He Apologized

That evening Frederika joined the couple for dinner. She noticed immediately where Adarian had Olivia sit. She raised her eyebrow at Adarian. If she didn't hear beforehand that Olivia didn't know the customs, she would have assumed the worst of the girl here and now. She decided to observe Olivia for now. She needed to judge for herself whether or not Olivia was lying about not knowing anything except what could fill the pages of a book.

Olivia had near perfect table etiquette.

...If she were a man. It was obvious she learned from watching Adarian. He seemed so pleased with Olivia watching him, that he was not willing to correct her. He looked very happy today as well because they had a new dish they were serving.

They were eating crab legs for dinner. It was imported to the castle using mana ice-stones. Men would crack the crab legs, and start from the largest part of the leg, working their way down to the smallest part. Women were to do that the opposite way. Fredericka had questioned this when she was a child, but now that she was an adult, she accepted it as a part of etiquette. The way Olivia Swirled her glass of wine before drinking it was the same. She did it like a man. Olivia even sat the same way Adarian had sat. She was subconsciously mirroring his movements so that she would look like a proper noble.

Fredericka silently wondered how Olivia was able to trick the Marquis before coming to the castle. She didn't know all the details, but she did know Olivia Carter took over as Olivia Praxis sometime before the annulment of her engagement.

If Olivia was not lying about all of this, then Fredericka really had her work cut out for her. She didn't notice how much of her own knowledge she took for granted until Olivia did something different.

If she was lying however, then this girl was as dangerous as she was skilled. If Olivia was acting this all out for some unknown scheme, then Fredericka would have to protect Adarian.

He was already so smitten by her. She could probably get away with anything at this point.

Fredericka bid them goodnight after the meal. She promised Olivia she would find her for their lessons in the morning. They were going to have a full day. They were also going to discuss tonight's dinner and everything Olivia had done wrong.

…

…

In the room right after her bath, Olivia went over to her wardrobe room. It was a huge walk-in closet like the rich people have in movies. She went over to an obscure corner and retrieved the diary from its hidden spot.

She went out of her "walk in closet" and sat on the bed, waiting for Adarian to come out of the shower. He hadn't reminded her of the diary. She was glad she remembered it herself.

Olivia studied the diary, looking for any differences that might have happened to it once again overnight. But she still saw the same coffee stain on the cover, and the tabbed pages. She opened it up to the last page she knew Olivia Praxis had written on. The words [Good Luck Olivia] was still nowhere to be seen.

Olivia closed the book and felt the tabs with the tip of her finger. She then began to trace the stain on the front of the book, some of the edges of the pages had been stained. She wondered if it was Olivia or Adarian who had spilled on the diary.

She had a feeling it was definitely Adarian. Olivia was so secretive with her diary. There was no way she would have any food or drink near it. She would never risk the diary being discovered by a maid. Not when she had no maids she could trust. Olivia found herself lost in thought wondering what she would have done if she hadn't found the diary with the information of what her life with Oscar would be like. Would she have gone through with the wedding in order to escape from that house like Olivia Praxis had done?

Adarian walked out of the bathing room. He had taken his robe in but forgot his nightgown. He was only wearing his robe, and saw his night clothes on the bed right next to Olivia. It looked like she hadn't noticed he was finished with his bath. He walked over to the bed and tugged his clothes, but one of the arms was securely under Olivia.

Olivia felt the tug, and followed the sleeve over to the rest of the garment. Her eyes followed the arms, and up to the bare chest of the man whose robe had come loose when he bent over. She stared for a moment in a daze. She hadn't seen any of this handsome man's body yet, and suddenly he was this close.

She felt the blush creep over her face as she stared, shouldn't she be used to seeing this much? Just based on the ads from her world, there was no way she was actually blushing right now! She suddenly wondered what Adarian thought since she was so blatantly ogling him. Her eyes turned up to the face of Adarian, his wet hair glistening over his forehead. He smirked at her. So his presence did affect her. He playfully tugged the nightgown again. "You don't want me to get dressed?"

"No!" Olivia exclaimed as she suddenly got off the sleeve.

"No?" Adarian asked. "No as in you don't want me to get dressed, or no as in you do want me to get dressed?"

Olivia threw a pillow at him. "Shut up!" Olivia's blushing face was so cute to him. "Get dressed so we can talk," she held up the diary.

She was so cute, the way she would blush for him. He wanted to kiss her, but he was almost certain she would run away from him if he did. Especially dressed as he was now. Then he noticed what was in her hands.

"You have the diary?" he asked as he began to walk to his wardrobe room.

"Yes," Olivia said. She grumbled as he disappeared into his closet. "You didn't remind me about it. So I somehow managed to remember on my own."

"I heard that," he called out. He was glad he didn't remember about reminding her. He got to see her sulking face. He knew the rest of the kingdom thought of his wife as a seductress. He didn't like that very much, but only he was able to see this cute side of her. He couldn't wait to live out the rest of his lie getting to know her.

Adarian came out of the wardrobe room and looked at Olivia. He smiled remembering how bashful she was. He climbed onto the bed and crawled to her. He sat right next to her. Side to side; hip to hip. She looked up at him with her eyebrow raised. So far each night he sat closer and closer to her. She wasn't stupid. She knew he was testing her boundaries with all these actions. She saw how excited he was when she agreed with Fredericka that she would marry him in an official capacity. She had finally accepted that she was married to this guy for life.

Her resistance to the idea of marrying him was mainly because she was not queen material. She knew herself much better than anyone realized. Years of therapy and self reflection would do that to a person. But she was already married to him in the book of love, so she wouldn't resist him. She was a modern girl anyway. In spite of her lack of contact with the opposite sex in both lives, she knew exactly where this relationship would lead.

But she was really glad that he was taking things so slowly with her. She wanted to get to know him more. She knew he was not exactly kind. He couldn't afford to be in his position. But he was generous, kind and gentle to her. He saw her tracing the familiar coffee stain in the cover. He put his hand over hers.

"Sorry about the stain," he said.

She nodded and then asked, "How did it happen?"

"I was up most of the night looking at it, so I had some coffee brought to me. I thought I had found some sort of clue between what you wrote and some letters Graciella's pen pal had written to her. When I reached for the letter, I accidentally knocked over the coffee. I tried to clean it up quickly, but the book got stained. I don't drink coffee at my desk anymore." He looked at her apologetically. He knew she wasn't the same person who wrote the book, but it still belonged to her. "...I'm sorry." He apologized.