10

As my ball grew closer I started getting letters and presents from the crown prince. I knew most of it was from his father pushing. Either way he won in the end and the crown prince scheduled a time to meet me, we agreed to meet outside of the normal settings and to go to a café in the village that a lot of nobles visit.

It's a simple place called Nora Café. It's a cute two story building that serves desserts and scones and tea. It's become popular over the past few years due to Nora being one of the founding families daughters. They are high ranked nobles and she had a good business idea and also has her own boutique. She's someone that a lot of people call the crown princess, as they assume she will be in the running for crown princes fiancé. She is a very smart young lady, she's cute but bland. She has the same fawn brown hair and brown eyes as most people do. It's more rare for people to have blonde or silver hair, along with eyes that aren't brown or green. Those are the type of people that stand out. It's why I hide my hair. When I go out I normally put on a black haired wig that way I don't stand out to much.

The prince sent me a necklace to wear so he could identify me since neither of us have ever actually seen each other in person. I've seen his portraits but he's never seen any of me since I've never had one done before.

I wore a basic dark green dress so that the emerald necklace he sent me wouldn't stand out to much. The necklace was simple it was on a gold chain and had a small diamond above a single emerald. The emerald wasn't very big either, which I didn't mind since I don't particularly want to stand out when I'm in town. It's a personal preference likely from my line of work you won't get information if you can't blend in you also can't get away with other things if your recognizable.

I got to the café first on that morning I looked around the place to see who all was watching and saw a garden that was empty, it had a maze in it so it's be a good escape route if needed. People tend to get a confused and lost but with magic I can get out of it without even actually going through it and disappear while the others r trying to get through the maze. It could also give us a place walk and talk to one another without prying eyes and ears. After all the crown prince is someone everyone knows about and has seen countless times.

The crown prince finally walked in, he scanned the room and saw me sitting. The café owner came out and bowed while greeting him. He walked past them and the shop owner followed him. He walked over to my table and I got up and went to greet him, but he grabbed my hand and kissed it.

"Hello, Iris. I apologize if I made you wait at all, I can see what my father meant when he said he found a women that would finally catch my eye and was made to be a queen." He said.

"You flatter me, your highness."

"Please call me Peter." He looked over to the owner who had followed and said "Can you please take me and my lady to a private room and bring us the best you have."

The owner nodded and the staff rushed away. While the owner ushered us away to a private area. Everyone at the café had heard what he said and some seemed to be shocked they had no clue who I was. I hadn't been introduced into society yet so it makes sense and they all thought Nora was going to be the crown princess. Once the owner left to go get the staff to hurry back, is when I spoke again.

"Is there a reason you referred to me as your already."

"You wouldn't of meant me or worn the necklace if you didn't intend to be, and it will start a rumor that will make it so Nora won't expect a letter asking for me to escort her."

"Do you want to escort her your highness?"

"I said call me Peter."

"My apologies Peter, don't you want escort lady Nora. After all she from a very powerful family and she's going to be the crown princess."

"No, her father started that rumor. I've only meant her a few times and she was infuriating and dull."

"How do you know that I'm not those things as well?"

"I can tell, I could tell the moment I saw you. Most women would dress in the fanciest dress they own with extravagant jewels and have there hair and makeup done to meet me. They also would of told the owner and staff before I ever arrived that they were meeting me. I got here and the staff seemed surprised and if I hadn't seen the necklace I wouldn't of ever know you were who I was meeting. Although your beauty aloud you to stand out in a crowd without almost no adornments at all. Your different from the other women I have meant, everything about you is unique and beautiful and I don't want to see any of that become anyone else's. For once my father was right, you are exactly what I have been looking for. Now then the real question is will you become my partner and let me escort you at your coming to age ceremony?"

"It would be my honor to have you as my partner at the ball."

"Good, time permitting I believe we should meet more often before the ball, I would like to get to know you more before you are introduced to my mother."

"If you wish and have the time." Honestly I still wasn't sure how I felt about him. He spoke sweet words but the upcoming weeks would determine a lot about if there would be a future between us or not. After all maybe this life is different, maybe this time I can end the cycle.

Not that I know why this is happening. I have done my best to quietly ask questions but I don't have enough information on what happened after I died.

Me and Peter spent the rest of the day talking, we got some cake and cookie and tea while sitting before we left the room and went into the maze.

He was a warrior as I had imagined and mainly told me about his war stories which didn't matter much to me as little did he know I had also fought in a few of them. He spoke of ghost, he said there was a women with hair as white as snow, she killed and dominated on the battle field but always disappeared as quickly as she came. They called her a ghost because of this as they weren't sure who it was or how she got there or how she left and they weren't sure how she had learned what she knew. He had she was more skilled then any knight in the entire kingdom and that they wanted to learn her name and make her a part of the army. She is an incredible alley and sign of fear and death for enemies.

It was nice to hear people talk about me like that, but it also worries me when he realizes I am that women. To be fair I had years of training and it took me more then one lifetime to get to this point.