War of the Roses

9. Porcelain

Someone was desperately knocking at Esma's door and she ran to open it.

"Your highness, is something wrong?" Esma was surprised to see prince Philip at her door.

"Yes, Samira she-."

"What happened? is she alright?" Esma interrupted.

"Please follow me."

Philip took long and fast steps, Esma tried to follow behind running in order to keep up with his pace. They walked in the room, Samira was laying on the bed, her eyes closed. Esma ran to her kneeling down on the floor and grabbing one of her hands.

"What happened ?" Esma asked with a shaking voice.

"She was attacked." Philip replied with concern in his voice and hands inside his pockets.

Esma covered her mouth with her other hand.

"Oh my god! Attacked? How?"

"Somewhere in the forest, she left the castle grounds."

"Why would she do that?"

Philip looked down, how could he possibly answer ? The simple question was making him feel so guilty. A knock at the door broke the awkwardness of the moment. Esma's accusatory gaze remained on Philip as she walked towards the door to open it .

"I was told to come and see the princess, I'm the court healer." A older man was standing at the other side of the door, most of his face was covered by a white, long and curly beard. The man wore a brown cloak with a robe tied at his waist.

"Yes, thank you for coming, please come in." Esma said moving to the side to give space for the healer to walk in.

The healer looked at Samira for a few seconds.

"What happened to her?" He finally asked.

Philip explained everything that happened only hours ago avoiding Esma's hard gaze.

"Will you get a tea for the princess?" The healer asked Esma as soon as Philip finished telling the story of what happened in the forest.

"Yes, of course."

"But not any tea, I need you to follow my instructions."

"I will."

"You are going to go into the kitchen, ask for Lora. You will ask Lora to prepare a sleeping tea for the princess, don't leave the kitchen until the tea is done and come straight here as soon as you can. You are going to give her the tea and it should make her sleep more, all she needs to do is rest. I think she had more emotional injury than physical. She should be fine tomorrow. "

"Yes sir, right away, if that's all I must go now."

"That will be it."

Esma left the room and headed straight to the kitchen walking as fast as her feet allowed. She was rushing so much that did't noticed the man walking in the opposite direction making them bump into each other. Then man held her waist to stop her from falling, they looked into each others eyes for a couple of seconds until Esma broke apart.

"I'm sorry." She said looking at the floor, avoiding the strange man's gaze on her and his unexplained smirk.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"I must go sir, I have an urgent matter to attend." And she ran away feeling his eyes on her back.

Philip sat in the room, on a chair next to Samira, lacking on the ability of taking his gaze somewhere other than her beautiful face. Her natural pink lips, her rosy cheeks her long lashes, the porcelain look of her skin. Features he didn't noticed before.