~Aurora.
After being informed by Sam to be available for the brunch by eleven am, I made my way back to my room to find Arne asleep and the trolley of food out of the room.
Since the morning was still young, I decided to familiarize myself with my environment and to check if I still had a clear memory of how I knew the palace.
Just as I was about to leave the room, a knock came on the door, and I opened it to reveal a young maid about Audrey's age.
“Good morning ma'am,” the maid greeted with a smile, "I am Kelly, the nanny assigned to your son throughout your stay at the palace.”
“Well, that was fast,” I muttered to myself as I stepped to the side to let her into the room. “ I am Dr. Ro... Aurora and my son is Arne, I would have introduced you but, he is fast asleep now.”
“That is no problem, ma'am, I will do that myself when he wakes up.”
“Well, I was about to go for a walk before you came. I will be back even before you notice I am gone.” She nodded, and I turned on my heels and left the room.
The cool breeze rushed into me as I stepped outside, causing me to shudder slightly. The sun had just set and the sky, blue and clear. Taking the right turn, I headed towards the direction of the royal fields when I bumped into a semi-brick wall.
“Pardon me,” I said instinctively as I blinked to clear my vision. “Jessie?” I took a step back as I tilted my head to have a better view of the person before me.
“Oh my goodness, Jessie, it is you.” Jessie was taller and bigger and was looking much better than she was ten years ago.
“Yes,” she quipped as she scanned me from head to toe, “I am Jessie, the head matron of this palace.” The crossed her hands at her wrists below her stomach. “You must be the doctor. The palace is not a place for wandering.” And Jessie was…meaner?
My smile quivered, “Jessie, it is me, Aurora. The Aurora Aldrich you used to know.”
She raised a brow as she corked her head to the side, “Aurora? Gracious me! Aurora,” she threw her hands around my neck and pulled me in a tight hug, “I thought you looked familiar.” I returned the hug and patted her back softly before pulling out.
“You made me almost pee my pants, Jessie, since when did you become mean.”
“Forgive me, it what comes with being the head matron of this palace. I have to be strict to keep everybody in line, you know.” She paused and scanned me from head to toe, “my God, Aurora, what happened to you? You are now a doctor, how did that happen?”
“You are now the head matron, how did that happen?” I threw back her question at her. I would rather not divulge into telling her what happened that night and how it led to my being here. I was not also aware if Ethan had ulterior motives in dragging back to that pack and if he did, I didn't know whom he was working with.
“A lot,” Jessie stressed and began leading me to the field, “Aurora, a lot of things have happened since you disappeared, speaking of, why on earth did you disappear. I came back to the hospital to check up on you, only to be told that you had gone home. I went back home, but you were not around, I waited and waited, but you didn't show up Aurora, what happened?”
I sighed, “well, dear friend, I decided not to let my sister and her husband ruin my life for me. I was still very young and had my whole life ahead of me, so I decided to make the best out of it.”
“So you decided to run away?”
“I decided to better my life," She raised a brow and I nodded. “Tell me about you, how did you become the head matron? Don't tell me Isadora picked you because I am sure she hated your guts because you decided to stay my friend.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, “please, my position today has nothing to do with Isadora and everything to do with me and my hard work.”
My brows knitted instinctively at the way she called out Isadora's name without any honorary. The elder back at the meeting earlier had done it, Ethan did it, and now Jessie. Was there something I didn't know about?
“Speaking of Isadora, it is quite heartbreaking that my sister has not come to say 'hi' to me.”
She scoffed again as though she were disgusted by the mere mention of Isadora's name, “we hardly see her around these days.”
“Why? Did anything happen to her?” I asked with furrowed brows.
“As it is now, I am not sure anything can happen to her.”
I chuckled lightly, “what do you mean by that?”
Jessie paused in her track, “don't tell me you haven't heard.”
My brows furrowed more as my heart began pounding against my chest. Did something happen to Isadora? Was she okay? Was she safe? A million questions ran through my mind as fear gripped me. I knew Isadora and I were not close to anything as friends, but she was still my sister and the only thing I had in the whole world, save for Arne.
“Oh friend,” Jessie quipped with a tone that did nothing but scare me more, “you are missing out on a lot of things. Come, come, let's find a place to sit.”
As I followed her lead, my alarm beeped, and I dug out my phone from my pocket to see that quite a lot of time had passed. I bit my lower lip as I contemplated leaving the brunch for the information Jessie was about to share.
Isadora was my sister, after all, but wouldn't it be rude to go MIA on the royal family?
“Can we do this some other time, Jessie? I have an appointment with the royal family in an hour.”
“Oh, the brunch,” she tsked, "I almost forgot. Let's meet later and talk about everything, okay?” I nodded, “have fun,” she bid before disappearing towards the direction of the kitchen and quickly, I found my way back to my room.
Arne assumed position beside me once I got into the room and I guessed, just like Ethan, he did like the maid either.
“Something came in for you while you were out, ma'am.” Kelly said, handing me a box.
I opened the door and saw a black gown folded neatly and a set of jewelry placed on top of it.
“From whom?” I asked.
“I wasn't told but, Sam said you should wear it to the brunch.”
“Okay. I will take it from here then, you can come back in an hour to take care of Arne.” Kelly nodded and I locked the door behind her.
“I can take care of myself, mom.”
“You don't know anyone here, Arne.” I said before disappearing into the bathroom.
No sooner than later, I stood in from of the mirror as I admired my reflection in it. The gown hugged my body and giving me a perfect fitting as though it were custom-made for me.
“I will be back soon," I said to Arne who nodded and climbed the bed.
I found a guard waiting to escort me to the palace by the time I got ready. Save for a little change, the dinning room was just as I remembered.
When the twin doors to the dinning room finally opened, I looked straight ahead and, unfortunately, into a pair of brown eyes that sent shivers down my spine and made me weak in the knees.