Chapter6

#Chapter6

ISABELLE’S POV

/"Wake up! Wake up, Isabelle! Is this time for you to sleep? I will not tolerate this behavior of yours. You are in the palace not in your home/". An angry voice brings me out of my sleep. Who is shouting at me at this time? I open my eyes and wince immediately at the sharp headache that I am feeling. My head feels as if someone has struck it with some heavy thing.

I blink my eyes to see clearly because my vision was blurry. I sit up in my bed and upon looking around Lillian’s angry face comes into my view. I put my hand on my head. It is paining so much. Why?

/"Why are you sleeping at this time? Don’t you know about the rules here? You should have woken hours ago/". She says angrily. I close my eyes at the sharp wave of pain that strikes my head and an involuntary wince escape from my mouth.

/"Isabelle, what happened? Are you fine? Are you in pain? Did something happen to you?/" The angry voice of Lillian suddenly turns into a worried one. What a change of emotions! I open my eyes and look at her worried face. Is she really worried or is she feigning it?

/"My head. It is paining so much. I don’t know why but there is too much pain/". I tell her. In her eyes, I can see genuine worry but I see something else too and that is fear. Why is she scared?

/"Why did not you tell me before? You should have told me before. I will call the palace physician immediately. Here, have some water and just lie down. I will be back with the physician/". She says worriedly and helps me lie down. It feels like my head is spinning. She carefully sets the pillows around me.

/"If the king returns and gets to know that I did not take care of her properly then I would spend my whole life in dungeons/". She whispers frantically while leaving my room. Why would the king worry about me so much? What is so special about me? I don’t think anything like this even exists.

Why would he care if one of his slaves die? He has numerous other slaves to exchange for the one which died. Well, I have no strength to think any of this right now. I am mentally drained.

I was looking at the ceiling and felt my eyes getting close. I let sleep come over me.

NEXT MORNING

I am combing my hair with a wooden comb. The wooden comb smoothly passes through my long wavy brown hair. My long wavy hair reminds me of my grandmother. She had the same hair as me. My parents always used to say that I am the exact copy of my grandmother. They used to say that I have her features and my hair is like her too.

I don’t remember much about her though because I was only eight years old when she passed away. The day she passed was one of the most sorrowful days. It felt like everything was soaked in sadness and grief. She would play with me and tell me stories of kings and queens.

In her stories, the kings were not like the ones which I have seen with my own eyes. In her stories, the kings were generous and merciful, not like King Leonor. Sometimes I wonder, do kings like those even exist in this cruel world. If yes, then why did I come across the most merciless one?

I look towards my reflection in the mirror. I can see visible changes in my physique. I have changed so much in my one year of stay here. I have gotten weak and I have not seen the sun for a long time. Yes, I have not stepped in sunlight for months. It is not like I did not want to but because I was never allowed to.

My headache has gone away thanks to God. I am feeling much better than yesterday because it felt like I would die from a headache. When Lillian came with the physician, she woke me up. She was quite worried about me. She did not leave me alone with her for even a second.

The physician thoroughly checked me and told me that I am completely fine. She gave me a liquid made with some herbs which according to her were effective for headaches. After drinking that liquid, I slept and then woke up today. Thank God! No one disturbed me the whole day after that. Not much time has passed since I woke up.

My thoughts wander towards Lillian. I think she was worried about me just because of only one reason and that is the king. From what I have understood, I think that Lillian is really scared of the king. Well, everyone should be scared of the king. I have heard that he is a ruthless king and he shows no mercy even to his servants who work in his palace. I have seen his cruel heartedness with my own eyes when he had ordered his guards to light my small beautiful village on fire.

I tie my hair with a loose string using the wooden comb. I don’t like my hair open. My mother always liked my hair tied and that is the reason why I also like my hair in a tied form. I still remember what she used to say about this. According to her, it was bad to keep hair open and scattered all the time.

That’s why I always keep my hair tied with a string. Girls in my village usually had their hair tied but what I have seen in this palace is quite different. I must say, things here are the opposite. Here girls keep their hair open all the time and there is no such restriction about this.

A sound brings me back from my thoughts about hair and palace. My eyes immediately move towards the door of my room and I see Lillian standing at the entrance near the door. She is looking at me with a straight face. Why is she here now? It is quite rare for her to visit my room and now she has come to my room two days in a row. Why? Does she want me to do something? Is she here to tell me to do the chores like other maids?

/"I see, you have woken up. How are you feeling today?/" She asks me after looking at me from top to bottom with her scanning gaze. She is back to her normal attitude and behavior. The worried expressions she showed me yesterday are nowhere to be found. As if the Lillian who brought the physician yesterday never existed.

The tone she just used with me is quite different from the one she used yesterday. I look at her face and she is looking at me with an impatient look awaiting my answer.

/"I am feeling quite better today. Thank you for asking/". I politely replied to her and put the wooden brush back on the wooden table placed near the mirror.

/"Good. I can see that you are dressed too. As you are feeling better, I think it is time for us to finish some important unfinished works/". She says looking at me with a serious look. I look at her confused. Unfinished works? What is she talking about? As far as I remember I did not have any work to do. Then about which unfinished works is she talking about? Is it something bad? Why am I getting dangerous vibes from this?

/"Why are you still sitting? Get up! We don’t have much time. You should not waste my time like this/". She angrily says. After hearing her strict tone, I stood up at once.