Long Lost Princess

Chapter 4

I'm going to go crazy.
The decorator was far too cheery for my liking. It was as if she was the personification of an exclamation mark. No, loads of exclamation marks. Fabric swatches covered the couches in the sitting room and a giant binder was sitting in the middle of the table. Finally, I was able to get her to accept a similar color scheme to what I had in my bedroom in Mysell. Light gray walls, deep purple sheets and white furniture. Calming and soothing, just how I like it. Then came time for choosing the style and texture of the bed sheets and it was another uphill battle.
Finally, it was over. A simple but elegant design that was suited to my personal taste as well as conforming to the style "appropriate for a princess" I swear, that is becoming my new motto.
Once the decorator had left, the room had that crushing silence surrounding it again. I changed into my most comfortable pajamas and grabbed a small snack from the mini bar. Thankfully it had been stocked with all of my favorites. Mom must have told them what to buy. I suddenly felt a deep sadness flow through me. Mom, Dad. I missed them both so incredibly much right now.
I grabbed my phone, calling my mom's number. "Hey Hun! Oh it's so good to hear from you."
"Hi mom," I said sniffling. "I miss you guys. I wish I could be home with you right now."
"Oh I know sweetie. I wish you could too. We will be there this weekend, Jeremy will be coming up with us as well. Just 2 more days okay ?"
I spoke to my mom a bit more, and then my dad got on the phone. Jeremy spoke to me for a few minutes as well. They had to hang up in order to go to sleep so I laid there in my bed, wishing for sleep to come but it eluded me for hours. I tried every trick that I knew to get myself to sleep but I just couldn't get comfortable. It seemed as though something was nagging at me, and the hairs on the back of my neck would not stop. Some tea should help. It's probably just nerves from being in a new place. Getting up, I shuffled to the sitting room to make some tea and stood by the window, looking down at the quiet streets of Rien while the electric kettle that was supplied with the room began to boil. A small red light caught my eye and I watched as it slowly came towards me. It was like a laser pointer. Or...
I jumped out of the way, my body moving faster than my brain could again, just a split second before the window shattered, sending pieces of glass all around me. Air whizzed by me again, feeling close, too close. I crawled away from the window, trying to avoid being seen while scrambling for cover. I crawled to the other side of the kitchenette, trying to get some secure cover, before I started to hear gunshots firing. I froze, trying to be invisible to whatever was going on and just sat there silently crying for what felt like forever. No more whizzes of air came through my window but the wind blowing sent a chill through me even though the night was warm. The noise from gunshots died down and shouting could finally be heard. The wall across from me was littered with holes and I could only imagine what the rest of the room looked like. I cried, listening to the sounds of people shouting and yelling orders to each other.
It seemed like forever that I was sitting there, hearing people run down the hallway, and the shouting from outside the shattered window. Eventually, the door to my room opened and I froze, my eyes squeezed shut, waiting to be shot or hit or whatever but when I felt arms scoop me up, I opened my eyes. It was Lionel, carrying me away from my room, away from the chaos. I cowered into his chest, the warmth from his arms surrounding me and I realized I was cold. The scent of his cologne calmed me down some and as we got to another room, I caught a glance of the queen looking frightened and an older guy who seemed frantic, yelling orders into a walkie talkie. I was placed on a small couch, covered with a blanket and left there, shivering. What felt like hours later someone came over to check on me and they pulled my hands away from where they were wrapped up in the blankets. Blood covered them, bright red against the stark white of my skin and I felt myself begin to faint as I caught sight of the cuts.

When I came to, all I could see was a really bright light shining above my head. I immediately squinted, trying to shield my eyes but when I tried to move, something tugged my arm back. Looking to the side I saw an IV sticking out of my arm and heard an annoying beep from somewhere behind me. Muffled voices sounded from outside of wherever I was, getting closer and closer to me. Then they stopped and a small knock came before a middle-aged man wearing scrubs walked in.
"Hello Princess. My name is Dr. Jones. I'm part of the staff on call here. You're in the palace infirmary. Can you tell me how you feel?"
"I'm okay," I croaked out. I swallowed, then tried again. "Stiff I guess. A bit cold."
"All completely understandable, you've been out for a few hours and I'm sure that isn't helping your stiffness at all. Not to mention the loss of blood. We've been trying to assist with the IV but you should start to warm up again soon."
I looked down, finally noticing that both of my palms were bandaged up. "What happened?"
Dr. Jones handed me a small cup of water and I drank it greedily while he spoke. "It seems that someone found out you are still alive and decided to try to finish what they started before." He said cautiously, watching my movements. Seemingly satisfied, he busied himself with paperwork at the end of the bed.
I just kept looking at my hands, trying to unravel the events of last night. I just kept hearing the glass shattering behind me as I ducked away from the windows. Kept hearing the gunshots from outside. The endless replay of events kept swirling around in my head and I kept thinking how I should've known better, how I shouldn't have been by the window and that I put myself in danger.
