The Traitor's Daughter

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Elizabeth woke up the next morning to the sound of someone snoring. For a second, while she was in between the stages of sleeping and waking up, she was certain that it was herself snoring, and was a bit disgusted at the deep, guttural sound that was emitting from her body. But when she opened her eyes and the snoring continued, she was immediately frightful of the sound because of the sudden realization that someone else was in her room with her.

She rolled over onto her side and faced the area where the sound was coming from, then immediately closed her eyes again, when she realized that her bed curtains were open and the bright sunlight met her tired eyes. She rubbed a hand over her eyes, then sat up in bed and prepared herself for the brightness once more. She slowly opened her eyes little by little, until she could make out a form sitting on a chair close to her bed.

Once her eyes were fully opened and had adjusted to the brightness, she frowned. It was King Owen who sat in the chair, his feet resting on the edge of the seat so that his knees were brought up to his chest. His cheek rested on his knees and his mouth hung open, showing that he was clearly the source of the snoring. A dark stain on the king's breeches showed that he had been drooling. The king looked more peaceful than she'd ever seen him, considering she'd only ever seen him awake. It seemed that the king could only receive peace when he slept.

Elizabeth smiled, then immediately regretted it when she felt her lip split open once more. She cursed louder than she had intended to, then frowned once the king began to stir. She put a hand on her lip to hopefully lessen the bleeding, but the oils on her hands only caused her lip to sting more.

The king immediately stopped snoring, then lurched forward out of the chair and positioned himself into a fighting stance. His eyes looked wildly around the room until they landed on Elizabeth, who looked at the man as if he were mad. His body immediately relaxed and he leaped towards her, a grin now on his face.

"You're awake! Tell me," He started, his expression suddenly concerned. "How do you feel? Do you need my physician? I slept by your side all night to make sure that you were okay. You had a few nightmares that I wasn't able to wake you out of, but other than that, you seemed to sleep well. I was extremely worried about you. How are you feeling?"

Elizabeth blinked slowly while trying to figure out which question to answer first. The king reached a hand out towards her, which she took without much hesitation, then she smiled at the king, which once again gave her pain.

"Your lip is bleeding," The king stated stupidly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. Elizabeth made a move to grab it, but the king got to her before she got to him. He dabbed at her lip with an intense look of concentration on his face.

She reached up and placed a hand around his wrist, which caused the king to stop what he was doing, then he met Elizabeth's gaze.

"You stayed here all night?" She questioned, hoping she didn't sound as annoyed as she felt.

The king smiled proudly and nodded, his expression making him look as though he were an overgrown child.

"As I said, I was worried about you." The king grabbed Elizabeth's hand and gently placed it up to his lips. Half of his face was lined from where he had rested his cheek on his knee, and he had dark circles under his eyes. It was clear he hadn't slept very well in the hard, carved chair that sat next to Elizabeth's bed. He made a mental note to send her some better furniture, seeing as everything was too drab for his tastes.

"I'm feeling much better," She said honestly as the king lowered their hands. "I feel quite stupid for reacting the way I did." She hung her head and pretended to be embarrassed. In truth, she was curious to see what the king had decided to do with Sir Richard.