His Unwanted Princess

Chapter 33

It had turned night, and the prince hadn't been found yet. Where he was was a mystery to anyone, and why he was gone was a tougher mystery. I was trying to figure out why he left. Did he run away, or was there a bigger motive for his disappearance? I couldn't understand.

I'm thinking about this while eating dinner. When I walked in, I was the only one, so now I'm sitting at the table by myself, feeling guilty for choosing to eat. I want to know when anyone else is going to eat or if they have already done so. I was just so hungry and still running on low blood pressure, so I needed as much fuel as I could get.

I'm almost done with my dinner when I hear someone walking into the room. Kenna, one of the waitresses, is walking inside, making a beeline toward the kitchen again. "Hey," I say to stop her, and she does.

"My lady," she says with a small curtsy, and I almost choke at that. Her eyebrows move together as she says, "Do you need anything?"

"No," I say to her, but then beckon her over to me anyway. She walks toward me, and she must see the emotions on her face when she says, "You miss him, don't you?"

"I'm more angry at him for leaving without telling me in the first place," I say to her, and that's the first time I was truly honest with someone when speaking of Emmet. Our relationship wasn't existent behind closed doors, but in public, we protrayed ourselves with a lovely image because this wasn't an arranged marriage; the prince had chosen me. If he had chosen me, then why would our relationship not launch in the way so many guests have come to see? So whenever someone asked me about him, I'd be sure to respond with that notion.

"I could understand that," she says to me as she drops the plate she was holding onto the table. I pull the chair beside me, the one that Emmet usually sits at if we eat in this room, and gesture for her to take a seat. She does so and says, "He has been gone for more than a day. What do you think he is doing?"

"I'm not sure," I tell her honestly. "He hadn't ever mentioned having to do something outside of the palace. He tells me about work, but hasn't mentioned this."

"Oh, really?" Kenna says, and then gives me a sad smile. She drums her finger on the table and says, "That must be tough not knowing where he is."

"It is," I tell her, and I cannot help but get annoyed at him. "I've been getting questioned the entire day just because he left when I had been in the room."

"You didn't hear anything?"

"I was passed out," I tell her. "The arrow had gotten me good, and I was already wanting to go to sleep, but Emmet didn't let me. He made me stay awake the entirety of the awful ride back here. Then the whole taking care of me medically started, and so I finally got sleep after losing so much blood."

"It must have been a good night's rest," Kenna says with a soft smile. I nod in agreement and say, "Yes. So good that I hadn't heard Emmet leave my room at around midnight."

"Well, it's not your fault," Kenna says, noticing the tone in my voice that was weaker than it needed to be. I sigh and say, "Yes, but the king has been so relentless in finding an answer for me. I had none for him, and yet he kept going."

"Oh," Kenna says, then her eyes avert from mine. "I think the king is just angry that this wasn't the first time it had happened."

"Right, it happened before. Where did he go?"

"No one knows," Kenna said with a shrug. "But when he came back, he became different."

"Different how?" I ask her, wanting to know the reason just so I can try to piece anything together. She glances down at the table and then says, "Well, his attitude was one, and well, there was another thing."