The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

Once the queen and Ivan left the dining room, they headed for the special servant's quarters in the main palace building, where they knew Beth would be resting after the day's torture.

The Queen turned to the guards who were following them; "You're dismissed for the night," she said before turning to Luciana, "You too," she said, hurting Luciana's feelings once again as she turned to her husband, who nodded his head for her to leave. Not having any other choice, Luciana walked away, leaving the mother and son.

"I guess we were worried for nothing," Ivan said once he was alone with his mother, and she nodded.

"Still, we should keep an eye on him. And you should try to be careful and stop goading him," the Queen warned as she led the way to Beth's chamber.

It was not common for the top members of the royal family to visit the servants' quarters since it was the duty of the servants to report to her whenever she sent to them, but it was a known fact around the palace that Beth was the queen's person, so it was only natural that she would check in on her.

As they both walked into the building, all the servants stopped whatever they were doing and bowed to them as they walked past them.

"Is Beth here?" The Queen asked the chief court lady.

"She is, My Queen. I will get her..."

"No. I will go to her," the Queen interrupted, and the chief court lady bowed her head as she led the Queen to a chamber at the end of the passage. They could hear Beth crying and groaning in pain even before they got to the door.

"Leave us," the Queen told the lady before opening the door. "You can wait here," she told Ivan before going in, since she wasn't sure about Beth's state of undress.

She adjusted her vision once she got into the dark chamber until her gaze fell on Beth, who was lying belly down on the bed. As she had thought, Beth's back was exposed and only her waist down was covered. Her back looked very red and sore, and from the way the usually strong Beth sobbed, she could tell that the injury must have been very painful.

She had come wanting to scold Beth for what she did, but seeing her in pain knocked the wind out of her sails. How was she supposed to kick an already wounded dog?

"Beth," the queen called softly, and the moment Beth heard the queen's voice, she tried to sit up, but the queen immediately stopped her, "Don't move," she ordered, and Beth stayed still.

"Have your wounds been treated?" She asked with concern as she drew closer to observe the wounds. She knew that the wounds were not going to heal very fast because of the wolfsbane.

"Yes, my queen. Some of the servants attended to me," Beth said in a very faint voice. Unfortunately, she couldn't get proper treatment because it was part of Harold's discipline. She had to bear the pain as it would remind her to never mess with his bride ever again.

"Why did you disrespect Prince Harold's bride in that manner?" The Queen asked, and Beth sniffled.

"I thought she was faking it like she did the last time. I deserve to be punished, My Queen," Beth said, not sounding so sure anymore. Especially now that she had learned that Alicia was still not awake.

The Queen sighed deeply. "You went too far. The King has ordered that you be relieved of your duty. You will no longer be serving Princess Amber," the Queen informed her.

Although Beth had mixed feelings about the order, she didn't protest. On one hand, she didn't want to serve Harold's stupid bride or be responsible for her, while on the other hand, she wanted to remain in charge of her so that she would teach her a lesson. She was just going to have to figure out another way to teach her a lesson and separate her from Harold.

"I will ask the royal physician to give the servants something soothing for your wounds. You can rest until you fully recover. I will assign you to some other duties when you feel better." The queen said to her

"Thank you, my queen," Beth said weakly. This was the reason she was going to remain loyal to the queen for the rest of her life. The woman treated her better than anyone else. She believed the queen would also be able to get the royal physician to attend to her, as opposed to Prince Harold's command. The Queen gave her a nod before walking away.

"How is she doing?" Ivan asked as he and the Queen walked out of the servants' quarters.

"Not good. She was punished badly," The Queen said with displeasure.

"He did that only because he knows that she is loyal to you," Ivan said angrily.

"Let's not dwell on that. We still have to admit that Beth was wrong in doing that to the bride of a member of the royal family."

"How is that bastard a member of the royal family? You now see him as one of us?" Ivan asked, and the Queen turned to look at him with displeasure.

"Do not ever utter such words out loud," she scolded as she looked around to be sure that no one else had heard them before they both returned to the second floor.

************

Harold sat down beside her on the bed and stared at her face. He used to like his quiet life, but since she showed up, his life was anything but that. Now that he had returned to his normal, serene and quiet life, it felt weird.

'Test it out and spend the night here again,' his wolf suggested.

Harold had thought about it, but spending the night twice in a row was strange. Besides, he had not plannsleepoverp over last night. He just found himself in a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

'Aren't you supposed to be against that since you didn't get the chance to roam freely last night?' Harold asked.

'I am not that selfish. It's not as if it's fun for you to shift. Besides, we still have a theory to test.'

Harold said nothing.

'Yes, yes. I know what you are thinking. You are touched by the kind of empathy I have.' He said this in a narcissistic tone.

'Get lost!'

Harold shut the idiot out and focused on his sleeping bride. He noticed she was getting cold and pulled up the quilt to cover her body, his eyes never leaving her face.

"Wake up," he said softly before reaching out to poke her on the cheek gently.

He felt kind of helpless because he had never taken care of a sick person before and didn't know what to do when someone was sick. The only people close to him were Tyra and Alvin. There were always royal physicians and maids to take care of Tyra when she was sick, and even if the queen treated her poorly sometimes, she was still her daughter after all and cared for her. Alvin, on the other hand, seemed to not get sick at all. Except he was injured after serious fights and Alvin would go inside the town to get treated by their private physician, so Harold also didn't take care of him.

Now, he had a bride whom he was obliged to care for, even if he didn't want to do that. He had threatened the physician to make her wake up until the poor man was pale and almost fed her the wrong medicine. Despite his threats and everything they had fed her, she was still sleeping.

"You really do know how to anger me," he said angrily, but continued to poke her cheek gently.

'Someone is coming,' his wolf warned him.

'William,' Harold said before standing up from where he had been seated.

A soft knock came on the door before Williams opened it and peeped inside. When he saw Harold, he entered the room and stood farther from the foot of the bed, looking at Alicia.

He couldn't say he wasn't a bit disappointed by Paulina's absence. He had been expecting to see her in the chamber since she had failed to show up in the painting room as usual, and he hadn't seen her all day. Perhaps after saving her that first day, a part of him had started looking out for her. Williams shook his head to get rid of such thoughts as he focused his gaze on Alicia's face.

"This looks more than just exhaustion," he pointed out, but it seemed he was talking more to himself than to Harold, who didn't bother to say anything.

"Why are you here?" Harold asked after a deafening silence lingered for a while.

"I told you I wanted to come with you to see her. Or can't I pay a visit to my cousin's sick bride?" He asked, looking at Harold, who was observing him with a scrutinizing gaze, before he reminded William, "We are not cousins."

"I consider you my cousin." William maintained eye contact for a while before he smiled and looked away. "I may be able to prescribe some medicine for her. My mother used to make them. But I'll need to get the ingredients myself from the market. I can't put my trust in anything... around here. I believe you feel the same way."

"It's almost curfew," Harold reminded him just as the curfew bell rang. "Go to bed," Harold said to him dismissively, since he didn't trust Williams. He was, after all, the queen's nephew, and he couldn't tell if he had been sent by the queen.

"Good night. Let me know what you decide about her health. Everyone is worried about her," Williams said before giving him a bow and walking away.

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