𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵 : 𝘈 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦

Chapter 7 : Royal Confusion

On the day before Emilia and Lord Bancroft's wedding, Emilia got a huge shock . As she was getting dressed for morning tea, her lady's maid greeted her with a surprising news.

"Miss! His Highness the prince has come to visit you!" She was practically dancing in excitement.

"Come now, Martha, who is it actually?" Emilia chuckled in disbelief.

"Oh it's him, definitely him!" Martha scooted over to Emilia and whispered in her ear, "you might want to wear that lacy pink dress that got delivered yesterday, miss."

And with that, Martha left, as Emilia proceeded to wear the lacy pink dress Martha suggested.

"why am I even doing this?" She muttered to herself.

"Because you love that penetrating gaze of his brown eyes...." Martha whispeted excitedly.
Emilia and Martha chuckled loudly and Emilia left to see her 'visitor.'

**************

"Your highness! To what do I owe this pleasure?" Emilia smiled perfectly as she always did.

"Miss Chbosky. I recieved your wedding invitation the previous day, and I've come to congratulate you personally as I haven't seen you anywhere in the past few days." Unlike Emilia, Oliver wasn't smiling, there was a tone of questioning in what he said.

"I...I have been busy. You know, preparing for the wedding."  Emilia started arranging the perfectly arranged flowers on the table to avoid staring directly at the prince.

"Miss Chbosky, you're excellent at many things but lying isn't one of them. What. Is. It?" Oliver approached Emilia and this time, he wasn't questioning. He was commanding.

"Nothing you should concern yourself about, your highness-" Emilia was about to turn away just as the prince grabbed her hand.

"Is that any way for a lady to speak to a gentleman?" He was staring directly at Emilia and Emilia felt her heart beating louder than ever.

"And is that any way for a gentleman to treat a lady?" Emilia mustered up courage and confidence to hide the warm, embarrassing feeling everywhere in her body and gestured at her hand.

"My apologies, Miss. I'll see you tomorrow." The prince looked genuinely embarassed and stepped away a little, releasing her hand immediately. Apparently, Emilia wasn't the only one who felt embarassed.

She was party relieved, and partly disappointed as the prince let go of her hand.

*************
Oliver Charmichael had never felt angry with himself, but at that moment, he felt simply furious.

"Stupid brat..." He muttered to himself as he paced around the room impatiently.

He had been denying it. He had been denying how he felt about Emilia. It wasn't just simple infatuation or a simple matter of attraction. He thought it'd go away with time, and it didn't.

Now it was too late. Emilia was getting married the next day, and it was completely his fault, and his fault only that he lost her.

Just then, he overheard Vanessa arguing with her mom in the tea parlour. Vanessa and her mom considered the palace to be a regular visiting place for them and the prince, out of courtesy, allowed them to.

"You don't understand mama! I had to! I had to threaten that...that whore commoner away! It's my last chance at winning the prince over." She sounded very very desperate.

"My dear, the prince will find out soon what you did and he would never lay his eyes on you again. Apologise!" Viscountess Kimberly said, and Oliver was astonished to hear the woman speaking logic for the first time.

"Oh, I'd never." Vanessa stomped away and Lady Kimberly sighed.

The prince knew what he had to do. He didn't know the full story yet, but he was going to find out soon. And he'd make sure he'd not have regrets again.