Chapter 2 Home
Home
Clyde escorted Luna back home, taking his post by their door where he would remain until his shift ended and William came to relieve him.
The majority of the king’s court lived on the palace grounds in designated residential buildings, only the royal family resided in the palace.
Luna’s family was fortunate to have a home all to themselves, thanks to her father’s position in the court, which afforded them greater benefits than many others.
Luna had made it to her room without anyone discovering her, but she wasn’t fast enough to change out of her dirty clothes before her sister appeared in the doorway.
Emily was the biological daughter of her adoptive parents, Darius and Angie.
She had been born several days after they had adopted Luna and, even though they weren’t related by blood, they loved and fought like real sisters.
Emily gave Luna a look, suggesting she knew exactly what had transpired and, to be fair, she was the queen of gossip so she may have already heard some of what had happened.
Nonchalantly, Emily announced, “I am off to see about getting a fresh loaf of bread and some vegetables for dinner.”
Alright. Apparently, she was going to ignore Luna’s state of appearance.
“Oh?” Luna replied.
Most times they dined in the palace grand hall with everyone else.
But occasionally, Angie, their mother, would insist on making dinner herself.
Since they didn’t keep their home stocked with food, either Emily or Luna would have to run to the main kitchens in the palace and grab the required ingredients.
Their mother was a simple country girl before her marriage and disliked relying on servants.
She took great pride in her upbringing and always tried to teach the important parts of it to Luna and Emily.
“Yeah, you’d think with all the chaos that happened, Mom would send a servant to run the errands, but no.
According to her, they have plenty to do already.
” It was interesting that no one seemed to take the warning bells seriously.
Perhaps everyone was in just as much denial as the guards had been earlier.
“She seems to think I have mountains of free time,” Emily added bitterly.
“Don’t you?” Luna teased.
“Absolutely not. Do you have any idea what kind of shenanigans people were up to while those alarms were ringing?” With her hands on her hips, Emily frowned. “I feel like I only know half of what happened and I’ll be so embarrassed during tea tomorrow if I am out of the loop.”
Most of the young noblewomen met up for midafternoon tea to discuss the affairs happening around the palace. Emily waltzed over to Luna’s bed, sitting down on the edge, and Luna raised an eyebrow. Apparently, Emily had plenty of time to stay and complain about her time being wasted.
“Besides,” Emily said, twirling a finger in the curls of her brown hair, “they’re called the help for a reason.
If we aren’t going to use them properly, are we not as good as peasants ourselves?
” She looked Luna up and down, pointing her finger at Luna’s ruined dress.
“Speaking of peasants, why do you look like one?”
Ah, so she was going to address Luna’s appearance after all, and, of course, she would do it in an insulting way.
So typical of Emily. More than self-conscious, Luna tried to brush away the petals and leaves as she argued, “I do not.” Emily gave her a pointed look, but Luna rolled her eyes and pointed to the buttons at the back. “Just help me out of this thing.”
With surprising obedience, Emily got up from the bed and undid a few of the tricky buttons going down Luna’s back.
Luna would have been able to get the dress off alone, but it was much easier to have help.
Every once and a while, she sometimes wished they had handmaidens like the other ladies of the court did, but their mother wouldn’t hear of it.
The idea of having someone wait on her girls hand and foot was obscene.
With how opposed to help their mother was, it was surprising that she allowed the king to assign Luna personal guards.
Although it was entirely possible, she hadn’t gotten an opinion on that matter.
“Emily, what’s keeping you?” Angie called out. “The bread will be stale by the time you get there.”
Emily clucked her tongue. “I’m going. I’m going,” she said over her shoulder, but before she could make her exit, Angie appeared in the doorway, blocking her in.
“Why are you in Luna’s room?” Angie asked before her gaze landed on Luna.
“Oh! I didn’t realize you were home . . .
” Her sweet voice trailed off, and her smile dropped as she took in Luna’s appearance.
“Skies above! Were you attacked? Luna, are you hurt?” She rushed over, grabbed Luna’s face in her hands, and began to look her over.
Once satisfied that her daughter’s body was unharmed, she fussed over her clothes, picking off the random leaves.
Luna looked towards Emily, silently pleading for help, but she was already retreating from the room with a grin, leaving Luna to deal with their frantic overprotective mother on her own. Sighing, Luna said, “A shadow unicorn attacked Clyde. I ran to get help.”
“A shadow unicorn was here?” her mother repeated, eyes widening with horror.
“So that’s what those alarms were about.
” Angie’s hands were once again all over Luna, scouring every inch of her skin, looking for evidence of harm.
Not finding any, she straightened and added, “And your guard wasn’t strong enough to defend himself.
He left you vulnerable!” Her lips turned downwards with disprovable.
“It wasn’t like that—”
“You look like you had to run through the wilderness to get to safety.”
Luna clenched her hands, her fingernails pressing against her skin. Her mother was being unreasonable. “I only ran through some flowers on my way to get him help.”
“And what if the shadow unicorn had decided to go after you? What if you tripped? Your guard wouldn’t have been there to protect you.” She shook her head. “You should never have been put in the position of needing to save someone else.”
Luna’s jaw tightened, gritting her teeth. “Running to get help isn’t a health hazard. You know I hate being treated like I’m a damsel. Nothing happened. Let’s not make a big deal out of this.”
“Any injury could mean death with your condition. All it takes is one misstep. You need to take it more seriously, child.”
Of course, she would think that. “I am not a child,” Luna said with a stomp of her foot.
With her hands on her hips, Angie stared down her nose, looking at Luna’s foot.
Point made; that was a bit immature.
But what did her mother expect her to do in that situation? Go hide while Clyde lay there unconscious? Her illness ruled all aspects of her life, but she would never let it stop her from helping the man who owned her heart.
Silence awkwardly stretched between them before Angie audibly huffed and left.
Alone, Luna stomped around her room, angrily tearing off her dirtied clothes before slipping into a simple blue cotton dress.
Why was her mother so upset at the thought of her being harmed, when someone else actually had been?
The palace had been breached for the first time in decades, and here her mother was more concerned about Luna running through some flowers.
Once Luna was comfortable, she sat down on her windowsill and gazed outside. The view was less than spectacular. Her window overlooked an empty alley separating her home from the one across the street.
She took a few deep breaths, absentmindedly playing with her necklace.
If Emily had been the one to encounter the shadow unicorn, no one would have doubted her words or cared if her dress got ruined.
How Luna hated that her sickness made everyone, even her own mother, treat her differently; all she ever wanted was a normal life.
With her illness, any injury that resulted in blood would lead to her death. Her blood was unique and unable to clot in order to heal, so if she got hurt, she’d bleed out. Luna had been told that the news scared off her birth mother, and that’s how she ended up with her adoptive family.
When Darius and Angie first laid eyes on her, they fell in love, as if she were their own, even though they were already expecting.
Darius worked for King Hendrix as one of his most trusted advisors, and so, when he asked the king to take Luna under his care and protection, the king agreed.
He not only assigned guards to help ensure her safety, but also took it upon himself to create rules and restrictions for Luna.
All to ensure she remained completely free of harm.
Her entire life, she had been treated like a fragile glass doll.
Her childhood was spent sitting on the sideline; she was restricted from dancing, running, and playing.
The only thing she could do was watch the other children have fun.
Skies above, even skipping rope was forbidden in case she fell and scraped her knee.
Even now, as an adult of nineteen years, there were hardly any activities she was allowed to do.
To say she resented the protective rules would be an understatement.
All she wanted was a normal, boring life where she could do whatever she pleased, without any servants or guards escorting her.
But, alas, that dream could never be.