Doris POV
His hand was tightly bound around my wrist as he pulled me through the crowd of people; I knew there was no use struggling to break free from his grip. I just had to pray that the mark was still covered from the makeup. Part of me wondered if I would still be able to deny it even if he did see the mark.
My heart raced rapidly against my chest, and I was afraid that everyone would be able to hear it. The crowd had fallen so silent that you could practically hear a pin drop. As we approached Ms. Shirley, she stared at me with dismay and disappointment. She was one of the oldest maids at the palace and their most trusted.
He stopped me in front of Ms. Shirley and my breathing was nearly out of control. My body was shaking uncontrollably, and I worried that this was going to be it for me. I worried that I was never going to see outside of this palace again.
Just as she tilted my neck back and began moving my hair out of the way, a loud voice came through the crowd, making us all turn in her direction.
“Your majesty, I can’t stay quiet any longer. It was me you marked last night,” Melody said.
The crowd erupted in wild gasps as they stared at the head maid; her face remained expressionless as she stared at Prince William. She wouldn’t even look in my direction as she walked toward us.
Ms. Shirly dropped my hair and it fell in messy dark waves around my shoulders.
What was Melody doing? She couldn’t have been marked. Could she have been? Was it possible that he could have marked us both last night?
No.
That didn’t make any sense.
I glanced over at William, he looked almost speechless, but his expression hardened, and his mouth formed a thin line. I wondered what he was thinking, but I also knew it wasn’t my place to wonder about such things.
“You?” He asked, staring at her. His voice laid thick through the silence of the fields.
Melody bowed her head once and gazed up at him.
“Yes, your majesty. I do apologize for not coming forward sooner,” she said; she kept her tone soft and not at all familiar to me. She was trying hard to sound like a lady.
“Check her,” William ordered Ms. Shirley. I stumbled away from Ms. Shirley, and I was able to engulf myself back into the crowd. I can’t remember when I reached Beth, but I managed to get back to where I was initially before he pulled me through the crowd.
Beth glanced over at me and whispered, “Are you okay?”
It was still silent around the fields, and I didn’t think I would be able to be as quiet as she so I nodded. But I wasn’t so sure myself.
“She has the mark, your majesty,” Ms. Shirley said in a breath; she seemed more shocked than any of us.
A small smile was placed on Melody’s lips as she gazed back up at William.
“What is your name?” William asked, he had a bit of a curious tone to him. He didn’t sound angry, but he didn’t sound pleased at the same time. Just curious.
“Melody Harford, your majesty,” she said to him, bowing her head again.
He straightened his stance and kept his eyes locked on hers.
“Melody…” he breathed.
He said her name like he had said mine for the first time; I felt a ping of hurt in my chest that I didn’t recognize. I swallowed it into my stomach, not wanting that to resurface again. It made no sense for me to feel that way. I should be relieved that Melody had taken the fall; whatever her reasons maybe, I was out of the spotlight. Which meant my chances of leaving this palace were back.
“She’s so full of shit,” Beth muttered, folding her arms across her chest as she stared at Melody from afar.
I gave her a side glance and a frown.
“Why do you say that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as low as possible.
“Because if she truly was the one, he marked, she would have come forward long ago. Why hide something like that, only to come clean now?” Beth asked, rolling her eyes. “Everyone here wanted to be the one that he marked. Anyone would fake the mark to get what they want. Melody saw the opportunity and took it.”
I shrugged, trying to keep my composure and not give too much of my thoughts away.
“Don’t you suppose that William can tell the difference between his mark and a fake mark?” I asked.
Which made me wonder if her mark really was fake; or if he had marked us both.
She shrugged with a sigh.
“Who knows. But I don’t believe her for a second,” Beth murmured.
Mr. Carson turned towards the crowd; he looked tired from the day and a bit puzzled. It was obvious he wasn’t expecting it to be Melody. None of us were. She worked closely with Mr. Carson, and he probably felt a little blindsided that she hid this from him.
“No use standing around dumbstruck. Lady Melody will need some help moving her belongings to her new courters,” Mr. Carson announced. “Those who don’t already have a job to do can help Lady Melody. The rest of you, get back to work.”
One by one the crowd began breaking up; I was running late for my shift at the palace library. Out of all the jobs in the palace, that was my favorite. With my love for books and the peacefulness the library brought, I was in complete bliss. I wished I could work at the library all the time, but sadly I was only assigned to it a couple of times a week.
But I couldn’t pull my eyes away from Melody and William. I had so many questions I knew I was never going to get the answers to.
Beth stood beside me and draped her arm through mine.
“We need to go before we get in trouble,” Beth said, reminding me that we needed to abide by the rules.
She was right; we couldn’t get in trouble if we sought to leave this palace one day.
I sighed and nodded as I turned away from them and we began walking toward the palace.
“One day, Beth. We are going to get our freedom,” I told her as we often reminded each other why we try so hard each day.
She tightened her hold around my arm.
“Yes,” she agreed. “We will.”
(William’s POV)
“Even now, as she stands before us, it still doesn’t feel right,” Waylon, William’s inner wolf, said from deep within.
“What do you mean it doesn’t feel right?” William asked, clearly annoyed that Waylon wasn’t speaking straight.
“The scent of her wolf isn’t natural,” Waylon explained.
“What are you saying? There’s been a mistake?” William pressed.
“I can’t be sure. But there’s something about Doris I can’t shake. It’s almost like she doesn’t have a scent at all. Just like our mate last night.”
“Melody has our mark,” William pressed.
“But you don’t feel the same as you did last night when you are with Melody,” Waylon argued. “You would feel it if she was your mate. She stands before us now, and yet you feel nothing.”
“It doesn’t matter what I feel. I don’t believe in fated mates,” William shot back.
“Whether you believe it or not, they exist. And you felt the connection of the mate.”
William couldn’t help but look off to where the crowd was dispersing. He saw the maid, Doris, walking with her arm linked around another maid that he didn’t recognize and didn’t care to recognize.
“You feel differently for the girl,” Waylon said.
“I feel nothing,” William argued in return.
Even as he said those words, for a moment he wasn’t so sure he believed them himself. The way Doris stood off in the crowd and looked so nervous; she was biting her bottom lip like she was about to rip it off. She was resistant to stepping ahead in the line to get checked; she was obviously hiding something.
For a moment, he thought she could potentially be hiding the mark.
Could it have been a mistake? He thought to himself.
As he glanced down at Melody, she appeared so plain. Her pale features, soft brown eyes, and sleek blonde hair, which she had pulled back into a ponytail, bored him. Not at all like anybody that he would have gone out of his way to mark.
“You wish it could have been Doris, don’t you?”