𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 | 𝐝. 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐲

chapter two

After a quick breakfast the boys took the princess to the seamstress' room to work on the layout for her gown for the school homecoming dance. Although she was a princess, she wanted to go to school and be with kids her own age. The main problem was that the girls there seemed jealous and even scared of her.

"Daniel," Aurelia whispered, causing him to lean in, "do you think we could go to the lake today?"

"Of course, princess," Daniel smiled sweetly, "I'll let Zach know."

"Thank you, and Aurelia is fine," She replied, smiling.

They reached the room and filed in, greeting the grey hair woman seated near the large window.

"Ah, your majesty!" Alice exclaimed, "I had this wonderful idea for how we could add that extra touch we were looking for before we took a break."

"Ooh, what have you thought of this time?" Aurelia asked, authentically excited.

"What if we put the slit right between here," Alice asked, pointing to different parts of the picture of her dress, "and here?"

"Sounds good to me!" The princess exclaimed. And with that, the two got to work with styling the dress she would be wearing.

***

By the time they had finished a fair amount of the layout, lunch was going to be served shortly. The five boys escorted Aurelia back down to the dining room.

"I talked to Zach, we can go to the lake right after lunch, okay?" Daniel told her.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Seavey," Aurelia replied with a smile. Daniel didn't want to correct her, but smiled at her politeness.

The six entered the dining room as the king, queen, and prince entered from separate doors.

As the royal family took their seats, Prince Shawn glared at the bodyguards. He didn't trust anyone with his little sister's life except himself, especially after the last bodyguard incident. The five new ones were too young to protect her, in Shawn's opinion.

"Oh, Aurelia, I forgot to tell you," The queen suddenly said, snapping Shawn out of his thoughts, "after lunch I need to go over some things with you and the five. I would've done it earlier except Alice requested to take the afternoon off, starting in about thirty minutes."

Aurelia's heart sank, but she covered her disappointment with a fake smile. She had a vivid image of what she thought was coming, and hoped it was going to be different in reality.

"Sounds like a plan!" The princess exclaimed, with a fake tone of joy, "Alice deserves time off, she's such a sweet lady."

***

Lunch had recently ended. Aurelia, Shawn, their parents, and the bodyguards were gathered in a medium-sized room and seated at a large table. The princess nervously tapped her fingers on the wooden surface, her painted nails making extra noise. She had imagined this meeting ending with her having a mental breakdown - soaked in tears while lying on her bed, surrounded by her bodyguards.

"Here, why don't you take a look at this," King Eric said to Daniel, handing him a folder. He looked through the pages and his heart sank deeper every single word. The folder was passed around until all five had read it, before it was handed to the king.

Aurelia's heart was racing. She knew what was said about her, and that now all of the boys knew too. It scared her. They knew her deep secrets that only her family should know, and she just met them. She should've been the one to tell them. It should have been her choice whether or not they know about her PTSD. Aurelia tried to slow her breaths down but it wasn't working. It was happening all over again. Memories rushed into her mind. Darkness, laughing, bruises, slaps, pain. Then complete silence. Loneliness. No one ever came.

The king then told them more details about the bodyguard incident that happened not even two weeks earlier. Her entire family was in France to meet the princess, Shawn's future wife, so Aurelia was left alone with her three bodyguards. The men she trusted with her life had turned against her. They abused her for days before fleeing the castle. When the prince, king, and queen came back they found her chained to her bedpost.

"I-I'll be in my room." She announced breathlessly than ran.

***

There was a soft knock on the door. "Aurelia?" Daniel's voice filled her ears, "It's me Daniel, uh, can I please come in?"

The princess rushed to her bathroom and quickly wiped away all her tears. She splashed her face with water and smiled at the mirror before going back to open the door.

"Hey, what's up?" She asked, letting him in. Daniel raised an eyebrow. He could tell she was crying a minute ago.

"You don't have to fake another smile," He whispered, sitting beside her on her bed.

"It's just," She inhaled sharply, "I wanted to be the one to tell you guys when I felt was the proper time. It's really not safe and I'm just scared to place my trust in people I don't know, and-"

"Princess," Daniel cooed, "it's gonna be okay, I won't ever let anything happen to you."

"Promise me, Daniel, please promise me you won't let it happen all over again," Aurelia whispered as tears began to fall again.

"I promise," He replied before she hugged him tightly and continued to cry in his strong arms.

But why would Daniel make a promise he could never keep?