The Princess's Secret

Chapter 1

'KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK' 

"Princess, it is nearly mid-day and your mother is requesting your presence at the dining table." the grand maiden said turning the gold door knob as she pushed the heavy wooden door leading into the princess' bedroom.

"Mmmmmhhhh" Freen whines as she smothers her face further into her pillow attempting to hide her face from the impending sunlight she knew was coming. Her bed was so warm and comfortable she couldn't bare to think of getting up any time soon.
The grand maiden walks over to the large 20 ft windows and begins the daily morning routine and attempt to get the princess up and ready for the day.  With a sweeping motion, she slides the heavy velvet curtains allowing the sunlight to cascade inside the large dark room.

She heads over to the princess' bed and begins removing the many large covers that lined the large king sized bed. As she begins removing pillows and stripping the bed bare to replace them with new fresh covers, Freen pulls her last cover over her head and begins to whine again. "I'm not ready to get up just yet Rosemary. Tell mother I'm not feeling well and leave me to sleep." she groans into her pillow. The grand maiden sighs and removes Freen's cover from her warm body causing Freen to instinctively curl up into a ball.

"We do this every morning princess; I can no longer keep covering for you. You know how the queen gets if she catches you missing your morning studies and missing your mandatory meals." she reminds Freen as she continues stripping the bed. "I will get your bath started while you finish getting up and go brush your teeth."

She walks away with a quick pace into the bathroom as Freen sits up in bed rubbing her puffy eyes. Freen begrudgingly gets up and walks toward the bathroom dragging her feet as she goes.
After a quick bath and following her daily morning routine, Freen heads to the dining room before her mother decides to lecture once again about sleeping in.

In the dining room, the king and queen were seated in their usual seats at the head of the table chatting amongst themselves. The line of servants stand behind with their heads down and hands behind their backs awaiting to attend any command that may be given by the royal family. The king and queen stop their conversation as Freen enters the room and they look at her with a displeased look.

"You are late for lunch once again, dear. " the queen complains as Freen approaches. "I'm sorry mother, I couldn't sleep well last night, and I was a bit tired this morning. I must have missed my morning wake up call." Freen says taking her seat at the right side of the table near her mother. She bowed her head feeling like a small child being reprimanded.

"Are you having nightmares again sweetie?" the king asks with a worried look on his face. "I'm fine dad, it's just another stupid dream." She says dismissing the nightly terror that haunted her dreams.  "Have you been taking your nightly tea?" the queen questions. "Yes mother, Rosemary prepares one every night for me." Freen says rolling her eyes. "Your mother is simply trying to help Freen." the king says with a warning look on his face.

Freen sighs and fidgets with the silverware on the table. "Now, now enough of this. The food is getting cold. Maiden!" the queen exclaims. "Yes your highness?" replies the kitchen maiden as she scurries to the table side. "Serve the princess her meal and tell the chef to include lots of veggies. She will need her energy for her studies this afternoon." the queen commanded. "Yes your highness." the maiden replies as she hurries to the kitchen her head bowed low.

Freen hated attending her royal studies. Was it not enough that she was already an only child, having to spend her whole childhood playing alone in an empty big palace? But she was also forbidden to attend regular studies with the rest of the children her age in the land. This would be her last year attending royal studies and frankly she was quite over them.

All the other young adults in the land had now graduated and had moved on to their careers, but because Freen was a royal princess she was forced to attend additional studies until her 25th birthday. These studies included classes instructing on how to behave like royalty and also included learning how to govern the country amongst other things. They also included a lot of history and past royal traditions that she was expected to know once she became queen.

Being that her 25th birthday was only 6 months away, the king and queen had begun plans to hold a huge celebration. The Chankimha palace would host a large banquet with some of the neighboring important rulers and royal families to celebrate Freen's 25th birthday. She would not only be graduating this year, but she will be taking over her parent's reign.

This is something that Freen was not looking forward to as she never wanted to be royalty. She would much rather prefer the common life, but this was a secret she could never let anyone find out, especially her parents. If they were to find out she was not willing to fulfill her legacy, they would surely take the limited freedom she has and force the reign responsibility on her even more.

***Author note: I'm not a writer, please excuse any mistakes. Thanks for reading ☺️