Page 59 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown

“You will need to change your entire closet.” Hilga looks up and down at me with disgust. “Your clothes are not acceptable. Where do you get them?”

I look at my old dress. There is wear and tear, with patches where my mother and I have made repairs, but it’s one of my nicest ones and blends in with everyone else in Bellhollow.

“Don’t answer that. You will need new clothes if you are going to be queen,” Hilga says before I can say anything.

“I will not,” I reply, straightening my back. “I will stick out when I walk around Bellhollow, and I will not have that. Fancy dresses will be damaged by the work I do.”

Even if the prince says that I have to, I am not going to. There are some things that I will not budge on, and this is one of those. I desperately want a new dress to wear around but it’s impractical when I do so much around the house and outside. It would get ruined in less than an hour and I would feel so guilty about it.

I will not stick out in my own town more than I already do right now. It’s bad enough the prince keeps wanting to see me there. I am not about to let him make me wear newer dresses and have everyone’s eyes on me. It will make me want to dirty the dress up and make it like all my other ones.

Hilga huffs out a breath and rolls her eyes. Right. This isn’t going to be fun for either of us. If I could get out of it, I would, but I know Hilga is loyal to the king and prince.

“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.