THIRTY-ONE

[A SINGLE MOMENT OF SINCERITY - ASKING ALEXANDRIA PLAYING]

"Charles!" I laughed aloud. The case and deal were over and it calls for celebration. I ran through the Halls and out the door of the court. The smile on my face faded away when I saw Charles and Zosar in a fight. Ran to the middle to stop them before anyone could get hurt.

"Both of you... Stop!" I cried.

Zosar and Charles panting, Charles rubs his knuckles against his nose which was bleeding terribly.

"What is wrong with you?" I asked both of them.[SILENCE] "Are you going to say anything?"

"You! [POINTING TO CHARLES] ruined everything... My life, my family. You are no match to be called a prince." Zosar spat.

"How dare you question my kingship? " Charles asked, spitting out the blood in his mouth.

"How am I not to know if you have slept with the princess, that you scurry behind her all day like a lost puppy," Zosar said. Zosar is too angry to fight and Charles is too stubborn to yield.

"Bastard!" Charles cursed, Punching Zosar in the face, and another fight picks up.[ZOSAR GRUNTS]

"Charles! Stop it!" I begged but he doesn't stop. Now we were crowded with people who watched as the scene unfolds.

"Gentlemen!" I said loudly "I shall consider all your actions as an insult and now if you do not mind, I wish for you to stop." Charles pulls away from Zosar at once, dusting his shirt and he picks up his coat from the ground.

"Charles can we talk... Alone?" I asked looking at Zosar whose eyes were swollen from the Blow.

"[SIGHS]"

"[SHARP RAPID BREATHING]"

"[KLEO BREATHES DEEPLY] I..."

"I am leaving England." Charles interrupted her.

"Leaving? Why? We just won the case." I said confusingly, thinking about what reasons he would leave England.

"I shall not be joining you for the Celebration, today, Miss sultan. Nor tomorrow nor any longer for that matter." He said looking straight ahead to the dusty roads.

"What do you mean?" I said, breathing heavily.

"Thus my arrangements for Europe have been prepared, Miss " my stomach grew unsettled by his words.

"Kleo! Not Miss, please stop calling me that... Have I done anything wrong?" I asked. Thinking for a bit if we had a misunderstanding before the court call or during the break.

"No! You haven't" He said straightly.

"[SIGHS] I thought we were friends, Charles, we made a promise to be there for each other, but now you are leaving for Europe, Till God knows when," I said, tears flowing down my cheeks.

"We were never friends, Princess Sultan, I only made you an acquaintance." He said now looking at me for a second before staring back at the road.

"[SOBBING]" " Miss sultan it was a great time making you an acquaintance." He said mounting his horse to leave.

"Where are you going?" I cried.

"Anywhere, far away... Just to stay away from...you" He said the last words in a whisper. I fell to my knees, as tears continued to fall from my eyes. I disagreed. I did not want to see his scepticism or recognise the truth in what he said. I sat on my knees in tears as I watched him ride away until I could not see him on the pathway any longer and wiped tears away from my face...

[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]

"Kleo, Dearest!" My mother sat down on her knees and engulfed me in a warm comforting hug.

"Mother! Had I done anything amiss that he wishes not to see me ever?" I asked.

"No darling, you did nothing wrong, you are the best friend a person can ever have... [KLEO SNIFFS] Come on, let's go home, the Cook has prepared something for you to eat." My mother said, picking me up as we walked back into the carriage.

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

[SOBBING]

"Princess!," Miriam called up to me as I hurriedly climbed up the stairs to my chamber.

"Did something happen, Princess?" Miriam asked, trailing behind me.

"Princess! Princess!" She kept calling.

"Leave me be Miriam. I wish to be alone." I shut the doors to my chambers immediately, my back against the door, sliding down to the floor. Charles had never said such hurtful words to me before, he had meant what he said and that's what's hurt me so much.

[PALACE BELLS RING]

After lunch, I made it back to my room and Miriam was there to help me ungown. As she did, she accidentally stuck me with a pin. "Ahh!" I cried out.

"Sorry, Princess." She said, I hurriedly pulled my gown off not taking time with the undergarments. Miriam had noticed my silence and irritated attitude all through the night, she knew I wasn't happy and she didn't bother asking or questioning me about the Court, and I was cool with that.

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

IN ENGLAND - HUGHES PALACE.

"We must set sail for Europe as soon as possible ." Charles barged through the palace doors in anger, walking past his grandparents, which he hadn't noticed.

"Yes your grace!" One of the palace guards said.

