To Win the Prince's Hand

Chapter 28

 28.

“Get up, get up!” a voice yelled, whacking me over the head with a pillow. “You run away for a whole month and then just sleep?”

My eyes drifted open to find Abigail standing over me, a stern look on her face. A pillow was perched in the air, frozen mid-swing as she stared down at me. Jasmine stood behind her, arms crossed, leaning against my bed post.

I blinked once, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “Hey, Abigail; Hey, Jasmine,” I greeted with a lazy smile.

“Hey?  That’s all you have to say?” she shrieked, and the pillow made the rest of the way to hit my side.

“Abigail, stop hitting her with that,” Jasmine spoke up now. “You aren’t going to get answers if you don’t.”

She immediately dropped the pillow onto the floor, giving me the opportunity to sit back up. I stood up, making my way over to my wardrobe. “Have you gotten rid of my stuff yet?” I joked, scanning over the dresses.

“Danielle, please, just tell us!” Abigail begged from behind me, and a small smile crept up on my face.

However, I didn’t answer and just walked off to my bathroom, quickly changing into the sky blue day gown before I walked back in. Jasmine now looked fairly amused while Abigail looked downright frustrated.

“So, did you guys miss me?” I asked with a completely innocent expression.

“Not at all,” Jasmine answered as seriously as she could.

“What happened?” Abigail asked.

“Well, you already know that,” I replied with a roll of my eyes. “Gabriel told you and I bet Jasmine explained at least to you what else happened.” I looked over to find Jasmine sending me an apologetic look.

“Well, yeah, I get that. What next?” she wondered.

“Well, I arrived in some small village and got a job at an inn. I was the cook and was doing quite fine until Ethan showed up. The next day I got fired, and so he goaded me into coming back.”

“Of course,” she said, humor creeping up onto her face. “I swear the only two people who could’ve brought you back were him and Gabriel.”

Jasmine quickly shot her a “shut up now you idiot!” look, while I just look perplexed. “Why them?”

“Well, Ethan knows exactly how to get on your nerves, so he would’ve annoyed you into going, which he probably did. And as for Gabriel,” she paused as if she wasn’t sure what to say with a shrug. “Well, you guys are, or at least were, close to each other. I figure you’d take his opinion to heart.”

I nodded, looking down at the floor. A long silence stretched out as I wanted to ask how he was, but at the same time I didn’t want to know. “And on a different topic,” Jasmine started, cutting into the silence.

I picked at a string on my dress as we continued to stand there. The silence became suffocating with unasked questions that everyone was scared to voice aloud.

“Danielle, you’re back!” Mark yelled, throwing open the door and entering with Ethan lazily trailing behind.

He was completely unaware of the awkward silence that had just occurred as he threw his arms around me in a warm hug before pulling back and walking over to Abigail, who he kissed on the cheek, making her blush.

“You’re a couple now?” I asked, and he turned red as well.

“Yes, and they act sickeningly sweet. Why do you think I volunteered to go on the errand that brought me to you?” Ethan remarked sarcastically, and Abigail rolled her eyes.