CHAPTER FOUR

The rays of sun filtered through the window.

Brenda covered herself up refusing to stand up.

But the rays persisted and she had no choice but to get up.

She groaned lazily and went to open the curtains before going to have her bath.

She returned to her room a few minutes later and began to dress.

While she was dressing,she heard a knock on the door.

She quickly finished dressing and went to open the door.

"Good morning your highness" Bryan bowed.

Seeing his face made her remember what happened the previous day.

How their eyes locked and how he showed her how to arch.

She was still thinking about this when she remembered that Bryan was still bowing.

She told him to rise.

"Your highness,members of the royal cabinet are awaiting your presence in the meeting room" He said.

"Members of the royal cabinet? There's a meeting today?"

"Yes,your highness. It's sort of an emergency meeting" He answered.

"Emergency?"She muttered.

She stepped out of the room and he followed behind after closing the door.

Bryan also remembered what happened the previous day.

The king's eyes - enchanting eyes,his beautiful song and how he watered the flowers gracefully.

How could he be remembering such thing?

Was he going crazy, thinking that the king had soft hands and watered plants gracefully?

He pushed the thought out of his mind and followed the king into the meeting room.

Brenda walked into the meeting room and met the members of the royal cabinet all seated but they all stood and bowed to greet her immediately they saw her.

Brenda sighed and asked them to rise and also have their sits.

Must she tell them to rise whenever they bowed?

Couldn't they just bow and rise without her having to say the word 'rise'.

She sat down looking at their faces waiting for someone to break the silence like the previous meeting they had but unfortunately,no one offered to break the silence.

She gritted her teeth frustratedly and sighed.

"Any news?" She asked.

"Yes,your highness"The man with the funny short stature stood and said "lots of them" He sat down.

'Lots of them? And they were all looking like there was nothing to talk about' She muttered in her head.

"Lots of them?" She said out this time and they all nodded.

"Then why were you all staring like there was nothing to talk about" She asked.

She was beginning to get really good at speaking in public and being a king.

"Well,um...we were waiting for you to speak first your highness" A tall middle aged man with blue eyes said.

"Why?" She asked.

"You are the king" The man with the blue eyes replied.

"Enough of this,okay?" She said.

She didn't know where the guts or boldness came from but she loved the way she was speaking right now and how she was able to speak her mind.

"I'm the king,I know that. But,you don't have to wait for me to speak before you speak and you don't have to wait for me to say rise whenever you bow to greet me before you rise"

"But -"The short man tried to say but Brenda turned to look at him,giving him a deadly glare.

He swallowed the rest of his words and sat down.

"Now that we've settled that,can we move on?"

She asked.

"Can you get the princess?" Bryan's father said to a guard.

"The princess?Why?" She asked.

"There's a special visitor for her outside" He answered, smiling.

The rest of the royal cabinet had smiles on their faces also.

"What visitor?"Immediately she spoke,the doors opened and a man came in.

Behind him were three ladies, five guards,shiny and expensive gifts.

She looked at the man and saw a crown on his head.

No one needed to tell her that he was a prince.

He had brown eyes like hers, a pointed nose,nicely curved lips, muscular body and was dressed in the most expensive clothes and shoes.

He was handsome but his handsomeness was nothing compared to Bryan's - She thought.

The prince walked to the middle of the room and bowed.

"Your highness" He said and rose without waiting for her to say 'rise'.

"So rude" Brenda said quietly.

That was the type of the greeting she wanted but coming from the prince,it felt rude to her.

"Without further ado,it is only right that I state what I'm here for" The prince said " And what I'm here for is no other than the beautiful princess's hand in marriage"

She scoffed.

"I have journeyed all the way here to have the princess's hand in marriage"He said again.

One of the members of the royal cabinet came and whispered something in his ears.

"How rude of me"He said "I am yet to introduce myself "He said again "I am prince Nicholas of mighty hills kingdom. I am the second son of my father but I happen to be the most handsome,

bravest, strongest and wealthiest of all my brothers"

She rolled her eyes and watched as the prince showered praises on himself.

"So proud"She muttered.

There was no way she was going to get married to this arrogant prince and lucky for her,she wasn't the princess right now.

Heck,she was the king and had more authority.

"Sorry but the princess is not around" She said,not smiling.

The prince stopped talking and everyone faced the king.

"But,the princess is always around your highness. She never leaves the palace and have never for once left the four walls of the palace" The man with the blue eyes said.

Great,everyone knew of her predicament.

"That was until a few days ago when she left to visit our mother's... friend's daughter" She cleared her throat.

"I've never heard of the late queen having a friend in another kingdom" They murmured amongst themselves.

"So, everyone thinks our mother is dead. Could this meeting get any worse?" She asked herself quietly.

"Well she has. And the princess has gone to visit her daughter" She said.

Everyone stopped murmuring.

"Your highness. We can fix an alliance and when she comes back, we'll do the wedding"The short man said.

'Look at them all; Planning how she was going to live her life like she was some sort of property.'

She thought,staring at them with anger in her eyes.

"I know my sister and I know she won't appreciate being engaged with a man she doesn't know behind her back".

"Everyone knows me your highness" Prince Nicholas said.

"That's not the point I'm trying to make. Incase you have problems comprehending a message, I'll make it clear to you. There's no marriage happening between you and my sister" She said.

"Shouldn't we let the princess decide?" He asked.

"She has to get married to prince Nicholas your highness" The man with the blue eyes said.

"Why?"

"He's the suitable man for her" The man with the blue eyes replied.

"And who exactly are you to decide that?"She asked " Don't you think you should all mind your business?" She said again before leaving the meeting room in anger.

Bryan followed.

He wondered why the king got so angry over the issue.

He wasn't a fan of proud princes and he knew prince Nicholas wouldn't make a good suitor for the princess but the king's anger was a little over the edge.

'That's what being royalty means.People get to take part in deciding how you live your life and it's even worse being a princess' Brenda fumed angrily.

The guards led Shane out of the room that night and locked him up in a dark room.

He couldn't see a thing.

He heard footsteps coming towards the room he was locked in.

The door opened and Shane looked up to see four hefty men in front of him.

He also realized it was morning already.

He was taken roughly outside of the room and into an open place.

His hands were tied with a very strong rope.

Shane walked into a midst of crowds.

On his right hand side were drummers and on the left were soldiers glaring angrily at him.

Suddenly,he felt someone kick his legs from behind him and he fell on his knees.

He raised his head and he saw a man seated in front of him,obviously the king of the cruel kingdom he found himself in.

Standing by the king's right hand side was the man whose voice sounded familiar to him.

"So... you're a spy" The king said.

"No, I'm not. I came here for a different purpose" He said.

"If you're not a spy then who are you?"The king asked.

"I'm a king" He said and everyone gasped.

"You're a king? We're so sorry we treated you this way,please accept our apologies"The king said "come on everyone, let's greet his royal highness" The king said again and everyone began to laugh.

Shane looked around, confusion written all over his face.

"We're not fools here"The man standing by the right hand side of the king said,not smiling.

Suddenly,it all started to come to him.

Shane remembered where he had heard the voice before.

TBC...✍️