"Charles! Where are you going?" His grandmother asked, standing up from her seat and following him into his study room.

"Europe!" He said blankly. "I wish to leave!"

"Did something happen at the court today?" She asked him.

"[SIGHS] No Mother, I wish to travel to Europe, now that I have concluded my business in town I should be moving on," I said, packing up the files and paper that I hadn't touched for weeks.

"Is there something you aren't telling us, Your grace?" His grandpa walked in.

"[SIGHS] My ship departs Ten, I shall write to you." He said stuffing all the papers into a box.

"I know, you are angry, Charles but that doesn't mean you should run from it. The news got to us this Evening before your arrival and dearly what you had done at the courtroom was indeed splendid for the sultan and mostly for the princess, but that doesn't mean you should ruin this victory day by running off." His grandma said, holding him by his shoulders.

"I'm truly sorry, mother but I have to take this trip...." I said, disagreeing with what she had said, I do not wish to stay with the princess any longer. Anytime I am with her, things mysteriously happen and she doesn't see me the way I do, she sees us as friends but I love her and I doubt she would ever love me back.

"Look, son, Love is the key to every door and love, the greatest love, starts with friendship." My grandpa said before walking out of the room with Grandma by his side.

[INHALES - EXHALES]

[TENSE MUSIC PLAYING]

1 YEAR LATER -

[HORSE NEIGHING]

"Princess! Slow down." One of the guards called out to me as I ran through the Palace woods. After my hours of riding in the woods, I rode back to the palace to play my violin and read books in the library. I walked into my chamber, and take out a scroll and a pen to scramble something down, as I lift the lid of my cupboard I see a bunch of letters tied in a bun with a ribbon. These letters were a year old and I had stored them here. I take it out, unbundling them to read them one after the other.

It horrified me, and when I saw Charles's letters in between the letters I had stored, I burst into tears. Miriam came to me, she tried to cheer me up but I could not be cheered.

Late that night I expected a messenger from Charles either informing me of his visit back from Europe or wishing to see me. Neither happened. I ate but a little at dinner, I was the shadow of myself. I picked up a letter i saw beneath my bed, it was the letter, Charles had written to me the night before the court. I tore the strings open and hurriedly opened it. The letter had a daffodil flower at the top, my favourite. I rubbed my thumbs against the dusty old letter, as I read it...

"Dear Kleo,

I must share my emotions..." I took a deep breath before forcing myself to continue.

I am sorry for what happened at dinner tonight, I did not hope for Zosar to speak of my Past like that. I was waiting for the very most acceptable day to tell you, but I wasn't ready to spill it all out. What the Lieutenant had said is half lie and also half truth. I am not a murderer, I had thought of myself as one in the past but no more. I believe this is the best way, place and time to tell you.

Before I became the prince, I was born into a destitute family. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a maid to the Queen of England. We had little that could sustain us, sometimes we wouldn't eat a day, just to save food for the next day before our heavy duties. One day my father travelled in search of better-paying work that will provide for us in the meantime but terrible news reached us two months after his death. My mother cried, did not eat and stayed by the window every night waiting for the return of my father but he never came.

One day my mother fell sick with a common plague that had no cure but had treatments to make her life live longer, but to the lack of money, we couldn't afford to pay for the treatment so she was bed reading for months till I clocked eleven years that I lost her to the plague. I had no family and nobody to watch out for me, so I went to the orphanage home myself.

The queen and the King took me as their child because they could not bear a child. Indeed, living a life as a prince from penniless was a dream I never had, I had everything I never had. Months later after they had welcomed me as their son, one night after a feast, I was barely twelve, the king had hosted, we were asleep, our enemies fired us with flamy arrows, and we were brutally attacked. I watched as the building burned down on them. I hated that day, for it was nothing but a nightmare to me, I couldn't do anything, I just cried under the table and watched them burn to death, Indeed I was no hero, I was a murderer...

I am sorry you had to hear my story from someone else, and I truly apologise for the disaster that occurred during dinner.

Your Friendly,

Charles.

I folded the letter and smoothed it over and over again with my hand until Miriam stopped me. Tears slipped down my eyes at his sincere words. Why had he not told me this when we were together? I miss him terribly and I wish to see him. I pick a scroll and wrote a letter to Rashida, it has been a month since I had seen her. She was with a child, a beautiful boy That looked so much like her and the eyes of her husband. I ended the letter with, from my lonely abode In Thebes, the most unfortunate Sister. I signed it and gave it to the messenger at once.