The Harvest || h.s.

Chapter 3

III. LITTLE WOODEN TRAIN TOY

Lena

After 30 minutes of frantic sobbing, worrying, and overthinking, Lena sat up straight on her bed. She searched around her chamber; it was unlike anything she has ever had before. She wiped her tears, walked to her wardrobe and opened it. Inside, there were too many dresses to count, each more beautiful than the one before.

"Why would someone need this many dresses?" Lena mumbled quietly to herself. She wondered why the Prince had put so many dresses in her closet if at the end of the day he would just kill her.

Once again horrible thoughts swept into Lena's mind. She began to panic and then felt dizzy, sitting on the bed to regain some strength. If the Prince were to torture and murder her, why would he have dinner with her? Why would someone give her a tour of the castle the next day or why did she have a room all to herself? Why didn't he do it already?

She remained seated for a couple more minutes, thinking about her family and how much she'd miss them. About how she would never be able to watch Ethan grow, or watch Amelie become a successful designer. The thought of never seeing her family again terrified her.

She managed to calm down and return to the closet, picking a fancy blue dress and trying it on. She looked in the mirror on the wall, and couldn't help but to imagine Amelie proudly sitting behind her and revelling in the beautiful dress.

Lena finished getting ready and left her room. But no one had told her where the dining room was. She started wandering nervously through the castle. The fear of being caught somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, and her punishment being, death.

She went on walking through the long empty halls, stumbling across various ominous staircases she didn't dare climb until she came across an object on the floor. She approached the object and picked it up, examining it carefully. A little wooden toy train. What could that possibly be doing there? She looked at it closely, until someone interrupted calling her name, and the toy fell with a resounding thud.

"Lena! There you are," Betty said, grabbing her hand and leading her down the marble staircase. "Prince Harry is waiting for you. And he does not like to wait." Betty lead Lena through more hallways and various turns, confusing Lena and making her head spin.

"Here we are. Now please be nice with him. He can be a little stubborn sometimes." Betty smiled, and Lena heard her mumbling to herself, though she could not make out what it was.

Lena took a deep breath and entered the dining room, where the Prince was waiting for her standing by an extremely long table, with two chairs, one at each end.

Prince Harry bowed as soon as Lena entered the dining room, and she did so as well.

At least he had manners.

She sat down at her end of the table, and as she did, she felt the Prince's eyes burning into her. He sat down as well, and a cook entered the dining room to serve them their food. Lena smiled at the servant and thanked her, while Prince Harry did nothing but stare at Lena.

Lena cleared her throat, breaking the Prince from his clearly deep thoughts. She didn't want to be the one to break the ice, and she felt that no matter what she said she'd most likely be in trouble, so she just shut her mouth.

The Prince began to eat, eyeing Lena once in a while between spoonfuls of his food.

"Aren't you going to eat anything?" He spat.

She just murmured a quiet 'sorry' and fed on her dinner saying nothing; her silence lasted the entire meal. When they finished eating, the Prince looked up at her.

"Tomorrow someone will show you the places you are allowed to visit. Now you can retire to your room and stay there until tomorrow morning. If you need anything, ask Betty. Please don't come looking for me. Have a good night. And welcome to my palace." The Prince stood up and walked out of the dining room, leaving a confused Lena alone. Betty then knocked on the door before entering.

"He left already?" She questioned as she began to clean up the table.

"Yeah, he did," Lena replied. "Here, let me help you." She helped Betty clean up everything, and Betty gave her a warming smile.

"Thank you, darling. But the Prince doesn't have to know about you helping me, understood?" Lena laughed and nodded. "So how did the dinner go?"

"Quiet. We didn't say a word to each other."

"Oh, don't worry. He's just shy. Give him a couple of days until he's comfortable having you around. Now let's get you back to your room, shall we?"

Betty and Lena started walking back to her room, chatting in the meantime as they roamed the hallways.

"He passed away last year, and I have visited him almost every day since that day. Today's his anniversary, by the way. So it's just me, Amelie, Ethan, mother, and father, even though he's never home. Always working." Lena thought of her family again and how much she missed and loved them, making the empty feeling in her chest grow.

She and Betty got to her room again, they said goodbye and wished each other a Goodnight, before Lena changed into a nightgown and laid on the bed.

She wasn't able to sleep, staring at the ceiling all night long. She rolled around in bed, trying to force her mind to sleep and rest, but she couldn't. All she could think about was her family and how she would not see them ever again.

That wasn't all that roamed around her thoughts, though. That little wooden toy. What was it doing in the hallway? Most importantly, what was it doing in the castle?