Anya

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Dressed in a floor length, navy blue dress, Anya made her slow walk towards the garden that Darya was being buried in. Anya knew that Darya probably wouldn't like to be buried no way near the palace but she had no family and Anya wanted her close to her.

Darya was never against the monarchy but she saw the strain and stress that they piled on Anya and she hated them for that. The actual idea of the monarchy never bothered her – or that was what she had told Anya anyway.

The gardens were not near the servants and it was not in the royalty cemetery either so Anya agreed with her mother to place her there. It was the best place Anya could think of. It was facing the north side, which is the side you see if you live in the Frambuesa faction.

Anya loved that she was being buried there because no one in the Frambuesa faction would ever be buried there and yet she knew a lot of them would be envious because it meant that anyone from the public who visited the palace had to pass the gardens and they got more visits from the Frambuesa faction than any of the others.

If anyone from that faction served the palace high enough to get buried on the grounds it would only be with the servants and a lot of people from that faction would rather choose to be buried in their own faction than with people from across the kingdom.

She wasn't even being judgmental, she had met plenty of nice people from Frambuesa but there was that small group of people who ruined it for everyone. A percentage of them did think they were better than most people and Anya hated that trait – it was actually one of the things that attracted her to Mikhail. The majority of the time he was very caring and he did support her in a number of her ventures.

She also knew that it was why she loved Dimitri – he didn't think much of himself (which she believed he should) but he would do everything in his power to help someone else. It amazed her because behind his hard façade it was a young man who just wanted reassurance and loving.

She wanted to be able to give him that and she had never felt so conflicted in her life. She was going to get Dimitri out of that palace if it was the last thing she did but whether she was going to start something similar to what she had with Mikhail was another matter.

She knew that nobody in her family would approve – besides he was technically not even allowed in the factions, the fact that he hasn't had a death sentence on his head yet is remarkable.

Sending him back to Anceps was going to hurt her a lot but it was the only outcome she could imagine that would save him. He needed to save his family and she needed to repair hers. They could not ever be together, it was an absolute shame but she was a Princess and she had to remember the rules.

Anya was the first person at her grave. She wanted to go before anyone else to say her goodbyes with them just together.

The wooden casket was closed and Anya wanted nothing more than to open it to just make sure that it was her best friend and that she wasn't in a deep slumber but she held her best friend in her arms – she knew she had died.

Kneeling against the casket, she leant her arms on top of where she imagined Darya's face would be. "Oh Darya," she began, she had already got a tear in her eye. "How will I survive without you? You were always so strong, pulling me to my feet when I just wanted to stay down. You had always been my inspiration and I knew that I was never going to stop until I made sure that you had your own little family.

"You'll never get that and... and I just don't know what to do." The tears had started rolling down her soft, pale cheeks as she leant the left side of her face against the cold coffin. "I should never have dragged you along with me. I should have sent you to a safe house or left you at the Fisherman's den.

"Why do I always make the wrong judgments? Why do I always mess up everything? I've fallen in love with someone I can never love, I can never show you my children – our children can never play together, I will never be Queen even though it is all I have ever been trained to think about. My whole life is a mess and now that you're gone... I don't think I will ever be able to cope." She started hiccupping as her breathing became shallower from all the crying.

As she cuddled the coffin she felt the first few drops of rain tickle her face. Wiping them off she stayed in the same position, she was not going to leave her best friend just because of the rain.

"We had so many good times between the two of us. The amount of mischief we used to get up to when we were younger. The prank on my cousin when I showed him around the Zafiro faction was probably the best one." A faint smile graced her lips as she remembered the time they pretended to get her cousin into trouble with the King and they started to make him cry.

"I mean, it was not even the pranks, it was the plain, old, good times we just had together. You were always my voice of reason and now I don't have that. I will never be as good a person as I was when I was around you. You always made me see the whole picture – especially when I was younger and a lot more naïve. Even though you are younger, you were always more clued up and knew what to do in every situation."

The rain was now pouring, soaking through her clothes and the cold felt like it was hitting her bones. Through the sudden, harsh weather she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up to the source, she saw her mother, father and family surrounding her.

"Anya dear, come and stand with us. Darya will always know that you love her and she never hated you." Her mother told her as Anya fell into her embrace.

Anya gripped onto her mother as tight as she could. She could not control herself. Darya should never have had this happen to her. She was dead because of her, it was never Dimitri's fault and she could not believe that she had initially blamed it on him. She was a horrible person.

"Why could I not have died?" She wailed. "I have nothing left to live for now whereas Darya had everything. She was starting to become this young woman and I knew that she was going to get married one day and have children of her own – she was such a strong woman. Why is everything so cruel?"

Katerina wanted to tell her daughter sternly that she had everything to live for and that she was an extremely strong person but it was not the time now, she knew that it would just upset Anya even more and all she needed at the moment was someone to cry on.

"Anya darling, let us go into the hall where we can have a small celebration for her. I am sure she would never want you to be sad. Darya was always a happy, optimistic young lady. She needs you to smile because you got the chance to be best friends with her. Your time may not have been long but you have all those memories of her to hold close to you that nobody else does, that should make you special."

Anya smiled through her torrent of tears at her mother's words. She had never thought of it that way but she should feel special that she was as close to Darya as she was. She had the pleasure of knowing this wonderful girl and to watch her grow up before her eyes. She did feel special.

"Thank you, mother."

"It is what I am here for." She replied. "Now, the staff will place Darya in the ground once the rain lets up so we will come back when that happens. What do you want to do now?" Go and see Dimitri, she thought. She was not going to say that though.

"Let us go and have a drink." She told her family and they all nodded as they turned to go inside. She saw her grandmother Olga there – even though she never knew Darya but she did note, sourly, that her grandfather had not.

Hi, I am sorry it took so long but I was trying to put off writing this chapter. In all my stories the funeral chapters are always the hardest and never come out as well as I would have liked them too and this is no exception. 

I hope I have conveyed the emotion that Anya is feeling but I have a feeling I haven't so I am sorry about that. I wish they would get easier but they never do. 

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying the story and the next chapter will be Dimitri.. I think. :)