As I heard my name being called I could feel my self pull away from Jaspers embrace. I could feel my body being pulled away from the cottage and my surroundings started to fade away including Jasper.
"It is okay my love, until we meet again," Jasper said while kissing my hand and he too faded away into the shadows.
"Ali, Ali wake up darling," said my mother.
I let the sleepiness fade away as I out stretched my arms above my head trying to get all the aches out of my bones. I didn't know how long I was sleeping for after Becca left, but the sun was high in the sky as the light poured through my opened window with the curtains drawn back.
"Oh darling it's time for you to get out of this bed it's nearly 3 in the afternoon." My mother cooed as if nothing was wrong with everything in our lives right now.
The angry started to build again within me, I just couldn't grasp the fact she was acting like nothing happened last night. My skin started to heat up and I glared at my mother with such conviction. She saw my reaction and subconsciously scooted back a little on my bed away from my building rage.
I lost it and started to scream at my mother in a way in my short 18 years I have never yelled before.
"STOP IT NOW!" I yelled, " I can't take this anymore no one will just tell me the whole truth on what is going on"
I started to sob not knowing what else to do. My mother was taken back for a minute.
I looked up at my mother with tears streaming down my face, and said one last thing to her before I stood and began to walk away, " I saw my crib and the cottage."
My mother stood there with a shocked look on her face as she gasped at what I just said.
Before I could open my bedroom door I felt a hand grab hold of my wrist and pull me back, my mother wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in for a long tight hug.
"Oh my Ali how is this possible you were barely one when we had to leave how do you know about the cottage." My mother weeped.
"It was so long ago but yet feels like it was yesterday" she said, "I will tell you what you've been asking."
"Years ago when I met your father he was a the general of neighboring kingdom, and I was a Princess."
"Was ther in that place everyone keeps mentioning Calstonia?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
My mother slowly nodded her head and began her story. I was just 18 years old like you when I saw your father appear from the shadows after he had followed me into my castle from the field I was in. I had sensed his presence and actually decided to let him threw the barriers at the gates while my guards and myself crossed leaving the barrier opened just long enough for him to slip in.
——-Daniel stood in front of Rose not relizing he was holding his breath as she spoke. She was the daughter of King Edward the man he was sent to kill. But he knew at that moment he could never hurt anyone she cared for.
Rose and Daniel were very careful at the beginning meeting only in secret away from both palaces at a little cottage near a lake that separated both kingdoms of Calstonia. The only ones that knew about them were Roses personal knight Thomas and her maid his wife Catherine.
Thomas would help get her out of the castle and safely to the cottage and Catherine would cover for her if someone should ask the whereabouts of the Princess. They were her most trusted loyal companions.
On one evening when Rose was making her way
back from the cottage her brother Prince Aaron and father the king had been up late in the kings study. They were going over plans for the upcoming broader patrol, her brother had stepped away and was looking out into the fields just beyond the gate. It was then he saw his sister make her way through the edge of the tree lines and run fast to the hidden door in the stone wall that lead into the castle. This passageway was only known to the royals in case of an emergency they could escape.
At that moment Aaron excused himself from the meeting saying he had a terrible headache and needed to go lie down. Aaron walked out of his fathers study and quicken his pace to small drawing room in the west end of the castle near his sisters chambers. He opened the door to the room just as his sister was coming from behind a large tapestry hanging on the wall. Rose grasped in surprise as she stood there staring at her brother.
Aaron started to advance toward his sister. As he approached Rose lowered her head in shame awaiting his lecture, but instead he drew his sister close to him in a tight hug. He wiped away the tears she didn't know she had shed. With that Rose told her brother everything that had happened the last few months. He listened to her talk about how she met Daniel and how they have fallen in love. The last thing she had said to him was they had consummated their love and she was pregnant.
"Rose do you know what this means now?"
"I know Aaron but I love him and will never love anyone else." Cried Rose.
"There is only one thing to do, I must bring this Daniel here and we must present this situation with our father the King and pray he doesn't lock you away and kill him." Aaron said while rubbing in between his eyes and forehead.
So the next evening Aaron went with his sister to the cottage to meet with Daniel. When they arrived Aaron stepped through the door first. Daniel immediately drew his sword towards Aaron Anticipating a fight to break out.
Aaron just held up a hand signaling he was not there for a fight. He stepped aside and let Rose enter. Daniel lowered his sword at the sight of her and Rose ran into his arms.
"After that night Aaron took us both to our father and told him about our relationship, my father took pity on us with my brother by our sides pleading our case, while hatching a plan in return for Daniel to help our kingdom in the war against the north." My mother said.
"So grandfather let you two be together?" I asked lifting an eyebrow
"Yes we were married before you were born and I would meet Daniel with you at our little cottage every chance he could get away"
"In your fathers kingdom he had to still be the general and keep us a secret not only because of me being part of the southern kingdom but because it t was illegal for one of the kings chosen to bare a family." My mother said with a sorrowful look.