The Lost Princess

Chapter Sixteen

I blinked several times as I woke up.  I rubbed my head as I thought about that strange dream.  I normally wake up when I see something scary, but this time I didn't.  The heads on the spikes should have woken me up, but they didn't.  I rubbed my head trying to make sense of what Aunt Rosalie and Giselle were talking about in the dream.  Giselle was also a maid in the castle.  She wore the same dress as Aunt Rosalie.

I stared at the ceiling as I laid on my back on the bed. The bed felt very soft. It cradled my body and head perfectly. My bed at Aunt Rosalie's was harder and seemed older or used more. I laid there thinking about Kat, Jakob, Giselle, and Aunt Rosalie. Aunt Rosalie would be worried by now that I never came home. I'm sure she figured out that I tried to steal Kat's medicine and was caught. Jakob is probably mad that I didn't tell him. Giselle is probably freaking out about how they will survive. And Kat...Kat never got her medicine. She might never wake up. She might never know that I tried to save her. My stomach felt queasy thinking about never seeing my family again.

I sat up taking deep breaths. I would never see my family again. I was going to die here. I already knew that King Maddox would never let me live, but Princess Lorica is alive. Why is she alive? Where is she? Why all the secrets?  Why won't they tell me?

My mind raced to try to think of any reason for the lies and secrets. What purpose did they serve? Why?

The door burst open and four young women wearing gray, striped dresses barreled into the room. Three soldiers followed the women. Two of them were carrying large pots of boiling water. They carried the pots of water to the wash room. The other soldier stood at the door leading to the hallway. He stood there staring at me. I continued to sit on my bed, confused. The two soldiers came back into the bedroom. They looked around the room. Then all three soldiers left the room, leaving the four maids and me alone. I heard the door slam and lock click.

I stared at the women. One of the women carried a bucket of different soaps and perfumes bottles in it. She carried the bucket into the wash room. Her hair was neatly tied up into a tight bun on top of her head.

Another woman hung up a dress in a bag on the armoire in the room. She also had her hair up in a tight bun. I watched her straighten out the bag after she hung it up.

The other two women set a couple of boxes on the vanity. They arranged them on the counter of the vanity.

Then they grabbed my arms and pulled me off the bed. They pushed me into the wash room. They undressed me, pulling at my arms and legs.

"Hey," I said. "What's going on?"

They continued to pull off my clothing. Then they pushed me into the tub of hot water. The water was a lot hotter than I was use to at Aunt Rosalie's.

"What's going on?" I asked again.

The maids ignored me as they continued to scrub my skin and hair with perfumed soaps. They rinsed my hair with clean water from a glass pitcher on the counter. One of the maids pulled my legs out of the water in the tub. She took a straight razor and slid it across my legs shaving off the hair on my legs. Another maid pushed my head back against the tub. She took tweezers and plucked the hair on my eyebrows. They scrubbed my skin and hair again using soaps and sponges again. The sponges were rough against my skin.  Then they rinsed my hair and body again with the fresh water. One of the maids motioned me to stand up. I stood up in the tub completely naked. The maids rinsed me off with more water from the glass pitcher. Then they wrapped me in several towels, drying my skin.