The Queen's Maid

Forty Four

I keep staring at the picture in my hand, frowning as I think about Max's sister, the daughter of the King and the Queen, the Princess.

"Anne, come on." My head shoots up at him walking into the room, smiling brightly at me. And when he sees me, his gaze falls to the dark wooden photo frame in my hand and his face immediately fall at the sight. "Oh."

My eyes widen at him and I quickly put down the frame back to its place. "Max, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to snoop around. I shouldn't have see that." I frown. He takes his gaze up to mine and he flashes me a little smile, nodding his head once reassuringly. "No, it's okay."

"You had a sister?" I ask out of curiosity and immediately curse myself in my head. Why did I asked the question? He seems to be hurting to remember about his sister and then I asked him without concerning about his feeling. I'm such a stupid person.

His gaze falls back to the floor as a frown shown on his face at the sad memories that probably swimming around in his head. "Yeah." He replies sadly. He lets out a sigh and look up at me apologetically. "Sorry, Anne. But I don't want to talk about it now."

"I'm sorry I asked." I frown, feeling guilty to see him having the deep frown and sadness showing clearly on his face. He looks up at me again and smile at me once again.

"You don't have to apologize. Come on, father just lets us out. He thinks that me going out of the palace once in a while is good for me so yeah, he lets you go with me." He smiles widely at me, seem to forget about his sister. When he's actually not, from the look of the pain, the guilt, the sadness in his eyes.

I shake my head of my thoughts and give him a smile. "Let's go then."

"Wait." He walks briskly to the drawer next to his bed and pull out a key, a car key, and I stare at him in confusion. "You're going to drive your own car?"

"Yes. But the guards will be right behind and in front us."

"Okay."

"Come on."

We walk down the flight of stairs, down to the first floor and we walk to the foyer. The guards bow to Max and open the grand wooden door for us. Six guards already there on the front of the palace. They bow at Max and I find Connor between the other five guards. I shoot him a smile and his face falls and turns hard at my sight. I frown at the sudden facial expression changes of his and turn my gaze away as Max talks with the guards about the security plan.

We keep walking through the paved road until we stop in front of a black slick car. I keep staring at the beautiful and expensive looking car in front of me unconsciously as thoughts about a lot of things running inside my head.

"Anne?" I shoot my head up and find Max already standing by the passenger side, holding the door open for me. My cheeks turn hot in embarrassment and I quickly look down, hiding my blushing cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing Anne. You've done nothing wrong."

"I'm-" I let out a sigh, almost apologizing to him once again. "Let's go."

I step into the car and he closes the door for me. Max goes to the other side of the car and step into the car. He turns the car engine to life and it roars within a second. I look out the window and see the guards piling in into their own cars, bigger cars than Max's. One of the guards cars drive in front of Max's car and the other one behind us.

After minutes driving through the vacant roads with trees all around us, we finally get to the capital city. He drives us through the city and I see a lot of people, most of them dressed in beautiful, expensive looking clothes. I stare up at the high building and start to compare my hometown to the capital city. I've heard about the city before from people who was chosen to work here and I didn't expected the city to be this grand and beautiful.