𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚢𝚊𝚕 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢

𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽

TW: Aggressiveness and shouting.
The castle was quiet. The day after the funeral went by in silence. There were no parties. There were no guests. There was no distant laughing echoing through the halls. It was silent. Everything was different without Victoria. The family stayed in their rooms until time for breakfast arrived. They all walked down in silence.
"Good morning father" Elizabeth said as he arrived before her.
"Good morning" Azazel whispered. You could hear the pain in his voice. Hannah walked in with her sisters behind her. She couldn't help but stare at her mother's usual seat at the dining table.
"Morning" Charlotte said in a low tone with dark circles under her eyes. Elizabeth assumed she just must not have slept well dealing with mothers passing.
"Morning Charlotte. Nancy should have the food ready any minute now. "she said in a cheery tone trying to lighten her sisters up. She had to be the woman of the household now. Azazel sat with his hands shaking the cutlery.
"Father. You're shaking like a maniac are you alright?" Elizabeth asked him.
"P-Perfectly fine my de-" Azazel stopped himself as thats what he called Victoria and couldn't stop calling Elizabeth that since she looks just like her.
"Father.." Charlotte mumbled knowing what he was going to say.
"It's alright children it's just-" he sighed.
"I miss her so much. I'm sorry if you haven't seen me much since the incident" Azazel apologized. Elizabeth whimpered and cried silently.
"What's wrong Liz?" he asked.
"I just- I just want everything to go back to normal" she answered.
"It will never be the same, not without Vic- your mother here" He said holding back some tears himself.
"I know Father but, how are we supposed to tell the people of mothers passing? What will they think of us? Will they see us as weak?" she rambled. Everyone looked around at eachother except Azazel. They hadn't thought about how to tell the the public but, Azazel knew just what to do.
"No one will know." he said firmly and sitting up straight.
"So we're just supposed to pretend everything is fine?" Hannah asked.
"No. We shut them out" Azazel answered. The girls gasped.
"But father-" Elizabeth was cut off.
" I SAID we shut them out!" he grew louder.
"NO ONE is to leave the palace gates. NO ONE is to go outside the castle alone. We lock our gates and tell the public that we did so for renovations. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!" Azazel shouted. Charlotte, Josephine and Hannah pulled back. For some reason they felt scared. Elizabeth wanted to argue. She wanted to scream. She knew this was unfair. She was newly a adult she wanted to see the world outside the palace gates but now she was being locked in?? But she did what she knew was safest.
"Yes sir" she finally answered as her head fell.
You can't say no to a king...