"Husband," Elys stopped just as she had reached the door of Aleksander's room, "you will go to that ball, right?"
"Do we even have a choice after you opened that letter?" the prince glared at her and scoffed, "And for goodness' sake, stop calling me your husband and get out."
Elys smirked and then cocked her head to the side.
Her eyes were fixed on the prince's movements. He had his back to her, facing the half broken, half fixed window as if there was something interesting to watch outside.
Aside from that short moment he glared at her, she noted he wasn't as tense as he had been before he drank her blood. Perhaps it was best for her to interact with him when he has fed.
As the saying went, 'One is not the same person when one's stomach isn't full.'
"I will need something to wear then. I hope you have something that wouldn't embarrass the both of us because I have no intention of wearing a wedding gown twice," she said as she turned her back and walked down the hallway.
Cordelia was the last to exit. She bowed ever so slightly and then closed the prince's room with a soft thud. There was a click that followed, and only then did Henry let out a groan he was suppressing.
The prince looked over to the table where the invitation letter had been left behind. His hands clenched into balls of rage for a fraction of a second, but then quickly unclenched.
The slave was right. Perhaps it was the time not to run and hide from his crazy father. Maybe this was the right time to make his moves.
His plans would be press forward now, and he would need to improvise with the unexpected development.
The attendant cleared his throat, to which distracted Aleksander from his train of thoughts. His eyes swerved towards the attendant, and then raised a thick and elegant brow as if to ask what the old man wanted from him.
"Your highness," Henry began as he approached the prince, "may I ask you something?"
The prince sensed Henry's unease. "You can, but it is not my liability to give you an answer," Aleksander responded sharply without remorse.
The old man sighed for the second time and then proceeded to air out his curiosity. "Why are you being like this?" Henry asked.
The prince faced his loyal attendant, and Henry didn't even blink an eye as he stared at the young man in front of him.
Things had not been the same since the wedding. Henry couldn't put a finger into it, but there was definitely something Prince Aleksander was plotting here. It was unusual for him to be so… inconsistent with his actions.
Especially when it came to the slave bride.
To Henry, the prince seemed like he still had the same boiling hatred for the woman, but there were several times since last night that argued on that. It made the attendant unsure.
It was as if Prince Aleksander is giving her too much consideration – not to mention allowing someone he doesn't know to serve as a maidservant.
He had always been wary on spies among the blood servants that came into his home. Some had been great, but mostly had been women that the other nobles had sent to spy on the prince's daily suffering.
"What do you mean by your question, Henry? Be more specific," the vampire prince scowled.
"Well," Henry cleared his throat, "I had always followed your highness since you were a little boy - "
"Don't go beating around the bush, old man," Aleksander cut him off, "you know I don't have the patience for that."
"I am a bit concerned that is all, Prince Aleksander," the old man added quickly sensing the prince's mood about to go foul again, his eyes swerving back to the closed door where Elys and the new maidservant had exited moments ago. "What do you plan with the slave bride?"
Aleksander settled down on his chair, grabbed the paper that Elys had brought and then sighed.
"You don't have to know for now, Henry," the prince finally said. "Now go and tend to your manor works. Also, give that wretched woman a dress for this equally wretched ball she had doomed us into attending."
Henry frowned. He wanted to push further and make Aleksander speak to him. As a boy he used to air out his thoughts to the attendant, but now in his adulthood, the prince had changed drastically.
Perhaps it was also a way for the young prince to protect himself from ever getting attached. His own father betrayed him, the whole vampire society mocked and gossiped ill wishes to him.
Prince Aleksander Ardorlean, the bastard son of a vampire king, was thought to bring the kingdom's doom if he had stayed at the castle.
It was the Queen Zephyrine that had told the king regarding such foreshadowing when he had lived in the castle with his then doting father.
The prince insisted that it was a false divination driven by jealousy for the crown prince, but King Raxus always trusted his queen's words of the future, thus the prince lived in the rundown manner ever since he was sent away.
It left the question in Henry's head, 'What could be in store for the prince now that he had been invited to the castle for this ball?'
Henry could only speculate so much.
"What are you standing there for?" the prince snapped at Henry, to which brought the attendant's attention back to reality.
He saw Aleksander had the letter in his hands, scowling at the words written in the familiar cursive and elegant penmanship of his father.
"Well, since the young prince and the slave bride are going to the ball together, might I recommend we get the local tailor to make matching outfits?" Henry suggested. "You are coming as husband and wife, despite the shady background of that woman."
"Actually, that is a great plan," Aleksander said, realization dawning on him.
If Aleksander's inconsistency around Elys had confused Henry, the fact that the prince agreed with him was quite a miracle.