𝔐𝔶 𝔉𝔞𝔦𝔯 𝔏𝔞𝔡𝔶 (ℜ𝔢𝔶𝔩𝔬 𝔉𝔞𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔠)

Chapter Thirteen: Swift as an Arrow

"First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity."
-Unknown

Rey's POV

In three days I will be the age of twenty.

A full-fledged adult.

I was no longer considered a child or youngling like the other ladies in the court were.

I was also the eldest of them all by a few years.

A reason of many to why I did not swoon like a hopeless butterfly in the clutches of that scheming fox of a prince.

Dusting off my recent thoughts that I wished not to have, I prepared myself for a stroll I was to have with Ben.

I chose to wear a ribbon enlaced in my dark hair of the shade of baby blue.

The ribbon matched perfectly with my dress.

The dress I wore was a simple royal blue with its indents of slits being the color of the ribbon I wore in my hair.

To keep my dress from becoming too simple there were threaded gold seams that went across the ends of the long poet sleeves, a line across the neckline, and a few light blue stripes above my elbow on each sleeve.

Right as I left I slipped on a pair of simple slipper-like shoes that shared the same hue of tree bark and that of a gold scepter.

I made an immediate stop to my mother's chamber to inform her of my leave.

She did not seem to mind, only warning me to stay my ground and not give into my feelings until marriage.

Thanks to her I would be thinking about that all day.

It's not like I'd do anything or allow anything to happen between Ben and I.

But she was really making this an awkward situation for me.

It isn't that I didn't understand her motives, it was the way she went about saying it.

At the moment I was now a few feet from departing the castle walls as well as trying to rid myself of a flustered face.

And as luck would have it Ben appeared abruptly in front of me, obviously seeing my flustered and unsettled face.

He struck worry toward me then.

I did not want to cover my face, it would be too obvious. But confessing the truth to why my face was as red as roses was not an ideal thing for me either.

"Are you alright? It looks as if you just stepped into a heated oven."

I had to think of something and fast.

"I-um...walked quite quickly here. I was just running late. Nothing more to worry about." I finished off.

He looked at me tad amused at the sight of me.

"You do look quite lovely today."

I nodded. "Thank you. And you look nice in your...usual black attire."

"Much appreciated. You know I can wear other colors if you don't like black."

"What?"