THE DARK CLOUDK
arandy watched the mistress’s backside while she stared out the window. Too bad she wasn’t the one he was really craving to fuck.
“So, what about the other plan? Our primary plan? When are we going to carry it out?” Karandy asked the mistress, licking his lips.
Vetta swiveled her head without turning around. “You mean when will you get her within your clutches to do as you wish? The plan that involves you fucking her as much as you want?”
“Yes, Mistress. That’s the plan,” he said with urgency. While he was happy that today that bitch, Danika, would get a little of what she deserved, he was not happy about this plan because it didn’t involve him. He needed to get his hands on her. He wanted to have her. Damn, he was obsessed with the need to dirty her up.
The mistress turned her head back towards the window. “When it’s the right time.”
“It’s been a month now, Mistress.”
“You’re impatient, Karandy. We need the perfect time because that plan will ultimately ruin Danika in the eyes of the king and break her to pieces from the inside out. These plans are just for fun.” She grinned.
He stepped beside her to stand a few feet away, staring out of the same window and watching people passing. “This one will ruin her, too.”
“Only in the eyes of the people. Doesn’t matter—the people already hate her. That’s why it is for fun. Don’t worry, our ultimate plan will come soon,” she drawled.
Karandy gritted his teeth. He needed that plan to come sooner.
As Danika looked through the book, she felt the color drain from her face. Her hands became sweaty and her throat went dry like sandpaper.
Oh, Creator! No, please, it can’t be. Most of the signs and symptoms that the book mentioned were like the ones Danika had been having. All the while, she’d thought she was sick because of the king’s coldness towards her and his upcoming marriage to Princess Kamara.
But…
She swallowed tightly. No, no—she couldn’t be pregnant. No, there’s a mistake somewhere. Madam Baski had told her she couldn’t get pregnant because of the herbs she’d gave her on her second night with the king. So, there was just no way that she could be pregnant!
“Danika, you just can’t be!” she consoled herself in a whisper. It was all a coincidence. It just couldn’t be!
“My princess?”
Sally’s soft voice startled Danika slightly. She took deep breaths and calmed herself for a few seconds before she plastered a smile on her face. She turned and faced her former personal maid. “Are you done reading?” she asked brightly.
Sally scrutinized her too-white face and eyes filled with fear. “Are you alright, my princess?” she asked worriedly.
“Yes. Yes, I’m fine. Of course, I’m fine. Can we go to the market now?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yes. I’m done.” Slowly, Sally dismissed her worries and smiled brightly. “Let’s go to the market now.”
Danika dropped the book back to the shelf like it burned her. “Alright, let’s go.”
They left the library and began walking. Sally brightly began skidding ahead of her. “You walk as slow as a snail, my princess. I don’t know why princesses are taught to walk such a way. And they don’t run either,” she called out from in front.
Danika pushed her terrifying thoughts away from her mind and did her best to focus on Sally. “A princess must walk gracefully. Well, not all of us could perfect that walk.”
“I know, my princess. I remember that day we attended the princess’s meeting. Princess Gretsha walked like a fat turkey,” she giggled.
“Heavens! Sally!” Danika looked around to make sure that no one else heard, then a smile crossed her cheeks. “The rebel princess would have you whipped for that, you know,” she informed Sally.
Sally continued down her path. “I’m smart, my princess! I’d never say it to her face!”
Danika’s lips stretched, but a sadness crossed her features. Sally would soon be married. Her only consoler, her best friend. How would she cope?
They walked until they entered the route that leads to the market. Sally stopped by the first shop and bought a bag for their goods. Danika followed her peacefully, missing the life that had once been hers as she watched the child beggars, clothed in rags, sat lined up begging for money.
She missed having her own money—lots of coins—because she never hesitated to give to begging children when she was still a princess in Mombana.
Danika followed Sally dutifully, and they began shopping for little things Sally would need after she got married. They were in the middle of it when a maid walked up to them. “Sally, you’re needed in the palace.”
Sally turned towards the maid, whose name she remembered to be Adelia. The past few weeks, she had been serving the king’s mistress exclusively, as ordered of her.
“Me? But I have permission from Madam Baski. She knows I’m going to the market, and she permitted us,” Sally explained.
