The Prince's Wedding

Okay. 18.

MELISSA

I shut the book I have been holding and staring at, but unable to read.

It's no use... I can't focus, not with everything going on.

It's been almost two weeks since Rupert's death and a week since his burial...but it still feels like it all happened yesterday, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get the look on Prince Alexander's face on the day Caspian told us Rupert was dead, out of my head.

He looked like something had been taken from him...something important that he couldn't lose... and before I could react, he followed Caspian and the other guards as they raced out the room and headed for the cellar and I ran after him. When I got there he was already opening Rupert's cell and rushing in, muttering,

"No, no, no, no, no."

"No." He said when he finally got in, his gaze fixed in horror on Rupert's limp body which I was able to see as I got closer to him.

It was awful...

He had ripped his clothes and strangled himself with it.

"One week." Prince Alexander had muttered as his shoulders dropped and for the life of me, I couldn't understand what he meant.

"Clean him and wrap him up." He had said to the guards as he marched away and since then, he wasn't the same anymore. It was like a switch went off. He barely spoke to me at all and the times he did, it had to do with matters of the kingdom, he hardly ate and he always came to bed really, really late. Most times it felt like he just vanished from the castle...

Like now.

Where is he?

I had barely seen him all day, and as much as I'm trying to give him the space he's clearly asking for, it's killing me that I can't do anything about it. The only time he'd let me help was when Catherine came to request for the body and he just couldn't bear to see her, so he asked me to handle it.

I sigh as I get up and replace the book back in the bookshelf, then I head for the dining area to have dinner, but when I get there, it's only Halley at the table waiting for me.

"Prince Alex isn't coming...is he?" she asks once I sit down and I just shake my head as I force a smile.

"Not today, but he'll join us very soon, when he's ready." I tell her as reassuringly as I can but she just shrugs and starts eating.

It still was surprising how over the past few months, Prince Alexander and Halley had formed a unique bond, one that developed out of jokes said and games played during dinner. She is literally the only person that calls him Prince Alex in the entire kingdom, and now that he was barely himself anymore, Halley seemed to have been affected by it way more than I expected.

For the rest of dinner, she hardly says anything and by the time it's over, she mutters a 'goodnight' before leaving for her chambers. But I wait behind.

And I wait...

And I wait...

But Prince Alexander doesn't show up.

Even as I head to our chambers, prepare for bed and eventually fall asleep.

***

A loud bang wakes me up, and I sit up in alarm in bed, only to see Prince Alexander at the end of the room, focused on shoving clothes and some other things into a bag. For a while I just watch him pack, apparently oblivious to the noise he made or even the fact that I'm awake.

Then he zips it shut and turns around, our eyes meeting.

"You're awake." He says, a deep frown on his face.