The next morning I woke up early. Yesterday had been a long day, but it hadn't prevented me from waking up at this time. After I went to bed, sleep hadn't come to me instantly. I kept tossing and turning till the point I eventually drifted off. Kane had struck a chord.
A sigh escaped my lips as I stepped out of bed. The tiles were cold against the soft skin of my feet. A chill ran up my spine as I shuddered.
I walked to the window and opened the curtains. A ray of sun shone in my face which led to me squinting my eyes a little. It looked like a promising day. I might even spend it outside. No scratch that I am going to spend it outside. I was in no mood to interact with some people and those were usually in the castle.
A smile started to form on my face as I made my way to the closet where my dresses where hung. I chose the plainest one; a light blue dress with a flowy skirt and no detailing. Then I braided my hair and looked myself up and down in the mirror. I wouldn't say I was a sight for sore eyes, but it was quite alright.
With a satisfied smile, I turned around and went to the little bookcase on the right side of the room; near the door leading out of it. I let my hand slide over the hard bookcases as I chose one to read. "This one seems interesting," I took it out and exited my room.
As I walked through the halls of the castle memories of yesterday's evening resurfaced. I felt stupid for storming off like that, but it was the only thing I could do at that moment. It was as childish as he described me to be. It felt like I was proving him right when all I wanted to do was prove him wrong. My reputation had nothing to do with childlessness. From my point of view, that is.
I gripped the book I had in my hands a little tighter as I descended the stairs into the main hall. The castle was relatively quiet. Everyone was probably still asleep, still tired of last night's activities. The only people I saw walking around were the servants. Still cleaning up after last night's ball.
One of the servants, a young girl with blonde hair pulled up into a bun, passed by me as I made my way to the large doors leading out of the castle. I politely smiled at her as our eyes crossed paths. Seemingly shocked at being acknowledged her eyebrows rose and a look of surprise formed on her face. "Good morning," I said.
The girl blinked her eyes at the fact I was speaking to her. She did a double-take before she looked around and came to the conclusion I was really talking to her. An amused laugh escaped my mouth. "G-good morning, Princess," she stammered.
"Just call me Adeline," I smiled. I knew servants don't get acknowledged much around the castle by people higher in rank, but I always made it my goal to get to know most of them. It just didn't seem fair for them not to get acknowledged. They did a lot of hard work around the castle. "What's your name?" I asked politely as we stood in front of each other. The girl looked at the ground as she responds, "P-phoebe."
I directed her gaze at me. "That's a really beautiful name, Phoebe," At that a smile formed on the younger girls' face as she nervously played with her fingers.
A gust of wind swept through my hair as we stood near the doors. I decided the outside was calling me. "It was really nice meeting you, Phoebe" I smiled.
The girl looked up at me again and a blush formed on her cheeks. "It was really nice meeting you too, Your High-," The girl stopped her sentence, probably remembering what I had said. "Adeline," she smiled. I gave her a polite nod and walked out of the door.
As soon as I was outside the sun hit my face and a cool breeze swept over my cheeks. A small smile formed my lips as opened my book and started walking. My eyes danced over the words as I made my way through the huge gardens surrounding the castle. I turned another page of 'A Midsummers Night's Dream', engrossed in the story of Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena; a book by William Shakespeare. I placed my left hand over my mouth to hide the smile that formed my lips as I read something funny.
The occasional chirp of a bird and the rustling of the wind was the only sound that entered my ears. That was until I heard a sniffing kind of sound. I hesitantly closed my book, but not before marking the page I had been on, and tried the find the cause of the sound. It didn't take me long before I saw a little boy standing alone by a tree, wiping his eyes with his left hand as he looked at the ground. My face morphed into surprise as I made my way to the little boy.
"Hello, little man," I smiled as I neared him. The boy looked up with wet tears staining his face and new ones in the corners of his eyes. I kneeled in front of him and raised my right hand to his cheek to wipe away a falling tear. "What's wrong?" This only seemed to worsen his tears. I wrapped my arms around the little boy and started to rub his back as he let the tears flow. "It's okay," I hushed.
When the boy started to calm down I decided to let him go. I straightened myself a little but remained kneeled in front of him. "Can you tell me why you were crying?" I asked in a sweet voice. He nodded as he wiped away some tears off his face. "I- I was p-playing with this b-ball," he sniffed before going further, "and I was k-kicking the ball really hard," he smiled proudly for a second before that expression faltered. "B-but with the last kick it went t-too high," he sniffed again. "N-now it's a-all the way up there. I've tried really hard but I can't g-get to it," he said as new tears started to run down his cheeks. "It was my favorite," his look turned upwards as he looked at his ball with longing.