I didn't even notice when the doctor left and Lionel was sitting next to me until he said my name.
"Megan,"
I glanced at him. My eyes filling with tears as I started to sob. The emotions from everything overcoming me.Instead of looking embarrassed like I had expected, he just calmly wrapped his arms around me until I stopped crying. Looking down, I saw tears staining the coat of his uniform, mingling with the blood that I must've left on him from my palms earlier.
"I'm sorry, I'll pay to get it fixed." He just shook his head, looking at my face to see if I was going to start crying again. He had dropped the stiff mask he wore earlier when I had first met him and looked more like he was scared and sad. When he caught me looking back at him, he seemed to collect himself again and put his guard back up.
"What happened?" I asked. "I thought the group was gone." He placed me back on the bed and stood up, walking a few steps away from me. He turned his back towards me, rubbing his chin with his hand.
"It looks like there might be some extremists left. If I had known, I never would've allowed them to put you in that room. I never would have left you alone. We should have known better." The tone of his voice gave away the anger he felt, but what it was towards, I couldn't tell. For all I knew it was me, for being so stupid to nearly get myself shot. Again. I thought to myself.
I shook my head, aching to put my hand to his face, to comfort him if at all possible. But I kept my hands in my lap, only the palms tingling lightly. "You couldn't have known. I had never even heard of any group like that before."
"How did you escape?" He asked suddenly, turning around to face me. "When we were investigating today, it showed that the shooter had the best vantage point into your room as well as the sitting area."
"I don't know." I stammered. "I got up to make some tea because I couldn't sleep, it felt like someone was watching me all night, and when I was waiting for the water to heat up, I saw a red light. It was like my body knew what it was before my mind did. So I just ducked between the windows and then crawled away when I could. I feel so dumb, I shouldn't have been close to the windows like that, or I should've closed the curtains."
"Hey." He said, coming close to me again and cupping my face. "There was no way that you could have known anything. To you, this group never even existed. We even thought that they were gone. Obviously now, we will have to take better precautions."
I looked at him, his face only inches from mine and the smell of his cologne invading my senses. Then I dropped my eyes, his hand lingering over my scar before he allowed that to drop too. He is wayyy too old for you Megan. He's at least 24 and probably married by now. Don't even think about it.
He stood up suddenly, moving back to the spot he had been in before. And as I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror, I understood then why he moved. My hair was a mess, flying all over the place and sticking to my face in places. Not to mention that my eyes were swollen and bloodshot from crying. Plus, my breath probably smells awful from my mouth being so dry before.
He tried to mention more things but I kept my face pointed down, hiding the traces of my tears of embarrassment until he left. And then I got up, dragging the IV pole behind me to the sink where I tried to make myself semi-presentable. I got my hair smoothed out at least, though there wasn't much I could do about my puffy eyes.
Finally at long last, someone knocked on the door again. The queen and the doctor.
"My dear, I'm so pleased to hear that you are safe. And we will take further precautions to make sure nothing happens. I think it is time that your brother comes home. If there are extremists in the country, it is far too dangerous for him to be traveling around." I nodded, just listening to her. "What happened last night is unacceptable and we will be moving you to a different bedroom tomorrow, well I suppose it is today isn't it?" I glanced at the clock on the wall, surprised to see it reading nearly 2 AM.
There was nothing I wanted to say, nothing I wanted to do, except hug my mom. The queen sat quietly, studying me for a moment until there was a timid knock on the door.
"Enter," She said suddenly. I flinched from the suddenness of her voice. But any fear of her that I had changed immediately when my mom entered the room, my dad and Jeremy following close behind her. I jumped up and flung myself into her arms, ignoring the sting of pain when the IV tugged on my arm.
My mom just crushed me to her chest, sobbing as she hugged me tightly, tears falling onto my head. Another pair of arms encircled us, my dad. Finally, I was able to pull back more, but not long after Jeremy took his own turn to hug me tightly. And I hugged him right back, not caring that he wasn't technically my brother anymore. This was my family, they are everything I have.
After a few minutes, we all took a step back and I sat back down on the bed. The queen's face was slightly hurt, but more sad than anything else. She patted the back of my hand and smiled slightly at me as I looked at her. While she spoke, the doctor began to remove my bandages and examine my palms.
"From what it seems, we may have to reevaluate our stance on this issue of the insurgents. Obviously we cannot just send you back into hiding, they know that you are alive. It really depends on what would outweigh the risks." As she continued, Lionel walked back in, along with the man I had seen earlier yelling orders. I caught a glance at him and began to blush, embarrassed again, but he remained professional, staring straight ahead and not acknowledging me. "This is Commander Lewis. The leader of the entire royal guard. He will assist with our next steps."
