needs help,” he said trying to back track a little bit. It was a rare moment for both of us to be kind to each other.
“I also wanted to make sure that you know I’m sorry,” I told him.
“For what?” He asked.
“If I hadn’t taken off, then none of this would have happened. It’s my fault that you’re hurt.”
He attempted to shrug, but couldn’t quite raise his shoulder enough. “No worries,” he replied. “ It’s not that bad.”
I smiled at his lie. I hadn’t been hurt as bad, and it had been terrible. “ How are you feeling?” He asked.
“Weak,” I said. “Today is the first day that I’ve been able to walk at all.” Suddenly I felt guilty. It occurred to me that he wasn’t going to be able to walk on his broken leg for at least another month. “How did you do it?” I asked. “ How did you walk on a broken leg?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “ I didn’t really notice that it was broken. I mean my whole body felt on fire after, but it didn’t know that any of my bones were broken. It’s weird, if I tried to walk on my leg now, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to. I don’t know how I walked on it that day. Or how I carried you. I mean I can barely move at all now.”
Someone knocked on the door. It was a messenger. He whispered something in my father’s ear, and left the room. “ Well, I’m afraid that I have some business that your uncle and I must attend to.” He kissed both me and William and left the room.
William looked over at my mother. “ You’re majesty,” he began.
“Yes William?”
“I was wondering something?”
“What dear?”
“Well, I never knew my real mother, but ever since I was little, you’ve helped to take care of me. Even when I was really small, I remember that you helped my father to look after me when I was sick. You also always made sure that I was being brought up properly, and since I’ve come to live with you and the king, you’ve done nothing but take care of me, and I was just wondering if it was ok to call you mother?”
My mother looked as if she might cry. “ Of course,” she said. “ The King and I have come to consider you the son that we never had. I would be honored to have you call me mother.”
I felt a pang of resentment. They were my parents, not his. But I couldn’t be to mad as I looked at him. After all, if it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t be laying on the bed mauled.
William
I tried not to stare at Isabel’s face. I had been told that she didn’t know how different she looked, and they didn’t want her to know. Not yet. It was the hopes of the King that the scars would fade overtime.
I wasn’t so sure after seeing her. The transformation in her was amazing. She was weak, and vulnerable, a way in which I wasn’t used to seeing her. I was stunned when she had come to my bedside to see me. It was the first ounce of kindness that I had ever seen her show anyone. Maybe what happened had changed her.
Catherine told me that she had always been kind, but just didn’t know how to express it.
“That makes no sense whatsoever,” I said.
“William, you don’t understand the pressure that she has on her. She’s never gotten to experience life the way that you have, and she resents that.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why should she resent that? She has everything.”
“William, I am the only friend that she can trust.”
“I saved her life, that should proof she can trust me.”
“You saved her life, but you’ve never been nice to her before really.”
“That’s because I’ve always thought that she was a spoiled little brat.”
She looked hurt. “William, Isabel and I have been raised exactly the same way. If you think she’s a spoiled little brat, then you must think I am as well.”
I was stunned that she would think that, and slightly impressed. Catherine was only seven years old, for such a young child to make connections like that, she must be brilliant. Brilliant but wrong. “ No, you’re different,” I said.
“How so?” She asked.
“Because, you’re always kind, and generous. When I first started class, you were the only other child to offer to help me.”
She smiled. It occurred to me that Catherine had a crush on me. I felt embarrassed, and awkward. Catherine was just a little kid to me, and I saw her like a little sister. I coughed, “ I think that I need some rest now,” I explained.
“Oh of course,” she said.