Natalia

Chapter 1

"Natalia, right? Nice to meet you, miss." A smile spread across young man's lips as he got the girl's hand into his own, pressing a soft kiss on the back of her palm afterwards.

"Very pleased to meet you, sir Dashkov." Returning the smile, Natalia did a small, princess-like bow. "My sister always kept talking about you every time she would get home from the ball." With a small laugh escaping her lips, she put her hands behind her back, walking through the flower garden, making the young man follow behind her.

"She talked about me?" The man chuckled, nodding. "All good, I suppose." Glancing over to the girl, he smiled again, following her actions by placing his hands behind his back as well.

"Oh, yes, of course. She actually always just gave you compliments though." She glanced back at the man, noticing his smile growing bigger, making her mentally roll her eyes.

"You know, that's actually really nice to hear. I might sound somewhat rude by asking this, but why didn't she join you in this unexpected visit of yours?"

"Oh, my father wanted me to meet Damian here. I thought he informed you all about my visit." Raising her eyebrow a bit, she tilted her head at the man. Daniel Dashkov, sir Henry's oldest son, simply saying, big so-called womanizer and big narcissistic type of guy. Every girl's prince Charming, as Sofia would say. Honestly, nothing special though. While on the other hand...

"I guess he only informed me then, huh?" Hearing soft laughter, Natalia looked in front of herself, smile almost instantly showing up on her lips. She could see the youngest son of sir Henry approaching her.

"Damian!" Spreading her hands wide open, she sped up a bit, soon hugging the boy. Damian Dashkov, youngest in the Dashkov family, always a big adventurer and never acting as someone from the royal family, basically a male version of me which is probably the reason why we always got along so well. "It's been a while! How was your trip to London?" Smiling more, Natalia linked her arm with Damian's, taking a walk to the nearby bench where they would spend most of their free time together, blabbering about all the non-important things, not caring about their social class and just dreaming about traveling far away, laughing at the fact that they'd never make it since their fathers would never let them travel that far. Well, at least his father let him visit London while all Natalia could do was just continue dreaming about it.

"Hey, are you coming to the ball tonight?" Nudging her with his shoulder lightly, Damian smiled.

"I'm pretty sure my father will make me do it even if I wouldn't like to come." Laughing softly, she nodded. "So yeah, I'll be there."

"Great! I bought some stuff in London that I'd like to show you soon. I really hope to see you there, alright?"

"Alright, sir Damian!" She saluted playfully, laughing some more soon after before leaning in to press a small kiss against his cheek. "I should be going now or my father could get worried."

"Oh, yeah. No matter what, he gotta protect his most gorgeous flower." Chuckling, Damian nodded before standing up and extending out his hand to the girl which she accepted without any hesitation, standing up afterwards and walking back to her carriage with her arm once again linked with his.

"I'll be really grateful to see you on the ball, miss Dimitrova." After helping her to get inside the carriage, Damian put one on his hands behind his back with the other still holding hers, giving her yet another soft kiss on the back of her palm.

"I'm really thankful that you invited me, sir Dashkov. Of course I'll be there." Pressing her hand against her chest with her other hand in his, Natalia smiled, soon retracting it and taking her seat inside the carriage, waving at the boy as soon as the carriage started moving.

"Oh, a ball?" A young ginger-haired boy driving the carriage asked, shouting a bit so Natalia could hear him.

"Yeah, it's a ball made as a welcome back present to sir Damian." She nodded few times, as if he could see her anyway.

"Sir Damian. How classy." A boy let out a small snort, shaking his head.

"You know I can hear you, Ivan!" She shook her head as well, soon hearing him laughing which honestly made her laugh a bit too.