The Prince's Choice ✔

Chapter Fifty • A Bad Feeling

-Unknown-

The prince had been gone for months now. The castle wasn't the same. It had once been a place where the girl felt excitement as soon as she would walk around a corner, hoping that he would walk past her. There had always been a chance for her to see him...

Now, the castle was just a pile of cold dark stone. It gave her absolutely nothing to be here... She either needed to leave this place to find him, or he needed to come back. There was no other option, no in between. Her body wouldn't know peace before she saw him again.

What infuriated her immensely was that even though her intricate lies about the girl and her "plans" on being rid of the queen, was spreading like wildfire, it didn't fool the most important persons. The king hadn't believed the rumors and lies for a second and neither did his son, according to the king himself. The old man had made sure that the lies hadn't left the city, from what they knew of, promising the gallows for any untrue words being said about that peasant girl. Some listened... some whispered. 

What caused the girl a lot of sorrow was that the prince was truly gone. After the fire, he had returned home to a burnt black shell of what used to be his childhood home. Furthermore, to the girl's huge disappointment, he had left as soon as he had arrived to go and find the filthy peasant girl. 

He had been gone for months now, and almost everyone except for the king, was convinced that the girl the prince intended to marry had tried to murder the queen. If everything went well, she would never be welcomed back, unless it was to the gallows. The king couldn't control minds of his subjects around him no matter how hard he tried, and it showed. The king barely showed up for meals anymore, instead the queen dined alone, which seemed to fit her perfectly.

The girl had been the queen's shadow ever since the fire and eavesdropped on every conversation she had had with her husband. Apparently, the prince had found the girl but they stayed in hiding. The prince was, according to his father, afraid to put the girl in danger and therefore they didn't either tell anyone where they were. This made the girl feel like her whole body was filled with black smoke. She was so angry. Not only had he left her here, he also risked everything for that girl! 

When will that filthy girl just let him go? If he doesn't leave her, he will lose his claim to the throne, if the people demand it that is. He cannot love her so much that he sacrifices the only thing he has ever cared about, can he? The girl wondered as she walked through the dark corridors of the castle. She was on her way to her daily walk to see if the queen had any news on the prince's whereabouts.

Her stomach didn't flutter when she passed the corners anymore, her body knew that he wasn't even close to her and therefore she felt no joy. The only thing that would bring her joy was the news of the girl's death. Preferably a painful one since she had kept the prince from her for so long...

When she arrived at the door to the queen's new, temporary, chamber she heard voices. It was the queen's and the king's coming from inside the chamber. The door stood slightly ajar. The girl leaned her back close to the wall, to the left of the door, and leaned her head closer to the door so she could hear without being caught.

"Has he sent you a letter?" The queen asked, a slight slur to her speech caused by too many glasses of wine. "Or does he want to be a farmer himself now?"

The king sighed.

"He has." He answered shortly.

"Why are you not telling me what he said then?" The queen asked condescendingly.

"It will hardly bring you any joy, so why should I?" the king asked her in return. "No matter what that boy does, it is never enough for you."

"Marrying one of Sirion's daughters would have been enough." The queen hissed. "I wouldn't have asked for anything else had he just done that."