The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

That morning, Harold took the second floor more than ten times. Whenever he got to the last bend that led to Alicia's room, he would turn around and wander aimlessly before finding himself back there again. So, for the umpteenth time, he scolded himself and returned to his chamber, but he could not sit still. He began to pace around and almost lost it when he found himself biting his nails absent-mindedly. When did he cultivate such a disgusting habit?

'I need to rest. You are troubling me. Just go check up on her.' His wolf hissed tiredly.

"Who said I wanted to check up on her?!" He snapped out defensively.

'...'

'Fine. I am only doing this because you asked me to,' Harold said to his wolf before he turned around and began to head towards the door.

'Yea, right.'

Harold could imagine his wolf rolling his eyes, but he didn't let that concern him as he smelt a presence before he opened the door and saw Beth standing there, about to knock.

She bowed her head meekly with her hands on her belly. "Your highness."

He raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was here. She had never approached him before. She had no reason to. So what was she doing here?

"Speak," he said impatiently, his voice making her shiver, but she didn't dare move for fear that he might get angry.

"She... she is..."

If the other maids had seen Beth stuttering like this, they would probably have fainted from shock. She always acted so confident and strong around them, yet before Harold, she was nothing but a stuttering girl.

"Move," he ordered impatiently in a commanding voice and moved to walk away, but she gathered herself and spoke.

"Amber is lying."

Harold stopped walking. Time seemed to slow down as he slowly turned around to look at her. "Amber?" He asked in a low voice that made the hair all over her body stand. Since when was his bride addressed with such disrespect?

"Prin... cess Amber," Beth quickly corrected. "She is lying. She isn't ill. She is faking it so she would get away with her classes," she rushed to add, hoping that he would look past the way she had addressed Amber. She almost rolled her eyes. He didn't have to pretend to like Amber in front of her. Everyone, including her, was aware that he didn't give a damn about her and was merely doing all this for formality.

"Faking it? So she wasn't ill? Harold wondered. For some reason, he seemed to believe Beth. His bride was capable of a whole lot of things, so this wasn't strange to imagine.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

Beth nodded immediately, happy that someone was finally giving her a listening ear. As expected, the only reasonable person was Harold.

"I swear on my life, your highness. Princess Amber is faking it," Beth informed him, already grinning in her head after peeking to see how his face was contorted into a frown.

He sighed in his head. She was always extreme with everything. 'She is probably hungry now,' he thought to himself, remembering she only had a little to eat last night and hadn't shown up this morning for breakfast.

"I will handle it," he said to Beth dismissively.

"Thank you, your highness." She bowed deeply and waited for him to leave first, but he didn't. He still stood there, and she considered taking the risk of looking at his face, but she held back. Her heart lurched to her throat when he began to speak in a calm and collected voice that could send people fainting from fear.

"The next time you address her the way you did earlier... I will have your head on a stake," He warned her calmly and knew she got the message when he saw her body shake from fear. She didn't doubt that he was capable of doing so, and even if she felt she was precious and irreplaceable, no one would be able to challenge Harold for getting rid of her. Not even her father.

'Pfft! You sound like a good husband.' His wolf mocked.

'Shut up!'

Meanwhile, inside her chamber, Alicia was finally able to get the three women to leave, leaving only Paulina with her. She instructed Paulina to lock the door with a key, and as soon as Paulina did that, Alicia jumped from the bed, groaning in relief.

"Jeez! They should have just built a tent and camped here!" She complained as she stretched all her muscles until they cracked.

A stunned Paulina looked at Alicia, confusion written all over her face, as Alicia approached her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Paulina darling, you are a lifesaver. I never would have done this successfully without you. Hahaha!"

She laughed loudly, like an evil villainess.

"It feels good to finally laugh aloud. But I'm starving."

"Mi—lady... what happ—"

"Shhh!" Alicia placed a finger on her lips. "No need to think too much about it. "I am fine. I only need to skip classes and also teach that silly Beth a lesson. Let me see how she is going to climb down from her mighty horse and tell the queen I was faking it. Only an idiot would believe h— AHHH!"

Both Paulina and Alicia screamed when someone jumped in from the window, startling them.

Alicia and Paulina stared wide-eyed at Harold, who also kept his gaze on the two. How did he even climb up to this place? And why didn't he use the door like a normal person would?

But there was a more pressing issue than those questions. Alicia was supposed to be sick, and so she went into acting, keeping a sick face and pretending to collapse. It took longer for Paulina to get into character and began to wail dramatically as she helped Alicia to the bed.

This incident made Alicia realize what a bad actress Paulina was and that she was truly never going to let Paulina in on any of her plans because any normal person would see that she was faking it.

"Leave," Harold said sternly to Paulina, who quickly stopped crying and scrambled away, leaving Alicia, who was still lying on the bed trying to pull off a believable act.

Once Paulina shut the door behind her, Harold looked down at Alicia, whose eyes were shut and she was pretending to be asleep. He didn't know whether to be angry or not that she had been pretending to be ill. He was relieved that she wasn't really ill as he had thought, but more than that, he was also upset that he had been so worried and worked up over nothing. He would have taken the door, but he didn't want anyone to see him coming to visit her. Now, he was glad he had taken the window. How else would he have confirmed that she had brazenly lied to the entire royal family?

As Alicia lay there waiting for him to say something, but when everywhere remained silent, she decided to risk it, and opened one eye to take a peek at him.

Her heart skipped a beat when she met his piercing gaze, and she quickly shut her eyes as her heart began to race. What was he doing here? Why did he come in this way? What did he want? Why wasn't he saying anything? His silence was making her uncomfortable, but it seemed like he was bent on remaining quiet. It was as if he was waiting for her to say something.

This suddenly reminded both of them of their wedding ceremony and how she had pretended to faint, but Harold had seen through her. By chance... did he suspect she was lying? She wondered to herself, nearly panicking that he was going to expose her.

When she couldn't bear the silence anymore, she slowly opened both eyes and sat up. "I'm very sick," she informed him in a weak voice, just in case he had missed the memo.

Harold remained quiet as he watched her with his piercing blue eyes, which seemed to remind her of the way Dr. House often stared at people. Yeah, Dr. House was the name of the main character from one of her favourite American medical series, House MD.

Alicia shifted uncomfortably as she looked at him, then away from him, and then back to him again, "Is there something you want to say or talk about?" She asked in a weak voice since she was smart enough to decipher that he either suspected that she was faking her illness, hence he came in through the window to confirm it, or he knew for a fact that she was faking it.

"What did the physician say?" Harold asked, trying to understand why Beth had assumed that she was faking her illness.

"He said I needed lots of rest and food. I'm suffering from fatigue," Alicia said with a yawn as her eyelids fluttered sleepily.

"Is it worth it?" Harold asked after some time.

"Is what worth what?" Alicia asked in confusion.