Fairy Tale Wedding (Book One: The Road to Ever After)

Chapter Fourteen

Princess Adeline passed the next few days in a trance. Her mind was stuck under a frothy cloud that constantly rumbled the thunderous words, "Lost Memories." Nothing else seemed to register. Every conversation and face she came in contact with sparked an association that set off a peeling bell in her head. She tried desperately to punch and push these longings back into the ground where they had grown.

Only her closest companions noticed her dazed state was actually a stormy internal struggle. Prewitt pranced alongside the princess intent on discovering the cause of her dreamy dismay. He looked up at her face and frowned. She was so intent on whatever was plaguing her under the surface, she did not even notice his staring eyes. This was all most perplexing to Prewitt. He stopped in the middle of a long hallway, plopped his caboose on the cold, marble floor, and scratched his ear in dismay.

What was the matter with Princess Adeline anyway?

If any of her advisors or upstanding representatives noticed the change...well, they never did, for they never could see past the end of their spectacled noses. The flashy ladies and foppish gentlemen of the court did recognize a change in the usually so cordial and interested princess. They whispered behind fans and gloved fingers their explanations for her alteration. Who could ignore the effects of the ball, for what else could it be? Of course, it was not the dizziness of a night dancing that had done it. No indeed. Certainly something even more grand.

Wasn't it peculiar how little Princess Adeline and Prince Darrik were seen together nowadays? They were trying very hard to hide something, wouldn't you say? Well, well, well, we can all be good sports and play along with their game. Now do try and keep a straight face, they smirked and snorted much like mischievous children.

Princess Adeline did not hear a single murmur or giggle. She spotted no unsavory group of gossips from the corner of her eye. Instead, she was scared to death of meeting people's glances. She feared that a word or smile from any one of these members of the upper crust of Once-upon-a Time society might evoke a memory, a painful memory and then the spiral would start again. Around and around her arguments ran, always descending to the same dark point – what to do?

The answer should be obvious, Princess Adeline told herself, so why is this decision so hard? Why does knowledge have to be a burden? Why do I have to suffer so much doubt?

And the answer that caused cold chills always came in the snake-like voice of Lady Jacqueline.

"You don't have to suffer if you go to the Forest of No Return."

Princess Adeline stood on her bedchamber's balcony and shook her head violently, as if the evil queen of Distress could be sprinkled out of her mind like salt or pepper. Sadly, these dangerous words did not slip in one ear and slide out the other. They remained firmly planted in every one of Adeline's musings.

The troubled princess looked out over the view from her balcony. It was the hour before stars twinkle and candles blaze, when the world is shrouded in breathtaking royal blue and purple. The a Time River glistened like glass in the moonlight, its waters black and rolling. The grass was lush green, seeping peace into the atmosphere. In the capitol and across the horizon, fires blazed in fireplaces as suppers simmered. Families chattered together as they munched their meals. No one had any reason to fear the future, to suspect their princess had been jilted or Lady Jacqueline had made threatening promises within their borders.

No one knew there was cause for alarm, except Princess Adeline, and such weighty intelligence was not easy to bear alone.

Adeline threw her blonde head back in frustration. The deep blue abyss above her offered no consolation. She was alone, completely and utterly. Standing on her balcony with her long, shiny locks blowing behind her in the breeze, Adeline should have felt perfectly pleasant.