A/N: This has been re-written and edited, but there may still be the odd mistake.
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My first few days of living at the Palace were fairly quiet, due to the fact that both the Queen and Adelaide had been called for a last minute charity weekend-long event in Newcastle. Because of this, the two of them left early on that Saturday morning, and would not return until the Tuesday of the following week.
I would spend most of time organising my room, as once again, I refused any help from the staff of the palace. I spent most of Saturday putting my clothes away; re-folding my bottoms and pyjamas, and hanging up my dresses and shirts. The only help I allowed was when Harriet knocked on my door mid-afternoon, with two cups of coffee. She helped me colour co-ordinate my clothes, and separate the 'everyday' clothes from the 'formal' ones.
On the Sunday morning, I began by organising my desk, placing my stationary in the correct places, and generally making the room tidy. By lunchtime I had placed all of my photo frames around the room; on the window sill, on my bedside table and some of the shelves above my desk.
At 1pm on Sunday afternoon, I happened to glance out of my window, which overlooked the east gardens, where many flowers and trees were planted. After looking around the area closest to the building, I noticed Blake and Oliver walking down the path, which led towards what we called 'The Secret Garden'.
'The Secret Garden' was not actually a secret, but it was an isolated part of the lands which was home to a large clearing, that looked like a meadow. We had made it our own when we were children, after Adelaide and I had stumbled across it during a game of hide and seek when I was 8. Once the Queen had found out we had been spending a lot of time there, she had organised for a few benches and a hanging swing, to be placed there.
Smiling to myself, I walked away from the window and slipped a jacket over my cream wooly jumper and my blue skinny jeans. As I hadn't planned to leave the palace today, I didn't see the need to wear anything too formal. But even if I did have to leave in an emergency, It would still be appropriate to wear in public. I also grabbed my brown boots, put them on and made my way out of my room, and down the corridor.
As far as I was aware, the King had travelled to somewhere in Kent for the day with the Queen's brother, Edward, for a public event. That meant the Palace was fairly relaxed compared to normal, apart from the fact that William was still meant to be in the palace somewhere. It was no secret that William often thought of himself as being above the staff and sometimes he took his anger out on them verbally.
Unfortunately for me, I just so happened to stumble into one of those situations, as I got to the bottom of the main staircase. William was standing in the middle of the hallway, screaming at some man, who was looking scared and helpless. On the ground around them laid some silver trays and various pieces of paper.
"Are you absolutely useless?!" William yelled, using his hands to emphasise his question, "I told you to pick up the papers you made me drop!"
The man's eyes widened, before he dropped to be knees and stumbled to collect the papers that lay scattered around the floor. By the way he was wincing and holding his back, I knew it was troubling him, and I knew I had to step in. The man, who I recognised to be a butler, was probably in his late 50s.
"Is there a problem, William?" I asked, stepping off the last step and into the hall.
The Prince span around, and glared when he saw it was me, "Yes there is! This imbecile of a man wasn't looking where he was going, and ran straight into me, causing me to drop all of my papers. There were organised in order, and need to be handed to the owner of the new hospital in Ipswich this evening!"
I shook my head as I walked over to the butler and patted him on the back, "Up you get, I'll get those for you."
Both the butler and William looked at me as if I had lost my mind, by I was William who spoke up first.
"He was the one who caused all of this, so it's his job to sort it out!"
I stood up and glared at William, "In case you haven't noticed William, he is clutching his back in pain. You say he walked into you, correct? Well you surely could have avoided it, unless you weren't looking either?"
He glared at me, "I was reading the paperwork, plus he is the staff member here, not me! He should have been taking more care!"
Shaking my head, I helped the poor man onto his feet, before kneeling back into the floor and collecting the rest of the papers, not taking the time to put them in order. I decided to leave that to William, it would serve him right for not looking where he was going in one of the busiest parts of the palace.
