Glass Slippers [1st Draft]

24. Recovery

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Recovery

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A Week Later

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Clara read quietly where she sat by her brother's bedside, the sound of his easy breathing music to her ears. They had been at the royal palace for a week, and James' health had been improving in leaps and bounds with each passing day.

Overall, most of the Corden siblings had been very well, and happy too, once they reached the palace. Clara had only heard from Estella once by letter and had been informed that Linette was furious with her, but no one in the Corden family seemed to mind that fact and had elected to ignore it until they had to see their stepmother again.

Frederick had stayed true to his word, and as promised, the day after they arrived, he presented Harriet with trousers and shirts of her own that would fit her well. He was seemingly more than happy to indulge the thirteen-year-old spitfire.

Amelia had taken to following Princess Adelaide around as they were both rather similar in disposition. Together, they had been spending most of their free time in the palace gardens or on the beach that was technically on the palace grounds, as Adelaide, upon learning that Amelia had never been to the beach, insisted that she go see the ocean immediately.

James was recovering well, according to the physicians, and while they didn't expect him to ever be as strong as he should be, he was to make a good recovery. He had been awake for a lot of time during the past week and had taken rather well to Leopold, the Prince of Marenta and Frederick's best friend, as he told him stories of his adventures around the world. James especially liked the tales of Leopold's journeys on a camel in the desert province of Aridan, and asked to be told about them at every chance.

Clara, meanwhile, had only ventured between her room, her sisters' rooms, her brother's room, the library, and the garden in her time at the palace. Despite the fact he was getting better, she had decided it was best to stay by James as much as possible. Though, if she was being honest, there was more than one reason why she wanted to just stay with her brother.

In her time at the palace, she had yet to see the Princess of Carigan, Princess Sophia, even once, and she was in no hurry to amend that statement, the same could be said for the King and Queen. She had been avoiding the most notable of the palace's inhabitants for the entirety of the week, hoping to put off the inevitable meeting for as long as possible.

However, as much as she tried to avoid a certain green-eyed prince, she couldn't seem to manage it. Personally, she blamed it on Harriet. Her sister had taken every opportunity to try and force Clara and Frederick to spend time together, but both parties seemed to be working diligently to foil her plans.

Frederick had seemed to fill his schedule almost instantly. He always had training with the knights or the Prince of Marenta, Leopold. He even took the time to distract Harriet by teaching her how to ride a horse and hold a sword, using the promise of sword fighting like a knight as a distraction for the thirteen-year-old girl.

Granted, Clara wasn't overly enthused about the idea of her sister knowing how to sword fight, but she appreciated how he seemed to genuinely care about teaching Harriet the basics of what was considered a man's activity. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it, and Harriet certainly wasn't complaining.

She had even offered to give a demonstration of her newly found skills one day in James room so her brother could see it, but upon almost knocking over a priceless vase and actually shredding the curtains of the windows. Clara convinced her that it was perhaps best to leave the sword handling demonstrations for once James was well enough to be outdoors.