A Pearl Of Wisdom (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 38: Moving On

I often listened to the band Oh Wonder when I would write the story so I wanted to share it with everyone

I run back to the girls and they were still in a history lesson so I slowly slip in and hope no one noticed.

"Where were you" Celine whispers to me.

"Oh I just needed to freshen up and got held up talking to Jack" I try to explain.

"Okay you didn't miss much" Celine whispers back.

The next day Jack announces that Prince Ren is going to spending the day with us, which is unusual because he has been so busy lately and has not spent that much time with the concubines before. I realized that he is now seriously considering the other girls now that I am off the table. We go off to our music lesson, and as I finish my song Celine starts singing after me and Prince Ren comes and joins us.

"Oh Prince Ren you are here we can proceed to meet with you now." Jack says.

"No it is alright I want to listen to Celine finish singing first" Ren says and then sits down and attentively listens to Celine singing and he even allows Holly to sing for him next before we stop the lesson. We then go and have tea and cakes for an afternoon break. I don't really want to be here and watch Ren doing this anymore. Even though I don't want to be Queen it still is hard for me to watch him moving on, which I know is selfish and it just makes me feel bad that I feel this way. I kinda sit in the corner and quietly allow my presence to exist and stare out the window. Jack seems to notice and come up to me.

"What are you doing Anise? Why are you not giving it your best? I thought Prince Ren favored you? What is going on?" Jacks asks.

"I can't answer all of those questions, but I think Prince Ren has had a change of heart and it is alright with me" I explain simply.

"Well change it back because this is not right" Jack tries to say quietly.

"It is fine I am okay with everything" I say and try to shut his questions down. Jack then just shrugs his shoulders and walks away and I go back to zoning out by myself.

Time eventually passes and Prince Ren lets us go for supper, but tells us that he will spend time with us after supper. I try to think of some excuses but since their are only six girls left it is too obvious if I was gone. We spend the evening playing some games and the day finally comes to an end and I go straight to my room.

I go to sleep and feel exhausted. I am running away from all kinds of strange people and I am trying to get away but everything is a dead end and I start banging on the walls. All of a sudden someone grabs my hand and I hear my name being called. I open my eyes and realize that I was dreaming.

"Anise are you okay? Were you having a bad nightmare?" I look up and find Roze staring down at me and holding my hand. I sit up and Roze touches my forehead. "You are sweating quite a bit."

"Oh yeah it was a bit intense I was dreaming that people were chasing me and I was stuck" I explain. Roze grabs my hand tighter.

"Are you okay, I know that can leave a person feeling disturbed after a scary nightmare" Roze questions. I take a deep breath.

"Actually I don't really feel that affected once I wake up. Besides nightmares don't scare me anymore since I have already lived through the worst one possible" I explain.

"Oh Anise, I am sorry I couldn't protect you" Roze says sincerely and pulls me deep into a hug. I feel enveloped by his body and I snuggle right into him and feel like I could not get enough of it.

"I missed you yesterday, it is so hard to have to continue being a concubine and then I feel bad because he has to still marry someone who he may not even love" I explain.

"I know, I am happy but at the same time I do feel a little bad for Ren with his responsibilities." I pull out of his arms to look him in the eyes.

"I think you need to help him right now with finding a wife, I can't be there for him in that way now, and so now you need support him in anyway you can." I explain.

"You are right, I will try to talk to him and be civil and more like a brother. That doesn't mean that he will trust me or want help from me"

"Don't underestimate him, he is longing for family just as much as you are" I explain.

"Okay I will try to talk to him and see what he needs" Roze says pouting. I laugh and hit his arm.

"What is the time anyway?" 

"It is around 6 am"

"What why are you here so early? I thought you came to wake me up? I need two more hours of sleep" I say and lay back down.

"Okay then you should do that, I couldn't sleep and knew that if I didn't sneak around I wouldn't see you for a while" Roze says and then pushes me over climbs into my bed.

"Roze, you can't be doing that what if someone sees?" I say appalled.

"Don't worry I will leave soon just give me a little bit of time" Roze says and closes his eyes.

"Fine, but you need to leave soon! promise?" I say and Roze grabs my hand and pulls it over to rest on his chest. I can feel his heart beating and his breathing going up and down and it seems to hypnotize me into sleep. 

The next thing I hear is my door opening and I jerk awake and see Daisy coming and I feel for Roze but I look around and he has disappeared. I sigh relieved that we weren't caught because I feel like I can't trust anyone right now. 

I go to breakfast but all the girls seemed to be very late for breakfast. When Celine and Holly finally come I ask them what is happening.

"Oh right you didn't come to the after supper meeting with Prince Ren the day before." Holly says.

"Sorry I was so tired that I seemed to sleep through the evening and night" I say.
"What is going on?" I ask.

 "Well if you were here you would have heard that today we are having one on ones with Prince Ren and this may be the deciding factor of who he wants to choose and the girls are taking time with their appearance this morning." Celine answers.

"Oh shoot, I guess I will have to do for now." I say.

"Wow you must have a lot of confidence in yourself." Celine says sarcastically.

" I mean even if I spent more time on my appearance it would not change a whole lot, either he likes me or not, you can only change so much anyway" I say trying to sound natural.