I wake up from my sleep, finding Lily, Lisa, and Nina beside me. They stare at my way with worries and kneel beside me.
"Are you okay?" Nina asks. I look at all of them with confusion, my eyebrows furrow. "I'm fine."
I pull myself up to sit, and the world around me spin so fast. I fall back to my bed, groaning as the world still feel like spinning.
"Anne, what's wrong?" Lisa asks.
"I'm okay. Just a little dizzy." I put my hand over my forehead and rub my eyes, sighing. Lisa puts her hand on my forehead and gasp loudly. "Anne, you're burning!"
"What?"
"You're forehead feels hot." Nina steps closer to me and do the same thing, Lily following after her. They stare down at me sadly and look at each other.
"Anne, you go rest for today. I'll tell Her Majesty you're sick." Lily says.
"But—"
"No, Anne. Lucy right. You have to rest." Nina says, a stern look on her face. I nod my head a little, can't think of a word to argue with them.
"I'm going to get you some breakfast." Lisa walks out of the room in an instant. I look up at Lily, nodding her head to herself.
"I'm going to tell Her Majesty." Lily walks out of the room quickly, leaving me alone with Nina.
"And I'm going to get you some medicine. Don't go anywhere, okay?" She smiles, and I return it. "Okay."
I lay on my bed, feeling the time passing by slowly in the quiet and vacant room. And then a thought appear in my head.
I haven't write any letter for my family this week. Maybe they're worried about me after yesterday.
I pull myself slowly and steadily from my bed and walk to the wardrobe. Though my head keeps throbbing like crazy, I push myself to keep walking and pull out some paper and pen from my backpack and walk back to my bed. I take a seat on my bed, start writing the letter.
Dear mom, dad, Luna, and Sam,
Hello, how are you there? If you're wondering, I'm fine in here. We all safe in here. The guards already caught the leader of the rebel no long after the breach. I miss you all but I can't come home for now. I hope you're fine there. And don't worry about me, I will be fine here.
Please reply soon.
Your daughter and sister,
Anne
I put the letter into the envelope and put it under my pillow, deciding to send the letter later.
I wish I can talk to Luna right now. She'll understand all of the things happened in this past few weeks and give me some advise and cheer me up. Although she's younger than me, she's wiser than me.
Nina opens the door with some medicine in her hand and Lisa follow after her. Lisa gives me my breakfast-some scrambled egg and sausage- and then Nina pulls a chair with her and put it beside my bed. She puts the bottle of medicine on the chair and smile down at me.
"Thank you, Nina, Lisa." I look at them back and forth gratefully.
"No problem. This is what a friend should do, right?" Nina grins.
"Right." Lisa smiles.
After that, they walk out the room and leave me with the silence again. I let out a sigh, looking down at my breakfast.
Today will be the most boring day of my life. It's better to do some work or do something rather than staying in this room, doing nothing but sleeping and sitting.
When I'm about to put some scrambled egg into my mouth, a knocking comes from the door.
Who in the world is that?
"Come in."
The door swings open, revealing Connor on the other side of the door. He gets into the room and close the door behind him, looking at me with a frown on his face.
"Hi." I smile at him.
"Hi." He sits on the bed, sighing.
"You don't have any work for today?" I ask.
"I have. My shift is in the noon. So, I don't have things to do for this morning." He explains.
"Oh."
"You take a risky step last night." He mumbles.
"Huh?" I look at him questioningly.
"You know. You said that you know where the king is, right?" I nod my head, still feeling confused.
"Why did you do that? You're risking your life back then." He stares at me with sadness showing clearly on his face.
I let out a quiet sigh, gazing down my breakfast. "I know. I thought, last night would be the last time I live in this world. I thought I would dead. But at least, I die with honor by helping other. I didn't thought about my life anymore that time. All I care about is other's live."
"But you still deserve to live." He puts his hand on my hand, holding it gently. "You have to think about your family. Like I said before, your family still need you. They still want you to live. You can't just let go of your life like that."
"I know. But I don't want other to die because of nothing. I don't want them to lose their live for nothing." I say, my vision blurry from the tears forming in my eyes.
"But you will die for nothing, too." He says softly. "If you do that, that mean you die for nothing."
"No, of course I'm not, Connor." I retort. "I won't die for nothing. I die for other's life."
"Okay. But please, don't do that ever again. What should I and the royal family tell to your family if you die? They would be mourning over you. And they will thought, 'Why are we let her go to work at the palace?' And they would keep thought like that and blame the worker here in this palace and the royal family."
His words sink into me and my frown goes deeper than before.
"I guess I have to go." He rises from the bed and leave the room. I let out a sigh and continue eating my breakfast again.
I put the dish at the chair and take the bottle full of pills. When the bottle just opened by me, another knocking coming from the door.
"Come in." I say, still feeling confused by who might that be.
