Chp.43: Someone

"Here my lady." Duncan handed over the tray to Regina. Regina was confused for a moment. But then she looked at all the things on the tray.

"Oh my god. Thank you so much your majesty. I am honoured." She jolted and said making a bow.

She looked at Duncan's expression. But in that moment a sudden shiver ran down from her spine. He was looking down on her. Or more like he was skeptical whether she had forgotten everything or still remember anything from the prank that Desmond pulled during the lunch.

"He is not just serving me dinner. He is testing me." Regina thought as she looked away from Duncan's eyes.

I must respond well to this test. I have to survive in this palace, this is too early to mess up the plan.

She looked up at the king.

"I am thankful yout majesty. I don't know how but I vomitted during the evening. Thank you for bringing me porridge, I am still weak. I don't know how though." Regina pretended to stay confused and nonchalant.

Duncan was still skeptical but then he rested his doubts. "It is fine my lady. I referred to some doctors, it happend due to your allergy to mushrooms. The lunch had mushrooms, I fired all the servants who cooked the lunch so you can rest well." He said with a fine expression. He had relaxed a bit.

Regina looked at him as he sat on the chair across the bed. "Uh... I didn't even realise." Regina thought as she went ahead and adjusted herself to eat the porridge.

"Yeah. It must have been very bad for you." Duncan said once again to cross check.

"Yes, it's just my luck that you were aware of it." Regina said with an awkward smile beings the highlight of her face.

"It's honestly great that you remembered it, because I forgot it. Since I don't have an allergy to mushrooms, Lady Rachel does." Regina thought since it would've been very awkward if she did not show any symptoms of allergies to mushrooms after having the lunch, it might have become a big hole and a topic for the king to do any further unnecessary investigation.

"But who asked to cook mushrooms today?" Regina kept on thinking as she slurped on the hot tea.

"Was it just another lie the king is telling me thinking I forgot the incident?" Regina was deeply pondering. She was almost lost in her own world.

"He said he fired all of them, right?" Regina looked at Duncan on the chair sitting there flipping a book.

"I must look for them to know about this. Maybe I'll be able to look for more clues to this Desmond person and moreover, I want to know about the photo as well." She thought to herself.

She finished everything in another couple of moments and got up from the bed. She placed the tray with the bowl and the cup on the bed side table and walked towards Duncan.

"Hmm?" Duncan looked up as she walked towards him.

"What are you reading your majesty?" She leaned in. Her face extremely close to his, she could feel his breath, and she was sure he could feel hers as well.

She pointed at the book and looked in his eyes.

His eyes, they were a peice of mystery.

"What are reading?" She asked in a sweet tone without making it sound fake. She was master in doing things like this.

"A beautiful chaos!" Duncan said as he raised his eyebrow, but he didn't find it very outrageous. He stayed calm which was exactly opposite to the kind of reaction that Regina was expecting.

"How can he not react? He is not even flustered?" Regina was kind of amused. She smirked to herself admitting her defeat and sat on the chair across him.

"So, A beautiful chaos, huh?" She repeated his sentence. He closed his book and placed it on the small tea table that was like a small peice of wooden structure in between his and Regina's chair.

"Yes, my lady." He said shrugging his shoulders lightly.

"I heard that book was the debut novel of the author." Regina said trying to flaunt her knowledge.

"Hmm, yes. It is rather a very dumb story I must say." Duncan said as he sighed.

She nodded to his words without countering him. And just like that their chat continued for a few more hours.

Longs before they knew,they were already engrossed in topics like history, music and card games.

"Aah." Regina yawned trying to keep herself awake as she could barely understand what Duncan was saying.

"Guess you are sleepy already Lady Rachel. How about I shift on the bed." Duncan said as he got up from his seat.

"No, it's fine I can walk these few steps." She said as she got up abruptly and lost her balance.

"My lady, careful..." He jumped ahead of him and caught her in his arms.

He could feel his heart rushing and his heartbeats being louder than the sound of rain coming inside.

"I mustn't involve myself in such things." He said as he picked her up in both his hands and placed her lightly on the bed.

"Um... uh.." She was mumbling in her sleep.

"What?" He asked her softly.

"It is to be..." she mumbled something gibberish.

Duncan just giggled at it and was amazed at himself. "She is cute." He thought but then shook off those thoughts.

"No." He warned himself and went and slept on the sofa.

He adjusted the pillow and tried making himself comfortable. But alas he was too tall to fit on that little peice of furniture.

"Damn, I never realised that this sofa was so tiny." He tossed and turned as he began to get annoyed.

"Damn." He was just a few away from cursing.

"Your majesty. Why don't you sleep on the bed." Regina got up and said.

"Huh?" He flinched a little.

"We are married. You can sleep here you know right?" She asked him with a sleepy tone.

He was himself confused why did he chose the option to sleep on the sofa.