After the Queen Dowager's visit, Irene stopped refusing her meals.
She ate because she had to. Because the alternative had been laid out for her in cold, unmistakable words.
Each morning the tray arrived, each morning she emptied enough of it to satisfy the watchful eyes beyond her door.
The plan to starve herself quietly died, replaced by a dull, mechanical obedience that left a bitter taste no honey could sweeten.
When the day of the physician's examination came, she refused the old man outright.
"I will not see him," she said, voice flat. "Neither of them. Tell them to leave."
When the Old Physician heard Irene's refusal, he merely closed his tired eyes.
"I understand."
His voice was heavy with guilt.
"I shall not trouble Her Highness again."
He turned away quietly.
His assistant followed behind him, silently.
Nickolai did not waste time. By afternoon a new pair had been assigned.
The door opened on Thomas and Bront.
"Your Majesty," Thomas said gently, inclining his head. Bront followed a half-step behind, eyes bright with something like relief.
Irene looked up. For a moment recognition flickered-then settled into weary stillness.
The two men immediately bowed.
Both wore the robes of palace physicians now.
Thomas smiled warmly.
"It has been a long time."
Bront's face brightened.
"We're relieved to see Your Majesty again."
It wasn't a lie.
After hearing everything that had happened-
Her imprisonment.
Her suffering.
Her sickness-
They had feared the worst.
Now-
She was alive.
Even the news of her pregnancy, though complicated, had filled them with relief.
At least...
She had survived.
When they received the King's decree appointing them as physicians to the Crown Princess-
They accepted without hesitation.
Yet, looking at her now, a dull pain throbbed in their chest.
The light in her eyes was gone. The woman who sat before them was thinner, quieter, hollowed out in places they could not name.
Irene only nodded. She could not match their enthusiasm. She offered her wrist when Thomas asked and let him take her pulse in silence.
Questions about her sleep, her appetite, her discomforts were answered mostly by Libby, who stood close and spoke carefully while Irene stared at a point somewhere past the far wall.
When they finished, Thomas told her when they would return. Libby saw them to the door. Irene remained where she was, silent.
"Please take care, Your Majesty," Thomas said from the threshold.
YOU ARE READING
When Beauty Destroys The BL World
RomantikIrene was just a normal girl, waiting for her graduation day to set up her new journey. Her dream is to be a doctor and a good daughter for her single father. But all of that change when she tries to help an old lady from a robber, as she was push d...
