"You will not go there!"
Grace Haddow, the princess of Runecliff flinched hearing her father yell. She had always been afraid of her father. Perhaps because they were never much close emotionally or perhaps because he was a king. But never once in her twenty-three years of life had she ever answered him back. But today, when her mother was almost dying on the other side of the corridor, every other fear overcame. Grace looked at the door beside her. The door of her mother's bedroom, in which her mother laid unconcious, ill with fever. And Grace wouldn't let her die.
So, she looked her father in the eye, held up her chin, took a deep breath to gather her strength and spoke. "If that can save my mother, then I'll go there."
Her father's grey eyes, so smiliar to her own, widened. She had spoken in a harsh voice. She had answered back. She had abandoned every etiquette of a princess and had refused to bid her father. Of course, he would be shocked. She had never behaved this way before.
Slowly, his eyes blazed with anger and Grace's every courage seemed to vanish.
"Your mother needs you right now," he said in an angry voice but the sentence was emotional. "Do not leave her. Stay with her in the final moments of her life."
Tears began to pool in her eyes. Did he already accept that mother would die? She knew her father didn't love her mother but that woman was his wife. The queen of his kingdom. He must be doing everything in his power to save his queen; to save the mother of his only child. Grace looked down at her folded trembling hands.
"Grace," he tried to soften his voice, making her look up. "Listen carefully. Neither will I send anyone nor will you go to that forbidden bridge," he ordered and turned to walk towards his chamber, like he always did. Refusing to hear what she wanted to say.
How could he resign like that, Grace thought painfully.
Her face bent down, exhausted from the game life was playing with her. Her mother was on her deathbed and her father wasn't ready to do the one thing that might save his wife's life.
A touch on her shoulder made her raise her head. She turned to see Oliver, her fiancé, smiling at her with pitiful brown eyes.
"I heard what your father said, Grace," he said.
Oliver was her childhood friend, the son of her father's best friend and the only prince of the kingdom Yorkware. Grace was promised to him and along with that, her kingdom too. Marrying her would make him the future king of their kingdom Runecliff. Grace had liked him ever since her childhood. He talked nicely and was a gentleman with good manners. Since they were friends, Grace had shared her many secrets with him. She trusted him. When her father had announced their engagement to the kingdom when she was eighteen, she readily accepted her fate. Atleast she wasn't marrying a stranger like most princesses did. She never had any complaint regarding him.
"I want to save mother, Oliver," Grace said with wobbling chin.
Oliver's brown eyes looked at her as he held her hand. "I know. We all want to save Her Majesty. But we can't. The medicine is found beyond the forbidden bridge."
Goosbumps rose on Grace's skin hearing about that bridge again. The forbidden bridge had divided their kingdom from the neighbouring kingdom beyond the river.
"I told father that I am ready to go there." Grace sniffed.
A frown took place between Oliver's eyebrows. "Your father won't send you there. That bridge is haunted."
Annoyed, Grace shook her head. "It can be a mystery, a rumour, Oliver. There is nothing like ghost in this world. They don't exist!"
"I don't know about ghost," her fiancè replied with grim face. "But that bridge has a power to steal the most precious thing from you."
Grace swallowed through her dry throat. She had heard people say that the forbidden bridge had a spirit of a person lingering there. If anyone from the two kingdoms tried to cross that bridge, the spirit stole the most precious thing from them.
Grace's mother had told her a story once that a woman in Runecliff had crossed that bridge once and the next day, her beautiful face burned, giving that woman the dark scars for her whole life. She had lost her beauty.
"Your father cannot see you in pain, Grace." Oliver's voice brought her back from the story.
"But I cannot just sit here and watch my mother fight the disease alone. I want to fetch that medicine from the other kingdom beyond that bridge!"
"Shh," Oliver held her shoulders, rubbing them lightly to calm her. "I know you love your mother, dear Grace. And she loves you too. She wouldn't want you anywhere near that dangerous bridge."
It was true. Her mother showered immense love on Grace. She would be ready to die than let her daughter face a horrible fate.
"Go inside," Oliver urged with a smile. "It's late at night. Sit with Her Majesty and let her know that her daughter loves her. Alright?"
