Inside Darling (Darling #1) [complete]

Chapter Twenty-Five

T H E  I M P A T I E N T young lady who stood against the wall outside of the boardroom caused William Albernathy to feel concerned.

Her frown was prominent; worry lines creased her forehead; and her eyebrows were pinched together. She had been there for at minimum fifteen minutes, but with the way she was behaving some may have thought she was there an entire day. She paced back and forth several times, only taking a break to dramatically sigh. Everytime a sudden noise occurred, she'd quickly glance at the closed doors. But alas, everytime, the meeting had not been adjourned.

William knew who she was waiting for, and he was surprised she wanted to catch him in such a public setting. He was aware of their secret relationship, only because he witnessed the prince descend the lattice onto her balcony on accident one night.

He was walking his rounds around the castle grounds, covering for another guard who had fallen ill. He caught movement on the exterior wall of the castle and nearly panicked when he recognized the movement as a human body. He feared it was a rebel attempting to sneak into the castle. The said "rebel" was climbing down from the prince's quarters and towards Lady Louelle's. 

He feared the worst.

The "rebel" was an assassin and had committed murder against the prince. He was then on his way to do the same to Lady Louelle. He was unsure why it would have been in the rebel's plans to cause any harm to the lady. Although her family was well known around Darling for her father's close position to the king, no one but those who resided and worked in the castle knew of her relation to Thatcher.

William clutched the grip of his sword in its holster as he took quiet steps towards the intruder. Once he got closer and noticed the recognizable disheveled hair of the prince, he stood down and allowed his entire body to relax. His heart was still beating rapidly, and he forced himself to breathe slowly to calm it.

The prince was alright. Louelle was also not in the way of harm.

He hid himself behind a bush in case the prince would spot him. He watched as Thatcher skillfully stepped onto the balcony of Lady Louelle's bedroom. It was as if the prince had done it more than once with how easy he made it seem. Perhaps he had done it on more than one occasion. William knew it had to have been a regular occurrence for the prince to sneak to see Lady Louelle. That night, there was moisture in the air and the lattice had to have been slippery. Yet, the prince had not slipped once or missed a hole. He was strategic with the descent.

Since that night, William assigned himself as the guard who would do rounds around the castle at nightfall. No one questioned him for a reason why that was. Even if they wished to know why it was something he wanted to do (the job was usually for those with lesser experience than he), they didn't have the courage to inquire. 

Most guards were slightly fearful of William because he was the second in charge of protecting the castle and those in it. He was the one to protect the queen and make sure she always had a guard assigned to her, and the same for Thatcher.