CHAPTER EIGHT
My eyes scanned the eldest prince’s chambers. A thin layer of dust coated the shelves, and several old food trays and cups crowded his desk amidst crinkled papers.
Now that Ella had fled the palace, Anna and I would be covering her duties as well as our own until Mrs. Calloway, the housekeeper, found a replacement.
And since Prince Theodore’s chambers had been missed in the chaos of yesterday, I already had a lot of catching up to do this morning.
I shuffled through the prince’s papers, stacking and storing them in the drawers of his desk. Usually, Ella and I would tease each other as we shared duties, but now, the silence suffocated what little joy I’d found in my position.
My body tensed as voices from the study rumbled through the walls. I began collecting stray books silently, hoping to remain unnoticed.
The conversation transformed into a heated exchange, although I couldn’t make out anyone’s words. As I wiped the prince’s shelves with a cloth, the study door opened and Prince Thomas stormed out.
My breath caught.
He failed to even spare me a glance, slamming the chamber door behind him.
A strange quiet settled in his wake.
I finished dusting and had just begun a quick sweep of the floors when the weight of a stranger’s gaze fell upon me.
“Lyra.”
Prince Theodore was watching me. His eyes were sunken and red-rimmed, stubble darkening his jaw.
“Your Highness?”
“You must know where she is,” he said, his voice cracking. “Please tell me. I have to… I just have to know if she’s alright.”
“You and me both, Your Highness,” I said. Something ached in my ribs at the sight of his face. “I don’t know where she lives. I don’t even know her family name. She was very private.”
Prince Theodore nodded slowly. “I understand. I believe you.”
“I doubt her family is well off,” I offered. “That’s the only lead I have for you.”
“Anything helps.”
At the sorrow in his eyes, I took a chance—perhaps too large of one. “I overheard you and your brother by accident just now… forgive me, Your Highness. Does he not approve of your friendship with a chambermaid?”
A bitter look crossed his face. “Thom has his own flaws like the rest of us.” He clenched his jaw. “But that’s between him and I. Forgive me.” He bowed, prompting me to curtsey, and left me biting my cheek in thought.
I’d never expected Ella to have captivated the prince so deeply, but I wasn’t surprised at Thomas’s opposition. It only confirmed what David has always insisted—that the divide between nobility and servants was as fixed as the stone floors that separated our wings of the palace.
And yet…
And yet the devastation written across the eldest prince’s face, the pleading in his tone…
He was in love with Ella, I was sure of it.
And if a servant with nothing to recommend her but character could capture the heart of a prince, what limit was there to my own achievements?
I shook the thoughts from my head. David would laugh at my ponderings, and he would be right to do so.
My head in the clouds… I was starting to sound like Ella.
I knelt to the ground, sweeping the remains of dust and dirt that the royal princes had trailed in.
Exactly where I belonged.
That evening, as I donned a coat in hopes of a walk, the room was oddly silent. No bickering or gossip filled the air. Rather, both Anna and Drea sat silently on their mattresses, one picking at her nails, the other staring at the wall.
“She should have said something,” Drea said. My gaze met Anna’s, who looked away quickly.
My whole body clenched. After bullying her for the past year, why would Ella ever confide in either of them? I bit my tongue, clinging to the sting for the sake of self-control.
“She could have said something,” Drea repeated, as if we hadn’t heard her the first time. She stood and marched out with a huff, the door slamming behind her.
Anna and I both flinched.
Anna cleared her throat. “I should have been the one to say something. But I didn’t know,” she murmured.
“I did,” I said. Even breathing had begun to grow difficult as the weight of guilt sat on my chest. I hated that I felt angry at Ella—at her situation, her stubbornness, and how everything had gone wrong. “I knew and I said nothing. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me.”
Anna leaned back against the headboard, her gaze returning once more to the wall.
We stayed like that for a few moments, our breaths quiet, the air heavy.
Anna finally slipped beneath her blankets and closed her eyes, and for a moment, the palace felt a little less lonely in Ella’s absence.
When her breaths steadied, I snuck out of the room. I walked down the halls, slowing at the sight of Mrs. Calloway’s open door, candlelight flooding the servants’ hallways.
I peered in. Drea sat on a chair, hunched over, while Mrs. Calloway rubbed her back. Mrs. Calloway’s eyes caught mine and her mouth twisted. Drea’s head jerked up. She narrowed her watery eyes at me. “Get out,” she snarled.
I hurried past. Footsteps sounded behind me, and when I looked back, Mrs. Calloway followed. My pace faltered.
She treaded closer, a letter in her outstretched hand. “For you,” she said. “The messenger said it concerns your niece. I’m sorry to hear what happened to little Asha. She seemed sweet when she was here. I saw the two of you running around the gardens.”
My heart pounded as I took the letter from her with trembling hands. Mrs. Calloway returned to her office, shutting the door and enveloping the hall in darkness. I ran my finger over the wax seal, bearing my family’s wild crest.
I dashed up the stairs, finding the hallway’s torchlight, and tore open the letter, skimming Kelara’s lines for the words I was desperate to hear.
My shoulders sagged.
Asha had finally awoken and was back to her usual self, as if her fall had never occurred at all.
My breaths grew steadier as the news sank in. She was alright.
Of course I’d known she would get better—as much as I disliked Thomas’s personality, his magical gift was hard to deny. And yet I’d still worried that she might not wake, that something deeper might be wrong, that Thomas hadn’t taken enough time when examining her.
But she was okay. The world was put to right.
I could breathe again.
I tucked the letter into a pocket of my coat and returned back to my room, my thoughts heavy and whirling with the weight of the news. Falling into bed, I tried drifting into sleep, my mind reeling with mistakes from Asha’s fall to Ella’s firing.
All of it, my fault.