To Love A Princess

Chapter Fourteen

My father climbed in bed with her, growing tired of seeing his wife decay little by little with each passing moment. I continued to stand at the side of the bed, but eventually just kneeled beside her. A few seconds after he laid his head on the pillow, he fell asleep leaving me awake alone with my thoughts. Thinking about what’s going to happen once my mother is gone. At this rate, she only has a day or two left. And I’ll be damned if the wedding gets moved up to a closer date. Saturday is close enough. I looked over her sleeping figure and gently rubbed circles on her cheek. Tears formed in my eyes once more and I saw her body shift ever so slightly. Her eyes fluttered open and she tried to lift a hand to wipe my eyes, but she just wasn’t strong enough. 

“What’s wrong baby?” she asked softly, trying not to wake my dad. 

“I’m scared momma,” I whispered. “I’m just so afraid of what’s going to happen next and you won’t be here to guide me through it like you said you would.” 

“Oh Isabelle it’s going to be okay. You still have your father.”

“But dad doesn’t take my ideas into consideration. He acts as if my voice doesn’t matter and that things should go his way. And I don’t want to get married without you.”

“You have no other choice dear. I’m trying so hard to hang on baby but you’re going to have to let me go. Be brave, be bold. Be the woman I have spent the last seventeen years raising you to become.” 

Tears started forming in her own eyes. She squeezed my hand the best she could to remind me that it’s going to be okay. “Have the wedding. I’ll still be there, looking down on you and smiling so bright that Saturday will be a sunny day.” 

“I can’t mom. I just can’t do this without you.” 

She began coughing, hacking so much that my father had woken up. He sat up and looked around, confused as to what was going on. His eyes landed on us and he held a worried expression on his face. Her chest was rising and falling slowly and I just had a gut feeling that tonight would be her last night. That come tomorrow morning, the queen, my father’s wife, my mother, will no longer be alive. 

***** 

Five days left until the wedding… 

My gut feeling was correct. My mother was pronounced dead at 9:26 in the morning. Doctor Owens gave us his deepest condolences and took her to a different room just until we figure out what we are going to do. I couldn’t believe she was gone. I knew this day was coming but I didn’t think it’d be so soon. 

“What do you want to do?” my father asked as we ate breakfast. More so while he ate breakfast since I didn’t have an appetite. Neither did he since he seemed to have been playing with the same piece of sausage for ten minutes. 

“What do you mean what do I want to do?” I asked looking at him. 

“I mean we can either go public with this and cancel the wedding, or we can just keep the wedding as is and announce the news Sunday,” he proposed.

I couldn’t believe he was doing this. He’s really giving me an ultimatum right now. Make my mother’s death announcement today, or wait until after the wedding. I mean honestly who does that? Who sits here and just goes I’m a married woman now oh and by the way the queen is dead. But anyways, thanks for coming, you can leave the gifts on the table. That’s not happening. And I don’t need a big fancy wedding anyways. I do feel bad that the staff worked so hard to get everything prepared but I refuse to celebrate something while I’m grieving. 

“Isabelle what do you want to do?” he asked once more.

I sighed putting my spoon in the bowl of fruit. “Honestly I don’t know. I mean mom hasn’t even been gone for two hours yet and you’re already asking me about whether or not I want to announce her death or keep it a secret until after the wedding. Just last night you were telling me how much you love mom and that you’d fall in love with her all over again if you could. Now all of a sudden you flip the story and tell me I need to decide on what I want to do. Gosh don’t you have any compassion?” 

“Isabelle we have to think about-”

“What’s best for the kingdom?” I interjected, already knowing what he was going to say. “Yeah, it seems as if I’m always doing what’s best for the kingdom. But what about what’s best for me? Not once have you ever asked me what I think is best. Not once have you said it’s your call. Not once have you said if you want to you can, otherwise don’t worry about it and we’ll figure out something else.” 

“Isabelle you should know by now whether you are a king or queen, your subjects come first and foremost. You are not allowed to be selfish because you have other people to think about. You simply just can’t make decisions that will benefit you. You have to make decisions that will benefit the entire kingdom.” 

“Tell me dad. How many decisions have you made that benefit the kingdom once you became king? Honestly, how many times did you screw up before realizing that you had to put others before yourself?” 

He went quiet and I scoffed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready for a cake tasting later.” 

