The Unexpected Princess (Completed)

Chapter 9

After their dinner Anthony walked Gauta to the guests’ wing. The house was mostly quiet with everyone in their bedrooms preparing for bed. The drums outside had since gone silent as the dance came to an end around 11 pm. The crowd had dispersed leaving a silence that made what happened earlier feel like a dream.

Anthony and Gauta traversed the marble hallways and winding staircase in no hurry to reach their destination.

She was finally relaxing around him, Anthony thought feeling the evening had turned into something of a success.

They had talked and got to know each other. Anthony had tried to put her at ease. It was the least he could since they were embarking on a partnership that will span their lifetimes, and bring two clans together. The alliance his father had wanted was there in his grasp. It seemed they reached a space of understanding.

Anthony wished he could be happy about it. He felt numb all over, after feeling so alive in Naledi’s presence it was a shock to his senses. Yet he knew he should be used to this. He wasn’t one to indulge in emotions.

Gauta came to a stop at the gilded double doors that lead to the guests’ wing. She turned and silently assessed him, narrowing her eyes on his face. Anthony wondered what she was thinking.

“I’m not naïve as to not understand what happened tonight at the dance with your chosen bride. I am a woman, I can see the signs. But I hope you take this time to really think about this.”

“You too.” Anthony said unwavering in his decision to continue with the alliance. His happiness didn’t matter. He was doing this for the prosperity of his people.

“I will,” she simply said and bowed to him. She opened the doors and walked through, closing them behind her.

Anthony stared at the closed doors. He breathed out a breath he hadn’t known he held. Gauta’s words played on a loop in his mind. His gut squeezed challenging his resolve. He turned away from the door and made his way out of the house. He had this pressing need for fresh air. He went outside through the kitchen. Where the house stood on a higher rise and slopped down to the village. He stood there taking deep calming breaths as he stared at the village below.

House lights and fires burned through the deep darkness of the night pinpointing signs of life. Naledi was down there living her life. She was where she belonged, as she should be. Anthony knew that’s the way things should be. But deep down where even he couldn’t rationalize away his emotions. His heart hurt.

He irrationally wanted her with him.

Anthony shook his head shoving the doubt that had risen within him away. It was this kind of thinking that had gotten him into this mess.

He had hurt an innocent woman and her grandmother tonight. He should stick to his resolve, and stop thinking about Naledi. No good will come from thoughts of her anyway. He needed a clean slate.

Not sure what he was doing Anthony started to walk down the mountain, and out the large gates. The guards stared at him dumbfounded as he passed them. He signaled for them not to follow him. But he knew they will follow him at a discrete distance.

The darkness was thick down the mountain, but he’d lived in the village for most of his youth he knew how to walk in the dark. He walked letting his instinct guide him.

***

“Is she going to be okay?” Dineo asked fidgeting in her the chair. She couldn’t sit still, energy coursed through her veins. She was excited and terrified at the same time. It wasn’t every day that she witnessed her friend being chosen by a damn prince, not just any prince by the way, the prince of Ga-Tloung, the only other heir to the Batloung throne. Everything felt like a very unrealistic dream.

Dineo pinched her arm.

Nope, it wasn’t a dream. And it wasn’t one of those fantasies she and Naledi had weaved when they were children either.

This was real.

“I gave her some tea. She’s sleeping,” Naledi’s grandmother said coming to sit at the kitchen table with a tired sigh.

“You didn’t put some of your secret ingredients in her tea, right? You know it makes her a bit off when she drinks that stuff,” Dineo said spreading her hands on the table cloth. She traced the patterns with her fingers trying to slow her mind from thinking and replaying what had happened.

“She needed it. Otherwise she won’t sleep. She’ll keep staring at the wall.”

“She’s shocked, huh?”

“No more shocked than we are. I’m going to make some tea,” she said getting up to boil water on the stove. She pulled two cups from the cupboards and placed them on the table.

Dineo stared at the old woman, moving around the kitchen. The silence and suspense was killing her.

