the man, though he walked, he was dressed in all black, nothing visible under the dark sky. It was the stinging coming from my thumb that remained me I was still pressed against the rose bush. I jerked away and pulled out the thorn that had made its way into my thumb.

I continued walking but not in the direction of the castle but in the direction of the little private quarters of the prince. With the sky dark and the moon not yet out, it was hard to find my way.

I was so confused with my own footings that I bumped into someone. "Your grace?" Two strong hands held me from falling, once I was put on my feet I curtsied immediately, and a smile appeared on his face. "Your lordship I am very sorry, Lord Donovan."  It was dark, and I was under the watchful eyes of no one, I could not help but feel I was in danger, even with his smile.

"Now Naomi, how many times do I have to say it?" He said as he gripped my hand in his, I tried not to show my great discomfort. "Please call me Donovan, and besides what are you doing out here all along, you look pale like you have just seen a ghost, is something wrong?" His grip on me tightened.

"Oh Donovan it is quite unbearable," I said as I threw my hands up in the air, the motion making him release my hand. "What is Naomi?" He asked as he took a step or two closer to me, I side stepped him and acted nonchalantly. "The dream, your grace, it was horrible." He took in a breath.  I put my had on my forehead to add some dramatic effect and pinched my cheeks when he was not looking. "What dream, my lady? You have me on crossroads here." I moved close to him and then moved back. "The dream it was a strange dream indeed, oh how I am in pain and filled in heartaches, oh, how I wished I had listened to my mother."

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