A Princess Named Harry: Book 2

Chapter 7

The next morning Harry woke up bright and early. She was well-rested after taking a very long nap. She got ready with the help of two young Taram maids.

One was a rosy-eyed, brown-haired maid with many freckles and big round glasses, her name was Nina, and the other maid had orange hair tied up into a short ponytail. She didn't have any freckles, but she did have a single mole near her eye. She had dark eyes, and her name was Leona. Together, the two fixed Harry's hair, her makeup, and picked her outfit for the day.

"Ta-da!" they said harmonically.

Harry spun around in the mirror. They had chosen a short flowery gray dress and fixed her hair up into a side braid style with beautiful, shiny, silver, flowery hairpieces to match.

"It's beautiful," she said cheerfully. "Thanks, you two!"

Nina and Leona smiled. "We're so honored to be complimented by a great princess," spoke Nina. "Yeah, all hail the princess," said Leona. She gave Harry a thumbs up.

Harry smiled as big as she could and said her goodbyes to them. She waved to them as she left and headed down to the dining hall. Nina and Leona had told her when they had come in that after she was finished getting ready, she was to join everyone for breakfast.

She hurried in her dark heels. It was a lot harder to get used to them than new training boots, but with some help from Miss Albet, she was quickly able to master walking in them.

When the butlers saw her, they opened the doors to the dining hall. She was prepared to see everyone, but much to her surprise, no new faces were sitting at the table.

"Welcome, Harry," greeted Henry.

Harry bowed and said the royal greeting.

"There's no need for that," replied Henry. "We're family. It makes me sad knowing my family can't be comfortable with me." He instinctively shot his brother a look, who of course, ignored him.

Harry sat on the other end from her mother, father, and sister, and joined Kahil. She sat far away from Henry. She wondered where everyone was at. Lianne was sitting beside her father, but she didn't look up at Harry. She still wore the same cold blank expression.

Harry wanted to ask where everyone was, but she couldn't find the courage to do it. She watched a maid bring her a plate of food; it was full of Taram delicacies that could only be found in the Taram kingdom. Harry ate everything on the plate. Some of it was delicious while some of it was a little too spicy for her taste. Especially since it was so early in the morning.

As she wondered why three of the royal family members were missing, Henry suddenly gave her the answer.

"It's such a shame that my lovely wife and children couldn't join us."

"And why is that?" asked Caroline.

Henry briskly sat back in his chair. "Ah . . . well . . . you see, my wonderful wife is busy with work in her office." He sighed, "It's tough being the diligent queen of a kingdom." His expression saddened. "As for my young children, they went off full of energy to explore and to play." Henry soon started to ramble on about family meals.

Harry didn't know how to handle the situation. She sat awkwardly tapping her silverware against her finished plate. She was relieved when Kahil leaned over and whispered to her, "Harry, do you want to go to the training grounds?" She quickly whispered back, "Yes."

They excused themselves and headed towards their rooms to change clothes and then to the stables to grab their gear.

Changing clothes was fine, but Nina and Leona didn't want Harry to take her hair down.

"No!" cried Leona. "You must keep the hair style! You look stunning! Looking like this will surely turn heads even in a tacky uniform."

Harry laughed, "I'm sorry, Leona. My hair does look beautiful." She studied it in the mirror. "But even if I don't take it down, it'll quickly become undone by the training."

"But I worked so hard on that!"

Harry was surprised by Leona's reaction.

"Now, now, Leona," sighed Nina. She seemed used to Leona's behavior. "You want Her Highness to have braids, right?"

Leona nodded and mumbled, "Mhm."

Nina patted Leona's shoulder and said, "Then we'll put her hair up into two braids! That way she'll still have braids without all her hair being down, and she can still train without them getting in the way!" She turned to Harry. "Does that sound good, Your Highness?"

Harry nodded, "Yes, it's fine with me."

Nina nudged Leona's arm. "Well? Aren't you going to fix Her Highness's hair?"

Leona nodded and moved over to a chair. "Then please sit here, your highness." Leona fixed Harry's hair, and she left for the stables.

She was shocked to see that Kahil was already there. He had their stuff ready on the training grounds.

"Well, didn't you get all fancy to train?" he joked.

Harry grabbed her braids and laughed, "Yes, well . . . Leona was very persistent."

"Who's Leona?"

"One of my new maids."

"Oh."

Kahil tossed Harry a wooden sword, which she caught with much ease.

"I hope you haven't gotten rusty."

Harry grinned and replied, "I haven't!"

She had been keeping her relentless training schedule for a whole year now. There was no way she was rusty just because a few days had passed. She stepped onto the field and resumed her stance.

"We'll see," Kahil said. He immediately lunged at her. Their first fight began, and in a matter of seconds, Kahil was the winner.

"Looks like you are."

Harry turned around to get the sword he knocked out of her hands. She picked it up and got back into her stance. "I'm just getting warmed up," she replied.

Indeed, she was because, after that, she had beat Kahil in every other round. After many matches, the two paused to catch their breath. Harry wiped the sweat off her face and returned Kahil's insult. "Are you rusty?" Kahil smiled and replied, "Yeah, it sure looks that way."

They both laughed and prepared to resume sparring when two little figures quickly came out from behind the bushes and grabbed Harry. With a quick shout, she fell to the ground and looked at the two that had pounced on her.

Two little children, a boy and a girl with identical features to the Cardiaire royal family stared at her and giggled. Harry immediately realized that they were the difficult twin cousins she had heard about.