Another World

Chapter 45

Charlotte awoke with a start. Something had woken her up. She blinked in confusion as her foggy mind tried desperately to clear the clinging remnants of sleep and brief disorientation. Some days she still woke up expecting to be back in her old room in her family home.

The curtains were drawn tight, swathing the room in a murky gloom. The fire had long since died down in the hearth, causing a chill to permeate through the room. Charlotte glanced over to Thranduil's side of the bed and noted that he had already left, the sheets cold and indicating that he had been gone for some time now. Disappointment lanced through her, clenching her heart like a vice grip.

Would it always be like this – waking up alone each morning, year after year, until it became nothing but the norm?

A knock sounded on the door and Charlotte concluded that this must have been what had awoken her.

Drawing the blankets right up to her chin, she called out, "Come in."

A moment later Maerwen entered the room, a tray balanced in her hands and her movements that of a graceful dancer.

She set the tray down on the table and came to stand at the foot of the bed, inclining her head in greeting.

"My lady, it's good to see that it only took three knocks this time to rouse you," she commented with a mirthful smile that made her amber eyes sparkle with an inner light. Today she wore her hair loose, the ends curling at the ends.

"How can you be so chipper at this hour?" Charlotte grumbled, envious that elves could spring from bed ready to greet the day with an annoyingly bright enthusiasm. "And why are you getting me up so early?"

"Did you forget? You begin your lessons with Hérion this morning."

"No, I didn't forget - but I was hoping that he had forgotten."

"Highly unlikely. Hérion takes his royal duties very seriously. If you do not attend, then he will come to you himself."

Charlotte let out a groan and rubbed at her face. What the hell had she gotten herself into? And surely it was sacrilege to get up this early in the morning.

"Please tell me you have tea?" she mumbled into her hands, causing her words to come out muffled. "If I am to get up at this ungodly hour then I'm going to need tea. Lots of it."

A clinking sound by her bedside table drew her attention and she glanced over to see that Maerwen had already placed a delicate china cup of tea and a saucer upon the surface, a somewhat smug look gracing her delicate features.

"King Thranduil forewarned me that tea would be the best way to get you up and out of bed."

"How thoughtful of him," Charlotte replied with a hint of sarcasm, though she did reach over for the cup, balancing it precariously on her lap.

As Charlotte sipped at her hot beverage, she watched as Maerwen set about flinging opening the curtains, letting in the far too bright early morning light. Maerwen was a bundle of efficient and contained energy, her features pinched with sharp focus as she set about her morning tasks of preparing Charlotte for the day. The skirt of her ivory hued dress fluttered around her ankles with each movement she made, the color conforming beautifully to the pale skin that peeked out from the dress.

Charlotte drained her tea and flung back the covers, deciding to get on with this already cursed day.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Bath time," she grumbled as she shuffled past Maerwen and made her way to the bathroom.

There was a lot to get used to in this life in the Woodland Realm, but she was dead certain that she would never adjust to getting up at the crack of dawn, no matter how many centuries she lived.