My chair scraped against the floor and I exited the dining room. The fact that my father and I argue more and more everyday is starting to bother me. It’s almost as if we were meant to always argue and never agree with each other. I got along with my mom more than my dad, and I never understood why. But whatever the reason is, it needs to come to an end. 

*****

Damen arrived right on time for the cake tasting. He showed up in a plain black shirt and black trousers to match. I guess he knows it might mess up his outfit. But I’ve never seen him dress in all black. He can’t possibly know about my mother’s death. Only three people know about it. When the kitchen staff asked what my mother wanted for breakfast, we lied and said she wasn’t awake yet and to just leave her be. I still think it’s wrong to hide her death from everyone, but I didn’t want to announce it just yet. I still need time to process that it happened and that there’s nothing I can do to fix it. 

Once inside the palace, he gave me a hug and we walked hand in hand into the parlor, where there were at least fifteen different kinds of cakes for us to try. We sat at the table side by side as the staff brought the plates with the cake slices to us. 

“Are you okay?” Damen asked, looking at me. “You’re extremely quiet today.” 

“I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with,” I responded picking up a plate. 

“Isabelle, you know you can talk to me about anything. I’m your ear to listen if you ever need to talk about anything,” he reminded me. 

“Damen I said I’m fine,” I snapped.

He looked at me, confused as to where the sudden burst of anger came from. The two maids plus Hubert did as well. 

“Shall we schedule this for another day?” Hubert asked, taking a step forward. 

I didn’t say anything. I felt myself becoming worked up about my mom and realized that’s where the anger came from. I buried my face in my hands and started crying. Damen rubbed small circles on my back. 

“Can you please clear the room for a moment?” Damen asked. “I’d like a moment alone with the princess.” 

I couldn’t see anyone’s reaction. All I could hear were feet walking and the sound of the heavy door closing. Once the room was empty, Damen pulled me into a hug, repeatedly running his hands through my hair. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked softly.

I was barely able to say a word. The tears rushed out of my eyes like a waterfall. I knew I looked like a mess but I didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was how my mother is officially gone and there’s nothing I can do to bring her back. Damen continued running his fingers through my scalp, holding me close to him as he silently tried to calm me down. 

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he whispered. “We can just sit right here until you’re ready to talk.”

And so we did. I began to calm down after a few minutes. I needed a good cry after this morning’s disaster of events. Everything in my world was tumbling down and there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it. 

“I don’t want to have a wedding,” I told him softly. 

He sighed. “I know. Neither do I. 

“No you don’t get the point. I don’t want to have a wedding because she’s gone,” I cried. 

“Wait who’s gone?” he asked. 

His response made me cry harder and the tears were becoming uncontrollable at this point. Suddenly it hit him once I felt his embrace become a little tighter. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “When did this happen?” 

“This morning,” I responded in between sobs.

“Isabelle I don’t even know what to say. Why didn’t you cancel the cake testing? It could’ve waited until you were actually ready,” he told me. 

“It’s fine,” I sighed as I wiped my tears. “My father and I are waiting until after the wedding to tell everyone so please don’t repeat any of this to anyone.”

“Oh no skip that. We’re not having a wedding. I know how much you wanted her to see you walk down the aisle. I’m not going to let anyone push you to have some grand wedding celebration that you can’t fully enjoy. We need to go talk to your father and convince him to let us just have a private ceremony. It can just be me, you, Olivia, and our fathers. No one else needs to be invited.” 

I looked at him through my blurry vision. Blinking back the tears, I wrapped my arms around his neck and cried happy tears. Happy that someone agrees with me and that I have someone in my corner. Someone who understands me and will agree with me. 

“We’re going to go talk to your father. I’m worried about you and this is getting out of hand. I can’t bear to see you like this.”

“His mind is made up. Nothing you say or do will convince him to cancel it and just have a private ceremony.”

“I think we can do it if we try. There’s no harm in that right? Besides you’ll never know unless you ask. A closed mouth doesn’t get fed.”

He wiped the remaining tears from my eyes and I sighed. “Okay. We can give it a shot. But don’t say anything once he completely turns down your idea.” 

