Chapter six


Eric was sitting in his chair in his study. He was thinking of his first wife. He remembered that she was very kind and generous. She was the only person I knew who could put up with me. But I shouldn’t think about her anymore. She died a long time ago. I have to get on with my life now. I know that’s what she would want. Than he saw, someone climbing through the window. Oh no, that person is my daughter Courtney. She knows she’s not supposed to be climbing through windows. Why doesn’t that girl listen to me? She had finished climbing through the window and said, “Father I didn’t know you were in here.” “I thought you were at the conference.” “I was going to go the conference but it got canceled an hour ago.” “I’m sorry for interrupting you.” I better be leaving to my lessons now.” “You’re not just going to leave without getting punished.” “You have to stay in your room for the rest of the night.” “No please, I have plans for tonight.” Well you have to cancel them.” “You know you’re not supposed to climb through windows.” “You disobeyed a direct order.” “Now go to your room.”

She left the room and marched up stairs to her room. There were paintings hung up all over her walls. Sometimes she wished her life was like one of those paintings. She sat on her bed and thought to herself, I hate him; he pretends he cares about us, but he really doesn’t. He only cares about himself. I really miss Tara right now. She always understood how I was feeling. Nobody else in this family does. My mom is a tramp. She’s always fooling around with other men, because my father doesn’t pay enough attention to her. She never acted like she cared about me. Eric was in his room getting ready to leave. I wonder if Tara is still mad at me. I guess I shouldn’t have been so strict with her. She needs to learn she has to grow up sometime. She can not behave like this for the rest of her life. I’m guessing she will still be angry with me for what I did to her. Well there is nothing I can do about that. I am her father and she has to listen to me. He walked out of his room and put his luggage in the carriage and left to see his daughter.

Peter came into to Tara’s room and saw her sound asleep in her bed. He leaned over her and told her, “Your father is coming to see you today.” “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” “I didn’t know he was coming until today.” “I recently received his letter a few minutes ago.” “Thank you for the warning.” “Now will you please get of my room so I can brush my hair and get dressed.” “Yes of course I will.” He quickly walked out of her room and closed the door. I should have already known my father would come and see me here. He is always trying to make sure I don’t get myself into trouble. So now he comes to check up on me. When I was little, I was always trying to get my father’s attention. But it never worked. He just constantly told me he was busy working and for me to find something else to do. And I cried for many nights, thinking that he never loved me. I don’t think any king has ever really thought about their children. They are always too busy to even think about what their children are doing. She got out of her bed and walked to her dresser to get dressed.

After she got dressed, she walked down stairs to the kitchen. It was a huge kitchen with silver colored walls. She saw four women and three men cooking and cleaning. A woman with straight black hair and hazelnut brown eyes, walked to where Tara was and told her, “go ahead and have a seat by the table.” “I was going to bring your food up to your room, but it looks like you decided to come down to the kitchen instead.” So Tara sat down in the silver painted wooden chair. Even the table was made out of wood and was also painted silver. The woman walked over to one of the counters to get Tara’s food. She gave the food to her and took a seat across from her. “I hope you like your food.” “Today’s menu is eggs, toast, and bacon.” “I love it; all of you are very good at what you do.” “Thank you, my name is Lauren.” “I can already tell we are going to be good friends.” “I heard your father is coming to see you.” “You must be very excited to see him.” “Oh yes, I’m so happy he is coming.” “You don’t sound like you’re happy.” “You don’t know him like I do.” “He has never really acted like he cares about me.” “So why should I be happy that he’s coming to see me?” “I’m sure he still cares for you.” “He is probably too proud to show that he does.”

Peter came in and said, “Tara your father is here now.” “He’s waiting for you in the sitting room.” “Why are you talking to one of the servants?” “I can talk to whomever I want.” “You can’t tell me who I shouldn’t talk to.” Lauren got up and told her, “it’s all right; I should get back to cleaning the kitchen anyway.” “All right; I’ll go see him.” “I just want to hurry up and get it over with.” Tara replied, as she got out of her chair. So she walked with Peter to the sitting room. She looked around and saw chairs and couches all over the room. She saw her father sitting in one of the chairs as she and Peter took a seat in two of the chairs residing both sides of her father’s chair. “If you don’t mind Peter, I would rather talk to my daughter alone.” “Of course I’ll go if that is what you want.” And than he got up out of his chair and walked out of the room. “So how have you been Tara since I last saw you?” “You’re asking me how I’ve been when you were the one who sent me here.” “Actually, I’ve been so much better until you came here.” “I wish you never came here to see me.” “And don’t you dare say you came here to see how I’m doing.” “Because I know you didn’t.” “I came here to see if you got yourself into any kind of trouble yet.” “Since that is what you seem to be good at.” “Maybe I was always getting into trouble because of you.” “The only reason why I kept on doing that was to get your attention.” “But I should have known I could never compete with your love of doing everything you possibly can for your country.” “There is nothing more I want to say to you.” “I’m going to leave now.” “But I will say this; I hope you can learn to forgive me in time.” He walked out and went back to his carriage.

I want to run to my room. But as soon as she started running, she saw Peter walking down. Oh no, I really don’t feel like talking to him right now. But it was too late. He saw her standing in the middle of the stairs. He stopped walking and said to her, “So how did it go with your father?” “Listen, I don’t mean to be rude to you.” “But I don’t want to talk to anyone.” “I just want to go to my room and sleep.” “Ok, if you ever want to talk to me, I’ll be in the throne room.” He walked down the stairs to the throne room. Tara ran the rest of the way up the stairs. She went in her room and closed the door. She jumped in her bed and started to cry. All my father does is mess up my life even more. I hope he doesn’t decide to come again. Because my life would be so much happier if he didn’t. So far, I’ve gotten along fine. “I don’t care if he is my father. I don’t want to see him ever again. I should go to sleep now. I don’t want to be crying all night over him. So she went to sleep and didn’t have any dreams for some reason.