The King's Artist

Ch 26: One Man's Perpetual Suffering

Hello everyone!
I just wanted to give a preemptive apology if there are more grammatical errors than normal in this chapter. I've had a horrible migraine for the past couple of days so my focus hasn't been great, but I really wanted to get a chapter up quickly since I was on vacation all week. Let me know what you think and I'll talk to you all later. 🤗

~~~~

The kiss was brief, barely a peck on the lips, but it was enough to silence both Henry and Adelaide. They stood frozen staring at one another with confused expressions and scarlet cheeks. Henry had started blinking rapidly while Adelaide, in contrast, appeared to have forgotten how to blink.

Adelaide took a tentative step away from Henry, slowly lowering her arms back to her side, while Henry remained standing where he was with his mouth slightly open. Adelaide's throat had started to feel scratchy and incredibly dry, and she desperately needed water. She had, for the moment, stopped crying, but her entire system seemed shocked beyond reasonable functioning.

Henry, too, couldn't seem to comprehend just what had happened. He tried several times to formulate a sentence only for his words to be dropped off in the space between them. He raised his hand up, though, his finger pointed as if indicating to Adelaide to give him a moment.

"I'm not sure what just happened," Henry said in a, what he probably thought, was a composed voice. His tone was too high pitched, though, and too formal to be convincing.

"Me neither," Adelaide responded, her tone sounding astonishingly similar. Everything from their postures to the sound of their words screamed awkwardness. Just hearing them talk would make anyone passing cringe with second-hand embarrassment.

"You kissed me," Henry stated, still using the fake tone of voice. His body was incredibly stiff and his blinking continued to be alarming fast and a little disturbing. Adelaide backed away one more step up the staircase looking at anything but Henry.

"Did I?" Adelaide squeaked, forcing out a choppy, unrealistic laugh. Her arms were behind her back in the hopes of giving the impression of a relaxed demeanor, but everything else about Adelaide looked bewildered and uncertain. It was clear her actions were just as shocking to her as they were to Henry.

"I'm not sure how to process what happened," continued Henry. His voice had somewhat begun to return to normal, but Adelaide noted that he had started speaking to her in the same way he spoke to the guards and soldiers around the castle.

"Me neither," repeated Adelaide. Henry shot her a look that made her want to smile. It was an expression of disbelief he usually showed when someone refused to give the response he wanted.

"Are you even going to attempt an explanation?" He asked clearly annoyed. Adelaide could only sigh a little. At least he had stopped being angry. She could deal with him being shocked a lot better.

"Do you really need an explanation?" Adelaide asked honestly while fiddling with her hands. She knew he wouldn't drop the subject but she secretly hoped he'd be willing to forget what just happened if she refused to give a straight answer.

"Do you like me?" Henry blurted, making Adelaide's face resume a humiliating scarlet color. Her reaction, of course, made Henry's face turn red again as well, and for several minutes they stood blushing at one another, occasionally clearing their throats awkwardly. "Up until a few hours ago, I still thought you were a guy, so I'm not entirely sure how to handle all this."

Adelaide didn't say anything, just merrily nodded her head in understanding. With the atmosphere suffocatingly weird between them, the two silently nodded their heads to one another and turned in opposite directions slowly. Henry turned back, though, ready to say something, but only managed to catch the image of Adelaide sprinting up the stairs and around the corner. His mouth was hanging open in an unsaid sentence that his brain had still been trying to formulate.