Page 28 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown (Kingdom of Bellhollow #1)

“In this lesson, we are going to teach you how to eat your food with the correct manners,” Maria explains. “You will need to sit up straight. No slouching ever. You will not sit with your back against the chair either.”

I clench my teeth and do as she says. In my town, nobody cares how you eat. We are all thankful to have food and eat together.

“You start with the outside spoon and make your way in with each different course,” Hilga says, pointing to each different set of silverware.

There are four. They have four different courses in one meal? Why aren’t they sharing some of this with the people of Bellhollow?

Four different courses would feed a lot of people in my village, yet they are keeping it in the palace and not sharing. This is unacceptable. If I was queen, I would change that, but I know if I am queen with Prince Archie, I will get no say at all.

The only reason I would consider being queen is if I knew I could make a lot of improvements to each town.

I’ve lived in my village my whole life and have seen many things that I want to improve, but I can’t.

And I never will be able to because if I get into a position of power, I won’t actually have any tangible power.

“Come on, there is food in front of you, and you need all the practice you can get,” Maria gently says. “Place one hand here and pick up the spoon with the other and start to eat. Show us how you would eat.”

Why is my left hand being placed on the table palm side down? I want to ask, but I don’t dare.

“Come on. We don’t have all day to sit here and do nothing,” Hilga chastises me. “Get a move on, girl.”

I carefully pick up the furthest spoon, dip it into the soup, and put it in my mouth.

Flavors burst in my mouth as I let the liquid sit for a couple of seconds.

What flavor is that? It’s sweet yet not overly so.

I can taste different spices. Carrots and potatoes are in the soup, but there is another type of broth that I am not familiar with.

Swallowing, I go in for a second bite, but searing hot pain dances across the top of my left hand.

Crying out, I snatch my hand to my chest and drop the spoon in the bowl, some of the broth falling on the table but I don’t pay any mind to it.

“What was that?” I raise my voice, tears prickling in my eyes as I look at my hand.

A long, red welt begins to form on the back of my hand. I look over at Hilga to see a long, skinny stick in her hand.

“Your posture was off, and you slurped. Queens and princesses do not slurp their soup. They quietly eat it so they don’t bring attention to themselves. You should know this already.” Hilga glares at me. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think all you commoners are savages.”

How am I supposed to know that when we haven’t had a queen in years? I don’t remember a time when we had a queen. She died before I was born, and the king hasn’t sought anyone else out.

“Again,” Hilga declares.

“Lesson is done,” Prince Archie declares as he walks into the room.

I blink away the tears, not wanting him to see them.

“Has she done well?” he asks. “Will you need to spend another week on this, or has she progressed enough to move on?”

“We will refresh again when she comes back to see if we need to spend another session going through it and practicing. I won’t know until then,” Hilga replies.

“Hilga is the best at this. She has taught so many people here. Her methods are the best.” Prince Archie turns to me.

I don’t dare look at him. Her methods are the best?

Beating someone’s hands with a stick for every little mistake they make?

I wouldn’t call that the best. Sure, it helps me to remember, but at what cost?

I probably made several more mistakes because I was concentrating on my hand and the searing hot pain Hilga kept inflicting.

I am going to go back to my village, and they are all going to question me. Did they not think about that?

“Come, I will take you to a guard, and they will take you home,” Prince Archie says.

My left hand shakes as I stand from the chair and make my way toward the prince. Everything in me wants to hide the evidence of what happened, but I am not going to. He knows what happened, but people in my town don’t.

“Did Hilga treat you well?” Prince Archie asks as we walk out of the room.

“Great,” I whisper.

“What was that?” he asks.

“She was great. Taught me really well.” I try to hold it together as we walk through the palace.

I never want to return here. I never want to take another lesson from her. What am I going to tell my mom? What if it hinders some of the work I have to do? This isn’t good, and the prince thinks it’s perfectly fine.

“Good. I will talk to you later. This guard will take you to the front gates of the palace, and then you are free to go.” Prince Archie stops in front of a guard.

I bow before standing fully and smiling. “Thank you, Prince Archie.”

