A Withered Soul

Chapter Two

Annaliese POV:

When I turned around I was surprised to find the Prince standing there behind me. I quickly curtsied and gave him a soft smile. He bowed his head towards me and then turned his attention towards Charles. His face turned hard as he coldly nodded to him. He then turned around briskly .

“Come, you will dance with me.”

I knew it wasn’t a question, deep down I knew a part of me was actually quite excited for this opportunity. His long legs took strides so fast that it left me at almost a jog to keep up to him. I nearly lost him in the crowd twice before we finally made it to the dance floor. He seemed rather unfazed when he turned around to find me slightly out of breathe and wheezing.

He outstretched his hand and as I took it I noticed that it was a lot softer than I had imagined. He had a rather sturdy grip around my waist one that made sure to let me know who would be leading us in dance. Dance was another thing that I didn’t take too kindly to. It was always a joke that I was born with two left feet, and that you didn’t take me out on the dance floor unless you wanted to be injured.

With the prince I felt weightless as he spun me around on the floor it felt as though I was being entranced by his touch. It felt almost surreal I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even think to say a word to him. I finally looked up to his face, and there I was met with cold eyes and a stern frown.

That’s when he finally spoke to me.

“What is it that your family does exactly?”

He said it so plainly you would have thought he had no emotions.

“Well my father and brother are business men for the kingdom. They’re in charge of selling the rubies we harvest here in Red Rock Kingdom. You most likely have met them since they come to the palace quite often to meet with your father.”

A scowl ran over his face before he snapped at me.

“As I recall I’ve met no one from the Harrington name, so it’d do you good to not make assumptions which you know nothing about..”

“I meant no harm in what I said I just thought that you may have heard of us. I do apologize, your majesty. I did not mean to upset you in such a manner.”

He started squeezing my hand so tightly as I apologized that it was beginning to hurt. I couldn’t help but wince out in pain. As I did so his face seemed to turn dark and a sleazy smirk swept over his face. It was as if he liked that I was in pain. That he was enjoying being the one to inflict this pain upon me.

“Your majesty, you’re -ow- you’re hurting me”

I could barely stammer it out. I was no longer excited about this chance to dance with him. Now all I wanted to do was find a way to escape his grip. I looked around at the other dancers desperately. Hoping they’d see me struggling and cut in between us, but much to my dismay not a single one even batted an eye at us.

At this point my fingers had started turning purple and I feared he’d start to break bones if it went on much longer, when all of a sudden I saw light pink silk flow all around me. The woman from earlier appeared out of what felt like no where. She took Jamie’s arm, doing so he let go of my hand. She ran her arms up his torso and up to his neck. Turning him in front of her so she could run her fingers through the back of his hair.

“Now Jaime you promised me a dance earlier, remember?”

She pouted her bottom lip and batted her eyelashes at him. She then turned to me and gave me a wink. At this point I took it as my cue to get as far away from him as possible. I quickly scanned the room for my brother Charles, and as soon as I saw him I ran to get him. When I reached him I couldn’t help but let out a sob finally.

“Charles the Prince is a wicked and horrible man, when we were dancing he nearly broke my hand.”

“Annaliese you must let me see your hand right this minute we can’t allow such a powerful man to get away with this!”

I had never seen Charles so angry his tone was more of a growl and he looked as if he’d kill the prince right then and there.

“If you don’t show me your hand I’ll have to use force to see it.”

I was honestly scared of what it might do for our family if he saw it, but the thought of him making a scene in front of the other nobles worried me more. I begrudgingly raised my hand so he could see it. I hadn’t realized that it was already turning a dark purple and blue.

“I’m going straight to the king to sort this out. This should be enough to get you out of this ridiculous event. The man is obviously deranged, and to think he just goes around abusing young women.”

“Please Charles, let’s just go to our rooms and forget about it. I don’t want to cause such a commotion in front of everyone.”

“Do you realize just what exactly he’s done? He tried to break your hand in front of this entire ballroom, and I’m not going to let that slide.”

This time Charles left so fast I wasn’t able to follow him he just disappeared into the crowd. Leaving me to just go back to the main corridor to be escorted to my chambers for the night.