𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃 | ❝Hope is good, Hope will never disgrace, but make no mistake, Hope will hit you in the face!❞
In which the Just King becomes betrothed to a princess from a neighboring kingdom, only to fall in love with the prin...
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IT WASN'T VERY LADYLIKE of her, but Odette was seconds away from tearing Cair Paravel apart with her bare hands.
The morning of her 18th birthday — by the way, that's today — was supposed to be perfect. She would wake up to the birds harmonizing near her window, a sound just loud enough to mask the unending knocking on her door, where Hope would be waiting on the other side. She would grumble something about how, even on her birthday, Odette found a way to sleep in, and accompanying her annoyed tone would be a smile. Yes, for the last three years or so, this was how the princess always started her day, but she found that things never felt right when Hope wasn't the first person she saw in the morning. Call her crazy, call her dramatic, but she swore this was the truth.
Some people didn't understand how much Odette needed Hope. Sure, she was a mere handmaid, but to the princess, she was so much more than that. Hope was everything she could ever need—a friend, a shoulder to cry on, a voice of reason, a supporter, a guiding light. In every perceivable way, she was a mess without Hope.
So when she awakened this morning and Hope was nowhere to be found, she knew today was going to be a day filled with misfortune.
Between breaking a new record for how late she could sleep in, having to be woken up by Susan and Lucy, who were equally as surprised to see the future queen still in bed at 10:00 AM, and rushing to get dressed before her parents yelled at her (which they did anyway), not to mention breaking a few vases and glassware at "breakfast" and tripping over her own two feet numerous times, Odette was convinced the world was tipped upside down. And yet, all she could think was: Where is Hope?
Hope had been by her side every morning since she became Odette's lady-in-waiting. Maybe they didn't spend every hour of every day together, but they had a silent agreement that their mornings were always spent together. Well, that was what Odette thought.
Odette remembered a servant notifying her that Edmund required Hope's assistance for something yesterday afternoon. She was so busy at the time that she didn't bother asking what it was, which she was promptly regretting. She assumed it was something minor, but an entire night had passed and they had yet to return.
Surely if they intended to travel outside of Cair Paravel, never mind partake in an overnight affair, Hope would've informed her, right? What if something happened to one or both of them? The disappearance of her fiancé was one thing (and probably one that should've been the focus of her worries), but the disappearance of her best friend was another, far worse thing. At least, it was in her opinion.
