Away

Chapter 8

Thinking back on her first days at the royal palace, Naira would remember very few details, with the hours and days blurring together as she spent most of her time in boredom. She had spent most of her time in her room, with the exception of the one time Neal had stopped by and offered her a tour of the palace. At one point, possibly on the third or fourth day of her stay, she had asked Linda, the maid that had been assigned to her, to stop bringing in her meals to her room, and asked the Queen if she could join the family at their dinner table. The Queen seemed delighted by the idea, and Naira received a warm smile from everyone at the table when she took a seat. Everyone except for Will, that is. While Neal asked about how she had been settling in, and the King gave her updates on her Uncle's arrival at the French court, Will looked neither happy nor upset at her presence- he simply did not acknowledge any difference at the table and continued eating in his bored expression like that first night in Algol.

"I hope you're comfortable here." The Queen asked. She was sitting at one end of the table, across from the King, while Neal and Naira were seated towards the center at one of the longer sides, with Will and his mother across from them. Naira realized how big the table was and how empty it felt with only six people seated. For some reason, she had always expected more hustle and bustle in a royal household, and when she had came in a few days ago for the wedding, the place overflowing with guests and extended family members and foreign officials and nobles, it had been exactly the way she had always imagined the royal court to be. Now, with everyone gone, and the six of them seated with two servants walking around making sure everyone was being served, it felt like a normal family having dinner together.

"Of course, she is." Princess Katherine chimed in, speaking for the first time. "This girl has likely never even seen this much comfort in her life before. And now she is living in it. Surely she is more than just comfortable." She was speaking with a smile, but her words were dripping with unkindness. Feeling unwelcome for the first time, Naira could only stare. She caught the Queen shoot the princess a look, as if ordering her to stop.

"It is the least we can do compared to what her uncle has done for us. Is continuing to do for us." The King stated with a stricter tone than she had ever heard him use,

Katherine simply sighed and went back to eating, asking her son to pass her the salt. Will did as he was told, and continued eating as if he heard nothing, but Naira thought she caught him looking up at her apologetically a few minutes later.

Later that evening, Naira sat in her room unpacking the first of the three boxes that arrived with her belongings from Algol. They arrived the day after she had asked for them, but she had been procrastinating about taking her things out and placing them in the drawers and wardrobes of her new temporary room. It was not that she had been lazy or busy, in fact she had nothing to do to pass time and wished she had some activities to partake in, but something had been keeping her from unpacking. She felt that, somehow, unpacking would make her stay here feel more real. A small part of her had almost been hoping that before she even got the chance to unpack, her uncle would surprise her by returning, and she could just take the boxes, untouched, back to their home. But pulling out dresses from boxes were becoming a chore, and she was starting to accept she would be here for longer than she expected.

Opening the door to the wardrobe, Naira started carefully placing her folded petticoats and corsets in a pile. Most of the shelves and drawers had been empty, except for one side of the wardrobe that had a few dresses hanging. Assuming they belonged to Neal's mother, Naira left them untouched, making room for her own dresses without moving them aside. She smiled as she opened the third box, which was much smaller and consisted of accessories, her silver hairbrush and matching mirror, and the little trinkets of jewelries that she owned. She would have to send a note to Miranda, thanking her for packing everything so well and sending them with the King's men. She took out her bracelet, and wrapped it around her wrist. It was a thin gold strand with half-moon crescents and stars hanging from it. It was her good luck charm, but it did not match with the silver and cream of her dress for the wedding, and she had reluctantly taken it off for the first time. Perhaps, that was the reason behind the stroke of bad luck that caused her to be stuck here. Putting the last bits of her belongings inside the drawer under the dresser, Naira straightened out her back and stretched, yawning. It was hardly late, and she never slept at this time at home, but she was truly becoming lazy from staying idle all day. Deciding she needed to do something other than sleep in her room, she grabbed a shawl she had just folded and put away, and headed out of her bedchamber.