Royal Pains

by CN Thornton

  I knew why there were no more pictures of us as a family. Soon after that last picture had been taken, the plague had gotten me sick and taken the lives of both my brother and father.

  I stared at the final picture of us until my eyes blurred with tears. Wiping them away, I closed the album and set it aside.

  "I know it's not much, but I thought you should have it," he rambled through what I could only guess were nerves.

  "No," I whispered. "It's perfect. Thank you." I hesitated before I brought my lips to his cheek.

  When I pulled back, he was looking at me with his beautiful brown eyes—that same intense, burning stare I'd seen the first time I'd ever laid eyes on him.

  Then I remembered his lips on mine and I let out a sigh. In a matter of seconds, Theodore's lips were on mine with intensity and hunger. I heard several moans slip from his lips, which only made me want him more.

  Somehow we managed to move into a horizontal position with me on my back and Theodore hovering above, and I could feel him hardening against me.

  He nibbled my lip and nuzzled against my neck, breathing heavily. "What I wouldn't do to have you completely," he breathed into my ear.

  I was so engrossed in our passionate moment, I didn't hear when my lady entered the room.

  "Your Royal Highness, Lady Moana wanted to know whether—" There was a pause and a squeak that pulled Theodore apart from me.

  I rose to my feet, blushing wildly from the embarrassment of being caught displaying affection. What made it worse was that it was Saoirse that had caught us.

  "Lady Saoirse," I breathed. "You have a message from Lady Moana?" I tried to play it off as if nothing had happened.

  Lady Saoirse glanced between myself and Theodore with an oddly exuberant expression.

  "Yes, Princess. She wanted to know whether you had planned to eat lunch in your room or the dining hall."

  I could still feel the tingling from Theodore's lips burning on mine. I could even feel his warmth radiating out to me, even though he now sat inches away from me. I was growing to like Theodore's personality, and it terrified me to know I was attracted to him in the greatest of physical ways.

  But when I responded to Lady Saoirse and told her I planned on sharing lunch with Theodore in the garden, it didn't feel forced, or like I was giving in just to keep from making waves. I genuinely wanted him there.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  My ladies served lunch in the gardens for us. As I took a seat across from Theodore, Justine pushed a cart over and laid out the dishes. It smelled heavenly. Eggs Benedict topped with a lovely hollandaise sauce, a beautiful mushroom and spinach quiche, quinoa and asparagus. There was even a dandelion tea.

  "This is delicious!" I exclaimed after swallowing my first bite.

  "Have you never had eggs benedict before?"

  "Of course I have," I stated. "It's just never tasted this amazing before."

  "That's because the cooks use emu eggs."

  "Emu?"

  "It's this very ugly bird." He chuckled. "They use emu eggs, quail eggs and ostrich eggs in their dishes."

  "What about chicken eggs?" I asked, starting on the quiche.

  Theodore shook his head. "Never had them before. Only those outside the courts eat chicken eggs."

  Chicken eggs were considered poor-people food here in Linacre. Only the wealthy ate eggs from exotic birds. Gotcha.

  "This quiche tastes... weird." I went in for a second bite to try and decipher the flavors.

  "When Chef Giza is in the kitchen, he likes to put blue cheese in the quiche. It's not my favorite," Theodore said as he took a bite of his quinoa.

  Skipping the rest of my quiche, I tackled my asparagus and then finished with my quinoa before washing it down with the tea. When I set down my cup, Theodore pushed aside his dish and rose to his feet.

  "Let's take a stroll." He offered me his arm and I took it.

  We walked arm in arm through the gardens, pausing occasionally to smell the flowers or watch the bees buzz happily from one plant to the next. When we turned towards the shrubbery maze, we met the gardener.

  "Good afternoon, Your Highnesses." The squat old man removed his hat and bowed to us.

  "Good afternoon to you too, Maxwell. The plants are looking ravishing today," Theodore said.

  "Good afternoon," I added respectfully.

