The Lost Princess - A 'Selection' spinoff

CHAPTER 4

"Stupid. Idiotic. Dumb. Rude. Idiotic -," Elora raged as she walked into the royal chambers, ten maids and a doctor hurrying behind her.

Her husband, King Edward looked up from the virtual documents he was signing.

"You mentioned 'idiotic' twice," he said wryly.

Elora stopped, glaring at her husband. The doctor took this as his opportunity, and unwrapped her makeshift bandage and examined the cut on her hand.

"What happened?" her husband asked immediately standing up as he saw the bleeding cut.

"An accident," Elora said, waving her hand dismissively.

"I thought you were just supposed to fall and act like you had sprained your leg," Edward said, walking towards her, and looking at the wound himself.

"Don't even ask," Elora grumbled, once again muttering curse words under her breath.

The doctor looked appalled as he heard his words. Elora glared at him, and he looked back at her palm, applied a salve and wrapped the wound once again in a fresh, white muslin cloth.

"You need to take your medications more regularly, Your Majesty. Your hemophilia-," he began.

"I know!" Elora snapped, pulling her hand from the doctor's.

Edward sighed, and dismissed the doctor and all the maids.

Elora, walked into an adjoining room filled with her dresses, and began changing her clothes.

"What?" she asked her staring husband. "The Report starts in twenty minutes".

"Are you pregnant?" he asked.

"WHAT?".

"The last time you were so angry was when you were hormonal and emotional when you were carrying the twins," Edward said, rubbing the back of his neck like a young boy.

"Which ones?" Elora asked dully, wriggling her way into a blue dress that matched her eyes.

There was a short pause.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Zip?".

Her husband walked towards her and carefully zipped her dress.

"I take it that your test didn't go well?" he asked.

"They're all dolls, Edward. I'm sure their mentors gave them the whole 'be careful of what you do in the palace' speech, but I never imagined that they would think helping an injured woman would ruin their chances of staying in the competition," Elora said, turning to face her husband.

"So no one helped you?" he asked, very surprised.

"Only one girl. I didn't ask her name, but she kept calm, despite those horrendous names those other girls called her," Elora said.

"Names?".

"They called her a Nine. And called me a Nine too," the Queen said.

"The did what?" the King thundered, looking ready to walk to those girls and give them a nice, tight slap.

"They did. But the girl... She tore her shirt off, and was so careful as she wrapped my hand in the cloth," the Queen said, softening.

"She tore her clothes for a person she thought was a maid? You think she knew your true identity?" Edward asked, walking with his wife to sit on a low couch outside.

"No. Definitely not. She didn't know," Elora said, shaking her head.

Her hair stylist entered, and began curling her hair.