Page 33 of My Highland Fling
Gabrielleopenedblearyeyes,her mouth full of cotton wool and her head throbbing.She tried to stir, but her limbs hung like heavy weights.A flash to her right had her head lolling in that direction.
“Ah, you’re awake,” a female voice said.
The woman’s form shifted, the muted colors of her clothes hazy and indistinct as she moved positions.A series of thumps sounded, and the door squeaked open.
“She’s awake.”
Someone answered, the words too low for Gabrielle to hear above the pounding at her temples.Slowly, she twisted her head, trying to discern her location.The slight change thrust daggers through her skull.She closed her eyes and breathed through the painful waves while attempting to remember how she’d arrived here.
Her thoughts hovered just out of reach.
The woman’s clothes rustled as she approached.She picked up Gabrielle’s wrist.Gabrielle cried out at the wrenching discomfort through her biceps and shoulder.
“Quiet.”The woman pressed her finger to Gabrielle’s pulse point.“Fast and thready.I told them not to give you such a large dosage.Men,” she spat.“They never listen.”
They’d drugged her.That explained the drums in her skull and how her body refused to obey her silent commands.
Gabrielle swallowed.“Thirsty.”
The woman stalked to a table and poured a glass of water.Her shoes squeaked against the tiles on her return.She set the water on the bedside table.“Let me help you sit.”
Gabrielle didn’t make the mistake of nodding this time.She waited and dug through her fuzzy thoughts.
The woman bore easy strength and assisted her to a sitting position.Every muscle in Gabrielle’s body tortured her for daring to move, but she bit back her instinctive protest, biting her bottom lip hard to focus her pain elsewhere.This stranger might help, but she showed no softness, nor did she crack a smile.Her hands refused to coordinate enough to hold the glass, and the woman issued an impatient tsk.She touched the glass to Gabrielle’s mouth.
“Drink.”
Gabrielle drank the cool liquid and swallowed until no water remained.An instant later, the water gushed back, and she vomited over the woman’s starched uniform.The woman cursed and cuffed her across the head.
“Stop hitting her,” a familiar voice said.
Gabrielle’s head rang, and her eyes refused to focus.“Mother?”
“Yes,” her mother said.“Clean up this mess.Popov can’t see her like this.We’ll need to shower her and put her in clean clothes.Call someone to help you.”
“Yes, your majesty,” the woman said.
“And change your uniform before you return.You reek.”
The woman stomped away and slammed the door after her.Her mother muttered under her breath, something curt but unintelligible.
Gabrielle’s mind still rang, but she had an answer.The palace.She hadn’t been here before, had she?A big blank filled her mind.Gut instinct told her the knowledge was essential, but nothing except emptiness dawned.
“Gabrielle, you’ve made a colossal mess.Now wasnotthe time to discover a backbone.All you needed to do was marry Prince Gregor, but you slept with the stranger.”
A handsome face—a man with vivid green eyes and black hair—played through her psyche.Ramsay.Had the guards killed him?She glowered at her mother, casting aside the obedient daughter and reaching for bravery.“Why bring me back?You give my brothers freedom yet control my life, constantly giving me orders.I wanted normal for once.”
“Your brothers do as instructed,” her mother snapped.“Stefan married the wealthy heiress and filled the palace coffers.”
“You arranged Stefan’s marriage?I thought they met at the Cannes Film Festival.”She remembered that, didn’t she?
“If you hadn’t reacted with stubbornness, your marriage to Gregor would’ve appeared a love match, too,” her mother scoffed.“Your father and I could tell you’d be difficult.You’ve always asked inconvenient questions and given too much money to the charities.”
“What do you mean?”Gabrielle was still having trouble concentrating.It hurt to focus, to converge her hazy thoughts.
“Your good deeds,” her mother derided.“We set up those charities to siphon off funds, but you, missy, insisted on declaring the total raised at each function.Made it difficult to explain the missing funds, which meant we had to resort to Plan B to raise finances.”
Her parents only cared about their wants and needs.Did they not have enough?She had eyes.The Konstavia citizens needed more help from the palace than they were receiving.One and one suddenly slotted together to make sense.“You’re stealing from Konstavia’s citizens.”