  Maxwell turned back towards one of the flower bushes to cut a calla lily, then sniffed it once and handed it to me.

  "For you, Your Royal Highness. You should have your ladies make a perfume from it, as it is—" He paused and sneezed just as the wind began to blow, and spit from his mouth flew into my face.

  "Oh my god." I breathed as I felt the coldness of his saliva on my face.

  Maxwell hastily dropped to his knees as Theodore took a step forward. "Please, Your Royal Highness, I did not mean to assault the princess. It's my allergies," he pleaded, as if his life was on the line. "Here." He pulled a worn handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to me. "Please, I am terribly sorry."

  Ignoring the handkerchief, I pulled Maxwell to his feet. "It was an honest mistake. No harm done," I reassured him. "Please carry on with your wonderful gardening skills," I said, then turned to continue our stroll through the gardens. I wanted to get to the fountain so I could wash off my face.

  "That was a kind thing you did back there. Sneezing on a royal figure is considered a punishable offense. It is a form of assault," Theodore explained once we were out of earshot.

  "It was an honest mistake," I repeated. "He meant no harm."

  Theodore nodded his head. "Your leniency will be seen as weakness, and you cannot give your people any reason to think you are weak. The desperate are known to take advantage of the weak."

  "Duly noted," I muttered, not wanting to talk about the whole soon-to-be-Queen thing. "You mentioned once that life would be what I made of it here at the palace."

  "I did tell you that, yes."

  "Well, what do you do for fun here?"

  "I spend time in the gentleman's room, or the game room, or the bar to catch up on court gossip. Sometimes I even take to the library to read or surf the web for current events."

  I stopped suddenly in my tracks. "You have computers here in Linacre?"

  He slowly nodded his head, all the while giving me a look that suggested this was common knowledge. "Of course we do. Only for those that can afford it, though, which is usually only those in the courts and the soldiers' families just outside the walls."

  "And I can use them?" I rushed out, excited.

  A smile turned up the corners of his mouth. "Of course. You can also use the game room, the spa and all the other amenities for the women of the courts. I think if you were to find your way into the women's sanctuary, you might happen upon my mother. She has been very eager to get to know you better."

  "I would bet. After all, I am soon to be marrying her son, the future king of Linacre," I replied sarcastically.

  "That's beside the point. Like you, my mother doesn't have many friends she can truly relate to. You two already have one thing in common—you were princesses."

  I rolled my eyes, doing my best to make sure he didn't see it.

  "Anyways, I'm sure you will adore officially meeting the Sheppard ladies. I practically grew up with Christine. She keeps her nose clean and doesn't gossip like most old women."

  We finally reached the fountain, but to my misfortune it had been drained for cleaning, so we decided to head back to the palace for me to get washed up. Thinking of the lingering dried spit on my face made me want to rip off my skin.

  After I washed my face, Theodore and I decided to go to the library. I was anxious to get my hands on a computer and regain some connection to my old life.

  "This is the most direct path to the leisure wing of the palace." When we arrived, he stopped outside a pair of doors and opened them. "This is the library. We have at least one copy of nearly every book in existence here." He led me over to the computers and
pulled out a chair for me.

  "I can't believe you actually have computers and internet," I said as I took a seat and started up the browser.

  Theodore took a seat in the chair beside me. "We aren't a third-world country, you know—just old-fashioned in etiquette and laws, and some other things. Seriously, the game room has nearly every game console in existence. I hardly have time to play, but it is available."

  "Yeah, I'm not a gamer so that has no appeal to me whatsoever. I did play Sebastian's Pokemon game once on his Game Boy, but it was boring," I said as I logged into my Facebook.

  I had forty-two messages and a little over a hundred notifications.

  "What are you doing?" Theodore asked as I began reading my notifications.

  "It's just Facebook. It's how I kept in contact with all my friends over the years after high school. They can send me messages and pictures, and I can respond."