Following his gaze, I indeed saw a brown ball high up in the tree. He sure didn't lie when he said he kicked the ball really hard. What a strength in those little legs. I was a lot taller than the boy was, but even I couldn't reach up there. I turned around to see if someone nearby would be able to help us, but there was nobody to be found. Quickly scanning the ground for a long branch, I found nothing of use.
"You know what?" I asked as I turned around to look at the boy again, "I'll help you get your ball back." A huge smile magically appeared on his face. "You will?" he beamed. I nodded at his question. "But you need to do something really important," I said. The boy immediately nodded with excitement. "Will you be my guard? If someone comes you have to warn me." The boy jumped in position and took on a serious expression as he gave me a nod. "Yes, Your Highness." I laughed at his actions before I walked to the tree. I quickly scanned my attire before I scanned the tree. How in God's name was I going to get that ball? And safely get out of it too.
A sigh escaped my lips before my eyes fell on the little broken off branch not too high above my knee. An idea popped up in my head as I put my foot on it. I reached up to a large tree trunk with one hand and with the other I reached up to a smaller one. I put all my strength in getting my self on the larger tree trunk. I knew this one was going to hold my weight if I stand on it. Don't ask me how, but I managed to get on it. Even in a dress. A sight it must have been.
"Your Highness, is everything okay?"
I looked down at the boy beneath me. A little shocked at how high I was up in the tree I grabbed the tree in a warm embrace. "Yes, yes, I'm fine," I swallowed. "Just call me Adeline, okay?" I remember saying as I looked higher up, where I saw the ball. It was in my reach now. Luckily I wouldn't have to go any higher. I only had to stand on my toes to be able to pry the ball away from the position it was in.
Just when I managed to get some movement in the ball I heard two voices, nearing the place where we were. The boy gave me a signal in the form of a whistle. Yes, a whistle. This five-year-old boy could whistle. I was momentarily stunned as I looked down. Deciding I had to hurry up I focused my attention on the ball again. I ran my fingers under the ball as I tried to roll it to a spot where the gap between the two branches was bigger than the ball itself.
"Hi, big guy. What are you doing here all on your own?" I knew I knew that voice, but I was too busy with the ball to register who it belonged to.
I pushed my body to the fullest to get the ball to the point I wanted it to be. When it finally rolled to the larger gap and it landed in my hands, I made a small sound of victory. My happiness was short-lived though as I remembered the voice from beneath me. With the ball in my hands, I looked down, but luckily they weren't looking up.
Unfortunately, the people beneath me were my least favorite ones; Kane and Victoria. I swore under my breath as I watched the scene beneath me.
"I don't think you can read, kid, so don't you dare lie," I heard Victoria snarl. If I was down there now I would give her a piece of my mind. How dare she talk to a child like that? But why would they be talking about reading?
And then it hit me. My book. I had left it there when I climbed into the tree. Another foul word escaped my lips in silence.
The boy looked at the ground and pondered over his words. He had a hard time trying to find a good explanation, and I couldn't blame him. He secretly looked up at me in the tree. I signaled him to hush and say nothing as to where I was. "I- I just like the pretty color of the book," he said, "it's my moms." He tried to save us with this, but the damage had already been done. Kane knew something was up the moment the little boy looked up. So when Kane followed his direction, he found me.
I sheepishly raised my hand in the form of hello, with the other, I still held on to the ball. Kane's dark eyebrows rose in the surprise of seeing me there. I couldn't blame him though.
"What the hell are you doing op there?" Victoria screeched. Oh, great. I think my ears may give up on me for the next couple of hours. "Not that it's any of your business, but I was trying to help this little man," a smile reached my lips as my eyes landed on the boy. His eyes landed on me with the ball in my hands. "Adeline, you got it!" Pure delight and excitement made its way to his features. He started jumping up and down and I laughed.
"Of course I do. I told you I would help you, didn't I?"
The boy nodded in excitement. "Yes, you did. Thank you, thank you,"
I smiled and threw the ball at him. He caught it with ease before running off with it. And with that, he left me alone with these people. I followed him with my eyes in the hope he would come back. But he didn't.
I sighed as I lost sight of him. Slowly I turned my eyes downwards to see Kane was still looking up at me. My eyebrow rose in questioning, but he didn't look away. Feeling uncomfortable under his stare I looked away. Suddenly finding everything more interesting than him.
