Not My Fairytale

Chapter 30

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A Beggar

    "I can't wait for you to meet," Franco said, pacing before the hearth in his foyer as he had been doing for close to an hour, "I think you'll like her."

    I hummed in agreement, sprawled out across his settee, legs on the armrest, head dangling over the side. It wasn't very dignified, but I was past caring. Besides, it was only Franco.

    And he had just spent an hour babbling on about his mate.

    Our dinners sat on the coffee table between us, hardly touched. He didn't seem to notice.

I didn't have the heart to stop him; not when he was clearly so excited, even though it was by far one of the strangest conversations I had ever had. One I had definitely never intended to have. Ever.

    He pivoted again, "She's quite a timid thing, but I'm sure she just needs to warm up. It must be very confusing for her, after all."

    "So you've mentioned," I muttered.

    He didn't get the hint, prattling on like a protective mother hen as if I hadn't spoken, "I worry about how she'll get on in the castle, but your mother was shy as well and she turned out just fine."

    I hummed again.

    He groaned, running his hands through his hair in frustration, "I'm getting ahead of myself, she was hardly even willing to agree to see me again. She looked like she might faint the entire time. You know the reputation we still hold with the humans."

    "For good reason," I murmured under my breath, but sat up to study him. Only one brief conversation with her, and he was already a worried wreck. How the mighty fall.

     I stood at last, striding to intercept his path and placed a hand on his forearm, "It's going to be alright."

    "You can't know that," he said, stubborn as an ox.

    "I can't," I agreed. I did, however, have quite a bit of first hand experience in the futility of fighting the mate bond. I only wished that I could tell him that. Instead I said, "But she could have run away from you."

    He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes, "That is true, but even that story had a happy ending."

    I tried for a reassuring smile, "Exactly."

~*~

    As soon as I could think of an acceptable reason to flee Franco's rooms, I took it. Guilt ate at me for leaving him in such a state, but there was only so much that I could take.

I used the servants corridor to sneak from the castle, much to the dismay of the actual servants I encountered along the way. It was a precaution, just in case he had chosen to take a walk to try to expel that endless energy. His pacing certainly hadn't helped.

    Angelo was nowhere to be found when I arrived at the willow. I tried not to pay any heed to the disappointment that flooded through my body at the sight.

I settled for pacing along the inner perimeter of the hanging limbs, similar to the way Franco had been pacing before his hearth back at the castle. I only hoped that I looked half as crazed while doing it.

I peered up at the darkening sky. Franco had kept me for so long that I was already running out of time before Ava would come to my room to assist me in preparing for bed. Not to mention, I was attempting to meet him so much later than I've ever tried before. What if he has already turned in for the night?