  Theodore moved my hand off the mouse and exited the browser. I threw my hands up. "What the hell!" I shouted at him. "What, am I not allowed to talk to my friends? I just have to cut everyone out of my life?"

  Theodore stood up and gestured towards the door. "I will not have this discussion. After you," he said. I sped out the door, leaving him far behind me.

  I couldn't believe this. It was one thing to not have access to keep in contact with my friends. But to have the access and be told I wasn't allowed to use it—that infuriated me.

  . . .

  The tension between Theodore and myself still hadn't dissipated by the time dinner came around. We sat across from each other and ate in complete silence. He said a few words here and there to try and coax some kind of conversation between us, but I consistently ignored him or answered with short replies. When I finished eating, I excused myself and went back to my room.

  The next day wasn't any better. Theodore tried to act like yesterday had never happened when he came to have lunch with me in the gardens.

  I poked around at the stacked grapefruit, avocado and shrimp salad on my plate, feeling tired and not very hungry after waking up several times during the night from my mouth going dry.

  "You should eat." He pointed at my plate. "You need to make sure your body is healthy so you are prepared to be with child."

  The sun that had been hiding behind the clouds came out, and the pressure in my head began to turn into a migraine.

  "I would prefer not to have this conversation while my head is killing me." I took a sip of the iced lemon-and-cucumber water to see if it would help, but it didn't.

  Theodore beckoned one of my ladies over and she pressed the back of her hand against my forehead, then my cheek. "She doesn't feel warm, Your Highness," Layla replied and then stepped back.

  "Would you like to lie down?" Theodore asked me.

  I shook my head. "I'm fine. Lying in my room alone will just remind me I'm not allowed to have friends."

  Theodore's next jab at a piece of shrimp on his plate was rougher than it needed to be. It looked like he was angry at his food, forcibly stabbing the fork into each piece. When he finished his meal, he took his time drinking his water and then patted his mouth with a linen napkin.

  "Now," he finally said, "your attitude is not very appealing."

  "I'm not trying to be appealing," I said snidely and tossed my head to one side, almost challenging him to say something offensive.

  He sighed. "The Sheppards have returned and we—meaning you and I—will be going to visit them." He held up his cup and one of my ladies filled it. He took a long drink, emptying the glass, then set it back down. "You will be on your best behavior."

  I rolled my eyes. "Do not talk to me like I am a child, Theodore."

  "Then do not act like one. Whenever you don't get your way, you throw a fit. It's getting very old very fast, and I personally do not like the idea of marrying a woman with childish tendencies."

  I sat back and crossed my arms. "Then don't marry me. I couldn't care any less. Just send me back home and find yourself some other princess."

  He rose swiftly to his feet and took my hand into his before leading me back towards the palace and into my apartment. He steered me into my sitting room and then sat down across from me.

  "Listen here, Emmaline. I made a promise not to punish you if I didn't have to, but if you keep this up I'm afraid I'll have to go back on that promise."

  "Yeah, go ahead and hit me—as if it's the only way you can control me," I sneered. "What a man."

  Those words were his breaking point. He pulled me across his lap and began swatting me with his hand. I did my best to not cry out because I didn't want to give him any sort of satisfaction. I wasn't going to let this pain weaken me. By the time he was done, it had taken all my strength and then some to keep a straight face and hold in my tears.

  When I was certain I could speak again without crying, I asked him, "Did that make you feel any better?"

  "Of course not," he said, adjusting his cuff links. "I know what it is like to get punished and it hurts me to have to resort to such dire measures with you."

  "Look, I won't pretend to not understand why you are upset towards me. You want to talk to your friends and I didn't allow that. Like I mentioned before, some friendships are considered inappropriate. As royals we are only allowed to associate with people inside the courts, and can only keep friendships with those that are of noble title."

  I nodded my head.

  "Now." He rose to his feet. "I believe we have a visitation to attend to."