He leaves, and it’s just me and the guard. I take a deep breath and look at the guard, waiting for him to move. If I were alone, I would get lost and never find my way out of this place.

“Follow me.” His gruff voice fills the empty hallway.

I follow him, turning every once in a while.

“Going through lessons with Hilga?” the guard asks, catching me off guard.

I look around to see if anyone else is around, like the prince.

“You’re safe.” The guard chuckles.

“Yes,” I gently reply.

“Everyone here goes through them and ends up like that on the first day. Don’t punish yourself too much for it.” He looks back at me briefly.

I want to ask his name, but I don’t want to get to know him. I need to be careful. He says I’m safe, but he could report everything to the king and I’m not going to take the risk.

“We’re here. Someone will be here next week to pick you up and take you to the room,” he says. “Good luck.”

I don’t even say goodbye as I make my way through the gate and head back home. Before I know it, I’m standing in the entrance as my mother looks at me.

“Adeline!” she yells. “What happened to your hand?”

I stand at the entrance, not knowing what to do or say. I look down at my red, swollen hand.

“Adeline.” Mother holds her hand out to grab mine.

Moving it to my chest, I cradle it so she doesn’t touch it. The pain has finally started to go away, and I don’t want to make it worse.

“What happened?” Mother gently asks. “Come sit, and I’ll get something to help with the pain and swelling.”

She carefully guides me to the chair, and I sit, letting out a breath and relaxing slightly. I never want to go back to the palace. I never want to see Hilga again. If she died tonight, I would rejoice.

She is an evil woman, and I want nothing to do with her.

“I’m going to carefully apply this to help.” Mother lowers in front of me. “It’s going to hurt a little bit, but it will help in the long run, and you need that.”

I do.

“Bite on this if it hurts too much.” She hands me a leather strip.

The same leather strip I bit on as a kid when I hurt myself and my parents needed to clean or bandage it.

I immediately put it in my mouth and look at my hand as my mother starts gently applying the gel. Despite her care, the pain radiates across my hand.

“Almost done,” she says urgently. “Just a little more.”

I don’t know how much more I can take. Black dots appear in my vision just like they did back at the palace.

I suck in a deep breath as she stops. Taking out the piece of leather, I cradle my hand against my chest, making sure not to touch the gel anywhere, as I relax in my chair.

This is not going to be good if I can’t do anything with it.

How am I going to get things done around the house?

“I need to go for a walk.” I stand.

I need to not be inside where the air is stiff and the reminder of me sitting at a table getting my hand whacked with every mistake. I need to get away from this all and let my body calm down.

“Don’t be too long. The cold air will help your hand, but I don’t want you getting sick again.” She doesn’t even try to stop me.

“I’ll be back soon,” I reply. “It’s far too cold for me to be out for hours.”

When I step outside, there is still snow on the ground. There will be snow for several more months until the weather starts to warm up. I can’t wait for the day when I can take longer walks. Maybe I can take the baby out with me for some fresh air so I can walk longer.

I immediately head toward the forest, away from the prying eyes of the townspeople. I need the swelling to go down before anyone sees me. The rumors people will spread when they see that I’ve just come back from the palace with a hand looking like this.

I don’t want to think about that.

My shoulders sag as I take a deep breath of the air in the forest. If I could be in the forest forever, I would.

Being surrounded by animals, fresh air, and plants is my happy place.

Part of me is jealous that the Fae get to do it every single day, but they are better equipped than me. They can stay warm in the cold.

“Why were you in pain today?” Kieran asks.

I whirl around, hiding my left hand behind my back as I point a finger at him. “You need to stop scaring me. One day you are going to kill me.”

An exaggeration, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“Answer my question. Why are you in pain? Why were you nervous all day?” he asks, taking a step closer to me.

“How did you know all of that?” I ask, deflecting the question back onto him.

I do not want to talk about what happened today. Especially as he has this weird obsession and protectiveness over me. He can’t do anything, but I just have a feeling he won’t forget. And if the Fae ever get out of the spell, he will go after those responsible.

“You will not ask questions right now.” He leans down so we are looking at each other. “Why were you in pain and nervous?”