Prince Ivan and his wife, Luciana who were still seated in the garden, but were now in the company of the queen, both turned to look at what the queen was staring at so intently with a slight frown on her face, and their brows creased as well when they saw the king walking into the garden with Harold and his bride.
What is going on? Ivan wondered with displeasure as he watched the trio move to the other side of the garden. Why was the king always meeting with Harold in private but not with him? He was the legitimate son, after all, and Harold was the son of a mere slave. This didn't sit well with him.
"Why are they here with the king?" Ivan voiced the question on the queen's mind when some servants came in carrying different dishes.
"They obviously want to have lunch," Luciana pointed out, and that earned her a sharp glare from her husband, and the Queen eyed her with disapproval.
"I'm sorry I spoke out of turn," she apologized, realizing too late that she had been quick to answer a question she didn't understand.
"Excuse us. I want to speak with my son alone," the Queen ordered. As far as she was concerned, Luciana was slow-witted and didn't possess what it took to be included in their plans.
Luciana glanced at her husband, and he gave her a nod to leave. She couldn't help feeling bitter that the Queen, who was supposed to be on her side in the same manner that the King seemed to be on Princess Amber's side, was treating her this way. If Princess Amber was Prince Ivan's bride, she was sure the Queen wouldn't have treated her this way.
She bowed to the Queen, and then to her husband, before walking away. As she walked out of the garden, she looked at where the others were seated, and her heart burned with jealousy and anger towards Princess Amber. She was going to do whatever she could to turn the king's heart against her. Maybe if she succeeded in doing that, the Queen would finally acknowledge her and accord her the respect she deserved as Prince Ivan's wife.
Meanwhile, ignorant of what was going on on the other side of the garden, Alicia's eyes followed every dish as it was dropped on the table, and she salivated in anticipation. She couldn't wait to dig into the food.
Harold, on the other hand, had a scowl on his face as he watched her. Seeing the way she always behaved at the sight of food, he could only hope that she wouldn't be poisoned before he got the chance to kill her with his hands.
Once the last dish was served on the table, Alicia turned to look at the King, and she smiled in embarrassment when she realized that he had been staring at her.
"I'm sorry," she said with a slight blush, making Harold, who was watching her, snort.
"It's okay. You can eat," the King said with a nod as he picked up his spoon before looking at Harold, who was still watching his bride.
"You both seem to not be getting along very well," the King observed, and Alicia finally turned to look at Harold, whose gaze she had been avoiding.
Seeing how Harold had been glaring at her, he could tell that she must have done or said something very annoying to him. It was a miracle that Harold had yet to kill her, and she had succeeded in staying in the palace for two nights, despite her sharp tongue.
"He is uptight and nothing like you, my King. Maybe I would have gotten along with him well if he had taken after you," Alicia said as she eyed Harold and started eating.
Harold's hand fisted beside him when she said that, but he tried to remain sane.
He was nothing like the king? He would have laughed at that. If only she knew the kind of person the king truly was. It was only a matter of time before her eyes would be opened to the harsh reality of how things were done in this palace.
The king, who seemed to have observed how Harold's mood had changed, stood up.
"I will leave you two to enjoy your meal," he said to a confused Alicia before leaving them.
When it was just the two left, Alicia looked at Harold before panic set in when she noticed the angry way he was looking at her. The color of his eyes seemed to have turned a darker shade of blue as he looked at her.
Just when she thought she was going to suffocate, he abruptly stood up and walked away without saying a single word to her.
She let out a sigh of relief as soon as he was out of sight, and once she returned her attention to the food, she realized that she had suddenly lost the appetite to eat. Whether or not she had an appetite, she couldn't let the food go to waste, so she ate as much as she could until there was no more room in her stomach.
Once she was satisfied, she picked up a few of the snacks that she believed Paulina would enjoy and slid them into the long sleeve of her gown before standing up to leave.
Now that she was full, her mind drifted to an important problem she was faced with, as she walked down the hallway to her chamber. Last night, she had expected to find something, any clue at all, that would let her know the kind of person Princess Amber was. She hoped it would give her a hint as to how to leave this world.
Unfortunately, the diary had been pretty useless to her. Most of the entries were poems that she didn't even understand. She had flipped through the pages and searched for something she could understand, but it was just too impossible for her to understand what the poems were about.
She couldn't continue to live this way. Especially after the deadly look she had just seen in Prince Harold's eyes. Who knew when he was going to pounce on her and kill her?
Even though she had suffered unbearable hardship for the past couple of months because of that evil journalist, and had almost taken her life because of that, it was still her life, and she missed it. She missed everything about her life now. She couldn't imagine continuing to live without her phones, her cars, the variety of dishes she ate at the ten-star restaurants she often visited, her fancy clothes and heels, and the nice scented baths she often took after a long day—well, she could do that here too, but it still could not be compared to sitting in her modern jacuzzi, with a glass of wine and soulful music playing in the background. She was tired of living here and wearing these useless, suffocating clothes. If she stayed here for a few more days, she feared that she was truly going to go crazy.
Now that it was obvious that she couldn't depend on Amber's diary, she had to come up with a good plan on how to leave the palace. Sneaking out at night was out of the question, and leaving the palace during the day was also ruled out... Or was it? Certainly, members of the royal family would be allowed to visit the village, right? Maybe if she could convince the kind-hearted king to let her go out to look around the village since it was her new home, then just maybe she could sneak away while no one was looking. If that failed to work, then she would have to resort to the banishment plan.
"Why do you look so lost?" Princess Tyra asked startling Alicia who hadn't noticed her presence.
"Hey!" She greeted with a small laugh to hide her surprise.
"I was just thinking about something," Alicia said as she adjusted the sleeve of her dress so that Tyra wouldn't notice that she was carrying something.
"Why was my brother chasing you around the palace earlier?" Tyra asked curiously, reminding Alicia that she was supposed to be hiding from her dangerous husband.
She quickly glanced behind her to be sure that he was nowhere in sight before quickening her pace, "I may have said the wrong thing to him," Alicia said as she hurried down the hallway, and Tyra tried to match her pace.
Tyra was almost tempted to tell Alicia that she was always saying the wrong thing, but she said nothing as she walked Alicia down to her chamber, "Do you have time?" Tyra asked when they stopped outside the door of Alicia's chamber.
"Why?" Alicia asked as she turned to her.
"You're yet to know my chamber, so I want to show you my chamber, and maybe you can teach me some new words too," Tyra said hopefully, and Alicia nodded. She also wanted to ask Tyra some questions.
"Okay. Wait here," she said as she went into her chamber to drop the snacks she had taken with her for Paulina.
Once she walked into the bedroom and shut the door behind her, she let out a startled cry when she saw Harold standing inside the bedroom glaring at her.
"Did you really think I would let you go that easily?" Harold asked with a slightly raised brow and grabbed Alicia's arm before she could open the door and flee.
"The king won't save you here." He said it with
an eerily calm voice.
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