Bridgerton - The Lost Royal

Chapter Eighteen

Sophia

Feeling Benedict's lips on mine certainly wasn't how I expected the night to end. I know he only did it to save me from the queen coming our way, otherwise he would have never done such a thing. That is also the only reason I kissed him back, to save Hyacinth and get us out of there. We certainly had no other motives to kiss each other than to distract Her Royal Highness.

Only we sort of kept kissing for what felt like forever and only a tenth of a second at the same time. But it must have been long, because instead of breaking apart on our own accord, we didn't let go of each other until the queen reminded us she was there at all, by coughing loudly.

I pushed Benedict away instantly, my face entirely flushed, eyes wide and mouth partially open. Both our heads turned towards the queen, who was looking at us with a disgusted look on her face. In hindsight, it was the right decision. Benedict did the smart thing, kissing me distracted her entirely from what was going inside the room behind us. But in that moment, where she looked at us, or just me, it seemed, I was regretting every second of it.

I had expected her to yell, to order her guards to throw us out or force us to marry, which is technically what ought to be done in a situation such as this. Benedict and I kissed, we got caught, that means marriage. But the queen did not utter a single word. Instead she stared, at me. She scanned me more thoroughly than any of the eager mothers of the ton had done so far. She seemed to consider every inch of me and I forgot how to breathe.

Just as suddenly as she'd arrived, she left. She swiftly turned around and vanished, down the hallway with her guards trailing behind her, clearly just as confused as to why she would not punish us for what we'd done.

We were speechless for another couple of minutes, our eyes fixed on the spot where the queen had stood. It wasn't until Hyacinth emerged from the room with a little red booklet in her hands that we snapped out of it and made our way out of the castle as fast as we could.

Hyacinth later explained that the little red booklet was a notebook, some kind of diary, one the queen herself had written in during the period of the accident. I encouraged Hyacinth to keep it closed and give it back to the queen straight away, but she wasn't listening to me at all.

I had forbidden myself to ever go along with Hyacinth's idea's ever again, and I tried to stay clear of her and the diary. But as the days went on, and my mind kept replaying the kiss me and Benedict shared, followed by the horrendous meeting with the queen and all the consequences that those two moments were going to have on my life, I couldn't help myself anymore.

"Hyacinth?" I ask after knocking on her door, "May I come in?"

I hear a book being shut closed and then a grunt, "Yes, come in."

I open the door and step inside. Hyacinth is sat on the floor, the diary in front of her. I'm hesitant and stay near the door, "Is it any good?" I ask.

She shakes her head, "I haven't read it yet. I keep trying but I'm scared of what I'll find."

I can see Hyacinth is genuinly having a hard time, and there's an apologetic look in her eyes, eyes that refuse to meet mine. I step closer,

"Are you sure you're not going to read it? After all we did to get it?" I ask.

Hyacinth looks up surprised, "Weren't you the one telling me to return it? Rightfully so, after what happened..." She sighs.

I walk over to her and join her on the floor, "What happened was not your fault. Or at least not entirely. And I'm really stressed and really curious so can you please just open the book and read it with me?"

"Really?" she asks, the sparkle returning to her eyes. I nod with a smile and Hyacinth lifts up the book, carefully opening it. My eyes scan the pages, intrigued by a diary written by someone so powerful.

It starts off a little boring, as the accident has not happened yet, but it is clear when it does. The writing has been blurred by what I assume are tears, quite a lot of them. The queen describes how she received the news, That her oldest son has passed away together with his wife, and that the newborn baby is yet to be found.

"She." Hyacinth breathes. I look at her, not understanding, clearly she reads faster then me.

"The baby," she explains, "The baby was a girl."