“What’s going to happen now?” Dineo asked because something like this has never happened in the village. Not while she was alive anyway. Shouldn’t there be some movement? Anything…from the royal family. Shouldn’t there be representatives at the door with gifts or something?

“Nothing.” The simple word said with such carelessness burst Dineo’s bubble.

“What do you mean nothing? Didn’t we witness the same thing?”

“She said no.” Naledi’s grandmother said turning away from Dineo’s shocked face.

“What?” Dineo exploded jumping to her feet. The legs of the chair scraped loudly on the tiled floor.

“Keep it down.” Naledi’s grandmother hissed at her. Dineo slapped her hand to her mouth. She listened for any evidence that Naledi might have heard her outburst. There was no sound. She deflated into her chair in disappointment. Dineo couldn’t believe it.

Naledi’s grandmother handed her a cup of herbal tea. She sipped hoping the herbs had something that will make her forget the whole night ever happened. Why would Naledi do that? Dineo didn’t understand it. She’d thought she would jump at something like this – escape the trap of her family’s legacy, become a princess. Wasn’t that every girl’s dream? No.

It seemed there was more to Naledi she didn’t know. Dineo shrugged sighing into her cup.

They sat in silence sipping comfortably at their tea for a while that when a knock sounded on the door they nearly jumped out of their chairs.

Dineo pressed a hand to her chest to calm her heart.

“Who can it be this late?” Dineo asked. They stared at each other lacking an answer. Dineo got up vibrating with something like fear. People in the village didn’t go around knocking at people’s doors after midnight. Only witches and folktale monsters were out walking the night at this hour, Dineo crazily thought of the tales her mother used to tell her when she was a little girl.

Not the time, she thought as she stepped to the door.

She opened the door slowly. She somehow lost her grip on it, when she saw who it was. The door swung from her hand with such force it banged on the wall.

She gulped and took a step back as Anthony fully came into view.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Anthony begun, “I came to…”

“Come in,” Naledi’s grandmother interrupted coming close. She ushered him inside. Anthony walked in asking himself for the hundredth time what he was doing there. His eyes made a sweep of the kitchen and came up empty. She wasn’t there.

He shouldn’t be there, but he knew he couldn’t leave things the way they were. His honour wouldn’t allow him. The guilt he felt would suffocate him if he didn’t try to make it right.

The two woman bowed, giving him the reverence bestowed to his station, but Anthony felt like he didn’t deserve their respect in that moment.

“Please don’t,” he said coming closer to the woman who had been like a mother to him. She had been there when his mother died, comforted him and showed him that life goes on, that broken hearts do mend.

Anthony placed his hands on her shoulders. She looked down, not daring to stare at him in the eyes. “Please look at me.”

When she did he smiled at her. “I’m sorry.”

Simple words but he could tell they meant the world to her. She inclined her head in acceptance of his apology. Anthony felt the guilt subside.

He stepped away from her and looked around the kitchen again as if he could make her appear before him. He wasn’t subtle about it because both women noticed. They stared at each, and there was an awkward silence that reminded Anthony that he shouldn’t be there.

“She’s sleeping,” the woman from the market offered. Anthony nodded relieved to her that.

“Is she alright?”

“Yes,” her grandmother said.

“May I see for myself?” Anthony heard himself ask. He could feel the tension that suddenly filled the room. The two women stared at each other again. The tension in the room multiplied. He knew they wanted to refuse him. But he was the prince. They wouldn’t dare.

“She’s this way,” Naledi’s grandmother finally said. She walked ahead leading the way. Anthony followed. An energy he couldn’t understand buzzed in his veins, making him feel alive.

The house had a homey and welcoming feel that was refreshing after living in overly decorated and ornamental houses. It was meticulously clean and well lived in. Anthony noticed from what he could see of Naledi’s home.

“This is her room,” she said as they came to a stop at the end of a hallway. She hesitated at the door and then she turned to leave. “Please don’t disturb her.”

Anthony nodded. He wasn’t going to do anything. He just wanted to see her for one last time,

Anthony thought trying to convince himself.