Nate had his mouth full of rice but still tried to speak when he saw Lucian enter...
"Little god, why...why did you two take so long to enter... " he asked, his voice sounding muffled.
Lucian rolled his eyes. " Don't talk when you're eating, you'll choke..."
"Yes, mum..." Nate responded to which he received a glare.
"Is that a grown man, am seeing? " A voice came from behind.
Anna and the rest turned their heads to it.
"Yes, Liz. He's Lucian and Nate's swordmaster. And an old friend..." Anna introduced him.
Nate stared at Lucian wide-eyed. "They...they know each other??" he asked.
"Yes, I was shocked too..." Lucian answered and went to fetch his bowl of rice.
"Grandmother, are you fine now??" Lucian asked Liz
"Yes my dear, go and eat," Liz said and still stared skeptically at the young man before her. She didn't know how Anna knew the man. Though he didn't look harmful, you can never judge a book by its cover. Also, she had just cast a spell on the house. Did the boys make him come through? That meant he was going to see them as odd people and would even start speculating a whole lot about them. But Lucian wouldn't let just anyone in unless he was sure they could be trusted.
"Let him sit. He must be hungry or thirsty... Young man, what are you called?" Liz asked, directing him to one of the empty seats in the cottage.
"Am Arthur... And am guessing you are the one who took Anna in. Thank you for keeping her safe..." Arthur said. He had a grateful look on his face that made Nate narrow his eyes more.
"Little god, let's go out..." Nate suddenly said.
"Why, am not done eating..."
"I know, you can continue later. I think your mother and Arthur have things to talk about..." Nate said and started dragging him out.
Lucian knew he was right. Though he would have loved to listen to some gossip. He knew they had to give the older people some space... Hence he allowed himself to be dragged out of the cottage.
Outside Lucian sighed. "Okay, so where do we go now? Do we sit here till they are done talking?"
"We can go to the town and look around...and ooh I know a restaurant where they sell some good food. I have a few coins. We can eat something...And also get to watch the sword masters fighting games..." Nate responded while searching his clothes for the coins.
"Didn't you just eat?? Do you ever get satisfied??" Lucian asked in wonder.
"Heyy, am doing it for you... You didn't finish your food. Alright, let's go... You hardly go out." Nate said and dragged Lucian, heading to the town.
He hardly went to town because he will always land in trouble. Not that he caused the trouble but that trouble always found its way by his side. He sighed and hoped nothing will happen this time. He also wanted to look at things and also watch the fighting games in town.
They headed to the town.
In the cottage, Arthur sat down to eat the bowl of rice Anna had fetched him. The silence was awkward, especially since he kept staring at Anna half the time.
"This is the little we have I hope you don't mind..." Liz said referring to the food.
"Ooh it's good, thank you..." Arthur said.
"So does Andrew know you are here...I mean that you are still alive?" Arthur asked Anna
At the mention of Andrew, her eyes were saddened. She had missed him so much but she didn't have a choice. "No, no one knows except you now..." she answered.
"So, I thought the wedding was what you wanted... Why did you run? I got confused when I got wind of it... Why?"
Anna sighed
"I never wanted that wedding. It was all my father's idea. I only followed suit because he said he would release our mother if I married that man..." Anna responded. She had only gone through with the wedding because she thought she would be able to see her mother again, whose whereabouts she had not known for years now. She only found out later that she was being deceived. She wouldn't have come out alive to know whether her mother was still alive or dead.
Arthur furrowed his brows.
"So he has the queen hostage and used that to force you into a marriage you didn't like??"
"I don't know if he has my mother hostage. I only know he used that to trick me..." she spoke, hostility flashed in her eyes which did not escape Arthur.
"Then why did you run... Didn't you want your mother released anymore..." Arthur asked with furrowed brows.
"Because I wasn't going to come back alive..."
Anna simply answered.
"What? What do you mean?" Arthur asked confused.
Anna paused. There was no point hiding this anymore. Apart from her brother, she had always trusted Arthur. After all, he used to be her lover. Though she didn't feel anything for him anymore. He deserved to know the truth.
"On the wedding night, when I was to be sent to my strange husband. Two ladies were sent to my room to help me change my clothes. They wore the maid's uniforms, but I found them strange because I had never seen their faces in the palace before.
You know I was very close to the maids and so I thought I knew almost all of them. I didn't know if I was just being fussy. But I just constantly had a bad feeling. The two maids brought my dress, but not after handing me a cup containing a liquid I hadn't seen before.
The maid said it will help lessen the pain since it was going to be my first night and that first nights are painful. When I brought it closer to drink, I realized it had the scent of lemon. And everyone in the palace knew I didn't like lemon. Then from that, I confirmed they weren't from the palace..." Anna paused and looked at Arthur...