Chapter 50: Chapter 50

50 Chapter 50 : Wedding’s eve

“How are you feeling?” Zander questioned the prince who was leaning leisurely on the balcony railing with a pitiful look on his face.

“I’m fine..”

The blonde leaned against the balcony railing next to him and gazed at Adam. The royal wedding was the very next day and Zander wasn’t a mind reader or anything, but he could tell that Adam wasn’t taking it so well.

“You know weddings are so overrated anyway,” Zander spoke in an attempt to comfort his friend, “if you think about it, a man saying ‘hey I love you so much that I want to get the church and the government involved so you don’t leave me’ is kind of creepy.”

“Zander please..”

“I’m just saying,” the man added on, “it sounds like psychopath behavior to me.”

“I really don’t want to talk about the woman I love marrying another man if you please,” Adam responded with a sarcastic smirk.

“Ah I can only imagine how you feel your grace.”

The two men sighed when they looked at the doorway and saw who had responded, Ivan was not the best person to be around when you’re feeling down, even though Ivan didn’t know it, he was an expert at making people feel astonishingly worse.

.....

“Watching her walk down that isle,” Ivan added on, an exaggerated sad look painting his face, “watching her father give her away to another man.. the kiss.”

Adam threw his head back in dejection, that’s right, he’d have watch the woman he loved kiss another man in front of the whole kingdom, he hadn’t even gotten the chance to kiss her yet and that silver haired bastard was probably savoring her lips every day.

“Don’t even get me started on the marriage consummation-”

SMACK!

Zander glared at his friend angrily after giving him a good wack upside the head, “will you shut your trap!”

“What was that for?” Ivan complained with misty eyes as he rubbed his sore head, “I’m just saying I understand his pain, I’d jump off a bridge if I saw my wife in the arms of another man.”

“You cheat on your wife religiously Ivan, you’re nothing like the prince.” Zander was getting fed up with his friend’s lucid mouth.

“Well yeah but that doesn’t mean I don’t love her..”

Zander lifted his hand threatening to smack Ivan over the head again.

“Well there’s nothing much I can do about it,” Adam spoke, “the wedding party is probably the best shot I’ll have at getting her away from Nathan, and for the wedding party to happen she has to marry him.”

“But she saw you back in the town square didn’t she?” Ivan questioned the prince, his hands placed over his head just in case Zander tried to smack him again, “surely she knows that you’re coming for her.”

“I was in disguise that day,” Adam responded, “she didn’t even know it was me.”

In the midst of their talk, Ozias walked through the balcony door with a worried look on his face, “your grace you should come downstairs, there’s a serious issue that requires your attention.”

The three men exchanged nervous looks before Adam responded, “What happened? Has our location been uncovered?”

“No your grace,” the big man spoke sternly, “it’s about Julia, lady Guinevere may be in danger.”

*

“Julie!”

Julia growled and tossed the sponge into the large basin where she had been scrubbing pots and pans. The past two days she had worked at the royal palace were total hell, ‘Julie scrub this’, ‘Julie clean that’, it was really starting to get to her and it was degrading for a noble woman like herself. The green eyed woman took a deep breath and steeled her heart, she reminded herself that this was all for Adam’s sake, she had a mission and she couldn’t let a few sidetracks take her mind off it.

The little woman stood up and walked towards the head maid who was howling instructions to the other maids. Julia curtsied at the plump woman and forced a smile, “yes ma’am?”

“Maria had to rush into the town to get lady Ella’s dress for tomorrow,” the woman explained, “and everyone else is busy with the wedding preparations.” The head maid shoved a tray into Julia’s hands and placed a teapot, some biscuits and a bowl of fruit on it. “You’re going to have to take lady Ella her afternoon tea.”

Julia’s eyes went round and her heart started beating loudly, for the past couple of days she had not even set foot in the main confines of the palace, so she had already made a plan to try and get to the redheaded woman during the wedding when there would be a lot of commotion. But now here she was, gaining free access to the little witch who had cast a spell on her Adam.

