THE Knight's Hidden Princess
Chapter 87: I Hope

Chapter 87: I Hope

"My lady."

"My lady."

"My lady."

"Dahlia!"

The sudden voice immediately jolted me awake, I almost slipped from the chair I was seating on. My heart raced as I opened my eyes blinking rapidly to stay focused. I then brushed imaginary dust from my skirts, trying to pretend that I had been awake the entire time. But my sluggish movements must have betrayed me because someone cleared their throat from the corner of the room.

Damn it! I thought to myself as I raised my head up only to find Lady Marina staring at me. My cheeks heated with embarrassment but still I smiled at her but she didn’t return it. Instead, she crossed her arms, her piercing eyes narrowing in displeasure. The air around her was suffocating, heavy with judgment. Worse, she was not alone. The women of the other great houses stood beside her, poised and graceful, their disapproving eyes on me. Their faces ranged from mild amusement to outright scorn.

Yeah I was definitely in trouble now! I thought to myself as I offered another apologetic smile.

"I’m sorry but if I didn’t know any better, it will seem as though we were boring you Princess." Marina said and I didn’t miss the underlying venom in her tone.

"I apologize Lady Marina, it was an oversight one that won’t happen again." I said with a slight bow.

My answer seemed to have pleased her because she hummed in response. "Well see to it that it doesn’t happen again."

"But of course Lady Marina." I said with a slight bow.

One of the Lady laughed as she picked up her tea cup, "Oh don’t be so harsh on her Marina, I’m sure she is feeling the hormones of the baby."

I almost snorted in response to that because she couldn’t be far from the truth. Naturally, it was better to let her and the rest of the court think my weariness was the result of pregnancy than to own up to having spent the entire previous day lugging water, splitting firewood, and scrubbing floors for peasant households. A princess scrubbing floors? That revelation would have sent Lady Marina into an immediate faint.

"The princess may be pregnant yes, but that is still no excuse." Marina stated, "We must all uphold our duty in the court, right princess?" She asked with a glint in her eyes as she sipped her tea.

I nodded my head at her, "You are very right Lady Marina_" Bitch! "I’ll be sure to keep that in my mind in further meetings, until then I apologize."

Marina nodded her head, no doubt pleased with the way she was getting treated with me. She was no doubt relishing in the fact that a princess was apologizing to her a mere lady. I have no doubt she took great joy in seeing the way I was treating her and I know the moment I stepped right outside that door, she will be bragging about it to her circle.

"So princess," One of the older women, Lady Agartha wife to Lord Cromwell spoke up, "How does being pregnant feel?"

How is it supposed to feel? "Um pretty normal." I responded reaching for my tea when I felt eyes on me.

I glanced up only to see all of them looking at me with expectant looks on their faces. They were no doubt waiting for me to elaborate further. Clearing my throat, I placed the tea on the table beside me.

"Well it’s still in the first trimester so I guess I don’t really feel much." I responded with a small smile.

That seemed to be what they wanted to hear because they nodded their heads with a thoughtful expression on their face.

"I remember the first time I was pregnant with my first child_" Another lady spoke up and after that I tuned her out.

I was pretty tired and it was starting to become a struggle to stay awake. All I wanted to do was just crawl back to my bed back in house. My whole body felt tired after the stress I went through yesterday. Turns out the refugee well hell bent on extracting their revenge one way or another.

After I had gotten on my knees and begged for their forgiveness, they had a meeting with the council and in order for me to be forgiven, I have to earn their trust by lowering my standards and becoming one of them, sharing in their labor and that required me to carry water through the stream, fetching woods to repair roofs and helping the women to prepare food

The work demanded both physical effort and wore down my emotions at the same time. People throughout the camp watched me with their cold expressions and whispered behind my back in disapproval. To them, I still remained the spoiled princess who had abandoned them during their moment of need even though I had been the one to get them out.

But they didn’t need to know that information, I still intend to earn their forgiveness as the princess and I don’t care if I have to work all day to earn it.

"Dahlia!" Marina’s sharp voice finally pulled me out of my thoughts.

I looked up only to find the women staring at me again and this time around, all of them had a mixture of impertinence and disdain on their faces and I already knew I did something wrong this time around.

"Seriously girl, what is on your mind?" Marina asked me.

I let out a halfhearted chuckle before wrapping my hands on my belly. "I’m sorry, the hormones that come with this pregnancy is just too much for my young minded self." I said and one of the ladies hummed in agreement.

Yeah, that’s good blame it all on the baby! My subconscious whispered at me while I just plastered a smile on my face while Marina narrowed her eyes at me.

She opened her mouth to speak but before she could, the door opened and Celeste came in with several servants carrying trays of sweet smelling biscuits and just like that the attention was diverted away from me which made me really happy.

In all my life, I have never been glad to see Celeste who was all smiles as the ladies found someone to turn their attention to. Celeste was all smiles as she ordered the servants to place the trays in front of them.

"Hello ladies, I thought you could use the refreshments." Celeste stated as she bowed her head.

Marina smiled warmly at her. "Oh but you shouldn’t have to."

And just like that, the attention was shifted away from me, but that’s okay! It was what I had wanted anyway! I thought to myself as I stood up from my seat. No one bothered to look up or stop me as I stood up from my seat and walked out of the drawing room.

Outside, I met Heather patiently waiting for me with a smile on her face. "Finally managed to slip out, my lady?"

"Barely." I responded with an eye roll.

Heather chuckled as she fell into steps right next to me. "So are you ready?"

"Honestly, I am not sure about that." I answered her.

"You know you could just tell them that you are the..."

"No!" I shut her down, "No one needs to know that. As the princess, I have my own duty to do so do not try to talk me out of it."

Sighing, Heather stared at me. "I know, I just worry about you sometimes."

"I know." I answered knowing her heart was in the right place, "I will be fine, Heather." I hope!