Cassandra

Chapter Ten

Cassandra POV 

I am tossing and turning on the bed for half an hour now. I don’t know if I got any sleep at all. Most of the night my legs were paining, sometimes my back and sometime I could hear the noises of insects in the chambers which made me jump and now the voice of the utensils from the kitchen. 

“Arghhhhh….let me sleep please”, I say out loud but I know no one could hear me outside the chambers. 

A hot bath could have fixed most of the soreness but I don’t have that too. Suddenly it hits me that today I could bathe properly. I quickly take out my fresh clothes, a white blouse, and a brown pant and a rag along with clay blocks, ashes, and the scented oil. 

“Finally, I would smell nice”, I am myself annoyed by the way I am smelling right now. 

I open the door and see that no one is still up, so I tiptoe my way to the lake. The fresh cold air hits me and I wrap my arms around myself. There are birds chirping, leaves rustling, brooks babbling. The lake is surrounded by green long trees and small rose plants. I could sit here for hours and hours. 

Maybe getting up early in the morning isn’t so bad. 

I take off my clothes and cover myself with the rag, taking my time to step into the water. The coldness hits me and I scream. I quickly look around to see if anyone has heard, but thankfully there is no one. 

I settle myself on a dry stone and pour water over me and then rub myself with clay. As soon as I am done, I take a dip in the water and dry myself. I apply the scented oil after drying and then put on my clothes. 

It feels so refreshing after the soothing bathe. As I am coming back, the scent of the freshly made food hits me and I moan. My tummy rumble at the same time to let me know it’s empty. I slowly peek inside and see that there are only a few women inside preparing breakfast. I don’t know if I could wait until all classes have finished eating, so I decide to have something before. 

The woman I saw earlier, turns out and jumps. 

“Oh Dear, you startled me” she smiles at me when I am caught looking at the food. 

“You must be hungry, here have this”, she puts a plate of freshly baked biscuits in front of me and my tummy rumbles again. It takes me no time to devour all of them while I am handed a glass of orange juice. 

“You should chew it too”, I could see a twinkle in her eyes and my cheeks turn red. 

“I am under your debt now”, I say her while getting up. 

She brushes me off with another smile and I bow down before leaving the kitchen. I peak to see if there is no one outside before making my way to the grounds. The sneaking to the grounds to train with my brothers has helped me a lot for such time only. 

When I reach the ground, I take a look around. It is mostly empty and I decide to take a walk when I notice the same group I saw yesterday. I could hear the cheers and laughter like yesterday. I look for the teacher for someone but no one is around. 

Why Cedric has to be here so early

I rush towards the crowd and see that it is not just the allies of Edward but other guys too, who are just standing and watching. My eyes fall on Cedric who is standing in front of Edward with a broken nose and bleeding. 

Everything happens so slowly, Edward raises his hand to hit Cedric again and I slide in front o him, grasping his hand. 

Everyone has gone quite. I could feel many pairs of eyes on me. There is total silence, even the wind has seems to stop. No movement, no action, no whisper, nothing. My hand is shaking and I don’t know why. My eyes travel to where I have held him and my hand looks much smaller compared to his large one. I am too scared to look up, to meet his eyes. My heartbeat is rising, my breaths are shallow, my legs are shivering. 

When I raise my head, I see that he is not shocked, but smiling and it makes me shiver. There is a smirk on his face and his chest has swollen. 

“I…I think”, I finally begin to say but I am not able to form any sentence.

Why is it that he scares me so much. I was never scared of my brothers or anyone in the palace. 

But he is letting out a dark aura which is pushing me back on my step. Which is making me regret doing this. 

“I..”, I start again

“I think it’s enough”, a grin forms on his face and it happens so quickly that I couldn’t register in my mind. 

There is ringing in my ear and my cheek is burning like it is on fire. My legs give up and I fall on the ground. My hand immediately goes to my cheek and I could feel my eyes watering up. 

Before I could prepare myself, there is a blow on my stomach and I scream, scream with so much pain. It feels like my body is going to explode, I could hear the crackling of my bones with the ear which is not ringing. My eyes are paining with the tears covering them and I am crying, crying out loud. My nose is running and my mouth is full of spit. 

“Daddy”, I whisper bringing my knees close to myself. 

“My Lady”, I see Cedric coming down on his knees and holding me. 

“She is a girl?”, I hear someone saying but I am in too much pain to know who is it. Then there is a burst of laughter of something Edward said about the flat chest.

“And look at it, no ass”, they laugh again and it is clear to me it doesn’t make a difference if I am a girl or a boy he would treat me no differently. 

He pulls up Cedric by his collar and punches him in the eyes, I close my eyes as I couldn’t see the state Cedric must be in. 

“Next time, don’t come here before us”, saying this he pushes Cedric down and walk away. 

Was that his mistake? That he got here sooner

“I didn’t want to be late for the class”, I hear Cedric whisper and I know it is for me. He drags his legs and comes near me, helping me get up. I winch from the pain it is taking me to sit.

I clean my nose with the end of my blouse but I am not able to stop crying. 

“I….I”, I say between hiccups 

“I..” Hiccup “ just said”, hiccup “ him” hiccup “ to stop” I feel myself crying more and more every time I remember it. 

“He is a not an honorable Prince, My Lady”, Cedric helps me stand up while he is still bleeding from his nose and I could see his eye getting blue. 

“I… won’t be able to att..”, I can’t be in the ground right now, not like this, I take my chance and run back to my chambers before anyone else arrives and sees my pitiful state. 

As soon as I am in my chamber, I close my door and fall on my bed. The pain is immense and my tears don’t stop. 

I miss Maria, I miss Daddy, I miss Henry, George, William and even Louis. I miss them every one and I wish I have never come here. 

I throw my sword away in anger. 

“I hate him…I hate him so much”, muttering to myself I raise the blouse up to see my injuries. There are bruises, purple bruises, all over my tummy. I tear rolls down again my cheek. 

I jump up when I hear a knock on the door. 

“Dear, it’s me”, I hear a woman’s voice and get up from my bed with great difficulty. 

I open the door and threw myself in the arms of the maid. 

“They are so mean”, I mutter while she slowly taps my head. Her eyes fall on the red mark on my cheek and scowl.

“Those arrogant bastards”, She frowns and immediately apologizes. 

“It’s okay”, I could fear myself crying again. 

I wince sitting back and she raises her eyebrow. I show her the bruises to her and her face falls.

“I couldn’t be here for a long time but I will send some turmeric, apply it over them, it will help with the pain”, she brushes my hair and gets up 

“I might leave”, I say in a low tone looking down, I notice her face fills with sadness, the twinkle in her eyes is replaced by fear and her lips are shivering, one hand on the door, and one hand by her side shaking. 

“You are not allowed to leave now”, she says turning away and it hits me that she might be right.