One Last Chance

Beyond The Veil II

Disclaimer: This chapter is purely fictional and historically inaccurate, there is no correlation to any historical figures. I have the utmost respect towards the monarch.

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The thunder faded into a gentle whisper and the downpour softened into a pitter patter of raindrops. The dress above them was drenched by now and so were the two women hiding beneath the tree.

Elena tried to shelter the princess by hugging her in her arms the whole time. While Chariya was exhausted, she appreciated and enjoyed every moment for she knew the castle walls weren’t as forgiving.

With a growing sense of responsibility in her, she raised her head and said softly. “Elena, we need to go back, everyone must be so worried.”

Elena nodded firmly with no refusal, she understood she could not kidnap the princess forever. She braved a smile and tugged a stray hair behind her ear. “Alright, come on.”

They exchanged a small smile and got back on the bicycle. Strangely and regrettably, both of them felt the ride home was too short. Chariya hugged Elena’s waist and stared at the back of her head.

She wondered what would happen now.

It wasn’t long before the castle gates appeared before them. With skillful precision, Elena navigated the bicycle to the exit from which they had escaped. However, at this moment, the large, majestic castle gates opened to reveal two figures with grave faces.

The Queen of Suwannarat stood framed in the archway, her presence both regal and formidable. Her silver hair caught the fading light, glimmering like threads of moonlight. Her expression cast all sense of freedom away from Princess Chariya’s spirits.

Standing a foot behind her was no other than Governor Henford, still in his respectable uniform that proudly represented his home country. He had his hands clasped behind him, his stern eyes glared upon his daughter on that rusty, old bicycle.

Elena’s foot screeched on the wet ground and the bicycle came to a stop with its tires sunk miserably into the mud.

She couldn’t begin to imagine how disheveled they both looked, drenched in rain and mud.

Regret etched itself into the lines of both their youthful faces, their heads bowed down like puppies kicked on the streets.

The Queen’s lips pressed together in a thin line. She stepped down from the threshold, the air around her charged with undisguised disapproval. “Where have you taken my daughter to, Miss Henford?”

Her voice was still soft yet it was charged with power and authority. Her eyes were once a source of comfort to Chariya, now it made her realize there was another side of her mother she had yet to discover.

Chariya immediately intervened, “Mae, please, it was me. I asked Erina to bring me out.”

“Riya-” Elena stopped her but was cut off by the Queen with a raised eyebrow.

“Riya?” The Queen glared at the foreign woman, she was never too fond of how unmannered, for lack of a better word, she was. She said coldly, “It’s Princess Chariya to you. Who permitted you to address the princess this ….casually?”

Elena flinched at her words and bit her tongue, she was at a loss of words. She glanced at the princess who now looked as small as a defeated ant.

“I did, Mae. Please don’t scold her.” The princess looked pleadingly at her mother, her voice as weak as a mosquito when she tried to defend Elena.