Chapter 8 - The days after

The few hours of sleep were enough time to bring to my mind the most terrifying images of Philip, my future husband. The horrifying scene of his horse carriage is still vivid in my mind. Just hours after finally getting to sleep, I was awakened by my maid, Anna.

I felt a certain weakness; my movements were slow this morning, and I went down the stairs leisurely. Anna complained because of it, informing me that my father was waiting for breakfast in the morning, and wondering if I had exceeded the amount of wine in the evening above. "Your Highness, you do know, you can't drink?"

I was pale and tired. What happened to me? Why was I feeling this way? As I sat at the table, I heard my father say, "My daughter is sick?" Fear ran through my skin like a shudder, and I said, “No, Dad, I think it's just tiredness from the party yesterday.” I was afraid that he would discover some of the previous night's events, because a princess can't be seen sneaking out through the castle's halls, much less invading the room of a noble, the way I had done the night before.

I looked around and realized that Philip wasn't sitting at the table with us. "Where's the prince, Daddy?" I asked myself if I could still see him in the castle that morning, but my thoughts were still confused by the maze of horror scenes, added to the tranquil scene, the prince asleep when I entered his room, hidden in the middle of the night.

I took only an apple and a glass of water. Everything seemed sickening that morning. While the king stood up and walked to the window, he spoke in a soft voice: "He left before sunrise; he must have some important appointment today." Then the king turned to Anna and ordered her to take care of me. He would travel too; he had some commitments in a province and would take several days to return.

Looking quite worried about my health this morning, the king warned everyone that the castle should avoid any activity during those days while he was distant because he feared that something would happen to me during my stay. Anna warned that soon the court seamstresses would come to make the princess's wedding trousseau.

He spoke like I wasn't even in the room, and suddenly I felt a stronger dizziness and decided to go upstairs to my chamber, wondering what to do in the following weeks in which Philip and my father were distant from me. Still confused, I lay in my bed and fell asleep.

The days that followed were silent in the castle, which seemed empty. I barely left my room. I barely got out of bed. Anna started to think that I was really sick, but I just felt the fatigue caused by the fear and horror of those scenes from the day of the party. "The seamstresses are here," was the only thing that came out of Anna's mouth with the power to make me get out of bed.