Damen rose from his seat, extending his hand and I placed mine in his. He helped me up and we walked hand in hand to my dad’s study. I knew he’d be there filling out some papers of some sort. In times like these, he turns to his work and submerges himself in it until he has nothing left to do. We stopped in front of the door, and I knocked a couple of times before hearing him say we can come in. Damen pushed the door open and we walked in, closing the door behind us. The two of us took a seat on the other side of his desk. My father raised an eyebrow, curious to know what’s going on. 

“Prince Damen,” he greeted. “To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you this afternoon?”

“Your majesty I- we, want to talk about the wedding with you,” Damen spoke. 

“And what about it?” my father asked, giving me a subtle glare. 

“I know about the queen’s passing and I truly do give my deepest condolences to you and the princess. But don’t you think it’s just not the right time to have your daughter get married a few days after she lost her mother?” Damen asked. 

“How dare you question my parenting?” my father bellowed, pounding his first against the desk.

“Sir I can assure you that I’m not questioning your parenting in any way possible, Damen reassured him. “But your majesty, you  just had a loss in the family. How could you possibly enjoy a wedding when the entire family isn’t even there?” 

“Damen let’s just go this isn’t going to do anything,” I whispered gently tugging at his arm. 

“Listen young man. Your father and I are doing what’s best for both kingdoms. Your wedding is five days away and you two need to buckle down and make this relationship seem believable. I don’t know who’s worse acting, you or my daughter,” my father said, mumbling the last part. 

“Damen let’s go,” I urged once more. 

“I think you should listen to your fiancée, my boy,” my father added. “She might save you from a world of trouble.” 

“I don’t understand how a father can be so cruel to his own daughter. Come on Isabelle.”

My father didn’t even retaliate. Instead, he gave us a dismissive wave and Damen took me by the hand, leading me out of the study. Once out of hearing range, Damen let my go and let out a frustrated groan. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked. 

“Your father needs help. Like therapy or something,” he simply responded. 

“I know. I just don’t know what his problem is in all honesty,” I spoke softly.

“Has he always been like this?” he asked as we walked back to the parlor. 

“Ever since I turned thirteen yes,” I began. “At thirteen you know that’s when every princess has to start preparing to become queen since it takes years of training. On my thirteenth birthday he just became more uptight and so rude towards me. I don’t know what triggered it or why, but it just began happening and I never understood why. Everyday he would just be upset for no apparent reason towards me. But when he talked to anyone else, he was like a different person towards me. Almost if he had multiple personalities and the worse one was the one I had the joy of seeing.” 

Damen stopped walking and pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him and sighed, feeling relieved to finally get all of that out of my system. I’ve never talked about it with anyone and it felt amazing to finally get it off of my chest. 

“How come you’ve never told me?” he asked. 

“I just got used to it. It still hurts a little bit when we argue but I’m used to it,” I responded. 

“It’s not something you should be used to Isabelle. That’s like abuse in some form,” he told me. 

“Damen really it’s fine. We should get back. I know the staff is probably looking for us,” I said, not wanting to carry on the conversation. 

He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he just nodded and intertwined our fingers. 

********

It took us a good three hours to finally decide that we wanted to do a huge layer cake with the three basic flavors: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry with white whipped icing. I don’t know what took us so long but I guess the thought of eating as much cake as we possibly could was something we’ve wanted to do since we were kids. You know how your parents only limit you to one slice of cake because they know that you’ll get super energetic and not want to sleep that night. I guess our five year old selves were having fun just tasting the variety of cakes. 

“Well that was fun but I don’t want to eat anything until next week,” Damen groaned, rubbing stomach. 

“Ditto to that,” I agreed. 

“Is there anything else we’re supposed to be doing?” he asked. 

“We have to finalize the menu and I believe that’s it for today at least,” I responded. 

He groaned once again. “That should’ve come first. I don’t want to move now.” 

“You couldn’t be any more right,” I laughed. 

We were quiet for a moment and I began to get lost in thought. “Damen?”

“Yes?”

“Olivia told me she knows I like her.”

His eyes grew wide and almost popped out of their sockets. “What?!”

“Oh come on,” I scoffed. “Don’t act like you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t know I swear!”

“Then how did she find out?”

“I don’t know but I promise I didn’t say anything to her. I haven’t even seen her since the engagement party.” 

Huh, weird. So if he didn’t tell her, then who did?

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “For assuming you told her.”

“It’s okay I forgive you. So shall we get started on those menus?”