Time room and the lady in red

The prince and I are walking towards the castle’s main entrance. The entrance leading towards the main gate. When we both hear the bark of a familiar animal, it’s a twin giant Rottweiler, Rushing towards me when I turn to my left. This causes me to fret for a while. Almost leaning towards the bush gardens, but then they both run past me, running towards the prince. They both jump on him, not regarding that he is the crown prince.

“Calm down, buddies,” he says to the dogs, speaking like they are humans. “You scared the hell out of my guest. Making him cling towards the garden bushes. You can ease up Jamie, they don’t bite,” the prince says

“Are you sure about that?”

“Trust me on that. They are mine.”

“I thought we were heading towards the palace. Why do we have to pass through the gate entrance.”

“Oh well, I needed to see bailey and fluffy.”

“Bailey and fluffy?” I ask with a puzzled look.

“Oh! Yes, my rotts. Their names.”

“Wow! They have such nice names.”

“You can say that again.”

I check my wristwatch, trying to check the time. It’s exactly half-past three. The day was going by quickly. I need to be on my way soon back to the village before heading towards the Princeton campus to catch the evening train.

As I slowly pace around the gardens. I notice the Prince is staring at me. I feel like he wants to say something. But then I am about to speak up when he talks back at me.

“You have someplace to go?”

I want to talk, but papa would say it would be rude of me if the prince asked me to get on a tour with him around the palace, and I refused. No one was supposed to say no to the king or the crown prince. I guess an extra one hour wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“Nothing really. I was thinking of something I have to get on within some days’ time.” I hate that I am lying, but then, I have no choice.

“Really?” the prince says, squinting his eyes and looking at me like he knows I am lying. “School work?”

“No, not school work. Just something about my apartment,” I say immediately, almost giving out a surprised look. How the hell did he know I was worried about school?

“Now, how about we heard towards the castle.”

“Oh, sure.”

As we both walk through towards the castle. Bailey and fluffy both wag their tails as they walk on with us. I do certainly know they would not enter into the castle with us. It would be quite difficult for the prince to show me around, with the dogs hovering around the room.

As we are about walking past the entrance door of the palace. I see two security guard’s walking towards the prince and me. They are holding a leash. From this, I know they are here to pick up the dogs. Coming at the perfect timing. It feels like they calculated every prince's activity, knowing when and where he was supposed to be.

“Your highness,” both men say simultaneously.

Both dogs seem to know they will be taken away, and they immediately walk towards the men. I am astonished at the level of discipline they both have. Everyone in the palace, including the dogs, are all working on a royal order.

“You may enter,” I hear a charming voice say to me, bringing me back to reality. I had been daydreaming again.

When the prince tells me to enter, both security guards standing at the entrance of the door strangely look at me, but I don’t mind their stare. After all, they would not be seeing me in the palace again, except I really needed to see papa.

As we walk into the castle entrance, Prince Frederick leads the way, with me walking by his side. The first room at the entrance of the palace is a room filled with clocks. It seems odd because I have never seen anything like this. But when I look at some of the clocks' inscriptions, they are all names of countries.

“You are amazed, right?” prince Frederick says as if knowing the thoughts on my very mind.

“Not really.”

“Oh, yes, you are. This is the clock room. It tells the time from all over the world.”

“I can see that clearly.”

“Now let’s go into the next room,” he says, walking away briskly as if excited for what is to come in the next room.

When we enter the next room, it’s a room full of exquisite art paintings. I am tempted to speak at this point, which causes me to talk.

“I guess this is the Art room.”

“You are right in guessing, you know. This is the king’s royal Art room.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Most of these paintings are as old as time. If we spend the whole day walking around the palace, we wouldn’t be able to go through all of them.”

One of the paintings, in particular, catches my eyes. It’s a painting of an older woman in a red woven dress. Her face has a charming smile, causing me to walk towards the painting. From what I see, the painting must be ancient. I take a few more steps towards the painting, with my face five meters away from it. It suddenly feels like an unknown fairy is possessing me because I do not know when I stretch my hands towards the painting on the wall, wanting to touch it. But then I once again hear the voice of Prince Frederick, causing me to freeze.

“Jamie.”

“Oh, I am sorry. I know I am not supposed to touch that.”

“Well, you are right. I don’t blame you for wanting to touch this particular painting. It always attracts everyone who comes in here. She is my great grandmother. Queen Charlotte.”

“She is beautiful.”

“Oh yes, she was beautiful,” the prince says, making it known she is dead.

I raise my arms for the third time, checking my time. The time seems to be running with me being with the prince because it’s already past one hour. The initial time I told myself I was going to spend here. At this point, I need to leave if I want to catch the train on time.

The prince seems to know what I am thinking about because he speaks up immediately. I raise my head from my wristwatch.

“You need to be on your way, right?”

“I am sorry. I would really have loved to stay, but I have something important to do. The little time I walked around the castle was really nice. I am lucky to be one of the few citizens to get to see this.”

The prince doesn’t say anymore. He suddenly seems cold. Why do I feel like he's sad because of me wanting to leave?

“Would you need any help in finding your way out? I can alert one of the security guards in escorting you out of the palace.”

“Oh, no. I would head towards the kitchen to bid papa a goodbye before leaving.”

“Okay,” he says before walking away. I stand still, looking at him, walk away. But then he turns back to look at me one last time before saying. “See you soon, shorty.”

I am supposed to be walking back towards the kitchen, but I freeze on him, calling me a shorty. I am not a short person. Oh yes, he is a lot taller than me, but I am not short. And why do I feel like he wants to see me again? I do not have to worry myself about such. I have to head towards the kitchen before spending more time here.