  I hesitated, but I knew if I wanted a chance at any friends, this would be a start. I didn't like the idea of being told whom I could and couldn't be friends with, but part of me hoped I could find some solace in the Sheppards' daughters.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The Sheppards were on the fourth floor, just above us. As we made our way over, Theodore explained they didn't each have their own apartments—they shared one as a family, with a sitting area, a bathing area, an office and five bedrooms.

  I was still getting used to the idea that husbands and wives slept in separate beds unless one invited the other to sleep with them. Having your own room was considered a luxury people outside the courts didn't have.

  This was how it would be when Theodore and I married. Part of me felt relieved about this, since I was still on the wall with my feelings for Theodore. But I did have feelings for him. I was attracted to him, not exactly emotionally but physically. It was tearing at me more and more.

  . . .

  "Jeremy," Theodore greeted as the front door opened.

  Jeremy looked to be around eighteen in appearance. He had dark eyes and dark hair, a handsome face and bronze skin.

  Jeremy clapped Theodore on the back like an old friend, then formally greeted me before bowing. When he straightened back up, he flashed me a crooked smile and then opened the door wide enough for us to pass.

  "Welcome to our humble abode," he said, leading us into the sitting room. "We have brandy, whiskey and wine. We don't keep tequila in the house anymore, because Katarina dearest tended to skip her lessons and go on benders. Luckily the king never caught her, because she wouldn't have gotten off so easily."

  "Oh, well that's lovely," I responded as I took a seat.

  "I'll take a whiskey on the rocks," Theodore said.

  "Nothing for me, thank you." I paused and shifted in my seat, feeling the ache of the punishment I'd received earlier. "On second thought, I'll take a glass of that brandy."

  Once we had our drinks, Jeremy went to get his parents, who were in the office finishing up some stuff for work.

  "He seems pleasant," I mumbled to Theodore.

  "He gets his snark from his father," he replied just as Jeremy returned with his mother and father behind him.

  His mother looked beautiful, youthful for having an eighteen-year-old son and two daughters around my age. Her skin was a creamy color and her eyes just like her sons'.

  "It's an honor to have you in our home." Lady Katherine crossed the roo
m and pulled me into her arms.

  I glanced at Theodore, confused by her greeting. I thought I must be missing something. And I definitely was. Katherine soon explained she was my father's half-sister. My grandfather had apparently had an affair with a woman named Lily, who also happened to be my late aunt—by marriage of course—and Rose's mother. So these were my aunt and uncle.

  "My goodness, you are beautiful, Emmaline. You look so much like your father." I gave her a small smile. "Here, I'll introduce you to the girls while the gentlemen catch up on whatever it is they talk about."

  "It's weird," I began as we walked down the hall. "Being here and learning about my father and family. My mother never mentioned him, so I grew up thinking my father was Uncle William, who detested me almost as much as my mother."

  Katherine stopped us outside the door to look at me. "What do you mean?" she pressed.

  "I mean I wasn't used to that greeting you gave me back there. Turns out the reason they were so cold towards me was because it was my fault that my father, brother and Aunt Rose passed away. I know it was me who got sick first. I got the others sick."

  "Oh, dear child, is that what you were told?" I slowly nodded my head. "That is a lie. It was Rose who got sick first. She passed it to you, and then it went to your father and brother. If William resents you for anything, it is probably because you survived when his wife couldn't. Do not be hard on yourself. You may not have been as loved as you should have been growing up, but you best believe it that here…" She took my hands into hers. "Here, you are very much loved."

  She looked at me adoringly for a few silent moments, then took a breath. "Now, how about we introduce you to the girls?" She knocked on the bedroom door.

  "Come in," I heard a girl say.

  The room I entered was decorated with earthy colors, with several books on the shelves and maps on the wall.

  "Christine," Katherine called to the brown-haired girl sitting on the bed.

  The girl looked up and smiled as she rose to her feet. "Your Highness, I've heard quite a bit about you." She sank into a curtsy. "I am Christine."