"Cousin."
Prince Thomas's greeting is a tad harsh and he looks back at me with confusion on his face.
"Thomas, good to see you."
Well this isn't awkward at all.
"Sorry, thanks for the food, I'm just currently freezing and need to get changed first." I say, excusing myself.
I take the pastry plate from Thomas and place it on the desk in my room as Edward invites his cousin in.
Prince Thomas also shoots me a curious glance since I'm wet from head to toe, or maybe it's the fact I'm in Prince Edwards blazer.
I slip off the jacket and go into the closet that's joined to the bathroom, pulling the sliding door closed. I dry off, pulling off my wet shoes and clothes before redressing in a lilac day dress.
I still felt freezing though, being out in the rain having soaked me to the bone.
I hear both the princes muffled voices from outside the room but decide it's best to ignore them. Hopefully they'd sort it out and Thomas wouldn't get any crazy ideas about the situation.
Then I move through the door to the joined bathroom to ring out my hair that's still dripping when I'm stopped by the sight of the room.
I let out a scream, feeling the colour drain from my face quickly. Who the hell had been in here?
"Isabelle!"
"Bells are you ok?"
Instantly I hear Prince Thomas right outside the door, trying the locked handle.
"Thomas, I feel sick...I think I'm going to pass out." I say as I grip the bench behind me in shock and feel my heart rate accelerating. I didn't know whether I'd yelled or whispered because of the increasing ringing in my eyes.
"Isabelle hang in there, I'm coming in."
My vision becomes fuzzy and I don't hear anything else as I collapse.
I'd never been able to stand the sight of blood.
✿✿✿
All I see now is black, my mind searching through the banks of my memory to find out what has happened and where I was.
The rain. So much rain. Juniper. Cold, freezing.
My eyes shoot open but they are forced closed again after coming in contact with insanely bright lights.
I try to sit up but I feel like I'm paralysed.
"Lady Isabelle, can you hear me?"
The unfamiliar voice speaks clearly, like an angel through the darkness.
"Yes." I say, my throat dry, making my voice sound muffled and croaky.
"Good, now try to open your eyes." The lady instructs and I feel encouraged to do as she says, "Slowly."
I get one open first, the bright lights not being so painful and then the other follows.
The room I see around me is bright. The walls and roof all white and sterile. It's small, nothing much on the wall I look at but framed pictures of beach and forest landscapes. So many unfamiliar smells and noises. The scents of ironed sheets and strange medication filled my nose. The sound of a beeping machine makes me look down at myself. I'm in a grey gown, a hospital gown as it appears.
"Wait what?" I say, panicked, seeing the doctor beside me, the machine wires stuck in my right arm and the raised bed that holds me.
"Try to stay calm Isabelle, you went into a minor state of shock. You will be fine." The lady in the doctor scrubs beside me explained, offering me a plastic cup of water.
The doctor has brown straight hair in a ponytail and is a face of complete calm, while my hair is probably a birds nest with my face a vision of worry.
I push away the water but feel slight pain in my movements.
"I suggest not moving too much, the medication will make you feel slightly weak throughout your limbs for the next 4-6 hours." The nurse said, instead placing the cup on the table beside my bed.
I shake my head, "No, wait, what happened to me? I don't understand." I rub my forehead and try to recall the events.
"You may face short term memory loss, a side effect of your incident, but it will come back to you slowly over the next 24 hours." The nurse explained as I frowned in disbelief at her.
"Does the Prince know what happened?" I ask concerned, tilting my head on the pillow to face the doctor who is making a few notes in her medical booklet.
"Of course, he brought you here. As I said, you might not recall yesterday's events very well until tomorrow." She said and I widened my eyes at her.
"Yesterday?" I ask, feeling a little like this can't be possible.
"You were out cold all night. It's now 4 am, you were asleep for around 17 hours. You should stay indoors in the warmth for a while, since it's partly due to hypothermia." The doctor says as she looks at the records in her book.
"Could you get Prince Thomas for me?" I ask meekly and she nods with a friendly smile.
"Of course, I'll let him know you're awake. If you need any assistance from me use the intercom button." The doctor gestured to a button on the edge of my bed before she checked my vitals and left the room with one last smile my way.
I sit in silence, mellowing in my thoughts.
Prince Thomas brought me here, but I haven't seen him since yesterday. Not yesterday, I mean the day before, when we had our date.
All I remembered was riding Juniper and then it rained. Did I go back to the palace? What happened to me?
I put a hand to my forehead again, damn my head hurts. The throbbing pain didn't let up and I tried to push myself to be sitting up, leaning my weight against the back off the bed.
"Bells."
I felt my heartbeat quicken slightly as the prince rounded the corner, his green eyes catching mine instantly as he quickly jogged to be beside me. His smile brightened even more when the machine measuring my heart rate increased by his presence.
"You're awake, thank god." Prince Thomas kneeled down to be beside my bed and he gently put a hand over mine, his eyes filled with concern.
His brown hair was ruffled and his eyes looked stricken with red. But he was here, beside me.
I don't know when I started to cry, but I was now crying softly.
"I'm sorry for waking you." I say softly, my voice still croaky and my head pounding.
Prince Thomas shook his head, "I couldn't sleep anyway. There's a lot going on."
I reached over to grab the water but my body jolted me back from pain. Prince Thomas quickly made sure I was ok before handing me the plastic cup.
I sipped the water slowly, feeling the ice cold liquid slide down my throat like instant relief.
"Many of the girls were worried about you. My sister was even more worried about you than her sickness." Prince Thomas told me softly, rubbing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.
"Is she sick at the moment?" I ask the prince and he quickly shakes his head, I sigh with relief.
"She's been fine these past few days since the royal family activities. Charlotte was just hoped you'd be ok for the winter festival."
"Wait, Tom, What happened to me?" I ask, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach.
"Well, what do you remember?" The princes asks, pulling a chair up beside the bed so he can sit right beside me.
"I was out in the rain, riding Juniper. That's it." I say blankly, like there's a patch of dark within my mind, blocking my view.
"Bells, you came back inside, soaking wet, and Prince Edward took you up to your room." The prince began but I cut him off.
"Prince Edward?" I ask, thinking I was with Prince Thomas and not him.
"Yes. Then I came too to give you breakfast in your room, and then when you went to change you passed out."
"Was it the cold? Is that why I was so shocked?" I ask, wondering why my shock was so bad that I was out for over fifteen hours.
"Kind of." Prince Thomas sad, avoid my gaze with a concerned frown upon his face.
"Tom, hey what is it?" I ask, furrowing my brows and pulling the princes hand under mine.
The princes expression is one of sadness, concern, remorse and many other things, "Isabelle, I assure you at the palace we try to keep you extremely safe and protected."
"Tom your scaring me." I say, feeling my concern growing.
The prince took a breath before his eyes meet mine again, "Someone broke into your room Isabelle, or at least that's what we think, and wrote some scary things on the walls in what appeared to be blood. They'd done quite a bit of damage to scare you and you got a few cuts from falling on broken glass from the smashed mirror. You had screamed and passed out before we got to you."
I felt my throat go dry again and my breathing quicken to the point I was hyperventilating through my sobs.
"Hey, Bells, it's ok, your ok." Prince Thomas whispered softly, running a hand comfortingly along my arm.
I felt my eyes start to become heavy again, "I'm tired, really tired." I say lowly, closing my eyes and stopping most of my crying.
"Shh, get some sleep, I'll be right here when you wake up." Prince Thomas says softly, before placing a whisper of a kiss on my forehead.