2 Chapter 2

Two weeks ago.

"Princess! Princess! Princess!"

"Ugh," Amelia groaned, covering her head with a pillow to drown out the noise of the day officially beginning for her.

"Why is there a need for anyone to wake up this early?" She spent most of her night reading a book and the last thing she wanted to hear now was someone calling her name to begin a long boring day. She rolled her eyes when the door to her bedroom creaked open.

"Amelia," her personal maid, Gina Nash, whispered, sneaking into the room. "Are you awake? Did you not hear me calling for you?"

"I believe the entire kingdom has heard you calling for me and we would all like you to stop. Goodbye," Amelia started to drift back into her dream world.

Gina went to the side of Amelia's bed and grabbed the pillow which was covering her face. "I told you not to stay up so late. This is seriously important."

Amelia blew a fallen strand of hair out of her face and looked up at Gina. "With anyone else, do you know that you would be punished for treating royalty this way?"

"I know but I am one of the few people you love in the castle for you to punish me. You have to get up because the king has requested his family all attend breakfast today. You're going to be late if you continue to sleep and the king is going to get upset with both of us. You know how his temper is." Gina was nervous the king would become angry with Amelia and because of that, the head maid would become angry with her for not taking care of the princess.

"Great. If I really take my time getting ready, do you think he'll explode from his anger and hopefully take his mistress with him?"

Gina sobbed on the inside because of Amelia's stubborn personality. The start of the day was so lovely, why mess it up by making the king angry? "Let's not try to make anyone explode and get ready for breakfast quickly. If you always make your father angry, how can the two of you expect to fix the strained relationship you have? I'm going to start your bath and pick out your dress. Get up."

"You know too much of my business," Amelia took another pillow and placed it over her head to go back to sleep now that Gina would be busy. She loved the girl except for when she came in too early to wake her up.

"Then stop telling me your business princess. When I first came to work in the castle, I just wanted to keep my head down and mind my business. Why did you have to pick me to be your personal maid? There were so many other ladies," Gina said when she came back out from filling a tub of water to look for a bottle of soap she misplaced last night when she was here.

"I liked the way you shook with fear when I locked eyes with you. I wanted to see what else I could do to scare you. What on earth could it be that important for my father to want to eat breakfast together? Is he going through that phase again where he pretends to be a good father to make himself guilt-free?"

"I don't believe so. You were the one that told me to remember that your father would never feel guilty for anything. Something about him not having a heart. It was a pretty long rant and I blacked out in the middle of it. Red or blue?" Gina held up two dresses from Amelia's closet as the first option for the day. She'll use the other one in the evening when it is time for Amelia to change.

"Neither," Amelia sighed, rolling over on her back to stare at the ceiling of her room. She pinched her arm to wake herself up. "The red one," she decided in the end. "Let's get another day over with."

"Good call," Gina nodded her head proud that her friend found the strength to pursue another day. Now all she needed to do was get up. It wasn't a complete success until Amelia was off the bed. "Am I missing something?" She asked herself when it felt like there was something she should be doing.

"The water," Amelia pointed towards her bathroom where Gina had left the water on to fill up the tub.

"Oh no," Gina panicked, hoping the water hadn't reached the edge of the tub and started to pour over. She wouldn't have time to clean it up before Amelia could get in the tub and then get her ready in time to not be later than she already was for breakfast. "I'll be back."

"There really were other girls more suited to be my personal maid. Can't go back to that day." Amelia sat up stretching her arms before swinging her legs to the side of the bed. "I rolled around too much last night." She had a habit of rolling around in her sleep and although her bed was large enough to hold four people, she always rolled to the edge by the time morning came.

While Gina did whatever she was doing in the bathroom, Amelia went to her balcony to get a look at the view outside of her bedroom. She pushed open the wooden doors leading to her balcony.

"It really is a beautiful day," she muttered while taking in the scenery. The position of her bedroom gave her a view of one of the towns down below the castle hill. Amelia found peace in watching the tiny figures of people moving around to start their day. They gave her the missing energy she needed to wake up completely.

The other view she had from her bedroom's balcony was the full sight of her mother's old tower. It had become almost vacant since her passing. "Good morning mother," Amelia softly spoke, officially starting her morning routine.