Earning the Love of a Princess-Chapter 129: This Early in the Morning

Camilla looked at the maid that had clearly been brutalised by either her uncle or one of his guards, with pity. Wracking her thoughts on how she might be able to help, she was distracted by her uncle, who swung open the door to his bedchamber and indicated she should step inside.

Camilla stood her ground. "Sire, I’d prefer you to bring the items out here. It doesn’t become me or my future husband for me to step into another man’s bedchamber."

Kenneth gave her a chilly smile. "We’re kin, are we not? What harm could befall your reputation in my presence?"

"All the same-"

"Don’t try my patience, girl. I’m being generous enough granting you these jewels as opposed to just giving them to my own wife. Your ladies can wait out there."

Camilla had to bite her tongue to stifle her retort - that as the jewels never belonged to the Moraigthian crown, they should’ve always been passed down to Duchess Isabella’s children. She shouldn’t need to express gratitude for being offered something that should’ve been hers all along.

Instead, Camilla braced herself and followed her uncle into the bedchamber, rigid with nerves. Before she could maintain eye contact with one of her ladies in the presence chamber, her uncle quickly closed the door behind her.

Camilla kept her back against the wall, maintaining her distance from the man towering over her and eyeing him warily. "I’d feel more comfortable with the door open, my lord."

Kenneth sneered at her but made no move to open the door. "Are you still afraid of your own king, after all these years?" He then gestured to a gilded jewel box placed in the middle of the bed.

"There you are. Why don’t you open the box and try a few pieces on for me?" his deep voice went oddly hushed.

Camilla quickly shook her head. If that man thinks I’m going to climb onto his bed to reach a jewel casket then he has truly lost his mind, she thought to herself.

"I want to see you try them on, Isabella."

Camilla jerked her bead back and looked up at Kenneth in alarm. He was looking through her and his gaze was cloudy, as if he were more focused on something in his own head.

"It’s Camilla, uncle. Not Isabella." Camilla’s voice sounded far more assured than she felt.

"All those years, you spent them with the wrong brother. I would have made you a queen, you hear?"

"My mother is dead, uncle. She died a long time ago."

"Robert was a soft man, always gliding through life without having to work for anything." The resentment in Kenneth’s voice was palpable. "From the very first day, Father loved him more than me. He loved Robert’s mother more than mine, even though she was a nobody. He granted Robert the richest land in Moraigth. Why did he deserve it and not me?"

"My father is gone now and the Duchy of Arlington is back in your keeping, uncle. You can pass it on to your own children." Camilla’s voice remained calm, though she was desperate to snap the king out of the past.

Kenneth snorted disparagingly. "What children? That useless baby girl in the nursery? I need sons, Isabella! You can give them to me, can’t you?" The king nodded thoughtfully, as though confirming something in his mind. "You gave Robert sons even if he didn’t deserve them. None of those boys ever warmed to me."

Kenneth grabbed Camilla’s arm roughly but she managed to wrench it away and pull back out of his reach. He lunged towards her but overbalanced and ended stumbling on one knee to the floor. He mumbled curses.

The stench of sour wine hit Camilla like a slap in the face.

"Are you already drunk? This early in the morning?" Camilla hissed. For a moment she spoke not as a subject to her king but as a woman disgusted by the man in front of her and his reliance on the drink.

"Why are you always pulling away? You know I have the power to annul your marriage, don’t you?" Kenneth stumbled to his feet and gave her a bleary eyed glare.

"I suggest you focus on your own marriage." Camilla made a dash for the door but when she grabbed the handle to try and pull it open, Kenneth reached for it with a heavy hand and kept it pressed shut.

"You didn’t need to choose a weak man, Isabella. He doesn’t deserve you like I do." Kenneth grabbed Camilla’s wrist and pulled her towards him.

"I’m not Isabella! She’s long gone!" Camilla finally yelled, thrashing against his grip. "I am your niece and you’re a married man!" Perhaps the only way to snap him out of his delusions was to make an almighty racket.

