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Chapter 7, part 2 - Unfortunate reality.
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Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 8 - The warning.
When I woke the next morning, my face wasn’t throbbing, after Maude had put a cold flannel on it, but it still hurt to touch and I could feel that part of my skin had become bumpy. I knew he left a mark, which meant I now had to put up with him mocking me in front of people, telling them how clumsy I am for falling over, or always managing to get myself scrapes and scratches. I don’t know if anyone ever actually believed him, but either way, they knew better than to voice their opinion.As soon as I sat up, my head started to thud, I tried to rub it away, wishing I could just go back to sleep, at least for a few days, at least until I could be bothered to deal with yet another day of seeing my father’s smug face.Just as I was willing my headache to go away, Maude came into my room with a tray of porridge and warm lemon water.“Oh, you’re up, my dear. I thought I’d have to wake you. How are you feeling?”“Like… like someone’s just hit me across the head”“Oh, my darling” she sympathis
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 9 - Return to Ailingdale.
Mallon’s POV:I spent the last three weeks taking over all my father’s duties while he was gone. It took so much to hold back and not go to Northelye with him. “I can’t have you there being all hot-headed” My father said.“I need to see King Edric myself, I need to think of what’s right for our kingdom, my son, so I’m afraid you’re just going to have to stay here and trust that I will do what needs to be done” and I did trust him. I trusted him more than any man, I had nothing but respect and admiration for him. But he didn’t know what I was thinking or feeling. He didn’t know how guilty I felt for leaving Aurelia the way I did.Having to put duty before love. That’s the fucked up thing about being a king, queen, prince, princess! No matter what, duty always came first… duty to the crown and kingdom. Of course, I completely honoured and respected the way of things, but it didn’t make me feel any better for hurting someone so innocent. Even with the letter I left for her, I knew it wou
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 10 - A mothers love.
I sat in a daze at my dressing table, brushing my hair. I felt glum today and my chest felt heavy. I knew it was because my heart just wanted a break, something good. Some light to shine in on our lives, not just for me, but for everyone. I kept thinking on how I felt like a prisoner. I couldn’t run away as much as I fantasized about it. I couldn’t without Edric hurting anyone just to find me, but in reality, we were all prisoners. Edric held the key to all of our lives.“Are you ok, my dear?” Maude asked as she walked into my room and jolted me out of my daze.“Mmhmm” I replied.“Aurelia! What is going around in that head of yours?”“Nothing, I was just getting ready for bed”“Well, it doesn’t even look like you’ve brushed your hair properly. Here, let me do it” she said softly as she took the brush from my hand and began to stroke it through my hair gently.I sighed “We’re all just stuck here, aren’t we?”“Well, obviously we all dream of things being better, but all we can do is thi
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 11 - Stench of death.
“Good Morning Maude, morning everyone”, I greeted the kitchen staff as I strolled in to have some breakfast. I didn’t want to eat alone in my room and, definitely didn’t want to eat with Edric and his guards.“Good morning, Aurelia” they all called in unison as I sat down on one of the stools next to the kitchen side door. It was always open when they were cooking, with all the fires lit, it would become so hot, you’d feel like you’re suffocating with pools of sweat underneath your garments.“What’s for breakfast this morning?” I asked Maude, who was busy slicing bread.“What would you like, my dear? You can have some oats, or we have some apples and bread”“ An apple and a piece of bread please?”She handed me the food then continued with preparing the food. “If you’d like Aurelia, once you’re done eating, you could pick some fresh berries from the gardens. We’ll need some for tonight’s meal.”“ok” I agreed as I chomped down on my apple.“The king has asked for fruit pie. I’m assumin
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 12 - Connected with love.
It has been a week since we buried those bodies, but I have barely been able to sleep since. Me and Nathaniel have visited twice since, with whatever food I could scrape together without it being noticed. On one of those days, me and Nora managed to make a potato and mutton broth and it helped to feed most of the more malnourished families.When I watched them scoff their food down like ravenous wolves, I felt guilt knowing that, as bad as it was living in the castle, at least I still got to eat full meals. So, after that day, I started to keep most of the food from my meals saved for them. I instructed Nathaniel to give it to Nora every night before he went home. It still wasn’t enough, but at least it was food Edric or the cooks wouldn’t notice.I led on the grass in one of the castle gardens, silently staring up at the sky. Only the sounds of tweeting birds and the swaying of the trees surrounded me, but it felt peaceful. It felt like a world away from the world I was really in. It
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 13 - Coming together.
Four weeks later:For some time now, me and Nathaniel had taken it upon ourselves to do all we could for our village. Nathaniel was now keeping back half of his food too, to give to the people. Every night before he went home, he would check on many families and give them whatever we could spare.I had finally told Maude about the dead people me and Nathaniel helped to bury. Since then, she’s tried to put aside spare food for me to take for them. I felt a sense of achievement. It still wasn’t feeding everyone as much as we’d liked but we were making a difference and people were starting to really appreciate our visits. Nora had been busy making as many broths as she could. One elderly couple had started to look less skinny and had started to regain enough energy to walk and gather little bits of food for themselves.I tried to focus on the good we were doing. I had to. Edric had received word from King Aldrich, stating that Mallon had become ill, but once he was well again, Mallon wou
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 14 - King Lyon.
“Wake up Aureliea, Wake up... quickly, you must get up” I heard Maude demand as she burst into my room."What is it Maude, why are you rushing?.... Don’t tell me, the king is in a bad mood already?” I asked as I sat up with a yawn.“It’s not the time for jokes, Aurelia, I’ll tidy you a dress while you comb through that hair of yours and be sure to pop a pretty pin in it”I rubbed my eyes and looked at her rummaging through my dresses. “Maude, what is going on?”“The king wants you in the throne room now, and he commanded you to hurry. He seemed in a rather excitable mood, he has something stirring in that head of his.”I scoffed “Well, what’s new?”“Aurelia, I told you, this is not the time. Do you want him to scold you?”That reminder was enough to make me jump out of bed and start brushing through my hair. Once I was ready, Maude walked me down to the hall. Edric and Matthias were already there. Edric was sitting tall and proudly at his thrown, with Matthias standing next to him. As
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 15 - His ruthless rule.
Several weeks later:Of course, Nathaniel brought me here today! It was the same rock cove that he had brought me to before. It was a place of peace for him and fond memories. I guess he knew that after the news I received from Edric this morning, I too needed a place of peace. His disgusting superior grin as he told me that King Lyon had sent word, that once his son has returned home from his travels, he will come to Northleye to wed me.Nathaniel wasn’t there at the time. He didn’t see what Edric did to me after he told me of the news. When he called me a ‘bastard burden from my whore of a mother.’ He didn’t see the blood I had to clean from my nose after Edric punched me to the floor. But he did see the bruising and the fact that my nose was swollen to almost twice the size. Poor Nathaniel was seething as he tried to refrain himself from finding Edric and hurting him in return. It took a lot of pleading to stop him from acting so foolishly. The only outcome from that, would have be
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