CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
“The queen?” Alyssa asked in bewilderment as she stared at the guard who nodded in affirmation and walked away.
The queen was such a dominant and fierce woman and getting summoned by her didn’t go down well with Alyssa.
“Are you sure you’re not in trouble?” Tiffany, who was close when the guard had informed her asked, staring at her with worry in her eyes.Belonging to NôvelDrama.Org.
Alyssa kept mute to search herself. She hadn’t done anything wrong in the past few days. All she had been engrossed with was her chores, Liam and asking people around about the artifact.
“Oh my God!” Alyssa suddenly gasped in shock.
“Is the queen now aware that I’m going about the kingdom and asking questions about the artifact?” She asked herself silently, ignoring the questioning glared that Alyssa threw over at her.
“When the queen calls, you don’t keep her waiting”, Tiffany finally said, when she realized that Alyssa was not going to divulge anything to her.
She felt bad about it, but again, she reminded herself to be patient.
She arrived at the royal quarters and was excorted to the dining quarters where the queen currently awaited her.
Her legs were unsteady and her heart was beating furiously. She had beads of sweats on her forehead which she wiped out as she walked.
The queen didn’t look like a bad person, but then, she was scared of her especially because the reason why she suddenly summoned her was unknown.
Alyssa finally got to the dining quarters and to her greatest shock, the queen was wearing a big smile.
“Your majesty!” Alyssa said in respect, bowing her head and forcing out a smile that was hard to come to her face.
The queen smiled calmly and that disturbed Alyssa greatly. Seeing her smile in such manner made it more obvious that there was a problem.
“Sit”, the queen ordered and gestured on a servant to come over.
Alyssa sat quietly, shifting uncomfortably on the chair and breathing heavily.
The queen seemed to observe her discomfort and the prompted her to ask if she was okay.
“I’m doing fine, my queen, I’m just surprised that you summoned me to your quarters”, Alyssa chimed out, hoping that the queen would move directly to the point already.
“I was just about to have dinner. Would you like to join me?” The queen asked and Alyssa’s face flushed in delight.
It was such an honour to be called out as one who would have dinner or breakfast with the queen.
“It’s an honour”, Alyssa replied, bowing her head lightly and trying to remain confident.
The queen nodded and in a jiffy, the table started getting set.
There were meals of various sorts ranging from bacon, steak, chicken and turkey.
“Serve yourself”, the queen ordered and again, Alyssa flushed in excitement.
With a trembling hands, she set to pick out some food and as they ate, she prayed that she won’t get choked on it.
The queen was throwing some glares at her and the more Alyssa tried to understand what the glares entails, the more confused she became.
“Tell me about yourself Alyssa. I mean, do you plan to get married soon?” The queen asked and for a minute, she thought that she had just heard wrongly.
“What?” Alyssa whispered, but the queen smiled at her and gestured for her to proceed with giving the answers.
“Not soon…I mean, I would be”, Alyssa stuttered, hoping that she wouldn’t dive deeper into the conversation.
“Tell me about your parents, and childhood. Are you so close to them and did you have a childhood experience as a young girl? Feel free to talk to me, like a friend”, the queen said and Alyssa swallowed hard.
Who dare speaks to the queen like a friend?
Her heart was shaking in fright and her voice couldn’t even remain stable.
“I had a great childhood with my family”, Alyssa responded and swallowed hard again. She was at the verge of talking about the worst part of her life and the worst was that she was going to lie about it.
It pained her heart to the core, but she needed to do that if she didn’t want to raise suspicion.
“I had a father who loved me with all his heart. He would teach me how to go fishing at the market. Most times, we made umbrellas and sold it during the rainy season”, Alyssa started, smiling calmly and blinking off the tears that were threatening to fall out of her eyes.
She had no such childhood. But then, she always wished that her father was one who would treat her like such.
“He was a good man, I guess?” The queen asked and Alyssa raised her eyes to glare at her.
Her stare was cold, but the queen wasn’t so observant to see it.
“He was good”, Alyssa replied in a soft sincere, but sarcastic voice.
The queen nodded her head in understanding as silence erupted the atmosphere. Alyssa kept mute, going through her head for possible answers that might come up from questions that the queen would throw at her.
The queen smiled again and Alyssa’s heart dropped in confusion.
Different thoughts creeped into her head, but the most prevalent was the part that she have been discovered by the queen. That explained the reason why she picked interest in her, invited her for dinner and asked questions about her family.
Fear gripped her heart and the only thing she could think about was generating means to escaped the palace without getting harmed.
Meanwhile, the queen has earlier caught sight of Liam talking to Alyssa from a distance. She was unable to pick out what their conversation entailed, neither did it come to her knowledge that her son was clad in a servants tunic. Her major intention for calling Alyssa over was to confirm if something was going on between her and Liam.
“You have been talking to somebody!” The queen finally said and Alyssa lifted her head in shock.
“Oh my God!” She whispered inwardly when she realized that the queen might have discovered that she was meeting up with the prince head servant.
“Tell me, who have you been seeing and why?” The queen asked, with her domineering eyes making Alyssa blink in fear.
Alyssa quickly jerked up and went on her knees. She had heard the queen’s punishment was usually very severe, especially when someone goes against her rule.
“Forgive me your majesty!” Alyssa pleaded.
The queen looked at her in amusement, wondering why she suddenly decided to act up in such manner.
“I’m seeing no one. I have nothing to do with him”, Alyssa spewed and the queen nodded.
She didn’t need to tell Alyssa that Liam was her son. All she wanted to know was if there was something going on, and Alyssa had said that there was none.
“Take your leave”, she ordered Alyssa who quickly bowed her head and dashed out of the dining quarters.
Just as Alyssa left the queen’s quarters, all that engrossed her mind was the need to leave before it was going to be too late. The queen had sounded so strange and it was clear that she might have known something about her and Liam, or her plan for the artifact. The punishment for the latter would definitely be death and she wasn’t ready to die.
She folded all her clothes and was about to leave when she met someone standing right at her door, unannounced. It was Liam…