The door opens and Max quickly gets himself into the room. He closes the door behind him quietly and walk over to me.
"What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to check on you. Are you okay?" He steps closer to my bed, a look of worries still glued onto his face.
"I'm fine." I mumble. He lifts his hand and put it my forehead. "God, you're burning!" He stares down at me with wide eyes and I sigh.
"I'm fine, really." I look down at my hands, feeling my body getting weaker in every minute that's passing. "Just go."
"No, I'll take you to the hospital wing. You have to rest there." He says, standing there with a stern look on his face.
"No, I'm fine here." I convince.
Why is he doing this? I'm nothing here than just a maid. But the queen and Max always treat me like I'm someone to them. Why?
"I insisted. It's an order." He stares at me straight in the eyes intensely.
"No, everyone will see." I shake my head, frowning.
What would other think if Max, the prince, take me with him. The other would be thinking about thing that's not even happening.
"See what?"
"You and me."
"There's no one down here."
"I just can't." I stare down at my lap, tears forming in my eyes.
"Why?"
"I'm afraid the other servants, especially my friends, will avoid me." I say with sadness in my voice.
"No, they won't. Beside, mother is the one who told me to take you there. To check on you. Well, it's not like I wouldn't check on you if she didn't tells me to. And I will do the same thing she tells me to do." He says softly. I looked at him confusedly, didn't believe of the words he just said.
"Are you serious?"
"Of course I am." He smiles a little at my bewilderment.
Why did the queen tell Max to brought me there? It's weird that the queen did such thing like that for me.
"Fine." I jump to my feet, and fall back to my bed as I feel the world spinning again.
"Woah, easy there." He grabs me by the arms, holding me steadily back to my feet as he chuckles. He lifts me up, carrying me in his arms.
"I can walk." I frown.
"No, you don't." He smiles.
He walks straight to the nearest bed as we get to the hospital wing and put me down.
"Stay here."
He runs swiftly to the other side of the hospital wing and I wait there awkwardly as I fiddle with my fingers. After a few minutes waiting, he comes with a doctor behind him.
The doctor checks me and step back, smiling kindly at me. "You caught a fever. You have to get enough rest and some medicine. If you drink the medicine regularly, you'll recover soon enough." He walks to the drawer and took some medicine from there and give it to me.
"Thank you." I smile weakly at him.
"You're welcome." He looks back at Max and bow his head. Max nod his head and the doctor walks away from us. I sigh and lay on the bed. "I hate medicine."
"But you have to drink it." He grabs a chair and sat on it beside the bed. "You have to if you want to recover."
"Thanks for this. But you don't have to do this. This is just too much for me. I'm just a maid here. But you and your mother treat me like I'm not. I bet the other will get jealous of me and avoiding me because of this special treatment I get from you and your mother." I pout.
"What makes you think like that?" He asks calmly, still smiling.
"Because I treated more than I should be." He stays quiet for a second, looking at his lap thoughtfully.
"That mean my mother likes you." I look at him with wide eyes, finding him still staring into his lap thoughtfully.
"No, it's impossible. Why are you saying that?" What he just said was an impossible thing to happen.
"She is, Anne. It's very obvious from the first time she introduced us. From the way she looked at you lovingly. From that time, I know she has such feeling toward you. And it's impossible if she did this for nothing."
"If it's like that, what makes her like me?" I raise an eyebrow at him. He thinks about it for a second and answer. "Maybe because you're kind."
"Everyone here are kind."
"Because you're beautiful?" He says, sounding more like a question rather than a statement.
Is he even serious?
"Is that even a reason for her to like me?" I ask him back.
"Uh, I guess that's a no."
Silence hang between us until I decide to break it. "Then what it is?"
"I don't know." I roll my eyes at his respond and sigh.
"If there's no reason for all of the things that your mother have done, then why is she doing this?"
I look at him expectantly for answers, but he does nothing than staring at his hands blankly.
"I guess it's better you go now. You must have something else to do than staying here."
"No, Anne."
"You're lying." I narrow my eyes at him suspiciously. It's impossible if a prince like him doesn't have anything to do because he is the future king.
"Okay, actually there's one thing. But it's just a boring meeting with the adviser. Father wouldn't mind if I'm not coming." He says, leaning back onto the chair.
"If it's important for you, for this country, then you have to go."
"No, it's better for me to watch and accompany you here, in case you need something." I groan and scowl at him.
Why is he so stubborn?
"Fine, but don't talk too much. I'm dizzy."
"Okay." After he says that, he sits there on his chair quietly, not even letting out a word or doing something else. I gaze at the ceiling above me and feel Max eyes on me after a few minutes. I steal a glance at him and he averts his gaze away quickly.
"Did you stared at me?"
"No, I'm not." He looks at me for a second and look away. I roll my eyes at him, knowing he's definitely lying to me. I turn my body, lying on my side and close my eyes.