The older man stepped forward as the doctor began to remove my IV. "Hello Princess. I'm glad to see that you are safe." He nodded to my parents and continued. "Ten years ago, we thought that we could keep you safe by hiding you with your godparents. That worked for a long time, but it is evident that we did not eradicate the threat as we had previously thought. They knew that you were a threat to their mission, whether or not they knew who you were is another story. We cannot tell if they thought that you were an arranged marriage for the prince or if they knew you are the princess, but we must continue as lightly as we could. We are already working on getting people on the inside to get information."
The doctor took the pause to duck out of the room. As the door shut behind him, the man continued. "But we need to assume that they know it is you. Personally, I think it is advantageous to reveal that you are alive. Not necessarily your identity, but we must control that information as it leaks. Your schoolmates will notice that you are gone and put the pieces together. It is for your best interest."
"The Prime Minister agrees" the queen spoke up. "We had our meeting this evening ahead of schedule and he is anxious to put the protestors to rest as they are beginning to cause a few problems in some areas."
All the faces turned to me. "We need to know what you think," Commander Lewis stated softly.
"What? Why? This isn't my decision to make."
"Meg-Ellia," Mom began. "This IS your decision to make. This is your life. If you aren't ready, we can wait. But if you feel that you can handle it, then you can."
"Can I have time to think? I don't know right now." I stammered, my hands were shaking badly.
"Of course you can, dear" Stated the queen. "When you are ready, we can discuss this, it does not have to be right now. Meanwhile, let's all get back to bed. There is another room that you will be able to stay in for the moment and in the morning we can bring you to your room."
The entire group got up and started trailing out of the room, the queen leading the way. Lionel stayed behind, coming to help me into a wheelchair. He held out a hand but I ignored it, choosing instead to get up myself and start to walk. His face flickered with a bit of amusement but also something else I couldn't quite figure out.
"You might fall, you lost a lot of blood last night." He cautioned.
"I'm fine, I've got this. Besides, I've been through worse," I joked, motioning toward my scar. He stopped and looked back at me, his eyes never leaving mine.
"If I could have prevented that, trust me, I would've. Believe me, all I wanted to do was hunt every one of those killers down and make them hurt." He stared at me intensely, the look on his face proving to me that he meant every word.
I turned my face away, prepared to walk down the hall, but his hand cupped my cheek, his thumb running the length of my scar. His hands were so soft, softer than I ever would've expected. I looked back at his face and saw his expression torn. He seemed to be fighting a war inside of him. The warm smell of his cologne floated around us again and I leaned closer, being drawn closer and closer.
The sound of footsteps from around the corner broke the spell between us and he flew back, returning to a vacant expression that was so common on the guards around us. The sudden movement of backing away myself caused the blood to rush from my head, making me feel woozy. Lionel brought the chair over to me just in time for me to collapse into it. From around the corner came the commander, obviously looking for where we had gotten.
"Michaels! Where have you been? The princess needs her rest!"
"Yes sir, I apologize. I- We-"
"It's my fault Commander Lewis," I stated, feeling stronger. "I wanted to attempt to walk and it's been slow going. I started feeling a bit faint so Lionel here stopped so that I didn't get hurt."
The commander looked suspicious but after a brief second nodded. "Of course, your highness. I only came to find you since the room has been prepared. For now, you will sleep and then in the morning, the queen requests your presence in the meeting room for breakfast with some parliament members."
I nodded, "Alright Lionel, let's head back to my room then."
We continued forward, rounding the corner and coming to an elevator at the end of the corridor. Lionel waited a moment before wheeling me into it. We were alone again.
A few awkward moments passed before anything was said. It was Lionel who spoke up first. "Why did you lie for me?"
"I didn't lie." I replied. "It was an abridgement of the truth. Everything I said is true, I just didn't add in the other things."
He looked at me, confused. Then sighed, shaking his head. "I appreciate what you did. But it shouldn't have even gotten to the point where we were in that situation. You are my princess. You're under my protection. It can't happen again."
His voice seemed guarded and when I looked at him, he looked away. The rejection washed through me and I turned back to the door. Finally it opened and I stood up quickly, feeling a bit lightheaded.
I let it pass and then started walking briskly down the hall.
"Princess, you don't know where your new room is. Let me guide you." Lionel took the lead, walking a few steps ahead of me until we stopped at a door just down the hallway.
"Here we are. Your lady in waiting will arrive in the morning to assist you with whatever you may need." With that he turned on his heel and walked down the hallway, nodding to the guards that stood by the corner. I watched his back retreat until he turned the corner.
I opened the door and slipped into the room, making sure the door closed behind me before I let the tears start to fall.
I didn't even know why I was feeling this way, I barely knew the guy. But the connection between us was something I never knew was possible. The rejection was so strong and I had to believe it was something I had done wrong.
I paid little attention to the room I was in, choosing instead to crawl over to the couch closest to me and curl up there, falling into a deep sleep.