Chapter 170

Chapter 170 A wild man gone Later that night, Doris kept herself wide awake in case William came back. But he never did. Beth came and distracted her enough until she left for bed and now all Doris had was her thoughts that wouldn’t stop replaying the day. The look of murderous rage on William’s face before he silenced the Luna Queen once and for all.

He walked away from the scene as if it hadn’t really happened. Perhaps he thought if he didn’t look back, it wouldn’t be true. She couldn’t honestly tell a single emotion from him after he did what he did.

He was right for what he did, everyone knew it. If he was wrong, half of the camp would have left the moment they found out but they only celebrated it as a win that it was. They were one step closer to the crown-and perhaps that’s what William realized too.

Doris wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she last saw him. It felt like days but it must have only been hours. She expected to see him pacing in front of the small area they had in the tent, but he never came to ward away her bad thoughts.

Just when she gathered herself up to go looking for him, someone tapped on the tent opening.

“Doris? The doctor is here.” Patrick called through the flap. Doris quickly straightened herself. “Come in!”

Patrick opened the flap for the older doctor. She smiled at Doris warmly and her eyes went right to her stomach as if she expected to see evidence of the baby already under her thick sweater. “Hi Doris, I’m Vale. How are you feeling?”

“Hi Vale. I’m well enough today. I have a bit of nausea but that is all.” Doris moved to sit on the bed with the doctor. She glanced at Patrick before he went to leave. “Have you seen William? I thought he would’ve liked to be here for this.” “William“ Patrick hesitated. “He left earlier to the palace, I haven’t heard from him.”

“What?” Doris stood. “We should go look for him! Did anyone else go with him when he left? He might be captured and tortured by Martin’s side!”

“Yes, he had a good number of guards with him, Doris. He asked me to stay here and watch over the camp.” Patrick held out his hand. “He’s fine, Doris. He needed to take care of something important. I feel sorry for the man that thinks they could capture or torture William.”

“Should I wait for him to come back before I do this?” Doris glanced at the doctor. “I thought he wanted to be in the room to make sure.”

“You can tell him the results when he gets back. He knew this was happening tonight, go on with it.”

Patrick nodded before he left.

Doris hesitated before she sat again. “I’m sorry, I completely forgot you were coming. I’ve had so much on my mind today.”

“That’s quite alright. You have a lot of stress around you. I would recommend trying to find ways to let it go if it’s being built up inside you.” Vale said kindly and pressed her cold hand against Doris’s warm forehead.

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future.” Doris sighed. “I’m new to all of this-sort of thing. How do we determine if I’m with child?”

“Well, since we don’t have a lot of the things I would need from the palace, it might be harder to know exactly. I did bring this with me, though.” Vale leaned forward to pull a little tube with a blue liquid out of her pocket.

“What… is that?”

“It’s a special liquid we have at the palace to know if a lady is pregnant early on. You put a few drops of urine inside and see if it turns purple. If it remains blue, you’re not pregnant.”

Doris took the tube and stared at it as if was completely alien. Why hadn’t she ever heard of something like this before? Perhaps she should have asked for a few shifts in the medical ward. “Oh, okay.” She stood.

“I’ll wait here. Let me know if you need any help.” Vale said with a bright smile.

Doris nervously laughed and carried the tube with her as she headed out of the tent and behind the trees. She came back when it was finished and set the tube on a towel in front of them. “How long does it take?”

“Minutes, shouldn’t be that long.” Vale crossed her arms over her chest. “What are some of the other symptoms you’ve had?”

“Oh, well I’ve thrown up almost daily and I feel dizzy-like the world is falling out from under my feet.

Sometimes my chest hurts too but it’s not nearly as bad as the headaches.”

“Hmm.” Vale hummed. “You might be under more stress than you can handle. Those symptoms are normal, but if they get unbearable you might need to take a moment for yourself.”

“Lately it seems as if that’s easier said than done.” Doris sighed. “I can’t believe the timing of all of this.”

“Life is unpredictable.” Vale agreed. She glanced at the tube. “At least you have many people behind you, no matter how unfortunate the timing is.”

Doris opened her lips to speak, but said nothing. She was lucky she had people to wait on her and take care of her needs. She only had Beth before William and now he made people follow her as if she was the important one when she knew she was nothing.

“Ah! There it is, purple.” Vale clapped her hands and pointed. “How lovely. Now, this isn’t fully accurate but it’s rarely wrong. You can show William when he returns.”

Doris felt frozen to the ground when she noticed how purple the liquid had turned. There was no confusing it for a different shade of blue or anything of the nature-it was purple.

Vale gripped her arm gently and helped her towards the bed. “Let’s lay down, my dear. I’m sure he’ll be back soon but there’s no need to wait all night for him.”

Doris felt her hands shake a little as she crawled in bed. Vale brought the covers over her and set some water by her bed. “I’ll check on you often to make sure you’re alright. Make sure to call for me if you have any pain or need anything.”

“Thank you.” Doris whispered. The woman was already gone before she could turn to say it again.

Doris stared at the purple tube. She watched it as if it would shift back to blue at any moment and none of this was real. It was all a part of her dreams and she just hadn’t woken up from it yet.

The next morning, William had still not returned. Doris got up to change when she saw the purple tube right where she left it. It wasn’t a dream, it wasn’t fake. It was right there screaming at her louder than anything else possibly could.

Doris hurried out of the tent and searched everywhere for a sign of William, but nothing.

“He’s not back yet.” Patrick announced when she caught him by the front trees. He lazily picked at his nails with a pocket knife. “I got word that he will be back in a day or so.”

“A day or so? Where did he go?”

“To the palace, like I told you. He probably went to deliver Luna Queen himself incase anyone else tried to take the credit.” Patrick snorted but there was no humor in his voice. “He will be back, don’t worry.”

Doris turned and went back to her tent before her inner wolf came out. “Why didn’t he tell me he was leaving?” Doris whispered to herself.

“Perhaps he did want to take Luna Queen himself.” Cordelia spoke up from inside her. Even through her growing anger, Doris could feel her wolf was just as annoyed as she was.

“He said he didn’t want me out of his sight and he left just hours later without telling me.” Doris ran her fingers through her hair. If she left like that, he would tear through hell looking for her. All she could do was wait for him to return.

“If we went looking for him, it would be worse. He would be furious.” Cordelia warned. Doris fell back on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

“I don’t have the energy to go after him.” Doris muttered. “I just wish he let me know how he was feeling so I wasn’t here waiting all night for him to tell me.”

“Men rarely show how they feel, it’s as if it goes against their nature.” Cordelia said gently. Doris closed her eyes when a thought she couldn’t hold in entered her mind. It was almost too painful to admit.

“Maybe he left forever this time.”