Chapter 23: Chapter 23
The heaps of tears turned into so much vibrancy and happiness as the long lost child of the Andry household and her grandmother chatted of old times and tried to get to know each other better. Although, as their conversation shifted to the part about Prince Langrion’s and Shia’s apparent ‘meeting’ and ‘engagement,’ the exchanges of words took its turn for the worse.
It started when Shia mentioned meeting the prince in a cave.
“What? You spent the night together in a cave?” the poor duchess’ eyes went wild with alarm and fright.
“Ah, he... he fell into the water, and I-I rescued him,” she said quietly. The two of them failed to rehearse this part of their story, but knowing that the mere mention of the words ‘cursed ones’ or ‘hunters’ would have given the duchess a greater heart attack, she simply declared the cave as the initial place of their meeting. Prince Langrion did his best to support her story by saying nothing.
“But you are a great swimmer, Langrey. How did you drown?” the duchess inquired. Her eyes looked suspiciously at the boy.
“The current was too fast, Nana...” he said meekly.
“But how did you come to be engaged?” she inquired once more. An awkward silence followed, and only the sound that can be heard was that of Lady Khailis’ lips sipping some tea.
Finally, the prince mustered some courage and spoke up, “Nana, something has happened between us in the cave. We fell in love, and I proposed.”
A mouthful of tea water came spurting out of Lady Khailis’ mouth followed by the enraged voices of the duchess and Baroness Alessa. Even Shia looked so wide-eyed at the prince’s words that she could have positively fainted if he wasn’t sitting right beside her holding her hand.
“Prince Langrey!” the baroness exclaimed.
“Langrion Zephiry Romualdi! What kind of monster would do that to a young, innocent girl?” the duchess exclaimed.
“I did not do anything. She was the one who took off my clothes...” he began to say, and the exasperated expressions and feelings of the majority began to escalate further, including that of Shia’s.
“But I only did that to save your life! I touched you with care!” she exclaimed.
At that moment, the duchess collapsed. Everybody went into a state panic as they tried to revive her.
It took a few more minutes before she came to her senses and before she could speak up.
“What’s done is done,” she said with so much resignation in her voice that Langrion felt so sorry about lying to her. “But as a grandmother and a noble woman, I cannot approve of this engagement, Prince Langrey! This behaviour of yours mortifies me! I cannot believe that I have raised such a creature who would pounce on a young girl like that the first chance that he’s got!”
“And you,” she said to Shia. “Why did you let him do something like that to you? Didn’t your father teach you that men are akin to beast when it comes to women? And to think you have not been to the debutant ball yet...” the duchess began crying softly, and Shia shot Langrion a stare that was sharper than any dagger he had ever seen.
“Please forgive me, Nana...” Langrion said as he tried to soothe her former nurse and carer. “Whatever the circumstances that brought us together, the important thing is that we are engaged, so please don’t try to oppose it...”
“You do not deserve my granddaughter, Langrion! How can I give her to you so freely after what I have just heard from you?!”
“I-I love her, Nana. I promise to protect her and make her happy...” he said as he squeezed Shia’s hand so tightly, she thought the blood in her veins had stopped to flow.
“Very well....”the duchess said, dabbing some of the tears away from her eyes. “Make sure that you announce your engagement to the Capitol at once. Send your uncle a formal letter tonight. And as for the two of you, to subdue this scandal, I will forbid you to see each other in private until the debutant ball where we can announce your plan to wed. You must always see each other in formal settings and always in the presence of Lady Khailis or Baroness Alessa!”
At these words, the prince’s jaw dropped, and he turned pale.
“But Nana, she must come home with me tonight...”
“Don’t attempt to reason back with me, young man!” she said. She looked so much like Shia when she was in heat like that. “You will stop sharing a bed and a residence with her until she is formally introduced to society on her debutant ball. Otherwise, you can call off the engagement, and I will make sure that you shall never see her at all!”
Throughout dinner, the prince wore such a downcast look that everybody mistook for the despair of being torn away from his love, but Shia surmised that it was the dread of revealing his curse that loomed over his majesty’s spirits. This was precisely the fear that weighs upon Shia’s soul as well as in Khailis’ thoughts. Khailis, however, had found the affair more laughable than fearful altogether.
As the time for leaving came, the prince took time bidding his goodbye. He stood in front of the house, refusing to take a step closer to the carriage and saying nothing. It was as if he was pleading with them to let him stay at the Littman Manor for the night, but the baroness, who walked him down to the front door of the house in place of the old duchess cut his wishes short.
“If you were a mere boy, as you once had before we heard your story, you could stay for the night at this house,” she began, “But as you have already crossed the bridge of no return into the world of fully grown-men, I cannot ask you to stay. Good night, your highness! I am sure that Lady Shia and I will see you soon during your formal visits.”
