"It will be a pleasure for me to take care of your children," she replied gently. The Count was a true
gentleman and Lyana felt a pleasant warmth that he radiated. She knew immediately that he was a
good father and loving husband. There was nothing fake about his smile.
"Too kind of you. I would like to introduce you to my children. My son Miler and my daughter Brisna."
He pointed to the bed and indicated to his children to come to him. They seemed a little scared and
only dared to look down at the floor. Lyana noticed that their fear was probably for the king and his
wolf. The expression on his face, however, was difficult to read. He didn't seem to dislike the
children. Still, he probably wasn't very comfortable with them. The princess had already suspected
that he might not be good at dealing with children. "Hello you two. I hope you don't mind spending
some time with me. You can just call me Lyana."
The two children approached her curiously. They were still quite young, especially the girl. She estimated her to be about five years old, the boy must be about three or four years older. The two greeted her politely and the princess took a liking to them immediately. She held out her hand to them with a smile and the two hesitantly accepted one each. She noticed how her distrust was weakening and they were just a little shy now. In her experience, however, that shouldn't last long.
She had taken care of her youngest cousins at home from time to time. They were just the same as those children.
"Should I accompany the ladies?", Baridi asked his king. But he just shook his head. "Alisen knows
the village and won't get lost."
"What about their protection?" His valet interjected worriedly. Lyana was impressed how he spoke
to him. Her father's valet would never have dared to do it.
"You stay here. We still need you. You can take him with you." Without pointing at him, Lyana knew that he had meant his wolf. At first she didn't like the idea at all, after all there were children present. But he probably wouldn't have made this decision if he didn't know that everything should go well. The count didn't seem to mind it as well.
In order not to unsettle the children, she did not even resist. The king wouldn't change his decision
anyway. "Thank you, Your Majesty," she said instead, with dignity. "We will now make our way to the market. So you can devote yourself to your business." She was about to leave when the king stopped her again. "One moment."
Lyana turned around and looked at a brown pouch that he was holding right in front of her face.
"That is money for your stay today. Alisen has already received her instructions."
The princess accepted the bag with thanks. It was quite heavy and she doubted that such an amount
would have been necessary. But luckily she had her maid who would already know what it was all for.
Now they finally left the room. The wolf followed them immediately after receiving an order from
King Ulric. She would have thought that he would be more reluctant to leave his Alpha. The children, on the other hand, still seemed to be afraid of the animal and therefore wanted to be near Lyana.
"Alisen? Can you tell me what we should do with the money?" She had dared a quick look into the bag and found a really huge amount of gold coins.
"The king wants you to buy yourself new clothes and jewelry", answered her maid and she thought at first she had misheard. "That's all? How many dresses should I buy? And why would I need jewelry?" What was he trying to do? Was that just a way to show her his wealth and power? "Baridi even gave me a list of details for this. You should choose at least ten new clothes."
Lyana looked at her maid in shock. "Ten? No, that's crazy. I'll get five at best, but more is absolutely
unnecessary."
They reached the big market and Lyana was really impressed. There was so much to see and to
discover. The children slowly thawed too. They probably had never been here either.
Before she took care of herself, she first bought the children something sweet, new toys and clothes.
When she finally got some new utensils for the kitchen, Alisen was almost fainting. "Princess, we
still need money for the dresses."
Laughing, Lyana handed the money to the merchant. "Don't worry, there will be enough left." To show her goodwill, she headed straight for a stand with clothes. She allowed the children to look around and pick out some clothes for her as well. Little Brisna pointed to a pink dress that she seemed to like. "How about that?" Reluctantly, Lyana looked at the dress.
The nervous expression on her maid's face had not escaped her. She must have had the same thought as her. "My darling, this is a really marvelous dress, but I'm afraid the king doesn't have as good taste as we do. He doesn't like pink at all. Since it's his gold, I shouldn't choose anything that he doesn't like."