Beyond the King's Gate

Chapter Three

Bethany wiped the perspiration from her glistening forehead. The summer heat became most unbearable, the one day of rain that week was a blessing. As the summer months dragged by Bethany and her friends tried their best to cool off as they did chores. Today was the worst of all, the stables. Out there in the heat, the stench of sweating horses, manure. The boy that usually would be charged to clean the stables, became cruelly ill. She felt pity for him.

After the servant found her wandering round about the castle, Bethany was punished. Also for her disobedience, she and her friends were punished by now not having any spare time. They had no time to dilly dally. The headmistress made sure of that.

A week has gone by and she has heard nothing from the headmistress that they are being kicked out, yet Bethany couldn't help but fear the worst.

The prince after all didn't have to keep that secret. What if he turned angry at her and told everything that transpired, to his father? How she snuck into the library, how she picked up a book. How she didn't leave in the presence of royalty back to where she belonged? Her stomach did a flip. She stopped mucking the stall.

The horses neighed in protest, as if to say they wouldn't stand the manure anymore. Demanding clean stalls.

Bethany couldn't help when a giggle slipped out. She pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. "It's okay, Sylice, I too wouldn't want to be in that all day." She gave the horse a small pat, it lowered its head and she wondered if the horse too, was sad.

She continued mucking.

"It's okay, maybe someone will take you out on a ride." She said to the horse, while she lifted a heavy pile of hay. Grunting she lowered it into her cart. Four more stalls left. Then to the kitchen, where a list of groceries waited for her. She'd be accompanied by a servant older, but she would help carry the groceries back. Giving her a break from all the cleaning.

Someone appeared at the gate of the barn. Looking up to acknowledge whomever it was. She gasped when she saw it was the prince. The rake fell out of her hand, making a loud rattling noise on the cobbled stone beneath, startling both her and the horses. "Your majesty." She bowed and stayed that way. "No one warned me you'd be riding today." Her heart beat irrationally in her chest, off beat. She'd definitely be in trouble this time. He was without anyone around, and she was near his royal highness all by herself.

When she slowly raised her head, he didn't object. Instead she saw a mischievous smile. The fear drained out of her. But yet still her stomach once again got a weird feeling. As though butterflies touched with their wings, the walls of her stomach. "I snuck out. I'm supposed to be training." He laughed.

In one second, she viewed herself as he saw her. Standing in a filthy apron, holding a rolling cart filled with manure. She wanted to hide in shame. He didn't seem to be disgusted, but she was. At herself.

How dare she disrespect the prince like that? What did her mother teach her? She vowed to never repeat what she had done at the library. Had her mother known the full story, she would've been in deeper trouble. Mother only knew she'd snuck into the library. She picked up the rake and put it in the cart.

"Your majesty, I will call a servant to have your horse prepared for riding." She was escaping his presence. She couldn't be here.

She was all but out there when he said, "No need, I came to see if you're out here." She stopped walking.

"What do you mean, your majesty?" She turned to view his reaction. He was intently looking at her, and she wanted to squirm.

"I wanted to see for myself that you were okay." The prince replied. "I heard that a servant girl was given good whipping for having snuck into the library. I automatically thought of you, I only heard it last night. I'm so sorry." Her stomach dropped. What if the King found out which servant?

"It is quite alright." She reassured the prince. But Bethany tensed just at the remembrance of the beating. She felt the scars on her back, as though they were given just now. They were still fresh. She felt it in the mornings when she struggled to get out of bed. Tears pricked her eyes. It was that night after the servant found her. Her mother was enraged. "I all but forgot." She lied.

"I will have the headmaster talk with whoever punished you. You didn't deserve that, I asked you to stay." The prince said with a sweet, caring voice.

It was her mother. He didn't quite realize just how much her mother was strict. Since she didn't have nowhere else to go, what Bethany did could have kicked them both out to the streets. She didn't take that too kindly.

"You don't have to do that." She refused, "Besides it was my mother." He didn't say anything. But she could tell his eyes held compassion. A prince, having compassion over a servant. How? Why?

Bethany thought of all the rumors she'd heard about the prince. All of them were lies. They spake of him being a brat, of him being unbearable, running like a loose cannon. He was the kindest gentle royal she has ever met.

"I brought you something." He pulled his hand out of his pocket. A delicate gold necklace held a four leaf clover on its chain. Tears sprung in her eyes. Her hand went to her neck where that necklace used to be. She wondered where it went.

She had searched for it everywhere. Her mother was very angry about that too. It was her father who had gifted her mother that. Bethany knew not her father. And that was the only piece of him she had.

"You left it behind." He walked to her slowly all the while looking at the necklace, then back at her. "I can see it means a lot to you." He stated, but there was a question there.

She dared to reveal it. "My father gifted it to my mother." His brows rose.

"That is quite an expensive gift." She knew what he meant. For a servant.

"I didn't steal it." She rushed to her defense, "neither did my mom, I swear it!"

He shook his head quickly. "I didn't mean to accuse you of such an act."

Lowering her eyes, she felt her face flush. "If I may, I would like to be excused. I have quite a long list of chores to do." She only saw him nod in her side vision. Then she felt his hand reach for hers, where he dropped the necklace in the palm of her hand. His hands were soft and smooth like the marble of the castle floors. She tried not to let her reaction show, the shock that he had touched her soiled hands with his. With that, he clasped her fingers over it to hold tightly onto it.

"I hope to see you around, and I hope we can be friends." Smiling he turned and left. Leaving her once more shocked and speechless. He wanted to see her? Be friends? She didn't believe a single word. He was at the entrance of the barn, when he looked back. Bethany was already speeding away with her cart and rake.

Perplexed by all of it, her mind raced for answers. Why would he want to be friends with a poor girl like her?