A scream sounded from the other side of the bedchamber door. Camilla turned towards the door and snapped at her uncle, "Let me out, Sire." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Kenneth stood frozen, as if he’d been jarred out of his thoughts.

"Uncle! Let me out. I have to see my ladies." Camilla jerked the door open and bolted into the presence chamber. Her heart started pounding in fear when she saw Elizabeth on the floor, eyes closed. Katerine and Meg were kneeling next to her, looking panicked.

"Bess!" cried Camilla and ran to her lady-in-waiting, dodging Kenneth, who clumsily tried to grab her by the wrist again. Dropping to the floor, she pressed her hand to Elizabeth’s forehead to check for fever. "What happened?" she asked her other ladies.

Katerine kept her eyes on the floor. "She was just standing here alongside us waiting for you, my lady, when she fainted." Then Katerine whispered, "Bess has recently discovered she’s with child."

Camilla gasped at the news and raised her eyes to meet those of the two Moraigthian guards that had stepped into the presence chamber at hearing the commotion. "Send for Prince William! We need help here." Camilla called out to them.

The guards just stared at her blankly, unmoving.

"What is wrong with you?" Camilla shouted at their impassive faces.

"Those are my guards." she heard King Kenneth rumble behind her. "They only take orders from me."

"Then I’ll find William." Camilla leapt to her feet and started running towards the doors leading to the corridor. The guards immediately stepped in her path to block her exit.

"Our conversation isn’t finished, girl." she heard her uncle speak again. "You can deal with all this womanly weakness after that."

Camilla glared back at Kenneth, unable to believe what she was hearing. She tried to push past the bulky guards in front of her. "William!" she shrieked over their shoulders, hoping that if he didn’t hear her, someone else might.

One of the guards shoved Camilla back into the presence chamber with such force, she tumbled to the floor. The heel of her shoe caught on the edge of a rug and wrenched her ankle as she landed hard.

"Grab my niece, take her into the bedchamber. I’ll speak with her there." snarled Kenneth.

A guard tried to roughly haul Camilla off the floor. She whimpered as pain like lightning pierced through her ankle the moment she was forced onto her feet.

"What the hell is all this?" a deep voice roared.

Camilla turned her head and saw William pushing his way into the presence chamber, his mouth pressed into a thin line of fury. She watched him survey the room before him: one lady sprawled on the floor with two others by her side, one princess being dragged to her feet by a guard in dark green livery, one drunk king standing off to the side a little.

Camilla shook with palpable relief. "Bess has fainted and she’s with child. She needs help!"

William glanced at Meg and Katerine, his forehead creased. "One of you - run to the royal physicians’ quarters. The other one of you - ask Tession for a reviving tonic. He’ll have something in his rooms already, I’ve no doubt."

Meg and Katerine quickly stood and rushed out of the room but not before Camilla saw the pointed look Meg aimed at William.

"Who gave you permission to just push your way in here, boy?" Kenneth finally spoke. "You don’t just walk into a king’s rooms unbidden. You interrupted a discussion between my beloved niece and I."

"The beloved niece being handled so delicately by one of your thugs, Sire?" William’s eyes narrowed.

At that comment, the guard twisting Camilla’s arm abruptly let her go and gave her a slight push backwards. Unable to put any weight on her injured ankle, she tumbled and ended up sprawled on the floor again, much to her frustration. She gritted her teeth against the pain.

Kenneth shrugged. "She’s well enough. And she’s a subject of the Moraigthian crown. She remains under my authority."

"That may be so, Your Majesty. But Lady Taunsen is a subject of the Islian crown. She’s also the wife of a very important lord. Her father-in-law is one of King Edward’s closest companions." William slightly exaggerated the relationship between the king and earl. "And it’s hardly a show of chivalry to leave a lady in distress on the floor."

William’s eyes flickered between Camilla and Bess, as if unsure who to worry about first. Camilla hissed at him, "Go to Bess! I’m fine."

After hesitating another moment, William strode over to Elizabeth and knelt at her side. He placed two fingers on her throat and frowned.