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Chapter 9 - Return to Ailingdale.
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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
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 16 - Wrath of a king.
One week later:My legs and my back felt stiff as I led on my thin bed, with only one blanket that was ripped and torn in so many places, it barely covered my tense, shivering bones, but I still tried to have it wrapped around me as tightly as I could. The gusts of wind would howl and whistle as they blew through the small holes in the wall. I knew winter had begun, it had become so much colder on the nights and daylight always faded by noon as the rains poured and the heavy winds would rattle the metal bars that kept me captive in this dank, dark room.I could never warm my hands and my toes felt like they were close to forming icicles. I had spent the last few days and nights curled up, trying to keep in my heat. The only time I moved was when food came or I had to relieve myself in the cold, stained metal bucket in the darkest corner of the room.I hated it at night. Daytime was bearable, but when night came, I felt afraid and alone. Abandoned in complete darkness, when the rats wo
Rule of a ruthless King Chapter 17 - Death will come.
Six months later:As I sat, leaning against the cold hard wall with my moth-eaten blanket wrapped around me and my bottom now numb from how long I’d spent sitting on the hard floor and bits of loose stone and rubble poking into my thighs. I just stared emotionless at my fingernails, just calmly noting how brittle and dirty they were now. They were all chipped with engrained lines and patches of muck and old dust along my fingertips and on the palms of my hands. Every few days, a maid was sent in to bathe me. I never had the energy or the care to do it myself. I had lost all incentive. But even when the maids washed me and combed my hair, within a day I’d be back to looking like a poor and starved crazy woman. My hair, which was once long, silky and golden sleek, was now always matted, smelt like old rust and looked more of a dowdy old brown. My skin was paler with flecks of a faint purple, apart from the dirt that covered me, of course. My feet were the worst though. When I first came
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