Forest of Fireflies

Chapter 56

(Enchanted Forest, 6 months after Regina's marriage to the King, 3rd Person POV)

Lisa weaved past people with her hands pushing a cart of flour on her way to the kitchens. When she reached the storeroom, she heard loud voices inside. Opening the door, a group of five women looked up at her. Lisa frowned, "Was I interrupting something?"

One of the women shook her head. "No, of course not. Come join us, Cummings. Johanna's just having a little rant, aren't you?" She nudged Princess Snow's nanny who crossed her arms and huffed. Whilst Lisa heaved the bag of flour into it's place in the room, Johanna continued, "That girl doesn't know what she's doing! She doesn't know how to be a mother to Snow! She's acting like a brat, parading around in Eva's jewellery. She's-"

Lisa opened her mouth and cut in, "Are you talking about the Queen?"

Johanna snapped, "Yes, I'm talking about that girl."

Lisa looked around and saw that the expressions on the other servants' faces matched her own. She hastily whispered, "Don't let anyone hear you disrespect the Queen, Johanna. She's not Eva, but she's still King Leopold's wife."

Johanna huffed, "She'll never reach Queen Eva's standards. Nor will I let her-"

"And how to you plan to accomplish that? She's the Queen, she can do whatever she pleases."

"She's a girl! Barely over the age of eighteen!"

Lisa shrugged, "The King wanted to marry her, so it isn't our place to question his decision."

Johanna responded with a snort. "Mark my words, all of you. That brat married the King for power. She wants what Queen Eva had, but she'll never get it...despite that child she's brewing in her womb. The kingdom won't love her child as much as Eva's. She's fooling herself if she believes that we'll ever bow down to that child, instead of Snow."

Lisa sighed. "Come on, we can't stay here all morning. Also, I just hope that your opinions stay to yourself, Johanna. I don't want to be accused of siding with you if anyone finds out about what you said."

Lisa, Johanna, nor any of the women in the room realised that just a few seconds before they left the room, there was a rapid patter of footsteps running away from the door of the closed storeroom. The footsteps died down to let the girl who carried them catch her breath. After a few seconds of resting, the girl slid behind a suit of armour in an empty corridor and cried as she gently rubbed her pregnant belly. 

...............................

(Daniella's POV)

For some reason, I couldn't spot Maria in the playground anywhere. She just seemed to have disappeared after class. She interacted with me a few times but was always pulled away by her friends each time there was a moment of silence between us. Snow was still our teacher so no one dared to say anything unpleasant to me. That however, was not the case during lunchtime.

I was walking along the side of the school building when Leyton and his gang came in the direction that I was headed towards. I knew I couldn't turn away, since it would just demonstrate that I was afraid of them. So, I set my face into a glare and continued walking, hoping that they would choose to ignore me. Unfortunately, they had other plans. 

"Look what we have here, boys."

I rolled my eyes and tried to walk around them. However, they formed a circle around me and came closer. "We have the little freak! She hasn't changed much has she?"

I looked up to Leyton and seethed, "What do you want? I see that you haven't changed either."

"Oh, I want nothing much. Just wanna see if you still squeal when we push you over-" With that, I felt a sharp shove of hands on my back. Caught offguard, I fell onto the gravel ground and scraped my chin.