“The mistress said to call you,” the maid informed her.
“Me?” Sally repeated, pointing at her own chest in disbelief. The mistress had never summoned her alone in the past. She turned and looked at her princess, biting her lips.
Danika already looked worried and faced the maid. “Did she do anything wrong? Is there a problem?”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing dire or anything. The mistress only needs her opinion on some new dresses she got. She said that Sally had an excellent taste in clothes and should help her pick the best clothes.”
“Oh. Okay.” Sally let out a breath of relief. For a moment, she’d thought that the Wicked Witch of the Westside found out that she called her the Wicked Witch of the Westside behind her back. She turned to Danika, her face filled with indecision.
“It’s alright.” Danika took the bag from her. “I’ll quickly finish up the shopping and meet you in the palace. You’ll be fine.”
“I’m not worried about me. What about you? Will you be fine, my princess?” Sally bit her lips.
Danika nodded. “I will be. Now run along so she won’t punish you for being late.”
Sally nodded and followed the maid out of the market.
Danika walked from one corner of the market to the other, buying the things Sally needed. Some people glared at her as she passed, but she bowed to them slightly and walked away with her shoulders high.
Pregnant?
No matter how she tried not to think about it, her traitorous mind kept going back to that awful possibility. Terror seized her mind. Heavens, no. It can’t be, she convinced herself stubbornly. There was no way---
A girl ran into her.
“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” the girl said as she pulled away from her.
Danika caught herself before falling and looked at the girl in front of her. The girl couldn’t be over eight years old, and she was dirty and dressed in rags. A lowborn.
“It’s okay. No harm done,” she said gently.
The girl nodded her head and took off in a run.
Danika continued walking. She hadn’t walked for long when she heard a commotion behind her.
“It’s her! It’s that daughter of a monster! She took the diamond necklace!” a woman’s voice screamed behind her.
Danika turned back in confusion. A small crowd of women was walking close to her, and she wondered what was happening. Who was the woman they’re talking about? Danika was most surprised when the crowd stopped in front of her. They didn’t pass her.
“It’s her! She’s the thief!” a furious-looking woman shouted in front of her.
“Are you sure, Zenia?” one woman asked even as she threw Danika an evil glare.
The woman, Zenia, nodded vigorously. Her eyes were blazing fire as she pointed at Danika. “She stole the diamond necklace from my store. I saw her steal it!”
The crowd gasped and faced Danika. They were all angry looking.
“Is this true!? Did you steal, you evil daughter of an evil man!?” one of them snapped angrily.
“I know she stole it,” another added.
“She wants to wear it later. Still thinks herself a princess, that bitch!”
“The apple does not fall far from the tree,” another hissed.
There were murmurs and whispers from the small crowd, but those words were the only ones Danika could make out before she snapped out of the daze she’d entered.
This can’t be happening! No, no, not her! The punishment for stealing! She swallowed and closed her mind from the horrible thought. Her heart squeezed in her chest.
“No! I didn’t take anything! I’m not a thief!” she shouted, alarmed.
“She stole it. I saw her! Check her bag and you’ll see it! I know she stole it, that bitch!” another woman shouted in the crowd.
Danika’s body was trembling. She lifted the bag of goods she’d bought. “This is my bag. You can search it; I stole nothing!”
“If we find it, we’ll crucify her!” a voice shouted in the crowd.
“We’ll burn her!”
“We’ll beat her!”
“Hell, I’ve always wanted to get my hands on her!”
“We’ll strip her naked too!”
The voices were too much; they were jarring to Danika. They overwhelmed her with their hatred-filled words. These people who hated her for a crime she didn’t commit. Their rage-filled eyes. Hatred. They looked upon her with murder in their eyes.
One of them dragged the bag of goods from her and opened it and began ransacking it.
Danika just wanted it to be over. She was breathing erratically, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest. A thief? Thankfully, all her fears and feelings were hidden. Her body quaked, but not visibly. She watched them coolly, waiting for them to vindicate her and to be on her way.
“It’s really here! She stole the diamond necklace! It’s here!” the woman gasped as she brought out a diamond necklace from the bag.
The entire crowd gasped.
Danika watched in horror. She had never seen that necklace before.
These people were going to hurt her. It was there in their eyes.