I stood back up and handed the paperwork to William, "That should be all of them. Now do you have something to say?"
He looked down at the paperwork and back at me, with a glare still painted on his face, "Thank you."
I nodded, but then remembered something, "And anything else? To this poor man, perhaps?"
The butler then decide to jump in, "Oh that's not necessary, Miss! Now I should be getting back to work..."
I put a hand in his arm, stopping him from going anywhere, "No, the Prince must apologise for the way he has treated you. Go on William..."
"Now, just who do you think you are?!" William yelled at me.
Equally as loud, I yelled back, "Your fiancé, now apologise before I tell your mother how you are treating the staff who helped raised you!"
His glare turned into a grimace, before he turned to the nervous butler, "I... I'm sorry if I came across as rude."
The butler nodded with a small smile, before running off as soon as I had let go of his arm. With one last glare at William, I walked down the corridor and out of one of the exits that led to the east garden.
~~~~~~~~~~
"And you got him to apologise?" Jamie laughed, as he sat next to me on the hanging swing.
He had arrived in the garden only a few minutes after I had, and soon pushed Oliver off of the swing to make room for the two of us. Oliver sat on a bench across the clearing, arms crossed whilst glaring at the two of us. He still had leaves in his short black hair, that he would try and brush out every now and then. Blake, who was the eldest out of the four of us by about a month, was busy laughing at the story of William and the butler.
"Of course I did," I replied, "He was being rude, and it was as much his fault as it was the poor man's. Plus he is about thirty years younger, he should have some respect."
Blake nodded, "Our Aunt keeps on saying how she wants to shake some sense into that son of hers. I say go ahead, it will be most amusing to watch."
Jamie grinned at Blake, "I would quite happily pay to witness that. William is absolutely powerless when it comes to his mother, he loves her too much to disobey her."
I smirked, "That is how I got him to apologise; I threatened to tell Elizabeth and then it didn't take him long to apologise afterwards!"
Even Oliver, who was still annoyed with Jamie and I for stealing his seat, began laughing with the others about William and his mother. The laughing soon ceased however once the man himself appeared behind Oliver, who carried on laughing, completely oblivious that the Prince was behind him.
"I suggest you stop laughing, Oliver," he whispered into his youngest male cousin's ear.
Oliver immediately stopped laughing and turned his head slightly to look at his older cousin, "Oh, I didn't see you there William."
William shook his head and shoved past Oliver before walking over towards the swing that Jamie and I were occupying. He pushed Jamie backwards so he fell off of the swing, before sliding in next to me. Straight away, Blake and I began howling with laughter, while Oliver was smirking as karma got Jamie back.
Jamie sat up and scratched his head, whilst scowling at his best friend for pushing him, and at everyone else for laughing. He got onto his feet before stomping to where Blake was sat, and slumped down against a tree next to him.
The five of us sat around was apart of our group, the group that had remained together for as long as I could remember. The only ones that were missing were Harriet, Adelaide and Steven, my brother, but he wasn't seen around society much anymore.
"Why are we even best friends?" Jamie groaned as he clicked his shoulder, causing me to shudder as I hated the sound, "You are so mean to me."
William smirked, "Only giving you what you deserve, ol' buddy ol' chum."
I rolled my eyes before swinging slightly, causing William to swing with me. He didn't seem to mind, as he took his feet from the floor and allowed me to move us through the air gently.
"Awh, look at the two of them!" Blake suddenly squealed in what was probably supposed to be a girly voice, "Aren't they so cute?"
Jamie laughed, "They make the perfect couple! Just look at Williams chubby cheeks!"
William scowled at them, before all of a sudden slamming his feet into the ground, causing the swing to abruptly stop, and me to fall head first onto the hard dirt floor. He got to his feet and stormed back towards the palace, leaving me on a heap on the floor, whilst the others were too busy laughing to bother helping me up.
