Escape plan gone... wrong?

Paulina's answer startled Alicia, who frowned, "What do you mean by that?" 

"You... fell asleep yesterday. We are... almost at the Palace now." She said, holding her shaking hands together. 

Alicia's eyes widened in surprise. There was no way that was possible. She couldn't have slept that soundly for so long regardless of her level of exhaustion. What did they do to her? Her eyes twitched when she suddenly remembered devouring the chicken soup.

"You... drugged me?" She asked in disbelief, her eyes flashing unpleasantly. 

Seeing the anger in her eyes, Paulina hurriedly moved away from where she was to behind Madam Grace, putting space between them so that she didn't have to answer the question.

"Open the gates!" 

Alicia heard one of the guards call out, and she looked forward to see that they had stopped in front of a giant gate with high walls which reminded her of the walls of Camelot.

~~~~

"What are you thinking about?" She heard a deep voice that startled her out of her thoughts. 

Her eyes widened when she remembered it was her wedding day. She had zoned out and was still shaking hands with her supposed husband. 

She raised her head to look up at him. The height difference almost caused her tiara to fall off her head, so she quickly broke free from his hold to fix it. 

"What are you doing?" Prince Harold asked, which caused her to raise a confused brow. 

"Fix..ing this.. thing on my... head?" It came out as a question as she took a step back away from him. Okay, he was good-looking, but he was kind of scary. 

"You are supposed to talk about your virtues." A young girl who was seated on the seat beside where Prince Harold had been sitting, mouthed to her. 

Alicia almost did a double-take when she saw the teenage girl. She was stunning! She was dressed like a princess and had some resemblance to the Prince she was getting married to. Alicia suddenly remembered what the girl had mouthed to her and looked around at all the confused faces watching her. 

"Uhm... he... already said it right?" She asked in confusion while pointing at the man who had been reciting the accolades earlier.  "Uhm... Gentle as a dove and... all that stuff he said." She said while cleaning her sweaty palms on her dress. 

She could hear the murmurs of the guests and see how embarrassed and angry the King and Queen were. 

What should she do? She was confused and had no idea what was going on. Weddings in the middle ages was weird! What the hell is 'Virtues recitation'?

Should she pretend to faint? That was the only thought that made sense. So that was what she did.

She slowly collapsed on the ground and heard how everyone began to gasp and exclaim. The loudest voice she heard belonged to Paulina.

Alicia wanted them to take her out of there and then she would find a way to escape. But maybe she was unlucky after all, because when she peeped under her lashes, wondering why no one was coming to carry her out, she saw a golden robe, before the person crouched down in front of her.

She shut her eyes tightly and stilled her breath. She was an actress, after all. She could pull this off flawlessly. 

"That was a bad act, my lady." The deep voice spoke, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin.

Scary.

"I will only give you three seconds to get up." 

His voice wasn't really threatening, but somehow he commanded fear, especially with the slow and careful way he spoke. She had heard he was bad-tempered. What would he do after the three seconds passed? Would he kill her? Then would she die here? How did he even know she was pretending? Were people in the middle ages usually smart?

She opened one eye to peek at him and saw him staring right at her with a smirk. 

"This is so embarrassing." She cried to herself as her cheeks warmed up in embarrassment.

Prince Harold's smirk transformed to a small smile as he lifted her with one hand until she was standing, causing her to exclaim in surprise.