Chapter seventeen.

"These are Alex's chamber's, no one is allowed there except for the head maid. She's the only one allowed to clean his Chambers. Come your room is at the opposite far end". The maid told me as she walked me. I was wondering why Alex never allowed the maids inside his Chambers. Is it because he brought mistresses there?. I've heard it's quite normal for people of their rank to keep mistresses. I thought about sneeking at night to go and find out, but shook my head against it... besides curiousity killed the cat.

A bath was drawn for me, after bath I went to sleep. I was woken up after a few hours and told that it was time for dinner.

"My lady". I said acknowledging the presence of the duchess. I sat on her left side. I looked around, hoping to get a glimpse of Alex but he was out of sight.

"He's taking care of some tenants, he'll arrive a little late or not at all. The work is quite important". The duchess said.

"What??". I asked.

"Alex, weren't you looking for him?. She asked. I shook my head, no.

"I was looking for the Duke, is he not around?". I asked, though she didn't buy my lie she still played along.

"No he is not. He'll join us in two weeks, he's out on business".

"Ooh".

"The food is here, let's enjoy shall we?".

"Yes my lady".

After meal, I bid the duchess good night and walked to my room. I passed through Alex's Chambers and paused. Without thinking, I opened the door and got inside. His rooms were spotless. I walked towards his closet and his clothes were neatly folded. Nothing was out of place. I continued my investigations, looking for any prove of existence of another woman, a mistress maybe, but I couldn't find any. There's no way Alex will bring a mistress in his mother's place, I thought to myself. He might own some private houses where he brought his mistress. I was still walking around when I spotted something that looked like a mini library. I walked over to it, who could have imagined that Alex loves reading romance novels.

Taking one book from the shelf, by a certain Eric Crawford,I busied myself in reading. I've been reading lot's of novels from wattpad and webnovel to realize that the author was not at all a man, but rather a woman. I knew how women were limited in this time and maybe that's why the author decided to use an alias. Most description, features of a woman body, the feelings of a woman, it's only a woman who could describe them like that and little bit of men description, just physical nothing more. That gave it all.

"Haunting my dreams and now haunting my woken state, woman why do you want to kill me". I heard someone say. Ooh my God!!, Alex was back and he caught me in his Chambers... Curiousity and the cat.

"Uhm ... Alex... you are back?".

"And now she talks...tell me am I dreaming?". He said walking towards me. He was drunk, I needed to get out of there. But how, when he was blocking the exit.

"No you are not, your mother invited me to stay over for a few days". He took some steps back giving me room to escape.

"She asked you to stay here?, in my Chambers?". He asked smirking. Look what I got myself into. He was now walking towards me and my shaky legs were taking me back. I felt my back hit a wall and found myself caged under his huge Arms.

"No.. was just curious, that's all". I said looking anywhere but his face.

"curiousity huh??. Tell me Leyla, haven't you heard that it killed the cat??". He said lifting my chin up to Meet his eyes.

"B...u..t".

"But what...cat got your tongue..?."

"Butthesatisfactiongotitbacktolife". I said. I was affected by him, the broad shoulders, his scent that was so manly and damn his eyes. He knew it damn well and was taking advantage of it. But two can play a game....

"I mean the satisfaction got the cat back to life". I said licking my lips. I circled my arms around his neck, he lowered his head down to kiss me but before he had the chance to I kicked him hard on his stomach, I could've hit lower but who knows I didn't want him to become impotent and risk the existence of his future offsprings. Leaving him nursing his stomach I rushed out and ran to my room. Serves him right next time he'll think twice before messing with me. But damn his stomach was hard my knee was starting to hurt. I made sure that I had my door locked, wasn't sure what Alex was really up to, it's better to be prepared. With that in mind I closed my eyes and slept.

I woke up in the middle of the night from a dream. I was driving and Alex was on other side, at the passengers seat, Complaining about how fast the car was from the carriages and horses. I turned for a minute to assure him that it was safe, but when I got my eyes back on the road, my car crushed with another, and that's when I woke up, sweating. Call it intuition or premonition, but this felt true and real, but then again why would we go to the future? And how was it possible? My grandmother already told me that it was already ordained for me to be here in the past, with no way to go back... so . but I travelled back the first time so it wasn't completely hard was it?... aaargh!!. I took the book I stole, no borrowed and continued. I couldn't sleep anymore, I'll remember to tell my grandmother the next time we meet.