A proposal

"Ian are you insane??!!" asked Easton in a distressed manner.

Ian just sighed paying no attention to him, he looked outs the carriage window seeing the passing trees and houses around them. He was even surprised that Easton had managed to keep his tongue for so long.

Anyone that did not know Easton would think that he was a dutiful, serious, quiet and trustworthy man and that was true, all except for one. 

Easton was far from quiet, anyone who truly knew him would know that he was a blabbermouth. A big one in fact, he could barely keep a secret, if you thought about it because of that one vice of his he was unfit to be a guard, but Ian guessed that his father had made him his chief guard for that sole reason.

"Can you answer me Ian, we are in private now, there is nowhere for you to run and you surely cannot ignore me forever." Easton's distressed voice rang in Ian's ears once more.

Ian groaned rubbing his temples, it was definitely too early in the morning for him to have to deal with this right now.

"Answer me Ian!" demanded Easton.

"Easton can you please just relax? Gosh, you sound more like a nagging wife than a chief guard." replied Ian nonchalantly. 

If not for the fact that Ian was the future king, he would have smacked him in the back of the head right about now, but Easton knew when to exert self-control and now was the time for that.

"So that is why you went to that outcasted viscount's house, to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage, the daughter that you have never met before, you know nothing about?!!" Easton continued, he had learnt from years of being Ian's chief guard that Ian hated repetition with passion.

If you continued repeating the same thing over and over again, he would not give you answers, rather it would annoy him even further and he would not even answer you. So Easton decided to move forward in order to draw out an explanation from him.

"I should have known that you were up to something odd when you woke up earlier than usual." he said. "Especially for an lazy sleeper like you." Easton jabbed at him.

Ian could feel his eyebrow twitch, unfortunately Easton was right, he was still really sleepy at the moment, it was all just neatly hidden underneath his straight face.

"So that was that strange woman that you were speaking with last night!" said Easton in realization.

"So that was what transpired between the two of you! I just thought that maybe you had inhaled something strange while I was gone with that scandalous statement of yours!"

"Should I clap for you? You seem to have it all solved." Ian yawned, the sarcasm evident in his tone.

"No I do not! I still do not know why you would ever set your eyes on the daughter of a man like that? You do know that he is going to be charged for treachery tomorrow for what he did to his half-brother." stated Easton.

"Who said anything about me setting my eyes on her?" asked Ian, he lazily rested his head on his palm, his elbow on the window sill.

"Then tell me why you want to marry her?!" asked Easton. "What am I going to tell your father? He is going to kill me when he finds out where you went!" Easton added panickily.

"You are going to tell him nothing, keep that big mouth of yours shut for once." frowned Ian. 

"But you know that I cannot lie to him Ian when he asked for where you have been during my nightly reports." Easton whined, he almost sounded like a baby who had been denied a pat on the back.

"Who said anything about lying, we are going to spend the day at my beloved cousin's home, and that is final." said Ian.

"But―"

"That is final." Ian interposed.

"Alright fine, but why her? Of all the women you have at your disposal to marry, why her?" 

"She gave me an offer that I could not refuse." Ian smiled. "And for the sake of your own distress the better the more clueless you are." 

"Fine, if you say so." replied Easton sulking like a child. Ian just shook his head, he preferred that nothing would endanger his plans, he would only tell Easton what was going on after Dariel had agreed to his proposal.

...

"Dariel... my love, what did his highness want?" asked Ohara, she stepped in front of Dariel as he stormed.

"Out of my way Ohara!" he replied in fury.

"Dariel, what happened?" she asked, her voice high pitched in worry. Just a moment ago he was soft and good tempered, even willing to do her bidding, and now he was back to his anger, or even more anger than he had been before.

"Ohara, I will not repeat myself again, out of my way!" he shouted, she flinched at the sudden raise of his voice.

"You! Where is Angelica?" he asked the maid passing by who instantly froze in terror.

"I...n... in... her... stud...y... ro...om." she managed to spit out. Dariel stormed away.

The maid felt her heart leap out of her chest when Dariel turned to her. She felt as if she had been glued to the wall behind her. She looked up and saw that her lady Ohara had the same reaction she did.

"What happened in that room?" Ohara asked after taking a huge gulp air.

"I have no... idea my lady." replied the maid. Ohara instantly rushed after Dariel, she had to stop him before he did something atrocious in his rage.

Ohara ran as fast as she could, as if Dariel knew that she was on her way, he entered the study and shut the door behind himself. His eyes met hers briefly before the door shut.

The last thing Ohara recalled was the pure look of danger present in his eyes.