myself caring for him and how he was feeling – more than I would ever like to admit. And that was scary.
When I nodded my reply to him, he informed me that he would be in the sunroom for a while. I didn’t comment. He didn’t wait for me to reply, anyway. He just went to the closet to grab a shirt, then went to where he’d said he was going as fast as he could.
‘You and your brother are dead.’
‘I’ll get you out of here.’
‘You and your brother are dead.’
‘I’ll get you out of here.’
‘You and your brother are dead.’
I clenched my fist tighter, and begged with my heart harder, while my heartbeats grew faster. I was going insane.
“Where should I put it, Princess?’’ Mona asked after I allowed her in, a big tray full of food in her hands.
“I don’t want to eat,” I replied, wiping away another round of silent tears with the back of my hand and moving my eyes back to gaze out the window from my spot on the bed.
Mona stood there for a moment, and I wondered if she was going to say anything or was just going to leave, but she did neither. She just stood there. Eventually, she left the tray on the round table in the middle of the room and knocked on the mirror door before going inside and closing it behind her after the prince told her to ‘Come in.’ She was probably going to inform him that dinner was ready.
When she didn’t come out after a few minutes, I figured that she’d used the other door in the sunroom that I’d yet to see.
I heard the sunroom door being opened but I didn’t look back at it. I just stayed still in my almost-frozen state that I’d been in for hours that seemed like days.
I felt the prince approaching before hearing him–don’t ask me how. I just did. I didn’t look. But then I felt the spot beside me on the bed sink down as the prince sat on it. I still didn’t look…for some reason. And then he spoke.
“Mona says you don’t want to eat,” he said in a soft voice.
“I don’t.” I said, still looking away.
The prince sighed, then his right hand found my left one that was placed on my lap. He laced our fingers together and placed our joined hands on his knee and squeezed, his thumb tracing the back of mine in the softest of touches.
I closed my eyes tightly and fought with my breaths to stay even, pressed on both of my lips that were pulled inside of my mouth where I bit hard on them. So many emotions inside of me were fighting against each other, that for a second I started getting worried that I’d soon pass out from all of the mixed feelings.
I felt fingertips on my quivering chin and then a soft pull as the prince’s other hand turned my head in his direction, forcing me with the tenderness of the gentle touch to face him.
I finally opened my eyes, freeing new tears when I blinked a few away, my gaze fixed on his. He removed his hand from my chin only to wipe the tears away. Then he pulled on my chin again, this time to release my lips from the trap of my teeth, rubbing once right under my bottom lip in a soothing touch, his eyes watching his thumb on my face for a second and looking me in the eyes the next.
He smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes. We didn’t talk. But we still said everything. Another tear escaped my eyes, and ‘I’m sorry’ escaped his lips right after it.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I found myself telling him.
“But my mother did, and I apologize on her behalf,” he said quietly.
I shook my head and looked down at our tangled fingers, watching as his thumb continued its movements over my hand, accidentally forcing his hand on my face away and completely regretting looking down right away.
“What did she want anyway? What brought her here? Uninvited! I thought she should’ve gotten our permission first! It’s not the second day anymore, right?” I said when I looked up at his face once more.
The prince sighed again. “I guess she wasn’t thinking; she was so mad that Janna wasn’t with her husband. People saw him walking around the palace and informed her. She really wasn’t happy with it, like you saw.”
Joseph again …
“Rules and traditions are