In The Woods ➳ H.S.

☙ t h i r t y

If you didnt know, I had updated yesterday but it didnt post, then when I tried again today, wattpad deleted it so I had to re-write this.

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO TOLD ME THEY LIKE MY AN'S. YOU GUYS ARE RIGHT, I SHOULDN'T STOP BC OF ONE PERSON. WOOP! HOPE YOUR FAVES ACKNOWLEDGES YOUR EXISTENCE BABES 💕

This is probs annoyingly long now so just enjoy the chapter.

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"Harry, love, a guard says he saw you come here a- oh, you have company." A voice breaks through, causing both Harry and I to jump back and increase the space between us.

The lady with long brown hair was immediately recognizable as she is the queen of the kingdom. Most servants would have bowed in respect, but they'll have to break my back before they can make me bow to anyone here.

"Mother." Harry greets before his eyes glance at me. "This is Annalyn, she's one of our servants." He says, introducing me.

"I normally wouldn't care, love." The queen says, sending her son a sarcastic smile before looking at me as well. "But I know you. You're the girl who's with child, am I correct? The one that served us wine the other night?"

I offer a nod, wrapping my arms around my waist as the queen's eyes glance down at my stomach. "That's correct, and I regret nothing of what I said."

Her eyes lock with mine and they were wide open, not with shock or anger, but - surprisingly - amusement. "And why would you regret those words? They were funny, and quite true really. I was never fond of that Charlotte girl. In my opinion, she was probably dropped on her head as a baby." She says, laughing loudly after her own joke.

I let myself smile a little, but I was more than wary of the situation.

I had expected the queen to be as snobby as her son, but the way she talks and moves sends off a wave of warmth - the complete opposite of what I was expecting.

"Mother, what do you want?" Harry interrupts her, not waiting for her to calm down as he crosses his arms in front of his chest.

The queen ignores her son, her eyes staying on me as small chuckles still made her shoulders shake. "I thought you said your name is Cecily." She questions, "Or is that your own way of making us look even more stupid?"

"The latter one, actually." I shrug.

The queen looks to Harry now. She points a finger at me, a bright smile still on her face. "I like her. She has a backbone unlike everyone else here." She says and then her eyes glance at me quickly before she looks back at her son. "And I assume you like her too seeing as you two were having a moment alone before I barged in." She chuckles and my eyes widen along with Harry's. Both of us were about to explain to her that she had the wrong idea but she quickly turns around chuckling. "Come along now, son, you know you have to go around town every morning. Bring her too if you want, but she's going to need better fitting clothes if she's going to be seen with you."

Harry's eyes meet mine in complete confusion as his mother continued on talking. "You should bring her to Madeline, get that woman to design her around twenty dresses after getting her measurements - rush one of them so she could where something as we go around the town." The queen says.

"I don't need twenty dresses." I speak up, eyes still on Harry, silently urging him to talk his mother out of this.

"Mother, I don't think we should bring her along either -" Harry's cut off by the queen as she turns around to face us abruptly.

"Silence, both of you. As brave as you are, you are still my servant and should follow my orders." She says to me before addressing Harry "And you are still my son, so you should also follow my orders." She chuckles, making it known that she wasn't as serious as she was supposed to be, but still meant her words. "Now bring her to Madeline - twenty dresses. One rushed. Go."

With that, she exits the room and leaves me and Harry in total silence.

"Well she's...blunt." I say, looking at Harry who was staring at the door. "Not like I expected." I admit.

"She just told me to bring you with us." He mumbles, eyes widening a little as he continues to stare at the place where his mother stood.

"I know, I heard." I tell him but he shakes his head before bringing his eyes to look at me.

"You don't understand, Anna. She has never let anyone go with us. Usually it's just me, her, and Gemma - and chosen guards of course." Harry says as he looks down on the floor, eyebrows drawn together in thought. "She hasn't even let Charlie come with us." He mumbles.

I walk closer to him, placing a hand on his shoulder to catch his attention. "Your mother just said she doesn't like the she-beast, why would she want to bring her with you guys?" I question, not understanding his confusion at all.

His eyes don't meet mine, but instead they stare at my hand on his shoulder. He doesn't respond until I retract it. "You don't understand, Anna." He repeats before once again grabbing my upper arm and pulling me.

We walk back into the room, Harry not bothering to close the doors behind us as he begins to talk again. "Everyone seems to like you more than Charlotte, seeing as I hear Madeline feels what my mother does." He says.

"Everyone could like anything more than the she-beast, even a rotting corpse of a rabbit." I say, meaning it as a joke but somehow I just know it was possibly true.

Harry laughs out of the blue. It truly was a nice sound - the perfect balance of rough and soft.

Too bad I still don't like him.

"Quite franky, I would chose a rotting corpse of a rabbit over her, and I'd kill to see my mother weigh out her options if given that choice." He says laughing still.

The image of the proud queen in deep thought in deciding whether to be with Charlotte or a dead animal'd body was actually funny, but the I knew I couldn't risk using too many emotions - even positive onese.

The small wall holding up the frenzy of thoughts was thin enough as it is, I wouldn't dare push my luck with it.

So instead of laughing along with Harry, I decide to move towards the door without a word, causing Harry to stop laughing. "Wait, are you mad? What did I say?" He says as he falls into step with me.

I shake my head. "I'm not mad, I just want this over with." I say and reach for the handle of the door, but to my surprise, Harry's hand beats me to it.

It comes to me as an even bigger surprise when he opens the door and gesture for me to go first.

I stare at him for a second, eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he merely smiles at me and offer a shrug.

I move past him and start walking, hearing Harry close the door and follow, soon enough, he's walking beside me, his hands placed at his back as he turned his head to look at me.

"I can handle getting a few dresses from Madeline on my own, Harry." I say as we descend down the staircase.

"No you can't. The dress you were trying on before I threw that blue dress at you was completely scandalous. I'm not trusting you to pick out twenty." He smiles as he happily skips the last five steps by jumping down to the next floor.

He lands with a stumble before looking up at me and smirking as if that was supposed to be an achievement he would pride in.

I decided not to feed his ego by smirking back and gathering the front of the loose dress in my hands, bending my knees, and pushing against the ground. I land right beside Harry, solidly, and without a stumble unlike the prince himself.

I let the skirt flow back down to the floor before walking towards the next staircase and smirking over my shoulder at a dumbstruck Harry.

He quickly gathers his wits and follows me. "Not bad, peasant."

"Thank you, spoiled prince."

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Someone's going to re-appear in the next chapter. Can you guess who?

Also, GOOD NEWS! Wedding's done! (That's my uncle and new-aunt with their daughter in the picture attached. I cried, not gonna lie) So more frequent updates!

What was my last daily update streak? 9 days? WELL THEN HELP ME BEAT THAT BY INSPIRING ME WITH VOTES AND COMMENTS. MORE OF THOSE=FASTER AND BETTER UPDATES.