Three days had passed and Wura had not received any contact from the Prince at all, she did not know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing, but one thing she was sure off was that her time was slowly running out.
Her supposed wedding was going to hold in eleven days, and as the days drew nearer, she was slowly loosing her hope of getting herself out of this.
"Master Lawrence, this letter came in for you early this morning from the office of the Prince" came the voice of a maid as she entered Lawrence's study.
"I see, Thank you Alessia" said Lawrence as he collected the letter from the maid named Alessia.
"You are welcome Master Lawrence" said Alessia.
"You may go now" said Lawrence as Alessia bowed and left the room.
"What does it say?" asked Ireti as she was sitting right across Lawrence's desk.
"The Prince enquires of me if he would be allowed to go out with Wura today" said Lawrence as he summarized the letter.
"This is... unexpected" said Ireti as she was at a loss for words.
"No it is not my dear, she is his betrothed, it is only natural for him to want to court her properly" said Lawrence.
"I am a man, I understand these things" said Lawrence.
"Do you not remember how much fun we had, when I was courting you" said Lawrence as he laughed.
"No Lawrence, you were not courting me, you were chasing me" said Ireti.
"I vividly remember that I rejected you... over... and over and over again, and still yet with that, your stubborn ego of a man would not let you just surrender" said Ireti as she laughed.
"My dear that is because I had my eye on the best prize, and is she not my wife now?" asked Lawrence.
"She is" replied Ireti as she laughed.
"There you go" said Lawrence as he looked very proud of himself.
"Anyway enough of your boastings of your chasing" said Ireti as she laughed.
"Will you allow Wura to go out with the prince?" asked Ireti.
"Well it is her own choice, I must hear her opinion first" said Lawrence.
"That is a good idea" said Ireti.
"Alessia" called Lawrence.
"Yes Master you called for me?" asked Alessia as she opened the door and she entered.
"Yes, please call Wura for me" said Lawrence.
"Okay Master Lawrence" said Alessia as she went to go and find Wura.
...
"Enter" said Wura as she looked up at her door.
"Wura, your father asked me to call you" said Alessia as she opened Wura's door and she entered her room.
"He is currently with your mother in the study" said Alessia.
"Oh alright then, Thank you Alessia" said Wura as she smiled.
"You are welcome Wura" said Alessia as she smiled and she left Wura's room.
Wura stood up from her bed and she walked to her door.
...
"You may enter" said Lawrence as he heard a knock on the door.
"You called for me father?" asked Wura as she opened the door.
"Yes Wura, please sit" said Lawrence.
"Alright father" said Wura as she sat down.
"Hello Mother" said Wura as she turned to her right and she smiled at her mother.
"Wura" said Ireti as she nodded at Wura.
"Wura, I called you here because the Prince sent me a letter, enquiring of me if he could come and take you out with him today" said Lawrence.
"He did??" asked Wura as she was shocked, she did not expect him to be so serious as to ask her father if he was permitted to go out with her, but at the same time it was expected of him, seeing as he was the prince after all.
"Yes he did Wura" said Lawrence.
"So do you want to go out with him or not my dear?" asked Lawrence.
"Umm welll..." said Wura as she was about to decline, but then she remembered that she was the one who opened her big mouth and accepted the Prince's offer, and it was only natural for them to go out together, seeing as they were going to get... Married??
But Wura did not want to go anywhere with him, but then she remembered that she had held herself so high as a proud woman, and declining his offer to take her out, she had proved herself as a difficult woman that had standards.
If she declined his offer it would mean that she did not want to marry him, and oh she really did not want to, but she did not want him to know that, she did not want to give him the sweet satisfaction of proving that she could not maintain her image.
Call it whatever you would, pride, deceit, stupidness?? all Wura was sure of is that there was no way in the heavens that she would allow that prince to have the sweet satisfaction of her backing down.
"Father, I will go with him" said Wura as she looked at her father, she had made a decision already.
"Are you sure my dear?" asked Lawrence.
"Yes I am father, I am engaged to him after all, and it is only natural for us to go out and get to know one another" said Wura as she bit her tongue as she uttered that sentence, she did not want to get to know him at all.
Their first encounter already spoke much of his true character. Wura was one to decipher who a person truly was from their first meeting, and the circumstances which she met the prince in, just did not help his case at all.
"Alright then" said Lawrence as he dipped his feather in fresh ink, he got a new parchment and he began to write.
Once he was done, he folded the parchment and placed it in an envelope.
"Alessia" called Lawrence.
"Yes Master Lawrence" said Alessia as once again she appeared within in instant, as if she had magical powers.
"You called for me?" she asked as she entered his office.
"Yes, Please deliver this to the castle immediately" said Lawrence as he handed her the letter.
"Alright Master Lawrence" said Alessia as she took the letter and she left the room to do as she was told.
"Well then my dear, you must be prepared, his Highness would be here soon" said Lawrence, he had decided to not trouble his head anymore.
For all he knew the Prince could be deeply in love with Wura and he would take care of her well, and through that Wura could learn to love him too.
"Yes father, I will" said Wura.
"May I be excused?" asked Wura.
"You may my dear" said Lawrence.
"Thank you Father" said Wura as she smiled.
"Thank you mother" said Wura as she looked at her mother and smiled.
"Do you believe that she is excited for this?" asked Lawrence as he turned to look at Ireti as soon as Wura left.
"Do you believe her when she says repeatedly that she never once snuck out of the house?" asked Ireti.
"I do not" said Lawrence.
"And neither do I" said Ireti as she laughed.
...
"Aunt, No, No, No, I am not wearing that" said Wura as she ran away from Tessa.
"Oh come on my dear, the dress will not bite" said Tessa.
"No, no it will, because you will end up putting me in a corset" said Wura.
"And who even informed you that I was going to go out with the Prince today?" asked Wura.
"Well I happened to meet Alessia as she was on her way to deliver the letter" said Tessa.
"Aunt, you say happened, when I am very sure that you were snooping around" said Wura.
"Whatever you say my dear, all I want is that you wear this dress that I picked out for you" said Tessa.
Even though she was sure that Wura did not love the prince at all, Tessa did not care, Wura was her only niece, and she was going to enjoy sending off her niece to marriage to the fullest.
"Aunt do you not think that this is too much?" asked Wura.
"I am not attending a ball" said Wura.
"And I do not have a single clue of where he is taking me, so please Aunt, I do not want to wear this" said Wura.
"Fine, if you must choose a dress for me, please choose a simple dress Aunt, not something too extravagant" said Wura.
"Alright, Alright my dear niece, I will give an ear to your pleas, I do not want you to feel uncomfortable, I want you to feel very pretty which you are already, but let us enhance that, so fine I will choose a simpler dress" said Tessa as she smiled.
"Yes, yes, thank you Aunt" said Wura as she smiled, sometimes her Aunt could be too much, even her own mother never nagged her much about material things such as these.
It was during times like these that Wura was grateful that her mother was a strict woman, or else she would have ended up becoming a spoilt brat.
"I will return soon, a simple dress, shall I bring you my dear, wonderful, beautiful, niece" said Tessa.
"Alright Aunt" said Wura as she sighed deeply.