Not having any strength to say anything, Grace merely nodded.
Holding her hand, Oliver placed a light kiss on her knuckles. "Good night, my love," he said with a charming smile.
Grace did not want to, but still tried to smile. "Good night, Oliver."
Not even her future husband was doing anything. All were readily acceptying the fate. But how could Grace let her mother die?
Wiping the flowing tears from her eyes, Grace pushed open the door and entered her mother's chamber. Seeing the pale, limp body of her mother lying on the bed, Grace felt an aching twist in her heart.
With slow steps, she walked beside the bed and sat near her mother, the only woman who meant everything to her. This queen of Runecliff used to be a very beautiful woman. But since last year, she was attacked by the fever because of which many people had died in their kingdom. Everyone believed the queen would face the same fate like all those people. Because the medicine, the herb that could cure the fever was found on the land beyond the forbidden bridge.
Grace landed a soft hand on her mother's cheek. Her mother stirred a bit and then slowly opened her eyes. Examining her surroundings, she turned to find Grace at her bedside.
"Gracie," her mother smiled weakly.
With great strength, Grace also summoned a smile. "Mother."
Her mother's slender hand rose from her sheet towards Grace who instantly grasped it. "Do you want to say something to me, Mother?"
Her mother's head moved slowly in a nod and she looked at the piano placed to the corner of the room. "Sing for me, darling."
Grace could barely manage to speak through the lump in her throat. But if her mother wanted her to sing, then she would. Nodding her head, she kissed her mother's trembling, hot hands and placed it back over her chest. Getting up, she walked to the piano.
The moment she sat before the instrument, memories of how her mother had taught her playing piano, how she had taught her singing and how they had enjoyed their time here flashed before her eyes. Grace placed her fingers over the keys and looked at her mother.
A small smile had formed on her mother's lips as she saw her daughter. With another nod, she encouraged to play.
Grace's fingers pushed the keys on the piano, playing a melodious symphony and she sang her mother's favourite song. Grace had been gifted a melodious voice. People said a goddess gave it to her. But Grace had always believed it was her mother for her mother had the most pleasant voice in the world. And Grace inherited it. Ever since she was a child, Grace always sat near her mother and had learnt music. At every festival in the kingdom, Grace had sung for the people and they appreciated her voice heartily. And then she used to look at her mother who used to smile at her proudly.
And now, when her mother was no longer capable of singing a lullaby to her daughter, her daughter sang it to her.
As she saw her mother drifting back to sleep, Grace's voice quivered. The strength she had accumulated to sing for her mother immediately evaporated when her mother's eyes closed.
Lifting herself from up the seat, Grace stopped singing and walked to the balcony.
How would she ever live without her mother? The woman who was the only source of her happiness. The woman who had birthed her, raised her and loved her. Grace had been a lonely child; no siblings or friends. But her mother never forced her to be a well-behaved princess. She had always treated her as a precious daughter. And now, when it was Grace's turn to treat her mother well, she was helpless.
In pain, She raised up her eyes, looking at the dark sky. Cold wind grazed her face. The wet tears on her cheek turned colder.
Closing her eyes, Grace prayed. Please, grant me my mother's life. Take away anything. But give me my mother.
When her eyes opened, fresh tears pooled again in them. Because in front of her window, she saw the another wing of the palace. Her father was walking in the open corridor towards his mistress's chamber.
Sadness turned to anger. Grace looked at him with outraged eyes. When his wife was suffering a fatal fever, how could he spend the night with his mistress!
She knew her father had loved his mistress more than her mother. Infact, he had never loved her mother at all. Being a king, he was forced to marry her. But he kept the woman he loved, the woman he wanted, in this very palace as his mistress. He had kept that woman under the same roof his wife lived. Under the same roof his daughter lived.
Grace clutched her hands on the railings. Her mother never found love from her husband. Her husband never fought for her. But she had Grace. Her daughter. And her daughter was capable of giving her every happiness. And now she would turn capable to give her every safety. Every medicine.
Even if it meant to cross the haunted, forbidden bridge.