Trying To Escape
No.
Maybe it was a nightmare.
Perhaps if she laid in bed and closed her eyes to sleep, she would wake up from this nightmare, return to her old body and find herself at the hospital.
Turning away from Alice, she took a short run towards the king-sized bed and threw herself on it.
"What are you doing, my lady?" Alice side-stepped the handmaids and neared her side.
"Just go away, I need to sleep," she gave Alice a little wave and pulled the sheet covers up.
"We don't have time to waste, my lady. Your life and that of everyone connected to you, is at stake."
"Then let me return to sleep so my real body can wake up from this nightmare and then you'd have your Imogene back," she covered her head with the sheets.
"You cannot sleep at this hour," Alice dragged the sheet covers off her body.
"Fucking leave me alone!" She hugged herself on the bed.
"You weren't trained to use such vulgar words, my lady."
"I can speak however I want. Now off you go."
"Eleanor," Alice called the first handmaid.
"Have more maids here, we need to have her prepared for the wedding."
In no time, five maids rushed in and they pulled Imogene away from the bed, despite her kicks and protests.
The guards could barely believe their eyes.
A once poised beauty of a fine temper was throwing a fit like a lady who was brought up in the slums.
Inside the bathroom, Imogene scoffed from where she was being held by some maids.
The rest were filling up a wash basin with water, at the command of court lady Alice.
"Don't tell me you want to give me a bath?" Imogene asked with a huff.
"You guessed right, my lady. Your maids are here to help freshen you up. As you know, the Emperor gets irritated by the slightest bit of dirt or smell." Alice said.
Imogene rolled her eyes in their sockets at this.
She knew of the emperor Blake who killed people at the slightest provocation, but it was none of her business. She wanted to return to her real body and be Kate Butcher once again. So she could take revenge on her boss, Bryan.
"Undress her," Alice barked this order at the maids.
"You have no right to do this," Imogene sneered at the court lady with contempt.
"True, but I'd rather you kill me when you become empress, than fail my task, get decapitated by the emperor, and have my head pinned on a spike for ravens to feast on." Alice's tone was firm.
And upon hearing this, Imogene didn't throw a second fit. However, she was as calm as a doll because she had several ideas popping into her head.
Imogene let them take off her chemise and she stepped into the cold, scented water herself.
She couldn't get poison when Courtlady Alice had her eyes on her. And if she did get the poison, she might die and not return to her body. Stabbing herself with a knife might not work either.
Thinking her body was in a vegetative state somewhere, she believed if she died the same way she did in her other life, she would return to her body.
I'd find a guard and have him shoot me thrice. She mused and stayed still, whilst the maids scrubbed her bare body with sponges, under the inspection of court lady Alice.
Imogene noticed the way her body was handled with caution, she was treated like a newly born baby. Surely, they respected her. She was to be Empress, was it not?
"You, what's your name?" She looked at the first maiden from earlier.
"How can you not remember me, my lady? I've been your handmaiden since you graduated from finishing school," the girl had worry on her face.
"How many times do I have to remind you that I am not this bloody Imogene?" She kissed her teeth and stared at a quiet court lady Alice, "She has her soul in my body whilst mine is here, in her body. And the only way she can return is if this body dies!"
"That's enough, my lady!" Alice snapped but she seemed a bit perplexed.
However, Imogene's handmaid was already in tears.
"Something is wrong, Ma'am Alice. The Empress isn't alright," she sobbed.
"Hah!" Imogene huffed and raised her chin, completely amused by this.
Alice took a careful look at Imogene and remained calm, with her hands right behind her.
"She never acted this way," the handmaiden carried on amid her sobs, "we need another physician to look into this matter or she might upset the emperor."
"We have a wedding in the next two hours," Alice's tone left no room for more protest and the handmaiden swallowed her sobs and did what she was instructed.
Imogene placed her elbow on the washbasin and propped her chin on her hand, "might I know what would happen if I mysteriously die before the wedding?" She inquired, not as if she cared.
