Chapter 18

Satisfied, Celia wiped the sweat from her forehead. She had just picked some apples from the trees. The chef could certainly conjure up a delicious apple pie from them for lunch.

While she was walking back to the house with this thought, she looked again at the apples in her basket and suddenly bumped into something hard.

She rubbed her forehead with her free hand and looked up. The sun was slightly blinding, so she had to blink a few times. But when she finally realised who was standing in front of her, she dropped her basket onto the meadow in shock and the apples rolled across the ground. "Your Grace!"

He looked down at her, disgruntled. "Alek. I thought we'd worked this out."

"Sorry, of course," she apologised quickly and then paused for a moment. Wait a minute ... why am I apologising? She hadn't seen him for a whole month and that was the first thing he said to her? She was about to make a snotty remark when she looked into his eyes again. Those beautiful deep pink eyes. Why did he have to look so damn good? She couldn't be mad like that. But she couldn't let him off that easily as well.

During the time he was avoiding her, she had even written to her old maid Lora out of sheer desperation. When her reply finally arrived after two weeks, it only said:

Don't worry, men always come crawling back. But if you forgive them too quickly, they never remember. Let. Him. Suffer!

Lora

Lora had no reason to lie to her, so she believed her and now the time had come. She would pull herself together and not make it easy for him. "What do you want from me?" she asked with a look as if she didn't care about him at all.

Alek seemed a little irritated by this, but did not address it. "I'm afraid we have to leave today and go to the castle."

"To the castle? To the king?" Had she heard that right?

Her fiancé nodded. "My uncle wants to talk to us."

To call a man who ruled over the entire empire uncle seemed a little strange to her, but that was not the point now. Would the king break off the engagement before Alek could do it himself? Her heart sank. Alek seemed to notice this too and put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I was already expecting this."

She felt her tension ease and almost smiled at him. However, she quickly pulled herself together again and turned slightly to the side to free her shoulder from his hand. "Now then. I'm going to change quickly. How long are we going to stay?"

"If all goes well, we will be back here tonight," Alek replied and Celia left without another word. She was really proud of herself. She had taken Lora's advice and didn't faint at the sight of him. Especially the latter was not so easy. Now, if she could just get through the audience with the king, nothing should go wrong.

+++

This has gone really wrong.

As Alek walked towards Celia, he realised how long it had been since he had seen her up close. Now that she finally had some proper clothes and a teacher to look after her, her elegant beauty shone all the more. He almost didn't recognise her.

It was really sweet when she bumped into him because she was lost in thought. He would have loved to put his arms around her directly and hold her against him. His future wife, his all alone. Once the king had given his consent, no outsiders could divide them anymore.

Of course, he had hoped that Celia would also be happy about the reunion. But at first she didn't call him by name and then she seemed to avoid him for some reason. Though it wasn't fear, it seemed more like she was ... angry with him. But why?

After she left, he looked after her for quite a while. She had not even bothered to pick up her apples. So he ordered one of the gardeners to take them to the kitchen. Then he also left to prepare everything that was still missing for the journey. Everything had to go smoothly.

Celia seemed to take a little longer than he did, so he went ahead and sat in the carriage. He didn't have to wait too long and saw her being escorted outside by Ramas. She was wearing a bejewelled cream dress that was very flattering to her eyes.

In contrast to the garden, she was now smiling. Too bad it was not for him, but for his secretary. Or maybe she was just in a good mood again.

But as soon as she got into the carriage and saw him, the smile disappeared again and her gaze became stern.

Probably not in a good mood after all. He had combed his hair and put on his best waistcoat. She liked him because he was so good-looking. So why didn't she act like last time? His gaze wandered to Ramas, who was now also entering the carriage.

Hadn't he spent a lot of time with his fiancée in the last few weeks? Did she suddenly like him more after all? The rank didn't really seem to interest her.

"You stay here," he ordered his secretary before he could even sit down.

"Earlier you told me to come with you," he reminded him and Alek shrugged his shoulders, unimpressed. "And now I say you stay. Otherwise it will be too crowded here."

Ramas raised his eyebrows doubtfully. "Shall I sit next to the coachman? After all, the journey will only take a few hours."

"I need a new door for my office," Alek then took the first excuse he could think of. "Immediately," he added, before Ramas even had a chance to say anything.

Shaking his head, his secretary gave up and left the carriage after bowing politely to Celia.

Satisfied, Alex nodded and leaned back, relaxed. Without Ramas' presence, he had his fiancée's entire attention to himself. Now he could use the time until the castle to show her who was the better-looking of the two. Let's see how long you can resist my charm, my dear fiancée.