The Enchantress by R. L. Weeks

Author:R. L. Weeks [Weeks, R. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zombie Cupcake Press
Published: 2017-04-30T05:00:00+00:00

❦ ❦ ❦

That evening I walked up to the Queen’s chambers. I had heard that she wasn’t all there, and after clapping eyes on her for the first time that day, seeing her unsure of anything, I was curious.

I stopped by the doorway when I heard Alistair’s voice.

“Try to sleep,” he begged.

There was a slight groan and then music. I watched as Alistair played the violin for his mother as she fell asleep. The song he played was beautiful, it was slow, but each note was played with such sweetness that it could send anyone into the beautifulness of dreams.

The poor Queen. She must only be in her late fifties. She didn’t know where she was half the time or who she was talking too.

The king keeping her out of sight made sense politically, the people could not know that one of the rulers did not know what she was doing half the time, yet to another person, it was cruel. She would benefit greatly from going outside to see the bright blue skies, the children playing, the sounds of the birds in the morning.

I did not see her as a queen, but as a prisoner in a very fancy tower.

As she began to snore, Alistair leant down, kissed her forehead, and turned and saw me. I felt embarrassed for watching. He walked over and took my hand.

We walked up the corridor. “That was beautiful.”

He gave me a small smile and tucked the violin under his arm. “She gets nightmares unless I play for her.”

My heart could have burst. “That is so lovely for you to do. It is sad, though, that she should be kept hidden like this.”

His smile turned into a hard line. “It’s for the best.”

“For the kingdom.”

“Yes.” He looked at his violin. “We must always do what is best for the kingdom.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence.

He stopped by his chambers and bit his lip. “I have to ask you something?”

“Of course,” I said eagerly.

“There have been rumours… that, you, well, you have been attending adult parties.”

My face flushed red. “I- no! That’s not fair. The duke made me go. I didn’t do anything, well, I slapped him, but that’s it.”

He laughed, which was not the reaction I expected. “You slapped him?”

I nodded and lowered my head.

“Brilliant,” he gushed, but his smile quickly dropped as he looked behind me. I turned around and gulped. It was Anne.

“Cee,” she said brightly. “Your Highness.”

“A-Anne,” he spluttered and gave her a coy smile. “Can I help you?”

I looked from him to her with confusion. Was something happening that I didn’t know about?

No, surely not.

Anne smiled as if she was oblivious to it. “I was hoping you could help me. My favourite horse has run off.”

I wrinkled my forehead. She doesn’t have a favourite horse.

“I’ll help you, of course,” he said and turned to me. “Goodnight, Felicity.”

“Night Cee,” Anne called as the prince joined her side.

I tried not to think of it and walked around the corridors, stopping occasionally to look at the royal paintings.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.