“Oi! girl!”

Julia woke from her daze and looked up at the plump woman.

“Right now girl, get a move on! Her chambers are the ones at the far end of the hall on your left.”

The green eyed woman noded and walked carefully out of the kitchen to the door that led to the hallway of the sleeping chambers of the palace, as she walked she took note of the little knife that was placed on the tray. It didn’t look lethal but if plunged through a vital organ, it could most likely lead to death, she’d use the chance to finally kill Ella and leave this wretched place. Then she would find Adam and the two of them would return to Gavaria to be married.

Julia couldn’t help but smile giddily to herself at the thought of marrying Adam, they would be so happy together, and they’d have the cutest babies. She especially looked forward to every moment of the baby making process.

The short woman halted at the door that supposedly belonged to Ella, this was it, this was the moment she had been waiting for.

KNOCK KNOCK

“Come in!” a soft voice called out from the inside.

Julia opened the door and walked into the room, and there by a lounge chair situated by the window sat her target, the little witch who had disrupted her and Adam’s love life.

*

Adam followed Ozias down the stairs, closely followed behind by Zander and Ivan to the lounge where two bloodied and beaten up men were tied up and gagged.

“Who are these two? And what happened to you?!” Adam questioned Beric, Roland and Odran who equally looked a bit roughed up.

“We ended up having a confrontation with them after they recognized us when we were scouting the royal palace your grace,” Odran responded apologetically.

“Since they knew our identity, we couldn’t risk letting them go scot free,” Roland explained as he bandaged his bruised knuckles.

Looking at his friend’s injuries from confronting just two men, Adam was sure the two were skilled soldiers. He walked up to one of the gagged men and forcibly tilted his chin up to face him.

“These men are from the Gavarian royal guard,” Adam gasped in shock, “what were they doing around the palace?”

“Aparently they were look out,” Beric responded, the young knight seemed less bruised than the others, indicating that Roland and Odran had done most of the fighting. Beric was not much of a fighter anyway, he was the peacemaker of the group and a great tracker and tactician.

“They were keeping a lookout on behalf of lady Julia Boleyn,” Beric added on, “she’s infiltrated the palace.”

“What?! Why would Julia infiltrate the castle?! Does she think that’s where I am?!”

“Thats what we thought as well,” Odran responded to the prince, “but after roughing these guys up, we found out that she came here to kill lady Guinevere.”

Adam felt his legs turn to jelly, to kill Guine? No.. why? Why would Julia do that? Was it because of her ridiculous obsession with Adam? Had it really led to this? No, that didn’t make sense, Adam had told Julia that he loved another woman but he did not mention who it was, someone else must have put her up to this.

Adam roughly tore off the cloth that was gagging the man and grabbed him by the collar, “Who sent Julia, and how does she plan to kill Guine?! Tell me!”

The man coughed up a bit of blood before proceeding to speak, “lady Julia came here by orders from the queen,” the man mattered.

Adam’s eyes went round, “m- my mother?” This information made the prince’s heart skip a beat, and his face went pale, he knew that his mother was against him going after Guinevere but was having her killed necessary?

Adam tightened his grip on the man’s collar, his eyes were full of rage and panic, and their color was fluctuating between a deep brown and a vivid purple, “What does Julia plan on doing?!”

“She told us she would disguise herself as a maid and infiltrate the palace,” the man spoke with a heavy breath, “she said she would take advantage of the commotion at the wedding and kill the red head.”

Adam released the man and plopped backwards into a chair that was conveniently situated behind him, now he had another motive other than to steal Guinevere away from that scum of a prince Nathan, now he also had to protect her from Julia.”

“Change of plans,” Adam spoke, “grab your pantaloons gentlemen we are ALL going to attend the royal wedding tomorrow.”