It didn't take me long to realize that silence was the best option. It was made especially clear when my butler, Erden, had rushed three well-known physicians to the mansion even before dawn. I was now participating in my last check-up with the physicians, and I have to say, I was really close to being sent away and declared mentally unfit.
The only way to stay alive long enough to figure out how to exit the book was to be quiet.
"Everything seems okay, my lady. Did you perhaps ingest something that did not agree with you?" The middle-aged man kneeling before me asked. He was from checking my pulse with his stethoscope, or something that looked like one, and he was currently packing it away.
"No, no, I know that I gave everyone a scare yesterday, but as I said, I am fine now. I momentarily forgot myself, that is all." I smiled.
Like hell I am, I want to go home! Milo…Oh shoot! Milo will be so mad if I am late tomorrow.
"My lady, that in itself is not ordinary. Forgetting oneself could be dangerous" He said, looking worried. Actually no, he looked terrified. It was as though he knew that Vivanna would kill him if his diagnosis was off, perhaps they all did.
The other two physicians were waiting in the parlour room. They were shaking in their boots, as though their fates depended on all the physicians having a similar verdict.
Poor people. Physicians were meant to heal, but if they were too scared to do so, wouldn't they lose their passion for the profession, or rather go into hiding?
The guards around me looked startled.
'she smiled' 'the lady smiled.' They murmured, and I froze.
-Crap! I am supposed to be the villain!-
I pulled my hand from the doctor and cleared my throat.
"Now that you are done, see yourselves out, but if I do find myself with a problem, your necks will be on the line for failing to identify it when there was time to prevent symptomatic manifestations." I glared at him.
-I want to watch t.v!!-
The man looked startled then bowed.
"Yes, my lady. For your kindness, would you allow us to perform a check-up on you after a week? I know that it is impetuous of me to ask but-"
"Come alone," I said, and the man stiffened. "I need not repeat myself, come alone for the check-up. Tell the other two physicians that I shall come to their practices personally." I instructed.
I know that the physician thinks that I want to kill him in private or something, but there were too many eyes watching for me to reassure him. Thanks to my 'tantrum', the staff was acting as though I could not make rational choices.
-Maybe I can use the visits to their office as my excuse to survey the land without raising suspicion.- I frowned. -Why the hell do I have to sneak around when I own the land?-
-No, no, Annabelle, you know why. You can't alert the prince.-
I sighed then decidedly ended the chatter in my brain.
"Good," I said. "Show the physician out," I ordered to whoever was responsible. I couldn't see the butler anymore, where had Erden gone? Was he notifying the prince?
-Shit! Vivanna, why the hell did you let him have access to your staff? Now I will be completely paranoid.-
I walked out of the living room following the path that we had used earlier, not wanting to veer off the route.
The castle was so huge that I could foresee myself getting lost shortly, but at least let the physicians leave before that happens.
-I can't let anyone know that I'm not Vivanna or feel that Vivanna has grown weak. She has too many enemies for me to let my guard down.-
I climbed the wide brown marble steps and followed the initial path to my room.
I shut the large dark mahogany double doors then leaned my back against them.
"FFFFFuuuccckk!!" I groaned as I sank to the white marble floor and buried my face in my hands. "Why can't I wake up?"
I felt my lip wobble as the seriousness of the situation hit me, was I stuck? Do I have to live the remainder of my life as the villain?
A knock interrupted my pity session.
"My lady?" the voice of the maid from earlier called.
I wiped the tears from my eyes and then cleared my throat.
-No one must think that Vivanna is weak.-
"Yes?" I said curtly.
"P-pardon, should I come in?" The maid asked.
"Damn it, why the hell can't we speak through the door!" I muttered angrily as I stood.
I took a deep breath, then reached for the doorknob.
Wait! As the villain, I can't exactly open the door for a maid, now can I?
I walked to my large bed. The maids had already changed the sheets from last night.
I slipped into the bedspread and then sat upright.
"Come in," I said, and she did.
"My lady." The maid bowed, then continued. "A rider with a message from the palace has arrived."
"The palace?" I frowned, then it hit me.
-Oh my God! The first fucking prince!!-
-Oh shit! the plot is still continuing!!-
My stomach sank.
I had lowkey hoped that with my arrival, I had somehow distorted the story but…
I frowned.
-Oh my God! This means that my life is utterly at risk!-
"My lady, you are pale?" the maid said.
"Huh, oh no, I might be coming down with something," I said, then faked a cough. I took the letter and examined it.
It was white at the front, with deep engravings in a cursive pattern on the paper itself, while at its back it had a golden seal and a red and purple ribbon around the seal.
The red and purple was a classic touch, Vivanna's favourite colour and the colour of her duchy's crest, while red was his favourite colour. The prince had used this on purpose. Vivanna had been so desperate for affection from him that she would make up her own symbols and inform him.
'Use these If you miss me.' She had teased as she gave him a supply of purple ribbons that she had hoped he would use for personal summonings.
But he never did. He only used them for 'official' summonings because Vivanna wouldn't have shown up otherwise.
-It's a summoning, just like in the novel.-
In the book, Vivanna was summoned after she had slept with a knight. The Knight that she had begged the prince for. For engaged nobles, it was customary to gift your best night to the woman you wish to spend the rest of your life with, it acted as a prayer for protection.
This, however, was not the reason for the summoning; rather, she had been summoned because she was to be officially recognized as the Duchess of Portburgh.
That must mean Vivanna's father died last month, shit!
I covered my mouth with my hand.
Wait a minute! Have…oh, shit have I already slept with the Knight? Is he the one from yesterday?
Noo!!
-Shit! I've already slept with Isaak?-
A sense of dread filled me.
Platinum blonde hair, with green eyes the colour of emeralds, body chiselled like an Adonis and a face that would blind the innocent with temptations.
Yes…I…I've already slept with Isaak. I groaned as I made a mental confirmation.
Shit, that must mean the first prince has already replaced most of Vivanna's staff with his spies, as 'gifts', and it must also mean, that on the specified date of the summoning, he will force me to kneel for four hours, like a child.
In the novel, the prince had been furious after Isaak had sent him his weekly letter about the ongoings of the dutchy. In the letter, Isaak indicates that he had sex with Vivanna to avoid rousing suspicions about his position as a spy. The prince was so furious that his best Knight had been forced to sleep with 'something' like Vivanna, so he made her kneel. He abused his authority to make her kneel, at the centre of the room, for four hours, no breaks and, to make matters worse, he proceeded with a meeting with over twenty oversea dignitaries in the same room!
He did that to humiliate Vivanna, but she had convinced herself that it was because he cared deeply for her. After all, she believed that love and hate were but different sides of the same coin. She had convinced herself that the prince had been jealous.
-Oh for God's sake Vivanna, it's like you wanted to die!!-
If I go, the prince will make me kneel! He will humiliate me in front of potential allies and then once the news spreads about the wicked loose dutchess, no diplomat would be willing to trade with Portburgh, or maybe that was his plan all along.