Chp.19: Missed.

"If I say it was a mistake, then 52 nobles who supported this decision would come for my neck don't you think so?" Gordon tried shifting the question.

Duncan gave him a spontaneous smile but the worry in his eyes could not stay hidden from Gordon, his friend since childhood.

"You need to take a breath first Duncan. Otherwise life will always look like a crisis." Gordon said with an earnest tone.

And Duncan knew what he was exactly trying to say. So he thought that he should tell Gordon about what was actually written in the letter.

"He wrote to the queen yesterday." Duncan said with anger in his eyes.

Gordon snapped.

"What did that bastard do?" He asked the question once more crumbling a peice of paper in his eyes.

"He wrote that he visited the queen last night." Duncan said gritting his teeth.

Gordon's temper was rising. "Can't that peice of shit actually give us some break?" Gordon said trying to hide his anger in his polite tone.

"I want to see the queen right away." Duncan said in a desperate tone. He was worried, it was reflecting in his tone.

All the questions that came to him before - "Am I truly married? What if this is a dream? She is a count's daughter, what if she throws a fit since I didn't go to the Eastern palace yesterday?" A lot of such thoughts slowly got tangled into a web of mixed of emotions.

And he kept on thinking and thinking and one thought appeared out of nowhere, "Is she really my wife? Or is she Desmond's? Or what if she is nobody's wife?" - These questions now felt like a curse to him.

They proceeded to the Eastern palace.

It was inside the premises of the grand castle that the Amalde royals owned, but with the heavy rain and the desperation that clenched Duncan's heart, the road seemed longer than it had ever been.

Gordon decided to keep quite and Duncan kept looking outside the window. Although he wanted to see the letter that Duncan actually received, it was the worst time to ask for that.

The precise reason why he wanted to see the letter was that, if he could see the writing in the letter he could tell when exactly it would have been written and the mindset that the person had while writing it.

"As far as I know, if the letter was sent by Desmond it would have written a tilted crooked fonts." Gordon was already deep inside his thoughts.

"His handwriting clearly shows that he had some kind of inferiority complex. Hah." Gordon smirked and scoffed a little as he thought about it.

"Anyways let's focus on what's happening now and ask Duncan to show the letter, later." Gordon thought as he saw the Eastern Palace and realised they were almost there.

"Hey, we are already here.", Gordon whispered in Duncan's ears.

"Alright let's go inside.", Duncan nodded and the door of the carriage opened.

The rain was still heavy and the guards were standing outside the carriage.

Lined up in a line to receive the king and the commander-in-chief of the royal knights, the guards in the Eastern palace made an announcement of their arrival.

One of the guards held the red umbrellas over Duncan and Gordon as they got out of the carriage. Duncan immediately rushed inside the main door of the Eastern palace.

Everyone had already lined up since there was an announcement.

---------

A few minutes ago in the Eastern Palace.

"So Lara, let's leave." Regina said to Lara as Lara finally adjusted the necklace for her and they got ready leave.

"Yes your majesty. We must leave now." Lara said as she bowed and took two more maids to accompany them.

The carriage was already standing in front of the main gate and since it was raining, it was already hectic to go anywhere outside.

"But that princess Claudia had to just invite me for a tea today!!" Regina thought as she clenched her teeth and tried very hard to maintain a smile.

"Your majesty we must board now before we get any more delayed for our appointment." Lara said politely to Regina and she nodded.

"Alright then let's take off, shall we?" Regina was particularly trying to maintain a calm and friendly atmosphere with the servants and she could see that it was definitely working.

The maids had a shine in their eyes now when they interacted with her, rather than what their expression was in the beginning.

"I must inform this to the countess in the letter tonight." Thinking that Regina boarded the carriage.

The maids along with Lara also got inside the carriage. They were all headed to the Central palace. Since Regina was invited to Central Palace for a tea with Her Highness Princess Claudia.

---

Princess Claudia was the elder step sister of Duncan. She was the daughter of the empress and the secretary of the Duke of Kermont.

Duke of Kermont was her husband whom she had married just a year ago. Given her recent activities from the past years, she was one of the influential factors that influenced the high society of the Kuravos Empire.

She was upright and modest.

It was said that she had a younger brother. That is the empress gave birth to a boy after Claudia, but it was said that he died when he was merely eight years old.

It was a sad event for the royal family as well as the entire empire.

"She is indeed an influential person." Thoughts were forming web inside Regina's mind. She kept on thinking and calculating.

Is princess Claudia a friend? Is she a foe? Will she influence any big decision that might be made from henceforth?

All these questions were too overwhelming to even think about. "But yeah she did have a young brother." Regina got stuck on the point.

"What was his name though?" She kept the question in her mind. Until she slowly started getting uncomfortable by it.

"What was his name? What was his name? ", it was stuck inside her mind like a song on a loop. The sound of the rain and the wheels if the carriage as the slowly got closer to the Central Palace made her even more engrossed in thinking.

"WHAT WAS HIS NAME...." Regina stressed on the question, but she was interrupted by a voice.

"Your majesty, we are here at the Central Palace." Lara said to Regina.