Upon hearing the baroness’ words, Langrion’s eyes fell to the ground. Looking utterly defeated, he turned around as if to really say good bye, but all of a sudden, he reached out to Shia’s hand one last time, kissed it, and whispered something that only she would hear. It was only then that he stomped away and boarded the carriage with Lady Khailis.
After the prince had left, Shia was shown to a room as grand as the duchess’ own room, and she was once again bombarded with lectures of how women of the nobility should behave.
“I cannot believe that Langrion was capable of such barbarism! Ah, the little boy we took care of is now taking our sweet girl away!” the baroness continued to exclaim while brushing Shia’s hair.
After what seemed like an eternity, the baroness said good night and left Shia alone to sleep. Shia, however, could not sleep yet. She remembered the words that the prince had mouthed, which sounded to her like ‘wait for me tonight.’
Just a few minutes after she had laid her head on the pillow, she heard the sound of a rock being thrown at the window. Quickly but silently, she walked closer to the other side of the room where she heard the sound once more.
Sure enough, Shia saw the familiar figure of his majesty perched on a tree just right outside the window. Shia opened it widely and spoke to him in a quiet voice, “How did you know where my room was?”
“This was the second biggest room, so I thought they will let you use it. I used to sleep in that room when I was younger too.”
He bid her to come outside. “Come. I’ll show you something.”
The prince jumped down with ease from the tree that wasn’t too tall for him, but it was still too much for Shia’s height. Langrion extended his hands towards her in assistance, but Shia just smiled, and with a flourish of her hands, the tree bowed down and arched its trunk towards her, bending itself like a staircase so that Shia could climb on it from the window and climb down from it safely.
He held her hand once she touched the ground. “Let’s walk a little in that direction.”
They entered through a thick collection of trees and bushes, but in a few minutes, they had reached a clearing. It was actually a small hill that overlooked the Rubiyah Manor, the price’s childhood home.
“This is a good hiding spot. Let’s meet here every night for the time being.”
“Every night? Do you mean to say you would come to see me every night like this?” Shia said.
“If it isn’t too much trouble... Can we sleep for a few hours each night here, and come back to our manors before the sunrise?” he asked half-pleadingly.
“Wouldn’t that be uncomfortable in your part?” Shia inquired. She did understand his predicament, but he was still a prince, and he must not be so used to sleeping in the bushes as much as she was.
“If this is the only way to see you, it will be alright,” he said.
Shia was so grateful for the dimness of the night. Otherwise, he would have caught her blushing deeply at what he had just said.
“Very well,” Shia remarked. She concentrated on a spot underneath a tree, and suddenly, several vines appeared from the ground. They wove themselves into a tent and a bed that was big enough for two.
“I think this will do for the meantime. I’ll wipe it out in the morning,” she remarked.
“Are you alright with everything that has just happened?” the prince inquired after some time when they were already comfortably laying down inside the tent.
Shia pondered for a moment. “I am. I have never been happier to know that I’ve got a grandmother. Now, I don’t feel so alone anymore!”
Come to think of it, Shia’s life suddenly turned into an unexpected adventure, and now, even into a fairytale the moment she had met Langrey at the foothold trap.
“I have you to thank for it,” she said. Her smile burned brightly despite the darkness, and Langrion could not tear his eyes away from her face.
“I’m not just talking about Nana and your father. How about our engagement? Are you alright with making it official at the Capitol?”
“Why? Is that going to be such a bad thing?” Shia inquired.
“It is not a bad thing for me, but it might be for you,” he said and sighed. “If we make the engagement official, you would be under the scrutiny of everyone. It was a different thing when you were a commoner. They would not expect you to behave any differently because of your background. But now that you have become part of the nobility, the nobles and towns’ folk will see you in a different light... I’m just worried about you...”
And here was Shia thinking that the prince was only worried how people might find out about his curse. She felt a tad ashamed after hearing what he had to say.
“Thank you for worrying about me,” she began, “A few months ago, I had lost all that I held dear. Now, I gained a new family, and someone else who worries about me. The gods must be favouring me in some way!”
“But seriously, aren’t you worried? If our engagement is known, your name would always be associated with mine. You might have a hard time once you meet someone you’d really want to be engaged with in the future...”
Shia’s focus was getting blurrier and blurrier by the second as sleep seemed to creep in to her, but she still replied, “hmm... I didn’t think of it like that. It must be you who’s worried...”
“About what? About finding another person to marry?”
“Uh huh...” Shia replied as her eyes came to a close.
“I’m not afraid...” Langrion was saying something else, but she did not hear them, for Shia’s thoughts were already too far away into the land of dreams.