"Lord Blake Fitzgerald is a perfectionist, gets repulsed quickly and he's easily led to anger."
"Oh, and?" Imogene uplifted a perfectly shaped brow.
"Your parents and elder siblings would be killed by the emperor."
"I see," Imogene squinted but presumed it was none of her business. She needed to get killed off quickly so she could return to her body as Kate Butcher, and take vengeance on her boss.
Half an hour later when she was being dressed up in a corset, she looked at the maids who were working on her, intending to send them all away.
"Can I have something to eat?"
"Like what, my lady?"
"Cheeseburger."
"Cheese what?" Eleanor blinked in uncertainty, wondering if she had misheard Imogene. And Imogene almost smacked her hand on her face, because this was the eighteenth century and no one knew about cheeseburgers.
"Anything edible," she said at last.
"No," Alice stopped the maid, "our lady cannot have a single bite of any food. She needs to stay slim so she can fit into the wedding dress."
"But she's already skinny enough? All bones covered up with slimy pale flesh," Imogene spoke as if it was someone else and not herself.
"We don't want a slit in the wedding dress or people would die," Alice informed her.
"Aissh, fucking hell," Imogene cursed without any sense of decency. And the maids flushed in embarrassment. Courtlady Alice even clenched her jaw at this.
However, Imogene wasn't ready to back out of her plan. It was better she killed herself quickly than to remain in this body and face the freaking Emperor.
"Can I at least have some water to drink?" She requested.
"Water would do," Alice surprisingly agreed to this and sent the handmaiden off.
Turning to the second maid, Imogene cleared her throat.
"It's a bit hot in here, isn't it?"
"What do you mean, my lady?"
"Bring some hand fans or I'd completely suffocate in this bloody corset before I wear the wedding dress."
"Quickly, we cannot have the empress fainting again," Alice ordered and the maid hurriedly left.
"I feel like throwing up, Alice," Imogene pretended to gag and the court lady rushed to her side, in fear.
"Do you feel sick, my lady?" It was the first time Imogene was seeing Alice scared.
"Yes, get something spicy from the kitchen or I might vomit when I have the wedding dress on."
Upon hearing this, Alice dashed out of the room, leaving Imogene all alone at last.
But the first maid immediately returned with a jug of water.
"My lady, I have it here. It's as cold as you like it."
Her smile immediately got whipped off with a punch from Imogene and she lost consciousness.
Imogene wore the handmaid her corset and then dressed up like the handmaid. It was at that moment Alice returned with the spice.
"Why is the empress asleep?" Alice asked her, thinking she was the handmaid.
"Oh, she fainted again my lady," Imogene lied in a low effeminate voice and then she fled when Alice rushed to check on the maid, assuming it was her.
*
"Have you gone mad?" The guard glanced at her incredulously.
"Just hurry and get over with it," Imogene gritted out, fighting against the urge to elbow him, but she needed him so she couldn't.
"Is that why you pulled me into this corner? To shoot you thrice?"
"Why, yes? I'm just a common maid and it's not like my life is of any importance. Killing me off is erasing one mouth off the servants daily meals."
"Are you alright? The emperor's wedding is barely an hour away."
"To hell with that. Just…"
"The Empress is missing!" The loud voice of court lady Alice cried, interrupting Imogene. And the sound of running footsteps could be heard.
"She disguised as a maid to flee from the castle!"
At this, Imogene fled because she couldn't stay there anymore. The guard was already staring at her with huge eyes.
"There she is!" Alice pointed at her, upon seeing her run like a crazed woman.
The guards caught her before she could flee from the entrance gate.
And she was under the inspection of the court lady once more.
"What are you doing, my lady? Your wedding to the emperor is an hour away. People will die if you go like this."
Imogene rolled her eyes in their sockets when her maids took her from the guards.
"To hell with the bloody wedding and the fucking emperor. I am not Imogene!" She yelled, earning a collective gasp from everyone.