~~~~~~~~~~
I scowled, and rubbed the grazes on my arms that I had received when William had caused me to fall off the swing. I was standing in my bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror whilst applying cream to my grazes. This caused them to sting slightly, and me to wince.
It had been just an hour since William had stormed up, and the others neglected to help me up as they were laughing too much to notice. It was only five minutes later, just as I had gotten myself up off of the floor and was walking off that Oliver had stopped laughing long enough to notice I was walking away from them. After that, he caught up with me and took me back to my room, and sat on the bathtub, whilst watching me patch myself back up.
"Does it hurt?" He asked, looking at me in the mirror.
I shrugged, no longer that annoyed at him for laughing, 'It stings a bit, but it's nothing I can't handle. Although my wrist is still throbbing."
He got off the bathtub and walked over to me, "Let me take a look at it..."
As Oliver would be doing some Military service over the spring, he knew some first aid as it was a requirement that all service personal knew basic first aid skills. He took my wrist in his hands before squeezing it gentle, causing me to hiss out in pain. He twisted it around a little more, but was careful not too cause me too much distress.
"It's not broken," he informed me. "But I'm pretty sure it's sprained."
I frowned down at the said wrist, "Seriously?"
"I'm afraid so, but I'm going to take you to Doctor Hudson so he can diagnose it properly."
He that proceeded to drag me through various corridors until we reached the door to the Doctor's office. He knocked on the door, waited for a few moments before entering the room, pulling me behind me.
The doctor looked up and smiled when we saw who it was, "Lilliana, Oliver, it is lovely to see you, please sit down! What can I do for you?"
Oliver explained the situation to the Doctor, and how he thought that it is most likely a sprained wrist.
"Okay Lilliana, if you can get onto the examination table, I can take a look at this wrist of yours," The Doctor said, as he got to his feet.
I followed his instructions and sat up on the table, and waited as he did his examination on my wrist. It was very much similar to the one Oliver had performed not long before, only it was more extensive, and involved more exercises and tests.
He stoked back from me and nodded, "I'm pretty sure it's a grade II sprain although I can not be sure unless I conduct an x-Ray. Would that be okay with you, Lilliana?"
I nodded my head, and within half an hour, Doctor Hudson had conducted the x-Ray and had the chance to have a look over the images.
"My first assumption was correct," He informed us, as we sat back at his desk. "The ligament in the right wrist had suffered from significant damage, meaning that is has been torn. It is not completely torn, so surgery is not required. However, I will need to fit a splint onto the wrist if that is okay with you?"
"If it will help it regain full use of my wrist, then that's fine," I told him.
"That is the purpose of it," he smiled, and then proceeded to fit the splint, "It shouldn't need to be in for more than two to three weeks. I want you to return in 14 days, and I shall do another examination to see how it is healing. After the splint is removed, you will have to wear a basic cast for another week or so, and then you should be good to go."
Once the splint was secured, we thanked him and then Oliver and I left the doctor in peace, before making our way to the private sitting room. It was the same room that Jamie and I had been laughing at William in, earlier on in that same week. As we entered, we found the three others laughing on the sofas, over some sporting incident.
"Lily, my love!" Jamie beamed as he saw me enter the room, "Where have you been? I have looked for you but I couldn't find you!"
I joined him on the same window seat that him and I had been sat on just a few days prior. I then went on to explain how I had sprained my wrist, and how Oliver had taken me to see Doctor Hudson. Glancing at William, I saw him give me a guilty look but he said nothing as I carried on explaining.
"So, your my little cripple for the next month?" Jamie asked at the end.
I glared at him, "Don't you dare call me that, you buffoon!"
Blake and Oliver began laughing at mine and Jamie's arguing, saying that we should be the ones marrying rather me and William. In return, William reached over and gave them both a slap on the head. He glanced over at me and nodded, giving me a silent order, to which I complied, by slapping Jamie on the side of the head.
~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: This has been re-written and edited, but there may still be the odd mistake.