I tossed my bag to the steward, and he fell to his knees when he caught it. He didn't expect it to be heavy since I only carried it with one hand. I couldn't care less.
"Micheal," I looked to the right to see an old woman walking fast towards me with her arms outstretched, expecting a hug.
"Why have I been summoned?" her arms fell to her side as she neared, knowing I would not welcome her hug.
"No greetings then," she reverted to her old cold nature, "Follow me to the green room."
The green room used to be covered in a green color palette from the walls to the carpet, but it has been decades now that it has been changed to brown and red tones — one of the four studies in this colossal house.
The minute I took the seat in front of the large oak table, she tossed an envelope towards me, and I stared at those lavender orbs from more than a year ago.
"That's Samantha Kersington, the daughter of Duke Samuel. Marry her."
"What?!" Her pictures spread across the table as I tossed it back and stood up
"If you want to be a legitimate heir to the family legacy, marry her." she explained, " the elders would approve of your blood once it is done."
She always made it a point to emphasize that I was born out of wedlock. The heir apparent, my father, never married my mother, and I am a product of his discretion after his wife was confined in a coma.
"What happened to Allister?" the first son
"His weak condition." she sounded annoyed, "I cannot have it compromise the family's future."
"Then make me the legal heir," I sat back, still ignoring the pictures on the table, "you need me."
"The elders won't have it." She is rubbing her temple, which is the only time she shows weakness, and then she suddenly stops as if realizing the gesture. Her fingers are gnarly now, dotted with age spots. "The condition is that you bring noble blood into the line."
"Does she know?" I finally looked at the pictures, some of her looking at something with a sad smile.
"Her brother agreed to it."
"And her?"
"She will have to do as her brother orders," she glared at me, "it is her responsibility." telling of mine as well with just her eyes.
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I watched as she struggled to get her coffee-brown hair into her cap and stay low at the same time, but the wind was winning in their battle. It tossed the black baseball cap away from her and twirled her hair around her like ribbons in the air.
She finally stopped, frustrated, grabbed a handful of her hair, rolled it towards the side of her face, and tied it with a scrunchie. But her location was also revealed to her bodyguards by her action, and one of them approached her, and they led her to my table.
"Your Royal Highness," I uttered as I stood up and offered my hand. I expected the surprise in her eyes but not the sudden smile on her lips.
"Leave us," she ordered the bodyguards, who immediately moved far enough so they could not eavesdrop on our conversation.
"It's you." she smiled again, "Thank goodness."
I gestured for her to sit as I did the same and offered her tea, which she refused.
"You are Micheal Smith?"
"The one and only," I am waiting for her to explain her smile and comment.
"Thank goodness." again with the phrase. As if I just saved her - again. "I need your help."
"I will not, not marry you."
"Yes. Yes." her shoulders relaxed, which caused my frown, "Anything you want." she added
"What is happening here?"
She sat up straight and looked like she was preparing for a lengthy battle of wills.
"I will marry you, but on certain conditions." I started, but she raised her hand and made a stopping gesture in front of my face, which, to my surprise, I unconsciously obeyed.
"Apologies. Sorry." she suddenly fidgets and sighed, "OK. First off, I would like to thank you. I was not able to do so before. For rescuing me."
"I did not come to rescue you that day."
"Yet you save me." she does not sound like a girl in her twenties. "And here you are again, saving me."
"I am not your savior." I want to remove this girl's disillusion that I am her knight-in-shining-armor, "I am here to use you to get what I want. To marry you - to be precise, to get the Smith inheritance."
She does not look surprised. She expected that and just sat there waiting for me to continue.
"Once I marry you, we will not live together, nor will I act like a loving husband."
"That's what I want," my brows furrowed, not for the last time today. "I will marry you, but I don't want to live with you. I just need my freedom."
"Freedom?"
"Once I become a Smith, I will be removed from my family's clutches." her eyes are begging me to understand, "We both get what we want."
It seems that her brother arranged this marriage bond, but her father doesn't agree to it and even threatened to disown her. This would give her brother an advantage, as he would become the sole heir to their family. She was also against the marriage, fearing that she was being sold to someone repulsive - her words. That's why she was trying to run away earlier.
"It's a good thing that my brother does not know that I know you."
"And what makes you think that I will help you?" I waited for the panic to show in her eyes, but they didn't. "What if I would claim my right as your husband and tie you to me? Use your body and toss you aside."
"You won't." she sounded confident, but her right hand turned into a fist. "If you would, I will not marry you and obey my father's dictate."
"I could promise to compromise, but once our registration is legalized and we are officially wed, I could take it back."
"Are you?" when she asked that, she leaned closer, trying to look me in the eye, "Are you?"
I just snide, "I'll have someone draw a contract for our conditions and have you sign it." she sighed, "We will meet again on the pretext that we are planning our wedding and finalize everything."
The contract - our contract - was signed when we were having our fitting. Her condition is the same as mine. We will not live together nor have anything to do with each other's lives.
We decided to elope and had the marriage before a judge in his small office. After signing the marriage contract, taking a copy of it and having our picture taken (and making sure that nothing would be published in the papers) to be sent to her brother and my grandmother, we parted ways in front of her new apartment, which I paid for.
Just last month, I found out that she sold it the next day and ran away.