“Do you remember me?”
I shouldn’t have asked. I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have kept my mouth shut. The way she looked at me...the way her face twisted into a confused expression, only to switch to an annoyed or pissed off expression, and finally, her features set in their usual stony way. “What?”
Did she expect me to ask again!? That thing she just did with her face was so scary! It was like she was switching personalities! No way in hell I was going to ask again! “N-Nothing, your majesty.”
Princess Adelia was staring me down. “Are you sure?”
“Yes ma’am.” Her glare told me I’d said the wrong thing. “I mean...your majesty.”
“I’m done with you for now. You can leave.”
It was strange that when she said I could leave, she was the one who left, but I tried not to dwell on that. How could she be Adelia- my Adelia? What could have possibly made her so cold and stony?
More importantly, had she always been a princess?
The notion certainly made sense. She and her parents suddenly stopped coming to our personal playground around the time our country’s peace was threatened and we went into war.
Why hadn’t her parents told mine?
I sat up straight. What if my parents already knew? This would also make sense. We were dirt poor but we could keep the meadow we lived on, even though we didn’t pay for it. And then the corruption started....
I rubbed my wrists, able to feel my fetters even when they were removed. It had been a long time since then, though for me it was like yesterday. Everything had gone downhill since then...so if the kingdom was being run by Adelia and her family, the fair and just people I’d met when I was a child, how did slavery still exist here?
Before long I didn’t have time to think about any of those things. Though Adelia never did anything in a predictable pattern, there were certain things that became automatic; peach tea was her favorite, so if she was sick or ever needed a pick me up, I made her some (I had to, though at first the chef was the one who made it. She insisted on having mine because she liked it better, which I thought made her a bitch. Why should I work more?), in the mornings she liked to walk around the city- often in disguise- to give money to families who needed it as well as food and toys for their children, and she liked having her hair brushed at night- times that became a good time for her to talk to me about things. A year passed and she admitted that she was lonely; she told me once that the people around her either treated her like a doll or a monster because of her strong attitude and many of the noble women disliked her, so she had no close friends.
“But there was....” She paused as I brushed her dark tresses slowly, though this sentence made me stop.
“...there was..?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Your majesty, communication is all about being clear.”
“You’re very formal, James...even for me.” She chuckled slightly. “...just...call me Adelia when we’re alone.”
I’ll admit my heart fluttered a bit when she said that. “...then, Adelia...” I swallowed a bit. “What were you going to say?”
She was quiet for a few moments, but then she stood, leaving me holding her brush. “It’s nothing. I’m going to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
I furrowed my brow as she walked out. That woman was so strange...
I didn’t have time to think, because a few seconds later, Adelia rushed back into the room and grabbed my arm, her expression pain stricken.
“What is it?” I tried to be calm even though she was trying to drag me somewhere with such force I knew it was urgent.
She almost cried, her hands clenching and unclenching as she put them to her face. “My father. My father collapsed again.”
