Marriage of Convenience: Part 4

Perhaps she was waiting until she arrived at her destination to call for her guards…

His train of thought was abruptly halted as he heard the princess’ voice. “Your Majesty? Are you coming? We can go now.” He glanced around, suddenly wondering if she had seen him. But when he looked back toward the fountain his suspicions were confirmed: there she was, standing right beside where he had been sitting just moments ago. He hadn’t even heard her approach!

But then again, she wasn’t exactly the stealthiest person he’d ever met. Still, the fact that he hadn’t even noticed her arrival was probably a bad sign…

For a moment, he considered running off. However, the longer he stared at the princess, the worse his nerves began to get. She looked so worried, so frightened. And she seemed to be speaking quite urgently to his father… perhaps they had discovered that he’d snuck out and that he was trying to escape.

If he just ran while she was distracted… maybe he could make it out of sight before she could catch him. Or maybe he could hide and wait till they went back inside. Yeah, that sounded good.

He hesitated, watching the princess intently. After what must have been at least half a minute, he finally gathered the courage to stand up from the bench. He turned around and stepped forward, only to find himself face to face with the blonde woman.

In response though, the woman narrowed her eyes and took a threatening step closer.

He took a quick step backwards. “H-hello,” he stuttered nervously.

She didn’t respond right away, frowning in concentration for a moment. “Who are you?” she asked finally.

“Uh, my name’s Kirby.”

She frowned again. “Is your name supposed to mean something?”

“Well… yeah,” he answered uncertainly.

She continued staring at him suspiciously. “Why do you want to sneak out of the castle? Where are you going? Who are you escaping to?”

This time it was Kirby who frowned. “I’m escaping from who? What are you talking about?” he said and immediately she leaned towards him narrowing her eyes before spitting out the words "I recognise you. You're the prince betrothed to me huh! You're trying to escape from marrying me"

Kirby's eyes grew wide and he stepped back from her again. He didn't want her to know any of this, especially about that. The last thing he wanted to do was embarrass himself.

"Oh!" she cried out suddenly, pointing her finger at him accusingly. "That's it! I knew you didn't come all the way here to try to run away again!" she exclaimed angrily.

What did she mean by that? Did she know something? How could she know? Was someone going to notice something was wrong and send someone to stop him or ask questions that he'd rather not answer? Had she told someone about him being the prince? " I know this is a marriage of convenience and we don't love one another but it will do both our kingdoms good if we get married!" she exclaimed, "so don't think of running away" she completed.

A strange expression came over her face then, and Kirby found himself wondering what kind of expression it was. He wondered what she was thinking. He wished he could read minds sometimes; that would save him so much trouble.

He blinked. Maybe he wasn't imagining things then. Maybe she did know something. Maybe she knows he already had a lover in the village outside the palace.

The idea made him feel sick to his stomach. He didn't even know why. Sure, it was true that he and the princess had never actually loved one another. That was fine, he supposed.

To be continued…