His Queen From Two Worlds

CHAPTER 11: PUNISHMENTS

ESTOR:

“He’s awake now, your highness. You can visit Sir Hales now. I’ll be back with the test reports. You can have a talk with him, but please make sure he doesn’t move much” Eloise said before she curtsied a little.

“Sure,” Ray said before he saw her standing up and turning around to leave.

He stood outside the room, hesitating to step in. He knew Ralph would blame himself once he found out about Zelda’s condition. The Royal Hospital felt even more empty than before despite there being servants and staff behind him and around the premises of that room.

The suite was one of the biggest suites of all suites. The royal hospital was renamed ‘The Royal Care’ by the queen. It has the country’s best medical care and medical equipment. Every staff member who worked under the royals was eligible to get treated under royal care. It was divided into two parts. The west wing is for the staff, the east wing is for the royal family.

As Raymond entered the medical suite, he looked at the man who slowly opened his eyes upon sensing someone else in the room. He lightly gasped before he spoke, “Your Highness” Despite being weak, Ray could hear the coldness in his voice that he had after experience. “I’m sorry, your highness. I couldn’t keep my promise. I couldn’t protect Lady Barclay. I’m ready to receive any punishment you have in your mind”

Raymond didn’t say anything as he kept looking at the chief of his security expressionless. His electric blue eyes checked all the injuries on the man before he turned to look around the room. Ralph followed his master's gaze, looking through the window. Perhaps even the weather understood his master's mood. Dark grey clouds were all over the sky with no hint of sunlight. As if it would start raining once, his highness would break into tears in his privacy. The beginning of the winter is here.

Raymond turned to look at the patient on the bed again. His leg was fractured and was plastered. Same for his right hand. He was bandaged around his forehead with several scratches on his body and face. He knew Ralph better than anyone. Other than blaming himself, this attack was a deep scar on his confidence. His confidence to protect him. To protect the heir to the crown.

“If I have the right to punish you, I guess I deserve the punishment too” Ray finally said after a long time.

“Your Highness!” Ralph looked at his master in shock. How could he say something like that so easily? Punishment for the future king? Though their royal family was open-minded and wasn’t exactly obnoxious and stuck up, still punishing the future king was something they wouldn’t dare. No one in the country wouldn’t dare to.

“This attack wasn’t pointed at me literally, but they wanted to hit me where it hurts the most. If you think of yourself as a failed security, then I’m a failure of a best friend and fiancée. Going to be the king but can’t even protect his own fiancé” The sarcasm in his voice was as clear as a sky on a sunny day.

“Your Highness, I failed my responsibility to protect Lady Barclay. You can’t blame yourself”, Ralph tried to make his master understand.

“Well, it doesn’t change the fact” Ray continued, mocking himself, which hurt Ralph even more. After being with his highness for nearly a decade, he was aware of how much of Lady Barclay’s existence affected him. He met them when they were just teens. He saw them growing up together.

Though Lady Barclay is a bit of a troublemaker, the crown prince always cleans up after her mess and gets angry at Lady Barclay when she puts herself in danger. On the other hand, even though Lady Barclay was always attracting danger, she was also aware of how it would affect his highness and control herself.

Ralph still remembered how lost the crown prince was when Lady Barclay was hurt because of her position as the crown prince’s fiancée. He blamed himself and thought that it was selfish of him to have her as his fiancée when her life could be under constant threat due to him. It took a lot of effort from Zelda’s side for him to stop blaming himself. Ralph remembered her words when the crown prince wasn’t just listening to her. He looked at the future king and repeated those words.

“If there are people to blame, then I need to blame myself as well. Falling the most handsome and important man in the country”, the royal guard quoted the future queen's words exactly.

Ray suddenly chuckled and said, “You still remember it”. He looked at the window again and wondered, even though she was still unconscious, she was still able to make him not blame himself. But when he truly thought of it, he could never stop blaming himself. Somewhere deep in his heart, he would still remember everything even if he forgave himself.

“If there are people to blame, then I blame the mastermind and all the people who are connected to this” Ray looked Ralph straight in the eye and said, “Recover soon. I need your help in finding the mastermind.”

“Your Highness!” Ralph wanted to say something else, but Ray interrupted him.

“If you still want the punishment, after the whole mess clears up, take care of all my paperwork next year”, Ray said, with a hint of a smile in his eyes. Just by remembering Zelda’s words he was feeling a tiny bit better, more hopeful that she would wake up soon.

“Your Highness…... You…...”

“That’s an appropriate punishment, Your Highness” the gentle voice of the doctor who left her office was heard. Ray looked around and found Eloise standing at the entrance of the suite holding the test report that she had left. “For a patient who would just be released, that would be perfect punishment. And for a man who hates paperwork, that is even more of a perfect punishment”, Eloise said as she walked towards them. She stood beside the crown prince and gave him a slight smile. “Your Highness”

“You don’t need to call me that when we are alone, Eloise”, Ray said, shaking his head.

“I insist that since I’m still wearing this coat, Your Highness,” the doctor said, shrugging her shoulders and pointing at her medical coat. “And you will get all the time you need to spend with Zelda once she wakes up without worrying about piling paperwork,” she said, talking about the first topic.

“That was exactly what I was thinking. What is Ralph’s exact condition?” Raymond asked, raising his brow at the man lying on the bed.

“As you can see, your highness, there’s no danger. Mr. Hales could recover in a month and a half, but if he doesn’t cooperate well, it might take him two months or more than that. The fracture will take a month to heal. He will experience slight headaches for a few days, but that’s all. He didn’t get injured around the spine, which is really lucky. Otherwise, it would have taken much more time than that.”

“Thank you, Eloise”, the crown prince thanked his future cousin-in-law.

Eloise shook her head and said, “I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, Your Highness.”

“Well, you might have your hands full with this guy since he doesn’t like to sit idle, and I don’t want him to participate in any of the investigations until he’s fully recovered” Ray knew the chief of his security team wasn’t the type to sit idle and wait. He has been like that for a long time. For as long as he remembers. If one thing that didn’t change about Ralph even after entering his mid-thirties, then it would be his impatience that came with his workaholic tendency.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. Unless I give the go certificate, Mr. Hales here isn’t allowed to join the job. So, you can work with a peace of mind”, Eloise said, giving a look at the royal guard who was looking like he was not impressed. But Eloise and Ray knew he was low-key sulking inside his head.

“That’s a relief”

“But your Highness, though I trust our team, we need to be extra careful right now. We don’t know where we might find a traitor. Considering the other nobles' nagging, you will be under a lot of pressure along with the secret cleanup you are planning”, Ralph slowly said accepting his fate that these two teamed up to make him stick to the bed for months.

“Don’t worry about it. Francis and Shawn are back. Shawn especially insisted on getting involved with all the investigations. Though Francis and I will be keeping an eye on him. Just in case”, Ray replied.

He trusts very few people. Eloise was surely one of them. That was why he didn’t hesitate to talk about his plans in front of her. Eloise is fiercely loyal to the people she loves. She loved her younger cousin Zelda so much. He might even say that if someone genuinely cared about Zelda in the Barclay household, then it would be her.

“That’s better,” Ralph said. He knew who was loyal to the crown and who was not.

“Get well soon, Ralph” Ray said and turned to look at Eloise. “The Barclay couple will be here any time soon. Do come to the visiting hall in the palace”, Ray said and left the medical suite after threatening that he would increase his paperwork load if he doesn’t listen to Eloise.

“Dr. Barclay, can you tell me Lady Barclay’s exact condition?” Ralph tuned his head to face the royal doctor after Ray left. He only heard half of the information from the staff. It’s time for him to know the full information.