COURTING WEEKFour weeks later, Sally came out to the backyard to see her princess washing her clothes. Sally would have rushed to take the clothes from her before, but today she didn’t.
Her princess needed the distraction. She needed the activity to get her mind off painful things.
Her princess turned then and saw her. She smiled at her. “Sally…”
Sally forced herself to beam at her. “My princess. Do you need my help?” she offered, anyway.
Danika shook her head. “No. I’m fine.”
Sally bit her lips. It hurt just having to come to say this to her princess.
Danika saw the pain and indecision in Sally’s eyes. She dropped the piece of clothing back into the small river and turned to Sally. “What is it?”
“Princess Kamara w-will be arriving today,” she finally spoke helplessly. “We have to be ready to welcome her chariot.”
“It’s courting week already?”
Before royals were married, sometimes there was a courting week. Courting week could last for more than one week, but it didn’t exceed one month. Princess Kamara had requested the courting week, and her request was granted.
“Yes, it’s courting week,” Sally replied sadly.
Danika swallowed tightly, and she forced a smile. “It’s okay, Sally. I’ll be ready. You tell Baski that I’ll be.”
Sally’s relief was apparent. She wanted so much to go closer and hug her princess tight, but she didn’t. The protective rise of her shoulders and the pain she was working so hard to hide was written all over her face. Sally knew her princess was doing her very best to be strong. If Sally hugged her, her princess might burst into tears. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“How are the linens you went to buy?” Danika forced a smile, trying to brighten Sally up because she knew Sally was worried about her.
It worked. Her former personal maid grinned excitedly. “I bought them! Oh, my princess, they’re so beautiful!”
“I knew they’d be. You’ve always had such excellent taste in wears.” Sally was getting married to Chad, and it made Danika happy. Sally’s happiness had always brightened Danika’s day, and for the past three weeks, she had Sally’s happiness to live on.
“Oh, I just forgot. The seamstress is waiting for me in our bedroom. I’ll be back, my princess!” she gasped, and Danika nodded, watching her as she left.
Once she was gone, Danika’s face fell. It had been four weeks since she came out of the king’s bedroom after the night they’d spent together. Four excruciating weeks.
That was the last night she’d slept in the king’s arms.
The last time she and the king had sexual intimacies.
Since then, the king barely summoned her. And when he did, she would sit beside him to help him write and translate. To help him work. And even that had stopped. The king hadn’t summoned her in more than a week. He was back to being her master, and she was back to being his slave. It shouldn’t hurt; after all, that’s what they were.
But it hurt. It hurt badly.
Sometimes, Danika wondered if that walk in the woods ever happened. Whether the night that followed it happened or it was just her imagination. But then again, she knew for sure that it happened because it had taken her days to walk without a wince—days for the aches in her body to leave completely.
“I want to lose myself in you. Can you take me?”
The remembered words whispered into the night made her shiver. He’d almost killed her.
Baski had made her herbs and potions, but she still felt the results of his demands from her for days afterward.
Another shiver worked down her body. Whenever she remembered that night, it always made her body feel warm. He’d really unleashed himself on her; he’d almost killed her. For a moment, she thought she’d died too.
But she’d woken the next afternoon feeling better than she’d felt in a long time. Except for the aches in her body and the soreness, her insides felt great. So, she’d dismissed the feeling. She’d ridden in euphoria for days until Madam Baski gave her the news about the king’s impending marriage.
Danika picked up the washed clothes and squeezed water out of them, then walked to the horizontal pole and began spreading each item out to dry in the sun. She still couldn’t forget how much the news had hurt. Her heart was torn from her chest, breaking into pieces. She had walked to her bedroom and cried the rest of the day away.
She had always known that her love for him stood no chance at all. He was a king, and she was a slave. He was king Lucien, and she was Danika, the daughter of King Cone. It was a love that was forbidden from all angles, and she knew that there was no hope. But it didn’t make it hurt any less.
Finally, Danika had wiped away her tears. As much as the knowledge hurt, she couldn’t even blame the king for making that decision. She was once royalty, and she understood.
Her father had been making plans to marry her off to another kingdom before he died. He had wanted to form an allegiance with the kingdom of Yana, and the prince of that kingdom was fifty years old. At least Princess Kamara was a lucky one for being matched with King Lucien, Danika reasoned to herself with a breaking heart.
Another thing that made her heart ache was that it wasn’t a love match. If any man deserved to be happy, it was King Lucien. He deserved a woman who could make him smile and be happy.
But sadly, love and duty do not always go hand in hand.