A Kingdom's Secrecy

Chapter Three

Elouise had never slept as much as she had last night.

In fact, she slept through the entire evening and still somehow stayed in until sixth hour. Even after she managed opening her eyes, sleep kept tempting her. She would've given in, too, had she not remembered what'd happened.

Then Elouise jolted upright, gasping.

It couldn't have been a dream, could it?

She glanced down at her palms, recalling... a golden light. The trollbie chasing after the little girl. She had stunned it midair, and it... died.

Elouise had killed it with that strange light. A light that had come from her. But that... that could not be possible. It had to have been a dream.

Then again, her maids hadn't come to wake her just after dawn like they usually did. The only times they let her rest longer was whenever she felt ill. She remembered feeling weak and falling unconscious in Sir Bradyn's arms. She supposed that would be considered being ill. At least, to everyone else it did. Why else would she have fainted? It certainly hadn't been because of a peculiar energy that'd taken every bit of her strength.

Elouise got up from her bed, realizing she still wore her gown from yesterday. Her sheets were undone, too. Everyone had likely expected her to be up within a few hours after fainting, so they merely placed her on her bed and went on their way. She wondered what they were thinking now.

She straightened out her light-blue skirts and walked out.

Although she saw nobody in the corridor, she heard voices coming in the library's direction. She hurried, running her fingers through her hair to make herself look presentable.

Upon seeing her, Lady Marigold gasped and ran up to her. Elouise flinched and halted right as Marigold embraced her.

"Your Highness!" Sir Bradyn cried somewhere behind Marigold.

Marigold released Elouise and grinned. "Oh, my sweet. Are you well?" She grabbed Elouise's face. "You do not feel warm."

"Y-yes." Elouise nodded. "I am feeling... much better. I'm sorry."

Bradyn joined Marigold's side and bowed. "You had us worried yesterday."

"Especially your father," Marigold whispered, smiling pitifully. "You may want to go see him immediately."

Elouise looked away, frowning.

She'd worried her father. Yesterday had been the anniversary of her mother's death. The days leading up to her mother's last breath were spent with Elouise and her father constantly waiting for her to wake up from long slumbers. Her father must've thought Elouise had caught the illness that'd taken her mother, and he'd evidently had others thinking the same. That was why Marigold kept checking Elouise's forehead and cheeks.

Elouise gently grabbed Marigold's wrists and lowered her hands. "I am fine, I assure you." But with or without her father's paranoia, Marigold had always been this way. Another motherly figure in Elouise's life. She'd been one of her mother's ladies and had spent most of her free time reading stories to Elouise.

Marigold and Fayre were one of the few people Elouise knew truly loved her for who she was. So, Elouise thanked Marigold and went on her way. Sir Bradyn followed suit.

---
Elouise had fond memories of her childhood that involved her father.

He used to carry her on his shoulders and run through the garden maze with her. He used to sit her in front of him on his brown stallion named Teddy and take her on a ride through the fields beyond the town walls. He used to sit beneath the old ash tree atop the only hill on the castle grounds and let Elouise stuff flowers in his dark blonde hair. (Those flowers looked even more charming whenever he'd grow out his hair.)