The King's Wife Is The Alpha's Mate

Chapter 10 - Afternoon Tea With Nicholas

"Where are we going?" Sophie asked Nicholas as they ran off. There was a look of disbelief on her face that the two of them easily left without a word.

"Anywhere else? It's just very suffocating being surrounded by everyone else with their plastered smiles," Nicholas said as he sighed for a moment.

Sophie blinked and then stopped in her tracks. "I would have thought that you'd make friends with them. You can get along with people easily and everyone already likes you too."

"Well, it's a pity for them that I do not want any of their affections," Nicholas shrugged. "Besides, they weren't looking at me as Nicholas. They were looking at me as the nephew of Lord Ferdinand."

"I see... it was terrible of me to assume that you actually liked them fawning over you like flies."

Nicholas chuckled. "Flies are a good description. But yes, compared to them, you on the other hand know how to treat me like an ordinary person. Like I'm actually normal for once. I'm grateful."

"I'm just trying to be a good person," Sophie insisted.

"Well, I can't help but appreciate it," Nicholas said. "You'd be surprised by how many people are only looking out for themselves. Not everyone is looking at you as a person, but they're only trying to measure how they'd benefit from you."

Sophie only smiled grimly at that.

Somehow it reminded her of Aunt Helga and her husband taking her to Hastings because of her grandfather. If it weren't for the fact that her grandfather wanted to see the child of his deceased son, then she wouldn't be here.

"Uh... did I say too much?" Nicholas looked at her worriedly.

"No, you just told the truth," Sophie murmured then managed a smile. "How about we go to the library?"

"Library?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, I did promise to help you study right?" Sophie raised a brow. "Unless you're really hungry?"

"Well, now that you mentioned that..." Nicholas chuckled. "How does afternoon tea sound for you?"

***

Sophie couldn't believe it when she agreed to come with Nicholas, but the young man's idea of afternoon tea involved them actually leaving the premises of Cow Dung Academy. All of the little things that occurred when they first went out together now made sense.

Nicholas was a nephew of Lord Ferdinand so he was familiar with going in and out of Hastings, and now they were heading to the castle of said baron.

"You know, I'm not actually sure if you're really interested in studying," Sophie narrowed her gaze at Nicholas as they walked out of the town.

Nicholas chuckled. What would Sophie say if he only entered the Academy because of her?

"Well, the point of me attending was to get what it was like to be an ordinary person with classmates. But now everyone knows I'm the nephew of a baron so that changes things, doesn't it?"

Sophie pursed her lips. "I guess I can understand that. But do you mean to say that you're no longer interested in attending then? Is that why you're making me skip classes with you?"

Nicholas rubbed his chin as they reached the outskirts of Hasting and arrived at the familiar stone castle in front of them. "Well, I'd like to have a companion with me... someone who doesn't treat me too differently?"

"I'm here with you right now for the money," Sophie pointed out frankly.

"Ack," Nicholas pressed a hand on his chest and looked at Sophie with a pout. "Have I never appeared as a good friend to you at all?"