The Reincarnated Royalty

Chapter - 20

Rose just came out after taking a bath. Her hair were wrapped in a towel and her body was covered with a white robe. She went inside her room and was shocked to see Theo sitting there on her bed. "What are you doing here? You should be in your room." Rose asked him. "Can't I come in my wife's room?" He asked her back. "You can but please go out, I have to wear my clothes." She said to him.

He got up and came near her. He stood in front of her and leaned in. Her face was now all red and she gripped her robe tightly. His hand reached for the towel which wrapped her hair and pulled it. Her long wet hair fell on her shoulders. "I like it this way more." He said and went out. Rose took deep breaths to calm her racing heart and took out her clothes from the almirah.

The next morning, in Andria, preparations were made and princess Melanie was ready to leave. "Please take care of yourself." Claire said to her. "You too." Melanie said to her and they both hugged each other. Ray also came there with his horse. "Where are you going, Ray?" Claire asked him. "I should leave now too, the festival has ended and I have to fulfill my duties as the prince of Sophiesia too." He said and some guards came with his stuff.

He came towards Melanie and held her hand. "Take care." He said to her and smiled a little. "I'll, but I'll miss you a lot too." She said to him with a sad smile. "We both will meet very soon. Don't worry. I can write you letters too." He said to her and she smiled at him. "We should leave now." Ray turned to the king and bowed to him. The king nodded at them and they turned around to leave.

"Looks like my friend has forgot about me now." Claire folded her arms while side eyeing Ray. "Oh I am sorry, I just..." Ray rubbed the back of his head not knowing what to say. "Don't worry, I am glad you found the one for you." She kept her hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "Goodbye." She said to him and he smiled back at her. "Bye." He said and got on his horse. Melanie too got inside her carriage and left.

Just like that days passed and today Claire was about to visit Philaria. She was getting ready wearing her crown on her head. She took her mother's necklace to wear and suddenly remembered about Sky. "I hope I can meet you today." She said while clutching that necklace and went out of her room.

She came out of the castle and saw a huge trolley consisting of very expensive gifts and a decorated chariot in front of her. The king came from inside and motioned her to sit in that. "This time you are going there as the heir to the throne of Andria." He said to her. "I might be going there as the heir to the throne but what happened with prince Sky here must have hurt their feelings." She said to him. "That was necessary." The king said. "That wasn't! That decision was not right!" Anger started to build up inside her and she just looked the other way not wanting to start any fight.

"I am sorry, Claire but you broke the rules." He said to her. "Then you must have punished me not him." She said to him. "Those rules do not make any sense anyways. Since my childhood I have been caged like that. Rose was very shy from the beginning and did not like to go out a lot but I wanted to explore my kingdom. But till my sixteenth birthday you never let me go anywhere. Even when I became an adult I was not able to freely go anywhere. I was always tailed by Jake. He is a good friend of mine but sometimes I also want to roam around like other girls. That day I saw the kingdom at night for the first time. It felt as if heaven was right in front of my eyes. I am very thankful of prince Sky who helped me to go out that day. I will not let you disrespect him anymore." She said to her father.

"I am not disrespecting him--" He was cut off by Claire. "If prince Kevin didn't tell you about that whole thing that day, would you still know anything? Would it matter if I sneaked out that day? It was just him who told you that. If he didn't, then also I would have been the one to break the rules. The only difference it would have made was you not knowing about this." She said and the king realized that she was saying the right thing. Before he could say anything, Claire went to the chariot and sat inside.

"Please rethink about the decisions you made in the past." She said while looking at the front and motioned the guard to start moving. Jake also followed her from behind on his horse. 

After a few hours they were finally near the border of Philaria. Claire's heart was beating very fast and she was getting very nervous. Last time she came here as Rose's younger sister and this time she is coming here as her kingdom's representative. She took deep breaths as the chariot finally stopped at the castle entrance.

The loud drums started beating as Rose came out rushing. She became very happy on seeing her after such a long time. Claire too was very happy on seeing her. She got off the chariot and was immediately captured in a tight hug from Rose. "I missed you a lot." Rose said to her as a few tears slipped down from her eyes. "I am here now." Claire said while patting her back.

Rose pulled back and smiled at her. Jake came forward and bowed at her. "Good to see you after so long, princess." He said to her. "I am glad to see you, Jake." She said to him and took Claire inside with her while Claire signaled Jake to follow. 

Once they came inside, Jasmine came there to greet them. "Good to see you here, princess Claire." She said and hugged her. "I am happy to meet you again too." She hugged her back. After that prince Theo and the queen also came there to greet her. They all were behaving normally but she felt as if something was not right. 

She felt as if something happened there. She felt a bitter silence among that laughter. She looked towards Rose hoping that she will tell her something but she just smiled at her. She also noticed that the king and prince Sky were not there. She looked here and there but did not see them. "Let's go inside, Claire." Rose said and just as she was about to step forward, the king came there. 

"Don't you dare to keep any step forward." He said in a stern voice. Everyone was shocked on this reaction of him. He called his guards and made them throw out all those presents which she brought. "What are you doing, father?!" Theo went to him. "We do not need any of these presents after what the king did to my son. He disrespected my son!" He growled and anger was clearly visible on his face. 

Claire knew something like that would happen and she just looked down. Rose came to her and kept her hand on her shoulder. "Leave before I do something bad too." The king said to Claire. "You cannot behave like this, father!" Jasmine stepped forward. "The king of Andria should also have thought before treating my son like that." He said. "It was not princess Claire's fault." Jasmine said but Claire held her hand from behind.

"Actually, it was my fault." She said and everyone looked at her. "I will leave but before that can I just see prince Sky for once? I want to see if he is well or not." She said in a low voice. Rose noticed the tensed expression on her face and then looked at Theo hoping he would say something. "Please let her do that, father." Theo said to his father who just ignored him.

"Please let her meet him for once, my lord." The queen said and Claire looked at her. "That fake care." She thought to herself and shifted her gaze back to the king. "Permission denied, you can leave." The king said and left from there signaling his guards to take Claire out.

The guards approached her but Theo came and stood in front of them. "She is a royal, she can leave by herself." He said and told Rose to take Claire outside.

As they both came outside Claire hugged Rose for one more time. Little beads of tears were clearly visible in her eyes. "Please take care of prince Sky. He didn't deserve all of that." She said to Rose and she nodded at her feeling very bad for her sister. "Please forgive me Claire, I was not able to do anything. The way father just told you to go from here--" She was cut off by Claire. "No need to apologize for that, I knew something like this would happen." Claire said to her and went to the chariot.

She sat inside and looked back. She waved at Rose and she waved back. "Please take care of yourself too, Claire." She whispered to herself and watched her sister going away from there. "Don't worry princess, I'll make sure she is safe." Jake bowed to her. "I trust you the most with this, Jake." Rose smiled at him and he also followed Claire's chariot from behind.