Noble Blood

Chapter XI - Astonishment

"Gwendolyn, are you coming to breakfast with us?" Evie curiously inquired in a quiet voice.

"I don't think so." Alyss cut in, glancing at her numb lady-in-waiting who lay stiffly on the bed staring at the ceiling.

"Why won't they let me see him?" Gwendolyn asked aloud, more to herself than to her friends.

"Who?" The Dutch princess asked as her brows furrowed, before realising she knew the answer to her own question. "Oh, Christoff!"

"Don't say his name!" Gwen wailed sadly, turning her head to her friends with a pleading look.

"Perhaps it's best you don't see him?" Alyss suggested, imagining seeing a corpse may not be her friend's happiest sight.

"Would you want to see him if it was your father laying there? Just one last time?" The Irish princess asked in an almost angry voice, sitting up on the bed to look her friend straight in the eye.

The German princess didn't need to respond as she looked down to the ground, realising her answer would undoubtedly be "yes". Gwendolyn knew this, "My pain is real!" She exclaimed loudly, almost causing her friend to jump.

"Nobody doubts that!" Cried Evie in return, looking at the lady with compassionate sadness.

"I will go inquire if I can see him now." Replied the Irish princess, standing from the bed and brushing off her skirts before exiting the room.

Gwendolyn felt as though every step was harder to take as she advanced in the corridor towards Christoff's room. Truthfully she was terrified by what she would find, but knew she needed proper closure in any case.

A guard stood before the door, but moved aside as the lady-in-waiting approached him, offering to open it for her.

The door creaked open slowly, the Irish princess almost not daring to enter. Yet she gathered her courage and entered the room. Christoff lay flat on the bed, eyes closed, the covers up to his neck.

"Oh!" Gwendolyn unhappily exclaimed, rushing to grab a chair and sitting as his side. Though she had felt as though every last drop of tears had been drained from her last night, she started crying again.

Seeing him laying there completely still in the dim-lit room because of the closed curtains, the lady knew she would have to come to terms with his death. It was so hard because she would miss so many things about him.

"I'll miss you." She stated aloud, looking at her beloved's calm face, "I'll miss your kindness, your compassion, your care for me. I'll miss the way you made me laugh, think outside of the box. I'll miss having someone to wrap my arms around and..."

Gwendolyn trailed off, as she heard the door creak open once more. She turned around, hoping and praying it wasn't Dietrich.

"Goodmorning Milady," The old nurse greeted with a kind smile, approaching Christoff's bed before patting around his chest, probably to check his wound.

"When was it?" Gwendolyn broke the silence abruptly, looking up with a tear-covered face to the kind woman.

"What, your Ladyship?"

"The time of death. What time was it?" The Irish princess urged on, she needed to know how long he had survived until his last breaths.

"Excuse me?" The nurse looked up more confused than ever, "He isn't dead." She announced, tilting her head at her interlocutor's strange manner.

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Evie was the last to run and take her place at the breakfast table, quickly sitting down and mumbling a greeting to the assembly. There seemed to be an unspoken tension that hung in the room as nobody seemed to want to speak.