"So, how do you think you'll come down?" Victoria spoke up with a smirk on her face.
"I came up somehow, so I'll come down too," I answered as I folded my arms over each other. I didn't know how I was going to go down, but I'll manage.
"Well, as much as I want to see you fall out of that tree, I've got better things to do," she played with a few strands of her long blond hair that fell neatly over her right shoulder as she spoke. "Are u coming with me, Your Majesty?" This time she directed the question at Kane. I made a snorting kind of noise at her choice of words. We all had known each other since we were little, so it was strange to hear her call him 'Your Majesty'. I knew that with his title you had a certain etiquette to hold on to, but it was strange nevertheless. Not that I was going to follow that rule.
They both looked up at the sound I made before Kane decided to speak up for the first time he had seen me in this tree. "No, I think I'll stay until she gets down. I'll catch up with you later,"
My face morphed into one of surprise. "Oh no, don't stay on my account," I said a little annoyed.
"I'm staying," he said with finality in his voice. His gaze was fixed on me as he said so. I rolled my eyes in response.
Victoria looked at the exchange of looks before she huffed and stormed off. I laughed at her antics and yelled after her, "It was really nice seeing you again too!" I swear I could hear her huff again, even from afar.
Remembering Kane was still here I looked down again. "So," he started as he eyed the position I was in, "what's your plan?"
I eyed the small branch near the bottom of the tree and the other branches I had used to climb up. "I'll figure something out, so you can go now,"
"We went over this already," his voice held an annoyed undertone as he spoke. "I'm not going anywhere as long as you're up in that tree," he folded his arms over each other. "What the hell were you even thinking?!"
Was that worry I heard in his voice? No, I disregarded that thought immediately. It couldn't be. "I decided to help that little boy get his ball back, is that so bad?"
"No, it isn't, but you should have called for someone. One of the male servants for example,"
"Male servants? So women aren't good enough? We aren't disabled you know,"
Kane rubbed his temples, probably because he was getting tired of me. "I know that, Adeline," he breathed out. "It's just that," he paused for a second to find the right words, "you're more frag-"
Before he could finish I cut him off. "Don't you dare finish that sentence, Kane," I hissed before he angered me even more. He shut his mouth immediately.
"You know what I mean," he said after a few words as I turned my face to the tree. "No, I don't," I answered loud enough for him to hear, "you're just a Royal pain in my ass," I hissed that part under my breath as I wrapped my arms around the tree.
"I heard that,"
My eyes widened for a second before I bit my lip. Whoops? I didn't say it that loud, did I?
"Maybe you were supposed to," I sang as I decided to own up to it. My hands went to another part of the tree as I dangled one of my feet downwards to find something I could put my weight onto. After a few tries, which must have been an amusing sight, my foot found something appropriate enough. I dared to move my body a little so I was leaning more on that branch while the other was still on the larger tree trunk. My body started to tremble a little from the effort I put into the position I was in. It wasn't comfortable, I can tell you that.
I decided to put my full weight on the little branch beneath me as I started to retract the other from the larger one. It all went well until the little branch beneath me started to break. I tried to find something to quickly hold on to, but it was too late. I let out a little yelp as the branch broke off and fell to the ground. Nothing was supporting my body weight anymore as I fell down too.
In those few seconds, I anticipated the large smack I was probably going to make on the hard ground. But it never came. Instead, I landed in something else. Something strong. I dared to open my eyes and found myself staring up into two blue depths. "And that's why I wanted to stay," he said quietly, no humor in his eyes. His eyes an unnatural color of blue that took my breath away. My eyes traveled further to his nose, which displayed some small freckles, then my eyes landed on his lips. His beautifully carved and full lips. If his character wasn't so ugly I could see myself being very attracted to him.
Realizing we were staring at each other a little too much I cleared my throat. His arms were still wrapped safely around me.
"You can put me down now you know," I said a little irritated. At least that's what I was trying to make it sound like because the truth is... I was still a little shocked and embarrassed. His eyes had lingered on my lips when I spoke before he darted his eyes upwards again. Something flashed through his eyes before they turned cold again. I don't know what I had seen, but it was something very different. Something that made me feel weird things at the pit of my stomach.
"Right," he said, slowly putting me down on my two feet. I quickly dusted off my dress and picked up my book. I didn't want to look at him anymore. Things weren't okay between us, certainly not after yesterday, which made the situation we've gotten ourselves into just now all the more awkward.
I opened my book on the page where I had stopped reading. "Well-uh, I'm going to go now," I said looking up at him for a second before turning around and walking away.