"Falling"

Waiting...

Footsteps echo in the hall outside of the King's study, Bella pacing in front of the two soldiers that guard the door. She had seen the Lords from the Private Council leave moments before and knows that, right about now, Commander Ackles is telling the King all that she had told him that morning.

Her stomach does a flip at the thought of how that conversation might go, since she still has to go inside and talk to the King herself. It is doubtful that the King won't send her to the dungeons, and she hopes that the Commander is able to convince the King that she is truly innocent in all of this.

She knows she should've told them sooner, but she believed she could handle things herself. Bella never thought things would get as complicated as they did and now her only hope is that the King believes and helps her.

Bella will be the first to admit that she isn't completely sure that her father wants to harm the King, and maybe he had been telling her the truth, but between her father's change in behavior towards her, the letters she has received from him, and his hatred towards the King, it's impossible to be anything else.

Raised voices reach the hall, and Bella thinks that the Commander is fighting for her, the thought warming her heart. She never wanted to put him in this position, but knowing he is on her side and is willing to fight for her, makes her sure she made the right decision in trusting him.

Bella thinks back to when she told him, scared that he would turn on her and have her sent to the dungeons. But she knew she needed to trust that, whatever she had seen in his eyes when they had that moment in the stables, it would be strong enough to make him want to help her.

The door to the study opens and Bella turns towards it, seeing the Commander signaling her to go in, tension radiating from him. Taking a deep breath, she nods at him and walks over, thinking that, by the time she leaves that room, it will either be as a free woman or bound to the dungeons.