Villainess Loves

Part 21

The door suddenly opens and Henry walks in, confused.

"Lady Annelise? Mary?" He says and looks towards us. He stops and rushes towards us.

"Lady Annelise?! What's wrong?" Henry comes closer to me and Mary. I sniff, wiping away my tears with my hand. Mary pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and hands it to me. I take it and blow my nose. She pats my head, brushing her fingers through my hair to fix the tangled mess I made earlier.

"It's nothing, Sir Henry. I'm alright." I said.

"I see." He looks concerned and confused. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. Mary helps me up while Henry is hovering over us.

"My lady, go get some rest. I'll bring your dinner to you later." Mary says and leads me to the door. I wave at them goodbye. Henry looks worriedly at me.

The familiar expansive hallways of the royal castle welcomes me as I walk the familiar path to my designated guest room. The spacious room was filled with the stuff I brought from home and brought a sense of familiarity and safety. I breathe out and lay on the bed.

The soft fluffy sheets of the massive bed enveloped me as I thought about my feelings and desires.

I did like Prince Orion, maybe close to even loving him to the obsessiveness that the original Annelise did. I know what future awaits me if I were to go down that path and I don't want to be controlled by such a destiny. I once liked Prince Orion.

I raised one of my hands to the ceiling, the same chandelier that was in the drawing-room, hung above my bed. The same sparkling lights that I've seen many times before, staying in this very same room. The royal castle is not an unknown territory, I've been here so many times, stayed in this room so many times. Yet, I've only officially met Prince Orion three times this year. The first meeting together was awkward, to say the least. How do you interact with a person that you've been engaged with for over five years, yet never actually met? I thought we did pretty good since he started acting more causal with me, and I did the same. But today....

I buried my head in my pillow. I knew he didn't like me the way I did, and I now know that he likes someone else, but....

"I thought we had something special. Maybe we could have made it work." I mumbled. I know that I made this whole elaborate plan and had a whole event with Henry, but a part of me did want to be with Prince Orion. He's nice, caring, honest, and an overall good guy. Goodlooking and a prince. He's not the first in line so I wouldn't have to worry about learning queenly duties and the politics aren't as complicated or cutthroat.

I sigh. Things like what if I met him first? Or should I have taken a more active approach in wooing him? ran through my mind.

In the story, Bella and Prince Orion met when they were kids. Her mother, who is still the Queen's personal maid, brought her daughter over to play with Prince Orion. Bella, being free-spirited, went along with Prince Orion to explore the nearby forest. There, they encountered a dangerous wolf pack. With no nearby guards, Prince Orion had to defend himself and protect Bella.

In what would only be described as cliche, Bella protects Prince Orion from a wolf attack, permanently scarring one of her hands. They manage to escape and return to the castle safely, but Prince Orion got heavily scolded for exploring without guards and allowing Bella, who was not only a young child but also a maid, to protect him from harm. The king greatly disliked this so he sent Prince Orion away to be trained with his grandfather, the late king, to be a stronger person, one worthy of being a prince. The following year after, the war starts and after five years, Prince Orion is called back to help with war duties and Bella is assigned to be his personal maid.

Now, by then both have completely forgotten what happened besides Bella knowing that she protected someone and Prince Orion remembering that someone protected him. So the story officially starts with Prince Orion returning back to Elden, being bombarded with royalty duties because Prince Caelum had to leave to command the army.

So being his personal maid, Bella is able to comfort him and allow him space to relax from the sudden pressure of the war and being a prince. They fall in love and during a horse riding date, Prince Orion notices Bella's scar and they remember their past.

Now at this point of the story, I am in love with Prince Orion and his princeliness and am constantly badgering him to spend time with me, which only stresses him out more because he's in love with Bella but feels conflicted in that he should be loyal to me because of our engagement.

In the grand scheme of things, my feelings for him only make him more sure of his towards Bella and strengthens their relationship because of my harassment. He finally becomes confident and ready to commit when Prince Caelum returns, ready to take on the throne, freeing him from the massive responsibilities. The welcoming ball becomes the turning point of the story and the beginning of Bella's journey to becoming a princess and the wife of a prince. The rest of the story is basically just a plot device to fill the reader with lots of fluff and sugar and ends when they finally get married and have kids.

Prince Orion meets Bella before meeting me as we only got engaged when we were 12 and the incident happened the year before. Even if I tried to be more assertive and seductive, Prince Orion likes Bella because she created a place for him to relax and not worry about being a prince. My arranged marriage with him was done as a prevention plan for future rebellions if any of the dukedoms decided to separate or take over so no matter how I act, our relationship would always have a political aspect to it.

The Thornweathers are one of the more powerful families, seconded to the Willowbrooks. The Thornweathers specialized in trading and exploration, making us immensely wealthy, while the Willowbrooks were more militaristic, providing the kingdom with the most skilled knights, weaponry, and armors. The only reason why the Willowbrooks didn't take this time of war to rebel was that their region was the closest to Vendia. They took the full brunt of the war damages and were where the most important battles took place.

I rolled over to lay on my back, spreading out my limbs to cover up almost half of the space of the enormous bed.

"I never really had a chance," I said quietly. I wasn't the first one Prince Orion met, and I wasn't- couldn't be the person he wanted. I was just another admirer, a side character, in the story.