They Call Me Princess

Chapter Five: Not As It Seems

I sighed while looking around. Standing up was out of the question since his Royal Highness would lecture me, so I was stuck sitting there.

I lifted up my other foot and began to take off my right shoe. After successfully taking it off I tossed it with its partner not too far away. I blew a strand of hair out of my face and began to wonder how far away the kitchen was and how long it was going to take him.

I began to study the tea set out of boredom and decided that it was an antique, not that I knew anything about antiques other than them being old. I was starting to get annoyed when the door opened behind me. Thinking that it was the royal idiot that went  to the kitchen I turned to start ranting about how long it took.

I opened my mouth but soon closed it seeing that the person who opened the door was NOT the man I expected.

"Well hello there." The man greeted with a sadistic grin. His entire persona so far had screamed creepy pervert.

I shoved the layers of dress off of my knees and back to my ankles. He chuckled seeing this and shook his head.

"That won't help you. Neither will screaming and crying for help." He began to walk closer to the chair with a sick look in his eyes.

Forgetting the pain in my ankle for a breif moment I sprung up and ran to another door, but due to the limping  I had to deal with he easily grabbed me, right as my fingers grabbed the dooknob.

"NO! Let me go you jerk!" I shouted as he dragged me back to the chairs.

"Just sit down and shut up!" He shouted back in my ear making me cringe.

Before he could take me any further I whipped around and slapped him leaving him stunned. He loosened his grip just enough for me to jump out of his hold and let him fall to the ground. I tried to run off but he grabbed my throbbing ankle and pulled me down allowing a painful cry to leave my lips.

I fell to the ground before he dragged me by the same ankle closer to him. I tried to claw my way away, but he was way stronger than I am. As quickly as he could, he  got on top of me and tried to find my zipper in the back of my dress.

Right before he could he was tackled off of me in a blur of blue. I let out a relieved sigh as my rapid breathing began to become calm again. I began to sit up, but Dimas quickly grabbed my arms and pulled me away from the wrestling men.

"Your lucky. Three noble women have already been handled by him. Sorry to use you as bait, but we needed to catch him." I looked at Ankor in shock as he watched Alexie pin the guy down.

"Excuse me?! You used me as bait! What if you didn't get here in time?!" I screamed at them as Dimas tried to calm me.

"Hey, shhh. Everything's fine see?" He whispered while hugging me. "Can I get an icepack now?" I muttered pitifully, biting my lip to stop the tears that were daring to shed.

"Here, I  believe that you deserve some ice." Jac said calmly as he wrapped my ankle in it.

The coldness was even more painful than the initial injury. Dimas continued to hold me in his embrace as he rubbed calming circles on my arm.

Jac smoothed my hair that became a mess after being dragged on the floor and tossed around while Ankor stood silently behind me while we watched Alexei pin the guy down AGAIN, this time the guy stopped struggling and just layed there.

We all sat in silence as cops filled the room and took the culprit away. I was seated in a chair, since my ankle was now even worse than before, and questioned thoroughly.

Within the next hour everyone had filtered out of the room except the royals, myself, and King William.

"You used me as bait." I stated dully looking at all five of the men standing before me.

"Yes." Alexei answered first with his eyes cast down. "Is that why your first date dropped out?"

He nodded his head, his eyes never leaving the floor. "So you decided to use some useless commoner, the closest female, and use her? I have a life you know!"

I tried to stand up, wanting to leave the jerks standing in front of me, but with my ankle still throbbing and swollen standing was not an option. I ended up standing for a moment or two before falling to my knees. Giving up I sat on the ground in a huff.

"You okay?" Dimas asked while looking at my pitiful state. "Do I look okay to you?" I snapped even though he was being kind.

They all continued to stand in silence leaving me to my thoughts. I got tired after a while and just shook my head with a sigh. "Will someone please just take me home? I need to feed my cat." I spoke quietly feeling a small sense of guilt for the way I spoke to them.

"I'll take responsibility of her, go on to bed or something." Alexei walked towards me and picked me up bridal style, ignoring the fact that he was one of the LAST people I wanted to be alone with.

"Alright, I trust that you will take good care of her then?" King George asked while the other three princes left the room.

"Yes sir." The King nodded his head before looking at me. "Good night child." He patted my head, which was no doubt a mess with all of the drama in the last few hours.

After the King had left the room Alexei began to walk away with me still in his arms. "I apologize for the harm I have done tonight, I realize that I have trampled on your pride and that you could have been further harmed in the end."

I nodded my head and choked down any sarcastic comment I could make. "Apology accepted, depending on how fast you can get me home."

He chuckled a bit but made no further attempt at conversation. In the end, we ended up in an awkward silence and in an awkward situation. Instead of making things worse, I decided to just admire the extravagant furnishings and renaissance style art as we passed then by during our fairly long walk in the empty hallways of the palace. Every hallway was littered with portraits of past royals and nobles and some small tables had been set up with vases that had eccentric designs and flowers of every color sitting in them.

Before long I had been carried out of the back entrance and into a waiting limo. I expected the royal to just leave me there-but he had other plans in mind since he slid in next to me and closed the door.

"What are you-"

"I'm bandaging your ankle." He stated firmly, as if he already expected my question. A small blush rushed onto my cheeks as I shook my head.

"No! I mean- It's fine! No need to worry!" I quickly spoke, shaking my head and moving my feet closer to myself.

"Miss Richards," He spoke with a firm voice, almost as if scolding a child. "I will be bandaging your foot one way...or another."

He leaned in towards my face, with no hesitation or nervousness evident in his eyes. Gulping, I slowly lifted up my injured leg onto the seat while he sat back up straight. He carefully lifted my ankle and sat it in his lap before reaching beneath the seats to grab a box labeled 'First Aid.'

He opened it and explored its contents, often shuffling things around while the driver drove out of the palace gates, reporters and paparazzi long gone leaving only the gorgeous front lawn the was covered with still green grass- which was strange due to the autumn weather.

I heard a small "Ah-ha!" from behind me which snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned my head slowly, slightly bored from my weather based thoughts.

Yes, I bored myself with my own thoughts…